“God’s Dogs”

(Matthew 15:21-28)

Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon.  Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.”  But he did not answer her at all.  And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.”  He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.”  He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”  She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”  Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith!  Let it be done for you as you wish.”  And her daughter was healed instantly.

              First, full disclosure.  I preached this sermon in a similar form here three years ago.  Yes, I’ve been back in this pulpit for three years.  For those who have heard it before and remember it, bear with me because I think it’s pretty good. 

Now, you must agree that this is not the usual depiction of Jesus in the Gospels.  It almost appears that Jesus acts more like us in this exchange with the Gentile woman from Canaan–as in kind of ornery.  Interestingly, the Canaanite woman ends up winning Jesus over.  Pretty amazing stuff, really.  Mark’s version of this story in his chapter 7 is actually one of my favorite Gospel passages.

              So, let’s make some meaning out of it and maybe have some fun too.

              First, let’s be realistic about dogs.  Dogs in 21^st century America have taken a rather honored place in our households.  People take them everywhere they go.  They are treated like members of the family.  Now, I like dogs a lot.  I loved my dog, Pancakes.  He died while I was in Wellington, and I still miss my buddy.  And I have this nice reading that shows why we love our dogs so much.  Listen:

If you can start the day without caffeine, if you can get going without pep pills, if you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains, if you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles, if you can eat the same food everyday and be grateful for it, if you can understand when loved ones are too busy to give you time, if you can overlook it when those you love take it out on you when, through no fault of yours, something goes wrong, if you can take criticism and blame without resentment, if you can ignore a friend’s limited education and never correct them, if you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend, if you can face the world without lies and deceit, if you can conquer tension without medical help, if you can relax without liquor, if you can sleep without the aid of drugs, if you can say honestly that deep in your heart you have no prejudice against those of a different creed, color, religion, politics or sexual orientation,

…then you are almost as good as your dog.

              Many of us dog owners (present or previous) have held our dogs in high esteem.  That was undoubtedly not true in the time of Jesus.  Still, Jesus surely gave us quite a picture to illustrate today’s sermon text.  Preachers have done a variety of things with this text including ignoring it, but I like it. 

My title “God’s Dogs” comes, of course, from the Canaanite woman’s reply to Jesus’ pointing out that it isn’t fair to take food out of the children’s mouths and give it to the dogs.  Our friend, the woman, responded by saying that, “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.”

              It’s possible that when you heard Jesus pushing back on the lowly Canaanite woman after she had asked him for mercy because her daughter was tormented by a demon, when you heard the debate over the dogs eating scraps from under the table, you may have thought, “What in the world is all this about?”  …What we are going to eventually find is that this story is a lesson about faith, honesty, authenticity and humility.

              As I mentioned, in Jesus’ time, dogs were not thought of as fondly as many do today.  They were surely not house dogs as we understand the term (many of us didn’t even have “dogs in the house” growing up, right?).  But there were domesticated dogs for sure, and those dogs were dependent upon their owners for their welfare.

              I suppose some of these dogs may have been responsible for some protection of their families, some probably worked the flocks, and there may have been a very few who were companions to their family.  Today’s dogs can be guide dogs or therapy dogs or protective dogs.  Some do tricks.  Some herd animals, but most are lap dogs that we want to show love to and receive love from.  We, the owners, CHOOSE to give them food, water and shelter.  The bottom line regarding all domesticated animals is that they really have no claim on us except from a humane standpoint.

              This brings me back to our story.  The Canaanite woman ran after Jesus, shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.”  The disciples attempted to shoo yet another annoying person away.  Even Jesus tried to discourage her with his silence.  She was not to be deterred, though, as she desperately begged, “Lord, help me.”

              Jesus then told her, “It’s not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”  These words undoubtedly came out of Matthew’s church as those folks were determined to keep Gentiles out, hence the image of taking the food out of the children’s mouths.  In other words, why spend our time with Gentiles, those outside the faith? 

But in our story, interestingly, it is the woman’s reply to Jesus that is the climax, the meaning maker here.  “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”  In response, immediately, Jesus honored her faith, and, I would say, took into consideration what she had offered.  Then, we are told, her daughter was instantly healed.

              The woman knew she had no claim on Jesus’ attention.  She knew there was nothing she could do to earn the healing she was asking for.  She knew who she was—a Canaanite (a non-person as far as the Jews were concerned), a woman (a non-person as far as ANYONE in the ancient world was concerned) and, now, she was being referred to as a dog in the text (a creature with no claim, one who was wholly dependent, with no other recourse than to plead for mercy).

              Well, of course, as you heard last week, this story is placed after one of the conflicts between Jesus and the Scribes and Pharisees, and we are meant to see and be amazed at the contrast between the humility of the Canaanite woman and the arrogance of the religious leaders.

              We are intended to note the difference between the woman’s openness and trusting nature and the contrived manipulation of the scribes and Pharisees.  And yes, we ought to make the comparison between the woman’s complete trust and faith in Jesus and the secretive suspicion of the scribes and the Pharisees.

              The woman knew her position was like a dog under the table waiting for scraps.  She KNEW that she had no claim on God’s attention and mercy.  The Scribes and Pharisees acted as though they deserved to sit up at the table as peers with Jesus.  They thought they deserved to be waited upon by the master.

              So now, I’m wondering if you can guess who it is we ought to be modeling ourselves after in this story?  Here’s a hint: it’s not the ones who think they know it all, nor the ones who believe they are worthy of God’s attention.  You’ve already figured out that it’s the one who actually knows who she is, the one who knows that she needs help—the one who cries out for mercy, the one who recognizes that she is like a dog under the table.

              Now, you may be getting a picture of some dirty old, scruffy dog who just hung around.  It would be understandable that you can’t really identify with them, let alone model yourselves after such creatures.  But this story is INTENDED to shock all of us into recognizing our dependence on God amidst our total inability to EARN God’s mercy and forgiveness.  It is intended to bring us to the place of asking for the help from Jesus that we all so desperately need.  We are like God’s dogs because the close relationship we have with Jesus has everything to do with God’s sharing God’s love and mercy and nothing to do with how we qualify for that love and mercy.

              So, until we begin to really let go of the lie that we can earn God’s mercy, that somehow some folks are better than others, we as individuals and as the church will inevitably be caught up in the effort to climb our way to the top of the food chain.  This dirty truth of human beings that we try to cover with our smooth words is that we are constantly keeping score of who’s on top and calculating how we are better than people from certain countries or cities or backgrounds or educational attainments or religions.  We will resemble more the scribes and the Pharisees, those conniving, arrogant, suspicious folks, than the Canaanite woman, her daughter and the dogs under the table.

              Until we let go of the big lie, we will be playing the game of who’s best and who’s right and who’s smartest and who’s got the most money and who’s gonna get their way because they are the best at smooth talking.  Until we let go of those lies, we will be using our time and energy trying to conceal who we really are, because we think we have something to lose if God and the world find out the truth about us.  We’re sure we’re going to lose if we set down our pride, our money and our power.

              Those who are willing to proclaim themselves as God’s dogs must take the church and the world back from those who think they are better than the dogs under the table. Those, of course, are the people who present as if they have all their ducks in a row, those who look as though they have gotten their way, those who are only concerned about getting the right spin on this image stuff.  Those are the ones who think, if they set themselves above certain people, they can take over our denomination, our country, our world.  They somehow think that Jesus’ agenda was about the “right” doctrine, and about who’s within God’s love and who’s outside of it, about who’s sitting at the table and who’s lying under that table? 

              If we are convinced that this self-involved, greedy way of our world is the right way, if we believe the lie that there are dogs under the table and there are people above the dogs, then the children, the poor folk, the ones with disabilities of all sorts, anyone who is different, the weak and imprisoned, all those we are convinced are less than we are—THEY are the ones who we are going to hurt.

              If we get all self-righteous about our own reading of scripture, we’ll think everything is all about us, that is, we who think we’re sitting up at the table with Jesus are “in our rightful place.”  Too bad about all you dogs skulking around under the table.  God is in heaven and all’s right with the world.  Amen….

              Well, no, sorry, that’s not the Gospel.  The Gospel is about being honest, not trying to pretend we’re anything except those who stand in the need of God’s grace and mercy.  It’s about being faithful TO and trusting IN God.  It’s about being loving to each other—not making judgements about who is deserving of God’s attention which, of course, we then translate into who’s worthy of MY time and MY attention.

              Folks, what you have heard today is true.  The Gospel is about how we ought to be aspiring to be God’s dogs—how we need to know the truth, and that is that we are completely, utterly dependent upon God’s tender mercy, love and forgiveness in Jesus Christ.  Then, we need to rejoice because THAT is enough.  God loves us just that way.  The Gospel is about accepting that being God’s lap dogs may not be a bad deal after all.  Amen.