Pericope Study-- Pentecost 13, September 7 2003

Pericope

Center for Theology, Lenoir-Rhyne University
The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 7, 2003

Gospel Lesson: Mark 7:24-37

And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house, and would not have any one know it; yet he could not be hid. But immediately a woman, whose little daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell down at his feet, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And he said to her, "Let the children first be fed, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." But she answered him, "Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." And he said to her, "For this saying you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter." And she went home, and found the child lying in bed, and the fever gone.

Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, trough the region of the Decapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech and thy besought him to lay his hand upon him. And taking him aside from the multitude privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, be opened." And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. And he charged them to tell no one; but the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well; he even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak." RSV

1. There are several synoptic curiosities apropos to Mark 7:24-37. First, there is no corresponding section in Luke, either as to the incident of the woman with the possessed daughter or the man mute and hearing-impaired. The two Lukan verses to which one is referred echo Jesus' final words to the woman: "For this saying you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter": In Luke 7:50, Jesus responds to the woman who anointed his feet, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace." And in Luke 17:19, Jesus responds to the Samaritan leper who returns to thank Him for the healing, "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well."

It is curious that Luke, who often is noted for his lifting up Jesus' dealings with ethnic foreigners (the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan leper) and outcasts (shepherds, lepers, prodigals), omits the incident of this woman with her audacious comeback to the young rabbi. And the exchange between them. Was Luke the slightest bit "put off" by the prima facie appearance of insensitivity, or even prejudice, coming from Jesus as the confrontation ensues? That is unlikely, as the ensuing reversal clearly shows that Jesus was testing the woman (and teaching his disciples), rather than scorning her personally or reacting only in contemporary ethnic prejudice. And, at any rate, Luke clearly had access, by his own assertion, to "other accounts" of Jesus' life and ministry, one of which was, almost surely, Mark. Curious.

2. As to Matthew, who has a parallel passage (15:21-31), there is a fuller account, one that records details that give the incident a richer setting. In Matthew, the Canaanite woman's framing of the request appears in its specificity: "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely possessed by a demon." (She addresses Jesus with a confession of faith, or at least as if he is a "messianic possibility"!) To her request Jesus is silent. The disciples "came and begged him" to "send her away, for she is crying after us." Do they want him to dismiss her, or to give her a sop, or to declare the girl healed? Jesus replies in a fashion that suggests he has no intention of dealing with her at all: "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." In the most benign interpretation of his response, he is setting up the situation so as to teach the disciples the wider extent of his mission. But in fact the woman's response will not allow either him or them to ignore her: "Lord, help me!" she cries as she persisted, kneeling in front of him. It is at that point that Jesus makes the remark about the bread that is to be given to the children, rather than throwing it to the dogs. And, after the woman's brilliant comeback, Jesus couches his response as to her self-evident faith, rather than in her "saying": "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed instantly.

3. The second incident is reduced in Matthew to a general statement (15:29-31): And Jesus went on from there and passed along the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain, and sat down there. And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the dumb, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, so that the throng wondered, when they saw the dumb speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel." In Matthew, this general summary serves also as introduction to the feeding of the four thousand … which, by the way, also immediately (!) follows in Mark.

4. The "great faith" of the Canaanite woman was probably more from desperation than from devotion. What she had heard was that this man could work miracles, and she needed one, however resident the demon may have been, whether from diabolic invasion or from psychotic trauma. She was, as is evident, both bold and clever - emboldened by the desperation and clever by disposition. Perhaps her cleverness had been honed by years as an ethnic outsider to Jewish "privilege." She began by begging, rather than by a simple ask, in part adopting the beggar's posture because of the austerity of the healer. Jesus responds with the children-having-precedence-over-the-dogs remark. In the absence of any other evidence, and with no nod to present-day mania over "multi-culturalism," it seems clear that Jesus' intent is didactic rather than prejudicial. That is, he voices contemporary scorn for gentile eligibility as to God's favor, in order to provoke a circumstance where he can open the door to the nature of faith - in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free. Especially do those distinctions not apply to acts of love and kindness. Listen up, disciples! But even with thorough-going didactic intent, the remark is harsh, given the earnestness of the desperate request. Healing a little girl is throwing bread to dogs? The woman is unfazed. Nor is she motivated by prideful anger at being insulted. She is willing to settle for crumbs, if necessary, because that is all that is needed, after all. Jesus sees both the persistence and the faith, and lauds it. The little girl is healed.

5. Our present age is, for obvious reasons of historical injustice, long on diversity and multi-cultural acceptance. So long as often to be slack in other things that ought to count - like the content of one's character. And the substance attendant to faith. Being accepting and welcoming are exalted over repentance and amendment of life. Sometimes even eclipsing repentance and amendment of life.

But here the woman is defined only by her needs and her request. Here the woman asked only one thing: healing. And she received. She did not seek to follow, nor did Jesus suggest, much less demand, that she "come after him." She did not, so far as we know, become a disciple. Nor did she seek to be, then or later, a member of the "body of Christ." Her request was sincere, and Jesus healing unconditional. As a model for doing "acts of love and kindness," what could be better? There are no conditions on feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, giving the thirsty a drink. She was clearly an outsider, unacceptable as to social intercourse as equal. Jesus voiced the prejudice and then taught the lesson: he healed the little girl.

6. With the man mute and deaf, there was no dialogue, no controversy. What is here is careful personal attention. Not just the spoken word, but fingers in the ears and tongue touching. And charging them to tell no one about it. This shows plainly several aspects of the nature of Jesus' ministry: people came to him by their own desperation or by their friends' hope. And he had compassion on them.

7. With all the current debate over the nature of humanity in God's creation, as to what species of sexual orientation and behavior may be blessed by the church; with the proper debate over repentance and amendment of life as part and parcel of discipleship … we dare not short-change, much less ignore or forget, the call to feed the hungry and heal the sick and the maimed. As there is for each of us no pre-condition to God's grace, so for us as to our fellow humanity there is no precondition for deeds of love and kindness. The call to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the ragged and naked, and visit and heal the sick and the prisoners is a call to meet Jesus himself. He met the foreign woman and the impaired man in the region of Tyre and Sidon, and in Galilee. He meets us in the face of the poor, the ill, the rejected.

8. From the ancients

Origen, on the Borders - The Gentiles, those who dwell on the borders, can be saved if they believe. … Think of it this way: Each of us when he sins is living on the borders of Tyre or Sidon or of Pharaoh and Egypt. They are on the borders of those who are outside the inheritance of God. [Commentary on Matthew 11:16]

Chrysostom, on Eliciting the Lord's Compassion - Have you not heard of the Syrophoenician woman? By the constancy of her entreaty, she elicited the Lord's compassion. [Homily 24 on Ephesians]

Augustine, on the Dogs under the Table--Some people, intent on several disciplinary precepts, admonish us to rebuke the restless and not to give what is holy to dogs, to consider a despiser of the church as a heathen, to cut off from the unified structure of the body the member who causes scandal. These may so disturb the peace of the church that they try prematurely to separate the wheat from the chaff before the proper time, and blinded by this pretext they themselves then become separated from the unity of Christ.

Ephrem the Syrian, on Healing the Mute - That power which may not be handled came down and clothed itself in members that may be touched, that the desperate may draw near to him, that in touching his humanity they may discern his divinity. For that speechless man the Lord healed with the fingers of his body. He put his fingers into the man's ears and touched his tongue. At that moment with fingers that may be touched, he touched the Godhead that may not be touched. Immediately this loosed the string of his tongue, and opened the clogged doors of his ears. For the very architect of the body itself and artificer of all flesh had come personally to him, and with his gentle voice tenderly opened up his obstructed ears. Then his mouth which had been so closed up that it could not give birth to a word, gave birth to praise him who made its barrenness fruitful. The One who immediately had given to Adam speech without teaching, gave speech to him so that he could speak easily a language that is learned only with difficulty. [Homily on Our Lord 10]

Ambrose on the Mystery of Opening - Every Sabbath we witness the "opening up" of a mystery. It is outline form the type of that liturgical opening when the ministry once touched your ears and nostrils. What does this mean? Remember in the Gospel, our Lord Jesus Christ, when the deaf and dumb man was presented to him, touched his ears and his mouth: the ears, because he was deaf; the mouth, because he was dumb. And he said 'Ephphatha,' a Hebrew word, which in Latin means adaperire (be opened). In this way the minister is now touching your ears, that your ears may be open3ed to this sermon and exhortation. [Concerning the Mysteries 1.4]

Lactantius on the Hearing of the Gentiles - He thereby declared that it would shortly come to pass, that those who were destitute of the revealed truth would both hear and understand the majestic words of God. Accordingly you may truly call those deaf who do not hear the heavenly things which are true, and worthy of being performed. He loosed the tongues of the dumb. They spoke plainly--a power worth of admiration even in its ordinary operation. But there was also contained in this display of power another meaning. It would shortly come to pas that those who were previously ignorant of heavenly things, having received the instruction of wisdom, might soon speak God's own truth. [Divine Institutes 4:26] [Quotations from the Ancients from Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, New Testament II - Mark, Oden and Hall, eds., pp. 100-104, selected]

JLY - 09.01.03 [for Pentecost 13, September 7, 2003]

7 SEPTEMBER 2003

THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

JAMES 2:1-10, [11-13], 14-17

My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, "Have a seat here, please," while to the one who is poor you say, "Stand there," or, "Sit at my feet," have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you? You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. [For the one who said, "You shall not commit adultery," also said, "You shall not murder." Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.] What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of faith? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

James is not writing his letter for people who have just become Christians. Either they had lived their lives as part of that people to whom God had spoken a promise that He would come, or they were Christians of a gentile background who now shared faith in Christ with such people, considering them the chosen people of the pre-Christian era ("the twelve tribes scattered among the nations" 1:1b and "meeting" = synagoge 2:2).

James considers the issue of salvation by faith or works to have been settled for these people a long time ago. They should have understood that they are saved because of what Christ has done for them and that is where they can now put their trust - in the Lord Jesus Christ. It does not seem they are living under persecution for their faith but in a fairly normal daily life, free from such pressures but therefore subject to the kind of pressures that emerge in that life. We should see some similarities to our own lives.

They gather for worship and visitors of other social backgrounds may come and want to join them. How do they treat such people? (2: 2-4) When people of such backgrounds come and want to become a part of their assembly, those who have been Christians for a while will want to tell them what it is all about (3:1) instead of showing them by the way they live (3:13ff). Their suffering is not that of persecution so much as that of trouble, unhappiness and sickness in life (5:10, 13-15).

Vs. 2: My brothers and sisters - the translation feels it must add "sisters" where the original does not feel they are excluded from adelphoi. Do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? If it is a question, as taken in this translation, the negative should be emphasized more: "With your acts of favoritism, you don't really think you have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, do you?" It may also be taken as the directive of James to these people: "Do not hold the faith in Christ together with actions of favoritism." You can still visit Christian congregations who have gathered for worship, look at them and categorize them socially. Our social consciousness influences our faith as much or more than faith determines social sense. People can still enter churches on Sunday morning and know by looking around if they belong there.

Vs. 4. Have you not made distinctions among yourselves . . .? The feeling of family may not survive in a congregation because of a shared feeling that people who are different have their proper places. This is not unnatural but neither is it different from other gatherings. People who meet in gatherings regularly sit at about the same place each time with the same people near them. Missing people may not be missed; some are missed more than others.

Vs. 9. But if you show partiality, you commit sin A practice of partiality and favoritism is inconsistent with the faith in Christ, who did not discourage the poor or others who might consider themselves out of place in a gathering of "normal" people. It will take special effort to welcome such people and this seems to have been practiced by Jesus. That is not because the poor are more deserving but because it may not be so easy to convince them that we think they are good as any of us, that they do belong with us.

Vs. 17. So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. James is not saying there is such a thing as "dead faith." This would be a contradiction in terms. But neither does he say that a faith with few works is dead. Faith with many works may be more fun but it is not different in kind from faith that is new or weak and not yet daring to venture into more risky activities. But neither does he say that a faith with few works is dead. Strong faith is not necessarily a function of time or background. The woman of the gospel, who continued to ask for help for her daughter, was not put off by the suggestion that others might be more deserving. She was not saying she was more deserving but that faith is judged by its direction and not by its strength - a good balance to what James has taught.

WEMueller

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