The Untouchables
Genesis 45:1–15; Matthew 15:10-28

August 15, 2005

I have had more than one comment this past week about today’s sermon topic having something to do with Eliot Ness and the gang in the Kevin Costner film. While at first I thought it was just a simple title to give to a sermon dealing with both scripture accounts – the one from Genesis and the one from Matthew – I now see how some elements from the movie storyline might be loosely connected to today’s lessons. For example, the movie was set in prohibition-era 1920s Chicago; the account from Matthew is a struggle with the law, also: Jewish and Gentile Christians are struggling with the issue of the proper place of Jewish law in the life of the church. Like the Samaritan woman, the Canaanite woman in this account is an outsider; she is both a foreigner and a woman. In this sense, I suppose, she would have been an untouchable. Yet, when we consider that those in Jesus' own country have not spoken of him messianically as yet, her address to him as “Lord, Son of David” is most unusual. She was untouchable in this way, too.

In the Genesis account, Joseph was untouchable by his degree of forgiveness towards his brothers. Enough said. But he was untouchable, too, by his constant rising to the top in spite of extreme obstacles. Recall what his life has been like so far: his brothers almost killed him, then sold him into slavery. Slave traders took him to Egypt and sold him to Potiphar who put him in charge of everything he owned. Potiphar’s wife became enraged when Joseph would not succumb to her seductions, and Joseph ended up in prison. Twice now he had been wronged by others – first by his brothers and then by his master’s wife. Now, in prison, the guards were so impressed by him they put him in charge of the prison. Then, in prison, he became known as an interpreter of dreams. He eventually interprets one of Pharoah’s dreams and predicts a coming famine.

Pharaoh appoints Joseph to be in charge of food storage for the famine ahead, thereby granting Joseph the second most-powerful job in the Egyptian empire. Back in Palestine, drought reaches Joseph’s family. Now Joseph’s brothers – the ones who had sold him into slavery years prior to this - are before him asking for food as requested by their father. They don’t recognize Joseph at first, so Joseph asks that they bring his younger brother Benjamin to meet him. Overcome with emotion at seeing his younger brother, Joseph leaves the room, but returns to announce, “I am Joseph your brother. Don’t be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God.”

Joseph forgave his brothers for what they had done to him when he was young. He invited them to come and live with him in Egypt. They joyfully returned home to tell their father that Joseph was alive and in charge of the grain storage for Egypt. They would not starve, but would prosper. Broken family ties had been mended. This is a wonderful ending to a story that would not have gone this way had it not been for one person’s individual choice to forgive monstrous wrongs against him.

The scripture from Matthew today is really in two parts: the first dealing with the interpretation of the Levitical code of law, and the second dealing with the Canaanite woman. Levitical dietary laws are a critical part of Judaism. They are at the heart of the Torah providing the sense of separateness important to Jewish identity. The Pharisees believed that the ritual cleansing laws for the priests were to be followed by lay people as well in an effort to make all of Israel a holy people. Those who kept the laws were identified as God’s people. Certain foods were unclean and those eating them were defiled. Really, the issue is not so much hygiene or health as it is holiness and obedience. When Jesus says, “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth that defiles,” he redirects the focus from food to the heart – our thoughts, feelings and motives. For the scribes and Pharisees of that time, this would have been a very radical thing to say. It seems as though Jesus is nullifying huge sections of the laws of Leviticus and would have been seen as a contradiction of scripture. "Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?" the disciples ask Jesus. There is no doubt that his comments were offensive to those who had devoted their entire lives to purity - the observance and interpretation of Torah. They demand it in themselves and they demand it in others.

Jesus clarifies this to the disciples: “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles.” Evil intentions do not come from food. Food is easily disposed of, but the filth that is in the heart is not so easy to get rid of. It finds expression through the mouth and into the deeds of our hands. The hate and anger in our hearts leads to hurtful words and sometimes violence. In our human history we have countless examples, the most notable perhaps being how “Mein Kampf” became “The Final Solution”. An uprooted plant, Jesus explains, is a death sentence for that plant. "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.” We must make sure our thoughts are acceptable to God. We must think for ourselves and not merely follow others: “And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit,” Jesus says.

Then, after making sure the disciples have not missed the point, Jesus leaves to the district of Tyre and Sidon, a Canaanite area respectively 25 and 50 miles north of the Galilee on the Mediterranean shore. It is a long walk, and we are not told why he goes there other than his need for solitude is becoming more difficult. Perhaps he is led by God so that we might benefit by the account of this faith-filled woman. She comes out shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David!” Three times in this short account she calls him, “Lord”. The term “Son of David” is one that a Jew would use for the Messiah. How sharply her words contrast with the words of the Pharisees and scribes who earlier had criticized Jesus for allowing his disciples to eat without ritual cleansing. Her vision of Jesus as the Messiah is clear when the disciples, who were with Jesus almost constantly, were still relatively dubious about the whole thing.

Why does Jesus not respond to this woman at first when, throughout the entire Gospel, he immediately responds to those in need? “But he did not answer her at all”, the Gospel account notes. This disturbs us and interrupts our perceptions of Jesus, doesn’t it? We’re stunned. The disciples are bothered by the woman’s hollering and ask Jesus (this, without calling him “Lord”) to dismiss her just as earlier they had asked him to send away a hungry crowd. Jesus responds to the disciples, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” So she begs him. “Lord, help me!” Jesus says, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." Ouch. These words must have stung the woman just as they sting us today. These words do not seem to come from the Jesus we know! Particularly not now that we have just learned that we must choose our words carefully!

Perhaps it helps us to know that this story is told from a Jewish perspective, that of Matthew’s, at a time of transition from a church membership which was totally Jewish to one that was welcoming to Gentiles.

It might also help us to remember that Jesus was pacing himself in a way. Do you remember at the start of his ministry when his mother asked him to provide wine for a wedding? Jesus responded, “My hour has not yet come.” Later, he healed people and told them not to tell anyone. You might say that if he gives into this woman, the people of Israel, his first priority, will dismiss him. The Canaanite woman begs Jesus to cross this line.

The word Jesus uses is not intended to mean wild dogs, but pets. While pets might not actually sit at their masters’ tables, they might enjoy the droppings from the table from time to time. Pets are on the inside, not on the outside such as livestock would be. "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table,” she responds. She acknowledges the Jesus as lord at the same time as acknowledging her own modest place. But, over all, she believes that Jesus can heal her daughter. "Woman, great is your faith!” Jesus responds. "And her daughter was healed instantly,” we’re told.

Jesus has taken mankind a step further. Clearly, the gentiles are no longer outside in the streets; they are now in the house. Soon, they will be at the table. This was an important message for Matthew’s day.

Of what purpose is it in our day? The United Church’s sermon suggestions for today say, “We are eager to dismiss the annoying one—the one who does not fit our social norms. Can we picture people in our church or community who might similarly protest that they belong in our story and in our family, and should not and will not be ignored?”

We conclude with a comment about those who are untouchable. Perhaps they are untouchable by their acts of forgiveness, like Joseph. Maybe they are untouchable by their displays of courage and faith – evidenced by both Joseph and the Canaanite woman. And perhaps there are those among us who feel untouchable – like the woman, feeling their place is at our feet rather than at our table of fellowship. For those of us who are still most comfortable with one last reference to the movie, then perhaps just as Eliot Ness and his men were the “Untouchables” at breaking the lawlessness of Al Capone, then we can become the “Untouchables” at reaching out to all in our community, inviting them to our table of Christian friendship and forward in our pews for worship.

Amen.

Preached by Sharlene McGowan
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan