Sermon for 16th Pentecost
Can Jesus Learn?
By The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer -
Can Jesus learn? This is an interesting question. We Lutherans believe that Jesus, when he was here on earth, was both divine and human. Others, however, are not so sure. They want Jesus in heaven and on earth to be divine, perfect, without a flaw, already knowing everything.
Theologians have debated this for nearly twenty centuries. Is Jesus truly divine? Is Jesus truly human?
Today’s Gospel lesson is a wonderful story of two miracles of Jesus: Jesus healing the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter and the recovery of hearing and speech for a deaf and mute man.
I like both miracle stories, but, for today’s sermon and the question of Jesus’ divinity and humanity, I would like to focus on the first, the healing of the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter.
The Syrophoenician woman was from the land we call Syria today. She was not of Jesus’ ethnic or social group. And Jesus, as this text tells us, did not want anything to do with her at first. With all the conversation today about white privilege, we could call Jesus’ reaction, feeling that he was here on earth to work with the Jews only – Hebrew privilege.
But the Syrophoenician woman just would not let go – Syrian lives matter, Jesus, she could have said.
At first, Jesus is rude to this woman. He tries to brush her off. Jesus even calls her a dog.
Why would Jesus, why did Jesus do this?
The traditional answer is that Jesus is testing this woman, testing her faith, not rejecting her. And that she passes Jesus’ test and then Jesus heals her daughter.
The problem with this interpretation is that there is nothing like it anywhere else in the Gospel of Mark, there is no mention of testing in this story (as there is in Job, for instance), and it creates a rather cold-hearted picture of a God who taunts and tests us in our deepest moments of need.
Well then, if not this interpretation, then what? Why would Jesus react to someone in need in such a callous manner?
Perhaps Jesus had not yet realized the full extent of God’s mission or the radical nature of the kingdom he proclaimed? Perhaps Jesus can learn something from this woman about his life and ministry?
That’s my interpretation and it is a Lutheran interpretation. Jesus is BOTH divine and human and, thus, his human side can learn from other humans.
Now, for some people, this can be an uncomfortable interpretation. They want to think of Jesus as perfect from birth. But if we are to take Mark’s narrative seriously, that Jesus is fully human as well as fully divine, then perhaps we should not be surprised to see a development in Jesus’ own recognition of God’s vision for the world.
Three years ago, when I last preached on this same lesson, I shared my opinion that Jesus could and did learn something from the Syrophoenician woman. What I did not realize in making that statement was how radical and uncomfortable this interpretation still was for some people, even in the 21st century. A female colleague who shared a similar view in an online Women of the ELCA Bible study found herself publicly criticized by none other than the President of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod who used this interpretation, that Jesus might have learned something from this woman, as an example of how wrong the ELCA is in so many ways!
I think, besides the blatant sexism in the LCMS President’s response, that his reaction shows how the notion of a kingdom that included everyone with no exceptions was not only completely and totally novel in Jesus’ day, that a kingdom that includes everyone with no exceptions is still a radical belief today!
This is no small matter. In Mark’s Gospel, this incident is a turning point in Jesus’ ministry, the first time Jesus acknowledges that he has come not just to save Jews, but to save everyone. Without this turn in Jesus life and ministry, we might have a very different faith today, a Christianity still like the first hundred years or so of our faith, just a branch of Judaism.
If we can imagine that this woman did not simply pass a clever test but instead, and as Jesus himself says, demonstrated profound faith – then we might acknowledge that this brave mother actually taught Jesus something and, therefore, might have some things to teach us as well.
Here are two things that the Syrophoenician woman can teach us:
First, she teaches us about the power of the stranger. Newcomers, strangers, people who are different from us – they stretch our perspective and teach us things about themselves, about the world, and about us. But only if we will listen. And while from time to time you will meet persons as bold – or desperate – as is the woman in this story who will offer their insight to us unprompted, more often these folks sit at the margins of our faith communities if they enter the door at all. So we will need to reach out to them and convince them that we care about their opinion.
Second, this woman teaches us about the nature of faith. While we do not know whether this woman believed herself worthy of God’s attention and Jesus’ time, we do know that she believed her daughter was. That is, she was convinced that her precious, beloved daughter who was being oppressed by this unclean spirit was absolutely deserving of Jesus’ attention and so she was willing to go to great lengths to help her, even to the point of arguing with this famous teacher and healer.
And I think that’s often the case with faith. It shows itself most fully when exercised on behalf of others. We are not created to be isolated beings but rather find our true selves most deeply in community, in relationship, and when we are advocating for another.
I love our congregation’s “tag line,” that Mt. Olive is “church for the whole community.” And I think that emphasis is a primary, perhaps the primary, reason for our growth in members and outreach and so much more over these past four years. It is no coincidence that we have received many new members because of our preschool, the many 12 step groups who meet here and our student shelter. Congregations grow because they are anchored in a community. And, conversely, congregations that are not anchored in their community will never grow and thrive. Renewal in congregations happens when we look around – in our homes, schools, community and the world – when we look around to discern who needs us, what they need from us, and how we might use our resources to be their advocates before God and this world. Renewal happens when congregations become church for the whole community.
I find great hope in today’s Gospel lesson – if Jesus can learn and change, maybe there is hope for me! This Syrophoenician woman, a person of a different race than Jesus, this woman teaches Jesus something. She reminds Jesus that his kingdom should include everyone, not just those of Jesus’ own community. She helps stretch Jesus’ view of his life and ministry. For the first time in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is the savior for all of humankind.
Maybe I can learn something from her. Maybe I can learn something from others.
No one is exempt from Jesus’ kingdom, from God’s love in Jesus Christ. No one. That is the lesson we learn from the Syrophoenician woman. There is hope for the Syrophoenician woman and for you and for me. And, Jesus’ kingdom is for her and you and me and everyone.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
(With thanks to the Rev. Dr. David Lose).
The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer
Senior Pastor - Mt. Olive Lutheran Church
Santa Monica, California
Sunday, September 8 & 9, 2018
