Proper
18 :: Isaiah 35: 4–7a; Psalm 146; James 2: 1–17; Mark 7: 24–37
This
is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, PA by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday,
September 9, 2018.
“IS IT OK TO BARGAIN (OR ARGUE) WITH GOD?”
(Homily
text: Mark 7: 24–37)
Is
it OK to bargain with God? Is it OK to engage in a back-and-forth with God,
especially when our interaction with Him is connected to something that is very
important or even critical to us?
Today’s
Gospel text,[1] which recounts for us Jesus’ interaction with a Gentile woman who lived in the
area of the city of Tyre, seems to suggest it is OK to engage in a vigorous
interchange with the Lord.
Before
we look at the exchange between Jesus and his unnamed woman, we would do well
to remind ourselves of some of the unusual aspects of the setting of this
encounter:
The
region of Tyre: Tyre was a city which was located on the
shore of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Holy Land, in an area of what is
now known as Lebanon. Mark tells us that Jesus had gone to this area in order
to get away from the growing crowds He was encountering in Galilee. But, of
course, He is unable to keep His presence a secret, for this Gentile woman
discovers that He is in her area.
A
Gentile woman: Mark tells us that the woman is a Syrophoenician
by birth. This means that she is a Gentile, and is, most likely, a
Greek-speaker, for the culture in that area is predominantly Greek. Historians
tell us that the region did have some Jewish presence, but that the Gentiles
were hostile to the Jews living in their midst.
Male
– female interaction: In our culture today, we think nothing of
interacting with a person of the opposite gender. But such interactions were
frowned upon in the Jewish culture of the day. Remember with me the reaction of
Jesus’ disciples when they return from getting some food in the Samaritan town
as Jesus sits, talking with the Samaritan woman: They are surprised to see that
He is talking with a woman. (see John 4: 27.)
The
net effect of Jesus’ actions is that He is crossing boundaries: He is in Gentile territory and He speaks with
a woman who is non-Jewish. Perhaps Mark’s readers, member of the early churches
in Rome in the first century, saw that the Lord was crossing boundaries with
them as well, offering them a relationship with God, even though they were
outsiders as far as God’s plans for His chosen people were concerned. In
addition, perhaps Mark’s readers would also see in Jesus’ actions a prediction
of the welcome that the early church offered to men and to women, both.
Now,
let’s turn our attention to the incident itself.
At
this glance, Jesus’ retort to the woman seems harsh: “It is not right to take
the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
Some
cultural unpacking is needed here: In Jewish culture, dogs were unclean and
undesirable animals. (Remember Jesus’ parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus [2] ….Jesus
tells us that Lazarus longed to eat some of the crumbs that fell from the rich
man’s table, and while he lay, covered with sores at the rich man’s gate, the
dogs would come and lick his wounds….this is Jesus’ way of describing the fact
that Lazarus was ritually unclean by virtue of his sores, which is attested to
by the presence of unclean animals, dogs, which tend to his wounds.)
But
most translations do us a disservice here…the Greek word which is usually translated
as “dogs” is actually “little dogs”. It is a diminutive form of the word. We
might characterize the word as “puppy dogs”. Some commentators suggest that
Jesus’ comment refers to Gentile practices in which puppy dogs would have been
present in a home. After all, dogs and puppy dogs would not have been
considered to be an unclean and undesirable animal in that Gentile culture. If
so, then Jesus’ response opens the door - however slightly - to the possibility
of hope for the woman’s request.
She
comes back at the Lord, using His words against Him, saying, “Yes, Lord, but even
the (puppy) dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
For
the purposes of the focus of this homily, let’s lay aside for the moment the
matter of the fact that this incident forecasts the trajectory of the spread of
the Gospel into hostile, Gentile areas, welcoming in not only Jews but also
Gentiles, and welcoming not only men but women as well (as we discussed a
moment ago).
Instead,
let’s look at the issue of whether it is OK to bargain (or even argue) with
God.
For
some idea of the acceptability of such an idea, we need to look at Holy
Scripture to see if there are precedents for such a posture when dealing with
God.
At
least two possibilities arise:
Abraham’s
dickering with God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah: In Genesis 18, verses 22–33, we read about
Abraham’s bargaining with God over the fate of these two cities. We can
summarize the text briefly by recalling that God has determined to wipe these
two cities out because of their wickedness. Abraham intercedes with God, asking
if He will destroy the good people who might be living there along with the
wicked. “Suppose,” Abraham says, “there
are fifty good people to be found there. Would you destroy the cities for the
sake of those fifty?” (I am paraphrasing here.) God replies, saying He wouldn’t
destroy them. Then, Abraham continues by asking God if he’d destroy the cities
of forty five good people could be found there. Again, God says, “No”. Abraham
continues, lowering the number to forth, then thirty, then twenty, and finally,
down to ten. (You know the rest of the story: Not even ten righteous people can
be found, and so the cities are destroyed,)
Another
example is Jesus’ parable of the Unjust Judge (see Luke 18: 1–8). Again, we
may summarize the parable by saying that Jesus describes an unjust judge who
neither “feared God nor man”. Yet a woman comes to the judge, seeking a
judgment in her favor. The judge rebuffs her request, but she is persistent,
and keeps on asking until, finally, the judge gives in and grants her request.
Jesus closes the parable by encouraging His disciples to be convinced that God
will grant the requests of His disciples who “cry to him day and night”. Then
Jesus says, “Will the Son of Man find faith on the earth?” when He comes.
At
this point, a valid concern arises: We
serve and love a God who knows everything. We serve and love a God who is “more
ready to hear than we are to pray,” as a wonderful Collect (prayer) from the
Book of Common Prayer states.
So
what good does it do for us to come repeatedly to the Lord, seeking an answer
to our needs and requests? If God already knows what we need (not what we want;
there’s a difference!), then why bother with asking again and again?
Maybe
the reason for God’s apparent silence (or even rebuff) in response to our
prayers isn’t so much so that God’s will can be changed, but that you and I can
be changed. If, in the course of bringing things to God in prayer, we are
permitted an opportunity to reflect on what it is that we are asking for, then
perhaps such a reflection might change our hearts and minds so that we are
asking God to grant requests that are within His holy will, and nothing else.
One
final point might be made, and it is a feature of the interchange between Jesus
and the Syrophoenician woman: Jesus was
(apparently) testing this woman and her faith. Oftentimes, when Jesus grants
someone’s request for healing or for something else, He puts a test before that
person, a test which is designed to measure the depth of their faith.
It
won’t be any different with us when we bring things to God in prayer. We may be
assured that God will always answer our prayers. God’s answer will take one of
three forms:
“Yes, I’ll grant your request.”
“No, your request is outside of My
will.”
“Not now.”
So
we live by faith, a faith which is tested to see whether or not our wills
conform to God’s will, and whether or not we are willing to wait for God’s
granting of our requests in His time, not ours. Until God answers our requests,
it’s OK to come again and again, seeking God’s answer. In so doing, we are
reminded not to lose sight of God’s holiness, God’s righteousness and God’s
majesty.
AMEN.
[1] For a comparison, see Matthew’s treatment of
this incident. His account can be found in Matthew 18: 21–28.
[2] See Luke 16: 19–30.
