Sunday 17

th
August 2014
Gods love and salvation is for everyone or Why care for others?
Matthew 15: 21 - 28
Jesus, thank you for your peace, thank you that nobody is excluded from your Kingdom.
Thank you that we can meet here today. Please help me to not get in the way of your
message. Amen.
* * * * * * *
So Jesus has been teaching and healing in and around the coast of the Sea of Galilee and
in todays reading he leaves that area, where he has had a run in with the Pharisees, and
travels into the region of Tyre and Sidon. These are Mediterranean coastal towns whose
territory stretches to the foothills of the high-ground north-east of the Sea of Galilee.
Jesus and his disciples are entering a non-Jewish territory, and I love the use of the
phrase Jesus went away it makes me think that Jesus has become worn out with the
crowds and the authorities, he is drained and needs a bit of rest and relaxation, but instead
of slipping into the area and chilling out and recharging for a few days, a local woman
knows who he is and is making a scene trying to get Jesus attention.
Now in his Gospel, Matthew calls her a Canaanite making it very clear that this person is
not a Jew. This woman is a gentile and as such, would be seen as totally unclean by any
Jew and not someone to associate with. But what is interesting is that she uses the
Messianic title Son of David to address Jesus. This woman, or the people who have told
her about Jesus, know the Jewish prophesies about God sending his chosen one, his
Messiah, to redeem Israel, and through Israel the Messiah will redeem the whole world.
And here she is, with a sick daughter on her hands, and with Gods chosen one on her
door step what an opportunity to take advantage of and she does she calls out to
Jesus, who apparently uncharacteristically ignores her, and when he doesnt respond, she
carries on shouting and drawing so much attention to them that the disciples urge Jesus to
get rid of her Just do something to make her go away. Jesus responds by saying to the
disciples and to the woman I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
What did Jesus mean by this and why was his mission only to the House of Israel? We
need to back track through the Old Testament to follow the overarching story of Gods plan
to reconcile himself to the world. This wont take more than three minutes and 15 seconds
Ive timed it
In the beginning God made the World (meaning the universe and everything in it)
and it was good.
God created mankind in His own image to look after the world as Gods stewards.
We broke it: Mankind broke the world by choosing to turn their backs on God.
God made an agreement (or a covenant) with a man who was to become the father
of a nation (his name was Abram). The agreement was to create a community of
people specially chosen and set aside by God to live as his special people and help
to repair the broken world. This community is called Israel.
The covenanted community, Israel, fail to keep to their side of the bargain.
Repeatedly. And despite many, many, opportunities to repent they fail in their task
to live as Gods people helping to fix the broken world.
God already knew from the start that mere humans would fail, so he begins to tell
Israel, through His prophets, the next part of his plan to fix the broken world
(meaning the universe and everything in it).
The plan is that God will send His specially chosen and anointed one the Hebrew
word is Messiah to reconcile heaven and earth heaven not some place we go
to when we die, but the realm of God, the throne room of the Almighty, the
dimension that God inhabits and earth not just this planet but the universe and
everything in it.
The Messiah will be from the house of David, the most well-known royal family line
of Israel. After the Messiah has returned and rescued Israel from their oppressors
he will take his place on the throne of Israel and extend the peace and justice of his
rule to the rest of the nations on earth.
This way, through Gods chosen people, Israel will be a blessing to the whole World
(meaning the universe and everything in it).
In Matthew 5:17 and 18 Jesus says Do not think that I have come to abolish the
law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil. For truly I tell you, until
heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from
the law until all is accomplished. Gods story does not end with Jesus, Jesus is not
the end of the story, Jesus death and resurrection are the fulfilment, the
culmination of the story but not the end the story continues and we are part of it
until the end of the age when heaven and earth are remade.
Okay so back to todays passage
By saying I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Jesus is letting his
disciples and the woman know that right now, at this point in Gods time, his message is
only to Israel. That is the plan that we have just reminded ourselves of Israel, Gods
special people are to be the way that God reconciles himself to the world therefore
Jesus teaching and healing his message reminding people of the plan - has to be
spoken to Israel first.
But the woman wont listen and throws herself at Jesus feet begging him to help her
daughter, at which point Jesus gets tough, he uses derogatory language in his analogy, he
calls her, and all gentiles, dogs unclean creatures It isnt right to take the childrens
bread and throw it to the dogs.
Yet still she wont give up and in a witty reply, which shows her understanding of the
situation, she continues the analogy by saying I know, Master. But even the dogs eat the
scraps that fall from their masters table.
Was it her perseverance, her understanding, her faith? Whatever the reason, Jesus
changes his mind and allows Gods timing for the future to break in early and he heals her
daughter. Tom Wrights translation records Jesus words as Youve got great faith, havent
you, my friend! All right; let it be as you wish.
The future breaking in early has happened before at the wedding in Cana, right at the
start of Jesus ministry when his mum asks him to do a quick miracle to provide more wine
for the guests Jesus says Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has
not yet come. Yet we all know that he did change the water into wine and very good
wine at that.
So Gods timing must not be set in stone, but our prayers, our perseverance and our faith
can affect Gods timing and we can see glimpses of the future, of Jesus Kingdom breaking
through into our world.
So this has brought us to the question we are asking ourselves today Why care for
others?
For me this passage leads us to thinking about that question in two ways firstly why care
for others as in people not like us?
As shown by Jesus reaction to the gentile woman: The Kingdom of God, his love and
salvation, is freely available to everybody regardless of their race, colour, creed, gender,
sexuality, religion, age, where they live, what job they have, their choice of football team,
what car they drive, anything that we can come up with to divide ourselves, God
reconciles. Therefore our care and compassion should be extended to anyone regardless
of the divisions that we impose in this world, and any act of breaking down a division and
reconciling with another group is an element of Gods Kingdom breaking through into our
world.
But it doesnt stop there if Gods salvation is for the whole of creation (the universe and
everything in it) we should be caring for his creation, aware of our impact on the earth and
not plundering its natural resources, animal welfare should be on our agenda as well as
trying to understand climate change does it exist and is it because of our impact? Jesus
salvation is not just a personal issue it is global, and we should live as such.
The second way of looking at the question is why Care for others in the first place? Why
should we care for anyone but ourselves or those closest to us?
This is a very pertinent question for me, because for those of you who dont know me very
well, you may find it hard to believe, but I have a very self-centred nature at heart, and I
have to work very consciously against that nature. For example I went to visit a friend and I
normally turn up, chat about myself, my problems, my kids, my dreams, drink her tea and
go home, so this time I thought to myself, make sure you listen to her for some of the time,
stop turning the conversation to you every chance you get!
So I was really good, I listened, I asked questions to show I was listening and to
encourage her in her topics of conversation and tried to limit mine own. I thought Id done
really well until as I was leaving she gave me a hug and said, Well done you managed
not to speak about yourself for the whole time! I genuinely hadnt thought I was that bad
normally for it to be commented on! And Im not even going to confess to the times Ive
forgotten my mothers birthday!
I also have a theory it is not fully formed yet so it may have holes in that selfishness is
one of the biggest problems which needs fixing in our broken world, so answering why we
should care and what we should care about is fundamental to bringing in the kingdom of
God.
There is a Hebrew word used in the Old Testament to talk about Justice and Judgement.
That word is MISHPAT. MISHPAT carries the meaning of putting things right as opposed
to punishment as the word judgement carries in English. MISHPAT - putting things right
- is the word used in many of the messianic prophecies to do with judgement and justice
e.g. Isaiah 9 verse 7 His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless
peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice
and with righteousness from this time onwards and forevermore. And Isaiah 42 verse 1, 3
and 4 I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. a bruised
reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring
forth justice. He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the
earth. Justice is the idea of putting everything right and judgement is the process of
putting everything right.
So what has this got to do with us? Well I reminded us earlier when we looked at the
overarching story of Gods plan for the world, that the story isnt finished, that we are still
living in the story. Jesus throne has been established, that happened at the resurrection,
Jesus is ruling from heaven, but the total reconciling of heaven and earth hasnt happened
yet we are living in the time God has allotted to spread the peace and justice of Jesus,
the good news of his kingdom reign to the rest of the nations of the earth. But who is
going to be the messenger to the other nations, the gentiles, our next-door neighbour, our
work colleagues, our friends?
Jesus sends us, at the end of Matthew we are to make disciples of all nations, and all
disciples should continue to live out Jesus commandments. In Acts Jesus says that his
followers will be his witnesses to the ends of the earth, and in the last part of Mark (which
may or may not have been added a little later than the original) Jesus sends his followers
to proclaim the good news to the whole creation. We are to be the messengers of Jesus
and following Jesus example a message is not just words but actions too like the
healing of the womans daughter. We are to work for the justice of the Kingdom, we are to
spread the message of Jesus peace and we are to be agents of change, agents of
judgement, agents of Jesus putting things right.
But what things, what should we be caring about? I was in a prayer meeting a couple of
months ago and one of the people there said, but justice is subjective my justice may not
be your justice or another persons justice. I disagreed with whose justice we should be
concerned with, I think the bible makes it very, very clear what God considers to be just
and for me Gods justice is summed up in Isaiah 1 verse 17 learn to do good, seek justice,
rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. In other words help to
restore Gods peace to the world. Gods peace and justice is about right relationships, not
taking advantage of other people and helping to protect others who cant protect
themselves.
What would this look like in your life? Maybe you dont know any widows or orphans and
I dont think they are meant to be the only people we care about I think they are
examples of people who in ancient society would be unable to care for themselves we
have plenty of people who are vulnerable in our society, people with mental health
illnesses, the sick, the elderly, asylum seekers, homeless people, people experiencing
crippling debt, young people without positive role models, people trying to break the cycle
of addiction or crime. And much closer to home, being a messenger of Jesus peace
means that all of our relationships should be right, are there any relationships that you
need to work on to make things right?
So Gods peace and justice is what we should care about, and we should care because
Jesus sends us with the support of the Holy Spirit to live as his messengers in the world.
There is another way of phrasing that calling which I came across the other day which I
would like to leave you with
The Greek word for messenger is ANGELOS which we translate as Angel. Therefore if we
are to be messengers we are to be angels.
And if we are to bring about Gods MISHPAT if we are to help put things right, if we are
working for justice then we are involved in judgement.
I think we care for others because we are called to be messengers of putting things right,
we are called to be Angels of Judgement.
Where will your role as an Angel of Judgement take you in the week and months ahead?