Sermon Tone Analysis

Date: 2022-07-03

Audience: Grass Valley Corps ONLINE

Title: Gentile Dogs

Text: Matthew 15:21-39

Proposition: The King rewards faith with citizenship

Purpose: Become a citizen of the Kingdom

Grace and peace

Ever been to Costco?

Warehouse store – members only

Special membership levels.

Exec gets to go in an hour before everyone else.

Lots of reasons – business members can get stuff w/o being blocked up by guy just getting a gallon of milk.

Regular members can go get that gallon of milk w/o having to wait in line behind the guy w/50 loaves of bread.

Hours are part of the member agreement that gets signed when you join.

Membership and contracts – important to us all

Family – Friend circle – Tribe – State – Nation – Planet

Saw this last week in the Pharisee’s complaint that disciples weren’t following traditions – are they in or out of the circle?

Obviously, Jesus, you’re OUT!

But Jesus told them God’s circle is bigger than they imagined, and in the stories we are going to look at today, he lives that out so his followers can’t miss the truth of it.

They still do, at least at first, but we should be used to that kind of lapse from them by now, right?

Start today at Matthew 15:21…

21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.[1]

Couple of quick notes:

- Jesus withdrew (4th time he has demonstrated leaving conflict behind)

- Tyre and Sidon – about 40 miles away and outside of what is properly Israel.

Which Matthew makes explicitly clear.

22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!

My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”[2]

Canaanite – bitter enemies of Israel.

The people who had taken possession of Promised Land while God’s people slaves in Egypt.

The people who misused land and worshipped foreign gods.

Who fought to keep Israel out.

Who worked to corrupt the people of God by leading into false worship.

Outside the tribe.

Daughter possessed – suffering – Jesus is obviously going to help out, right?

23 Jesus did not answer a word.

So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” [3]

She asks for help – Jesus doesn’t even acknowledge her.

Followers – “Send her away – she’s really getting on our nerves.”

So compassionate, right?

Some people think you can read this as they asking him to just do what she says to get rid of her.

Others think they just want him to tell her, “No.

I don’t help your kind.”

But instead of speaking to her, Jesus speaks to his disciples and says:

24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

[4]

Why is Jesus being so mean?

Maybe.. he’s not?

Two things to think about here.

First, the Messiah’s mission is to bring a new salvation and new covenant to God’s people, Israel.

He is literally and truly sent to Israel.

Israel is his focus, his goal, the purpose for which the LORD has sent him.

He is here to fulfil the covenant which God had set up through Moses.

There was no covenant with Canaan.

Canaanites could become part of Israel.

There was a whole process of conversion.

Then they would be part of the tribe.

Then they would be IN and not OUT.

Second, isn’t Jesus just playing out the response of his followers here?

They are annoyed by this woman and they want her to leave.

Why?

Because she’s not part of their tribe.

Why should they care about her daughter’s suffering?

She’s an OUTSIDER – why should her pain matter to them?

The woman then stops appealing to them as a group and goes to Jesus with a much more personal plea.

25 The woman came and knelt before him.

“Lord, help me!” she said.

[5]

What’s she doing?

She’s on her knees!

That’s a position of vulnerability.

It’s the position of worship, of subjugating yourself to another.

And she’s calling him Lord again, placing herself in his hands, under his control.

And Jesus looks at her and drops this on her:

26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”[6]

Ouch.

We can push and pull at the words used here and try to soften what he said.

The word for “dogs” refers to a pet or something like it rather than a wild dog, but even if it isn’t a slur, it’s a harsh designation, telling someone they are like a dog trying to steal food from the children of the family.

There is no question he is pointing out that his own people are IN and she is OUT.

No, I’m going to ask you to remember for a moment who Matthew’s audience is.

He’s writing to a group that is primarily made up of Jewish people.

Those who have been born into the tribe and religion of the people of Israel.

They have grown up in the traditions of the covenant of Moses which drew some pretty distinct lines to help people from this nation know that they were God’s children.

Like I said, there were ways for others to convert, but for the most part people were either IN or they were OUT.

That’s not so different now, is it?

I was born in the USA, so I’m an American, which makes me part of a very particular group of people.

Canadians may seem similar, but they aren’t the same, are they?

We’re us, they’re them, and even if a Canadian comes to live and work here they are never really part of the American tribe, are they?

People coming to America to make a new life here aren’t really Americans, are they?

They come from a different culture and may have a different way of speaking or acting that doesn’t really fit in.

They are from OUTSIDE the tribe.

Why would we take the food our children need and give it to these OUTSIDERS just because they are hungry, right?

Isn’t that what Jesus is saying?

Isn’t that what his followers want?

For him to tell this woman to get lost?

To leave them alone, because her pain doesn’t matter?

26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said.

“Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”[7]

Wait, what?

Look, lady, Jesus just told you that those INSIDE the tribe of God’s people take precedence!

And you’re now asking for… for what, exactly?