Sermon for 15th Pentecost, “B”
Jesus – Human and Divine
By The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer -
Can Jesus learn? Can Jesus possibly even make a mistake?
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 was testing this woman, testing her faith, not rejecting her. This theory concludes that the woman 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 was in Job, for example, and that this interpretation presents a 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 has been proclaiming? Perhaps Jesus can learn something from this woman about life and ministry?
That’s how I see it and I believe it is a very Lutheran interpretation. Jesus is BOTH divine and human and, thus, Jesus’ human side can learn from other humans.
Once again, I am indebted to the Rev. Dr. David Lose from whom I first read of this interpretation and whose Bible work I am using extensively in this sermon.
Now, for some people, this can be an uncomfortable interpretation. They want to think of Jesus as perfect from birth. But if we 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.
I preached on this same lesson six years ago here at Mt. Olive and at that time I also shared my opinion that Jesus could and did learn something from the Syrophoenician woman. What I did not then realize in making that statement was how radical and uncomfortable this interpretation was for some people, even in the 21st century.
At that time 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 her interpretation, that Jesus might have learned something from this woman, he used this 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, I think that his reaction shows how the notion of a kingdom of God that included everyone with no exceptions was not only completely and total novel in Jesus’ day, that a kingdom of God which includes everyone with no exceptions is still a radical belief for some today!
This is no small matter. In Mark’s Gospel, this incident is a turning point in Jesus’ ministry, the first time that Jesus acknowledges that he has come not just to save Jews, but to save everyone, everyone. Without this turn in Jesus’ life and ministry, we might have a very different faith today, a Christianity still like its first hundred years or so, when Christianity was 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 can acknowledge that this brave mother actually taught Jesus something and, therefore, might have something to teach us as well.
Here are two things 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, the world and even us. But they can only do this if we will listen.
And, while from time to time you will meet persons as bold, or as desperate, as the woman in this story, people who will offer their insight to us unprompted, more often these folks sit on the margins of our faith communities if they enter our doors at all. So, we 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 she believed her daughter was worthy. That is, she was convinced that her precious, beloved daughter who was being oppressed by an unclean spirit, that this daughter of hers was absolutely deserving of Jesus’ attention. That led her to go to great lengths to help her daughter, even to the point of arguing with a famous teacher and healer.
I think that is often the case with faith. Faith 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 have always loved Mt. Olive’s “tag line,” that we are “church for the whole community.” Church for the whole community.
And I think that emphasis is a primary, perhaps the primary, reason for our growth in members and outreach over these past eight years. Especially in the 21st century, people join a congregation because they want to support what that congregation does in its community. So many come to our worshiping community because of our preschool, because of the 12 step groups we host here in non-COVID times, because of our student shelter and, most recently, because of all the new additional ways we are serving our neighborhood and surrounding community.
Congregations grow because they are anchored in a community. Conversely, congregations that are not anchored in a 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 others need from us, and how we might use our resources to be their advocates before God and this world.
In other words, renewal happens in congregations when they 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 you and for me! This Syrophoenician woman, a person of a different race and religion than Jesus, this woman teaches Jesus something. She reminds Jesus that his kingdom should include everyone, not just those already in Jesus’ own community and faith. This woman helps stretch Jesus’ view of his life and ministry.
For the first time in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is the savior of ALL humankind.
Maybe I can learn something from this woman. Maybe I can learn something from others, even others far different from me.
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 hope for you and hope for me. 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
Sermon for:
September 5th, 2021
