Proper 15 A
Dogs and Little Dogs
St. Matthew 15:21-28
17 August 2014 – Redeemer
Today’s Gospel reading is embarrassing. The woman who runs after Jesus is embarrassing. Calling, begging, pleading, falling down. Come on lady, get a grip. The disciples are embarrassing. Aren’t they supposed to help people? But they just pass the buck onto Jesus. She’s not our problem Lord, send her away. Sort of like when a stranger comes into church and everyone backs away and then someone asks the pastor, “Who is that?” But the greatest embarrassment is Jesus. His silence is embarrassing. His side-stepping is embarrassing, but the greatest embarrassment is when he slams this woman with the name, “Dog.”
“It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” Don’t ever call a woman a dog unless you want your face slapped. Such words have no place on the tongue of any man, unless that man is God, unless that man is Jesus. Jesus never sinned, not once, therefore not against this woman. Jesus might be an embarrassment to us, but He is no sinner. He is the woman’s Savior and our Savior – that is what faith believes and faith receives and what this text teaches us.
“It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” With some fancy liberal thinking we might be able to spare Jesus some embarrassment by interpreting His words away. But Jesus doesn’t need our help or our protection. He stood against Satan. He bore the sin of the world and He suffered the wrath of His Father for us. He’s a big boy and He’s God. He rose from the dead and He speaks the truth.
So what truth is He saying to this woman? There are two interpretations of His Words that are in harmony with Scripture. I’m going to give them both to you this morning because they both teach us facets of faith in Jesus Christ.
The first interpretation is that dog is dog. Jesus means what He says and says what He means. There are no good dogs in the New Testament. There are no comfort dogs, no blessings of dogs at church, no friendly yellow labs, no protective German Shepherds, no cuddly foo-foo dogs. Do not give what is holy to dogs. Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers. Christians who have forsaken the faith and returned to a life of sin are said to be dogs returning to their vomit. “Outside (the Kingdom of God) are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.” No dogs in the Lord’s house. No dogs at the Lord’s table – my apologies to Fido, Rover, Sarge and of course, Libby. (The Timm family dog.)
This woman was a dog. She wasn’t from Israel. She wasn’t a Jew. She was outside of God’s people – a Canaanite woman. And it may have been even worse than that. Demons rarely come uninvited into our lives. (Peterson) Perhaps this woman is at fault for her daughter’s demon possession. There is no mention of her husband. Perhaps she has been sleeping around, opening her home up to the evil of adultery and lust and her daughter is possessed because of it. Be warned by this woman – you surf the internet in lust and you open your marriage up to demons. You open your mouth to excessive alcohol and you open your family and body to demons. There is no such thing as a little sin or a little evil for the demons stand ready to invade if you open the door even a little.
This woman obviously agreed with Jesus. Yes, Lord, I am a dog. I have no place here as a Canaanite woman. I have brought these troubles to my daughter and there’s nothing I can do about it. I have no right to stand before you a Jewish Rabbi and make a request. So it is for all of us – dogs begging at the table. How dare we stand before God seeking heavenly food when we wallow in hellish filth? We return to the vomit of sin and gobble it up and then expect blessings and claim life isn’t fair. If you’re upset because this woman is called a dog perhaps you better look in the mirror of God’s Law.
And yet this woman is a dog in another way, begging, yapping, pestering. There is something else at work in this woman. She wouldn’t take no from Jesus. And it wasn’t because she tried everything else from television preachers to herbal remedies on QVC. The Holy Spirit had given her faith to hold on to Jesus. She confesses Him to be her Savior, calls Him Messiah. Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David.” His silence does not silence her. His Words are offensive, but not to her. When He is silent she still listens. Whatever He says she hears. Whatever He gives she takes. However He delivers His gifts she says, “Amen.” Yes Lord, I am a dog, but even the dogs eat crumbs that fall from their masters table.”
The Lord lets a crumb fall from His table, not because of the woman, but because He is Lord and because she has faith – faith given her in His Word and by His Word. She has faith in His mercy and kindness, faith that He dines with dogs and gives gifts without any merit or worth in the recipient. He gives His life for sinners. Sheds His blood for the unrighteous. He dies for her as He dies for you – not because of you, but for you. Not because of you, but because of His love for you and mercy towards you. The woman is forgiven and saved – that’s the main course of the Lord’s table. Her daughter is healed at that moment – there’s a crumb that anticipates the full course of the resurrection.
That’s interpretation one – dog means dog. The second interpretation is that the Lord calls her a “little dog.” The word “dog” in this verse can mean “little dog” like family pet, like Libby the Lutheran Labrador (although she isn’t little or Lutheran). If Jesus has called her a “little dog” then it may not be as offensive, but it still teaches her the way of faith.
When Jesus said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” and then says, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” He is telling this woman the way in which God chose to save her. God chose Israel to be the nation through whom salvation would come. He promised a son to Abraham, a King in the line of David, a descendant of Judah, born in Bethlehem to a Virgin from Nazareth. Jesus was born of Israel for Israel, but not for Israel alone. The children of Israel are the children at the table if you will. I am not a Jew, nor are any of you. We are Gentile dogs, but everyone of you knows how a dog gets food from the table. It comes through the children.
God’s salvation is for all. Christ Jesus died for all sin, for every sinner, for this dog of a woman and for you. But God chose to accomplish and deliver His salvation in His own way – through the people of Israel, through the twelve tribes, the fourth son Judah, the line of David, Mary, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Jerusalem. He chose the cross, the tomb, the resurrection, the ascension. Salvation is Jesus dying, rising, living, reigning, returning. Salvation came through Israel by Jesus, but they rejected Jesus. Jesus falls from the table, not a crumb, but the main course – His flesh and blood, His death and resurrection, His forgiveness and salvation for us.
When Jesus calls her a “little dog” He says there is a place for her in the Kingdom, that the crumbs of the table, given through the children are for her. The faith of the woman says, “yes” to this. She gladly receives her place – a crumb and she is happy, and she is forgiven and she is saved. For this crumb falls from the Bread of Life, from the flesh and blood of Jesus. Even as He fed 5000 with five loaves and two fish, so by His One body He feeds all of us forgiveness and life everlasting and the hope of the resurrection.
Faith says yes to whatever Jesus says. That is what this woman teaches us. When Jesus says, “I am the only way to the Father.” Faith says, “Yes.” When Jesus says, “It is finished – your sins are forgiven” faith says “yes Lord.” When Jesus gives us Holy Baptism where water in the Word delivers us forgiveness and life we are baptized and say, “Yes.” When Jesus feeds us His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper giving us forgiveness, life, and salvation we say “yes” by taking, eating, and drinking in faith. When Jesus says, “You’re all dogs, without merit and worthiness in you” we say “yes” yes Lord, but even the dogs get crumbs that fall from the Master’s table. We’re not here because we’re dogs we’re here because You are the bread of life and we are not embarrassed to receive what You give us in the way that You choose. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
16 August 2014 anno Domini