Becoming a Neighbour

By Myrna Miller Dyck

September 27, 2009.

Matthew 15.21-28

 

Many years earlier, before Jesus was even a teenager, he’d gone with his parents to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. With his family’s wide network of friends and relatives there, Jesus wasn’t required to stick close to his parents – they knew he’d be safe. They were so confident that others would look out for him that they didn’t start looking for him until the festival was over and they were walking home … but then, they couldn’t find him. For three days they searched everywhere they could think of. When they finally found him, three days later, talking with the priests in the temple, Jesus couldn’t figure out why they were so upset. Wasn’t it obvious to them that he’d be in the temple? The temple was a place where Jesus was nurtured, challenged; he loved discussing the scriptures with the priests and the scribes. He was accepted by the leaders of the Jews; they were his mentors and friends.

 

But years later, when today’s story takes place, the Jewish leaders were rejecting him, they called him a fraud. In the days before Jesus met the Canaanite woman, the Jewish leaders were challenging him in front of the crowds, saying he was clearly a false prophet because he didn’t even keep the simplest parts of the law, like washing hands before he ate. Jesus was disillusioned and discouraged because the adults who had once mentored him were now strongly against him.

 

To be sure, there were masses of people who accepted his message, who followed him, but sometimes the people seemed so needy … there was always another ill baby, another paralyzed man, another widow looking for help. Did they want their souls to be healed as much as their bodies, or were they simply looking for a quick fix?

 

The work left Jesus emotionally and physically spent. He needed to get away to pray, to rest, to be alone. So he left the Galilee region and travelled over 50 kilometers northwest toward the coast, into the region of Tyre & Sidon. This was Gentile territory; it was a place he could be anonymous.

 

His disciples needed a break too. They’d left their jobs and their families to follow Jesus, but they were getting the feeling that the mission they’d signed up for was perhaps not going as expected.  

 

Then the woman approached them. Obviously, they were not as anonymous as they’d hoped. She loudly begged, implored, pleaded with Jesus, not for herself, but for her daughter who was tormented by a demon.

 

But Jesus ignored her.

 

What was he thinking? Isn’t he supposed to be the good Samaritan, drop what he’s doing, stop to help where help is needed?

 

And the story gets worse, for the woman persisted, she kept begging for help. A crowd started to form, and the disciples nervously urged Jesus, “Do something,” but Jesus replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” The lost sheep of Israel – the Jews – that’s who Jesus saw as his mission. This woman is a Canaanite, a Greek, a Gentile … not part of his mission. Out of his territory. She was not his responsibility.

 

And the story gets worse, for then there is the line you can’t believe came from the lips of Jesus. The woman went straight to Jesus and knelt before him, and he said to her, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

 

Jesus!

 

There were long-standing, historical conflicts between Jews & Gentiles, of course. There were long-standing prejudices, and in his response Jesus reflects those prejudices as he articulates a very common human impulse, the impulse to take care of one’s own and the impulse to put borders between ourselves and those different from us.

 

But the woman was desperate. She recognized that as a Gentile Jesus didn’t see her as a priority. She lived outside of his day-to-day world, outside of his culture, outside of his religion. She recognized the differences between them. “Of course,” she replied, “you’re right. The children are fed first. But even dogs are allowed to scurry under the table and eat the crumbs that have fallen.”

  

Astonished at her insight, astonished at her faith, astonished that this Gentile woman recognized who he really was, Jesus commended her for her faith and told her that her daughter was healed.

 

This story about Jesus leaves us uneasy, because the Son of God seems to completely ignore the call to love his neighbor as himself. But just as Jesus had to learn to walk and talk and read, he also had to keep learning, and his understanding of who he was and who he was called to be changed as he grew older, through his experiences.

 

From this encounter, Jesus moved on, not just from that place, but from the world he thought he came for and belonged to. While the Jews remained his focus, the encounter changed him, challenged him to see beyond “us” and “them.” He realized that the God of creation is the God of all humanity, and before leaving the earth he commanded his disciples to, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” (Megan McKenna).

 

Sometimes we think we’ve got the world figured out – we know how things work – and then something happens that turns our thinking upside down. We sometimes think we have people figured out, and then their actions turn our stereotypes on their heads.

 

Jesus ignored the woman because he decided she was outside of his responsibility. He clearly couldn’t take care of everyone’s problems, and as a Gentile, surely she wasn’t his neighbor.

 

That question – who is my neighbor? – gets complicated. Since we can communicate with people all around the world while sitting on our couch, well, who is my neighbor? My family? The people who live next door? The people my kids play hockey with, or everyone I’m friends with on Facebook? What about the Mennonites we met in Paraguay, or the Palestinians we read about whose homes were destroyed?  Where does it start?  Where does it end? How can I love my neighbor as myself when my neighbors are scattered everywhere?

 

Maybe that question: “Who is my neighbor?” is not the best question, because it focuses on who’s in and who’s out.  What if we turn the question around, and instead ask, “Who am I as a neighbor?”

 

If we focus on the kind of person we want to be, and consider the virtues needed to be that kind of person – such as wisdom, justice, kindness, and courage – we will become a good neighbor as we practice those virtues. Rather than identifying who we need to care for and who we do not, the focus is on being open to sharing God’s grace and love to anyone we meet.

 

And sometimes, short, brief interactions, like the one between Jesus and the woman, can have far reaching consequences.

 

In 165 AD, a plague struck the Roman Empire, probably small pox or the measles. The disease spread throughout the empire, and about a third of the population died. Less than a hundred years later, another epidemic struck Rome, and this time there were up to 2,000 deaths in a day. People were so terrified of catching the disease that they fled their homes, leaving the sick to die and their bodies to rot without proper burial.

 

Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage which is in modern-day Tunisia, urged Christians to care for the sick and to bury the dead. Rather than fleeing for their own safety, many Christians stayed, and cared for their neighbors. The epidemic offered opportunities to serve, and so Christians washed bodies, they made broth, they buried the dead.

 

And their actions were noticed. Their willingness to serve their neighbor, even when it meant putting their own life in danger, flowed directly from their faith in Christ. And people noticed, and said, “see how they love!”

 

Rodney Stark, in his book, The Rise of Christianity, writes: “To cities filled with homeless and the impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. … To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family. …  And to cities faced with epidemics, fires, and earthquakes, Christianity offered effective nursing services.”

 

Christians’ hospitality and care for people in need was compelling, and people wanted to know more. What motivated them to help others? Care for the neighbor was one important factor in why Christianity spread.  Less than 300 years after Christ had lived on this earth, Christianity had grown from being a small group of believers to an established religion with over 6 million believers. Christianity spread through hundreds of personal encounters, through people who took seriously their call to be a neighbor.

 

Sometimes we want our faith to be personal, private, with boundary lines that can let us off the hook when we’re tired and want to be left alone. Even Jesus felt that way sometimes. But discipleship is about risk, about letting go and giving over what we have on behalf of others’ needs. Being a follower of Jesus is about being the first to move toward others, giving generously when faced with needs.

 

We are now in the midst of a new pandemic, the H1N1 flu. We don’t know how it will affect our region, our country, but it is here, and it is serious. The church has an opportunity again to be a neighbor, to be willing to serve wherever we are needed.

 

As followers of Jesus we are called to offer daring hospitality to all, to be channels of God’s healing. May we, like Jesus, be willing to re-think our assumptions of who we are called to serve, and may we, in his name, be instruments of God’s mercy.