10th Sunday After Pentecost, August 17, 2014

The Gospel: Matthew 15:10-20; 21-28

(Then he called the crowd to him and said to them,) “Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.” But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”

          Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

 Reflections: This is one of the teachings that sticks in my mind, partly because my default notion of “defilement” is something that happens to me. It is easy to feel demeaned or dirtied by what happens to us, as though the status we were born into—or events, or the actions of other people—make us who we are. But nothing can take from us the fact that we are children of God and brothers to Christ; St. Paul says that the calling of God “irrevocable.”

          Defilement, then, is not something imposed on us; defilement is what flows from our hearts. For that reason, Christian spiritual practice over millennia has centered on purifying the heart. So much of Jesus’ teachings are about the awakened and ready heart—not the content of our beliefs, the accuracy of our knowledge, or the perfection of our religious observance. This is why confession—corporate as well as private—is an important element in our liturgy, and why reconciliation is a sacrament.
          We might speculate on the state of this Canaanite mother’s heart as she approaches Jesus. Her love for her stricken daughter emboldens her to overcome natural reticence, to transgress rules that put her in “her place” as 1) a woman, and 2) a Gentile in relation to a Jewish (male) teacher and healer. Love gives her the courage to risk humiliation and rejection; it purifies her heart. And perhaps it is this that Jesus sees, but his disciples have not seen.
          This story, which recounts an event that occurred long before St. Paul became an apostle to the Gentiles, shows us that grace is not intended for, and refuses to be restricted to, a particular people or a particular circumstance. As the Rev. Hope Benko pointed out in her sermon, God’s boundless love acting through us flows beyond the immediate and out into the world.