Don't Mess With Mama
Matthew 15:21-28
Pentecost 14
August 16-18, 2008
Lord of Life
Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, and from Jesus, the Son of God,
and our Savior who brings us life! Amen.
A year ago, I was leading a small group of senior high young people through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. It was a warm, sunny day, and we were coming through the portage from Alpine Lake into
I knew that on the other side of this portage, was a nice little swimming hole; a good spot to cool off. Coming around the last bend of the portage, I discovered that we were beaten to the punch. In the middle of our swimming hole was a large, mother moose, and her calf. The calf was swimming around, and the mother was standing in shoulder depth water, keeping an eye on her young.
The pair was about 25 yards away. It’s pretty rare to be this close to a moose for an extended period of time. We signaled each other to be quiet, and we silently put our stuff into the canoes and launched ourselves into the bay to get a better view. We drifted, we took pictures, and we watched. As we did, the current slowly moved us a little closer. It was an amazing experience.
However, at some point, our canoes crossed some invisible line on Mother Moose’s radar system. Suddenly, her head swung up in our direction, and she made a very loud snorting noise. We froze.
One of the kids whispered over and said “what was that?” Before I could respond, the moose gave another loud snort.
I whispered. “Ok everybody, calmly, quietly, paddle backwards. Now.” We did. The entire time we backed away, Mama moose watched us…suspiciously. When we were on our way to the next portage, I said to the group, “that was moose communication. She was letting us know: “Don’t mess with Mama.”
The maternal instinct to protect the young is strong. It’s one of the characteristics that most of creation shares in. We protect our young. And generally, mothers can be fierce in their protection.
When serving as a chaplain at Mercy and
I’ve learned: you don’t mess with Mama.
I don’t want to leave fathers out of the equation here. The instinct to protect is just as strong. When something threatens a child, parents become very, very upset. It’s just the way we’re wired.
So keeping this important information about human nature in mind, we can totally understand today’s gospel lesson. A woman comes to Jesus who is extremely upset because her daughter is very, very sick. The Bible tells us that she was severely possessed by a demon. During Biblical times, they didn’t understand infections, mental illness, epilepsy, viruses and other diseases, and demon possession was a very common diagnosis by doctors.
Can you imagine living during Biblical times and having your child go into convulsions? You don’t know what causes it. So you’d go to the local doctor and he would examine the child, then say to you, “well, your child has a bad case of demon infection. What did the child do, or what did you do that was so bad it would cause a demon to live inside her?” Can you imagine? That was often the line of questioning that was a part of the treatment.
So then you’d go to your religious leaders. And you’d ask if there was anything they could do. And they would examine the child, then say to you “whatever will be will be. It is the will of God that your child is sick. You’ll just have to learn to live with those convulsions. That’s the way it is.” Thanks.
However, this woman a Canaanite, whose daughter was threatened by illness or possession, wasn’t satisfied to settle for those answers. While Canaanites were not exactly considered to be enemies by the Jewish people, they definitely were outsiders.
So this Canaanite woman heard that Jesus was in town, and she decided that if there was a chance that Jesus could heal her daughter, she was going to grab it.
She finds Jesus, and kneels before him and even though he’s a Jew. Even though she grew up in a different faith, and this is really important, she identifies him as the Messiah: She says, “Jesus, Son of David, would you please heal my child?”
What does Jesus do when faced with this woman who was emotional, in need, probably scared and certainly desperate? He turns his back on her and gives her the silent treatment. What?
But she doesn’t give up. She goes back and talks to the disciples and begs them “would you please talk to your master and ask him to heal my daughter?” So the disciples come to Jesus and ask on her behalf. He says “Listen, I am here to heal the Jewish people.”
But this woman is desperate. She doesn’t give up. The silence of Jesus, the rejection of Jesus, does not intimidate her: In attempt number three, she falls down at Jesus’ feet. She calls out “Jesus, have mercy on me and heal my daughter.” He replies to her “Woman, you are like a yelping puppy at a man’s table.” And the woman being quick witted and determined says “Well, a master takes crumbs off the table and feeds his yelping puppy and shuts him up. You just heal my daughter and you will shut me up.”
Jesus looks at her, and smiles and says “Great is your faith woman. Go. Your daughter is healed. The woman went home and found her daughter well.
I love this story. I love it because I think there are several important truths that this woman and Jesus teach us:
The first is this: God’s love is for all. One of my serious questions about this story is “Why did Jesus treat the woman this way? Why was compassion so slow in coming to her?” I’m not totally sure of the answer, but I believe that Jesus might have been making a point to his disciples, and the others around. The Jewish people, even Jesus’ own disciples, believed that the Messiah was reserved for them and them alone. Redemption was a gift for the chosen people. The rest: Out of luck.
But this woman, this outsider, knew Jesus as Messiah. She proclaimed that by calling him the Son of David, a phrase the Jews would equate with “Messiah.” And Jesus acknowledges this when he said “Great is your faith woman.”
Many times we fall into the same trap as the Jewish people of Jesus’ time; we like to think that we have the inside track. We can fall into religious arrogance. We’ve got the way, the truth and the life all figured out. Jesus is reminding his followers that sometimes deep faith can be found outside of our own traditions. Jesus is saying “to know me is the key. The rest is just detail.”
The second truth I have learned from this story is that this woman did not put up with the evil that was a part of her life. She didn’t go along with the teachings that the disease was her daughters fault, or was her fault. She didn’t go along with the religious leaders who said “you’ll just have to live with it.”
I like this woman. I like her because she said “no” to this kind of logic. Robert Wallace, a Scottish theologian, says that “9 out of 10 times, the evil that is part of your life is not the will of God. It is the will of evil.” And so we should do everything we can do to eradicate this evil, just like the woman did. Whether it’s an evil in our family, in our work place, in our community or our world…we should stand against it, with the same veracity the woman showed.
Evil is not inevitable. There does not have to be hunger. There does not have to be war. There does not have to be homelessness. God calls us to stand against this. To continue. To not give up. God’s plan for dealing with evil? It’s you and me.
The third thing I learned from this story is the importance of persistant prayer.
This woman came to Jesus, and she did not give up. She faced silence; she faced answers she didn’t want to hear. Sometimes that is what it feels like when we pray. Sometimes it feels like there is no response. Sometimes it feels like the response is not what we hope for. And in truth, there are times that God answers prayers in ways that are not what we ask for. We do have to trust that God knows best. However, the woman does not give up.
I believe that this is the way God wants us to pray. God wants us to pray with that kind of bugging, nagging persistence.
Our five year old, Samuel, loves music. He love to sing. He loves to listen to the music of Radio Disney. And he loves to run around the house with his little plastic guitar and to “jam” to whatever is on the radio. Sometimes I’ll flip the radio to WCCO AM just to annoy him. But he asks me all the time. “Daddy, can you teach me to play guitar.” Yes, I can. “Daddy, will you teach me to play guitar.” Sometime, yes, I will. “Daddy, today can you teach me guitar?” “If there is time.” His hands won’t even go around the guitar neck. But “Daddy, can you teach me?” Persistent, unrelenting. Do you know children like this?
God says “This is the way we are to pray.” We are constantly to be bugging God, coming after God and asking these things. This is the kind of persistence that is needed in our prayer life: where we go to God constantly, asking God to overcome those things which are evil in our lives, in the world. We go to God and ask for healing for ourselves, for others.
Now we know that God is busy. God has got big issues of life to deal with, and we might not feel like God has time for our little petty concerns. God’s got the universe, the laws of nature, of thermodynamics, of law, of physics to work on. Me? I’m nothing.
But that’s not what Jesus teaches. Jesus teaches that God is concerned about our family member’s cancer, that God is concerned with our financial problems, that God is concerned with our addiction, that God is concerned with our marriage, that God is concerned about all these things which for us are not petty at all. God wants us to come and persistently ask him in prayer.
I love the story about this woman. I love her faith. I love her persistence. I love that she gets in Jesus’ face and makes “the ask.” She is this way because she cares so deeply for her daughter that she will do anything to restore her. She doesn’t take “no” for an answer. And we know: you don’t mess with Mama.
And Jesus response? Jesus looked at this outsider, and made a point out of her. God’s grace is for her, and her faith was in his estimation, great.
My friends, God looks at each of you.
- If you feel like an outsider, he says “Come to me. My love is for you.”
- If you feel overcome with evil. If you carry your demons, whatever they are, he says “come to me, my healing is for you.”
- If you are discouraged and are ready to quit. He says “Come to me. What faith you have is more than enough. In fact, it is great. Come to me.”
Understand the faith of this woman, and experience the love of the Messiah. It is for you.
Amen.
