Confronting Canaanites

Right after this conflict with the religious leaders, Jesus runs into a Canaanite woman whose child is demonized. The Canaanites were the worst of the worst according to Jewish history. It almost sounds like Jesus has the same Jewish prejudices and possibly racist attitudes as other Jews of his day in how he responds to this woman. This is an incredibly subversive story because this is the only time recorded in Scripture Jesus loses a debate.

          Jesus tells the woman in Matthew 15:21:24 that he had only come for the lost sheep of Israel. Here comes a very teachable moment for Jesus disciples since this was a common belief even among those who followed after him. This is like a play acted out powerfully to show that Israel is to be a blessing to the whole world and not just an exclusive club for the few.

          Now it gets even worse, Jesus it sounds like calls the woman an pejorative term, a Gentile “dog.” Dogs are not these cute cuddly pets we think of today but they were filthy scavengers in Jesus day. This insult by Jesus seems rude and so out of place for one who has shown so much compassion to other people but he won’t give it to this poor woman and oppressed child. Some may say Jesus is just following the standard beliefs of Jews of his days but when one examines closer the details and outcome of this conversation, it is more possible that Jesus is testing the woman and provoking her towards faith. What better example to destroy false prejudices and heal this woman’s child.

          The remarkable things about Jesus is not only does he commend this woman’s faith in her sly answer to him about even dogs eat the breadcrumbs from the table but Jesus highest praise repeatedly are to outsiders of Israel who show great faith, even Israel’s oppressors, a Roman soldier (Matthew 8:5-13).

        Mark 7:1-13 parallels Matthews story verysimilarly. How Jesus handles his opponents in Mark even gives some insights in how we might today handle our own critics of the faith. The religious leaders asked Jesus by what authority was he doing the things he was doing.? Jesus

said he would only answer their question if they answered his question.  They refused to answer Jesus question so he refused to answer theirs! (Mark 11:27-33).

        It amazes me that our conventional Christian wisdom of the day is so far from Jesus that we can call it "Christian" when it resembles so little of Jesus and the way he lived. We teach our kids to get a good education and fit well into society. In other words, we want our children to be successful. Jesus lived a whole counter cultural lifestyle but we tell our children we want them to fit neatly and safely into society. 

   

     We tell people who have doubts that doubts are bad, ignore them, hide them, and surely, don't talk about them. When John the Baptist doubted who Jesus was, Jesus still commended him for his faith (Matthew 11:1-11).  Doubt unchecked can lead people away from God but doubt explored and challenged can lead to greater faith in Christ.

        Jesus used humor, irony, satire in his teachings but for today's conventional wisdom, this is too impolite, mean-spirited, or just in bad taste. Jesus drank wine but Christians can not. Jesus hung out with all the wrong people and we are told using another Bible axiom, "bad company corrupts good morals." Worse, people we see as opponents to the Christian faith we neither respect nor show them our love but all they get is our contempt. Either they are to be pitied for being so foolish or they are simply a fool who has said in his heart there is no God (Psalm 14:1). Never mine that the fool says with his mouth he believes in God. Never mind that the larger context is about Israel's apostasy where they say one thing with their mouth and their lives tell a different story. This text better applied to the Christian who lives like there is no God rather than the atheist who defines oneself as against God or God's existence.

        Somehow in this world with all it duplicity and conceit, we are supposed to play its power and manipulation games over one another. The world says ‘come out and play’ and Christians are expected to play by the world's rules. Some of us are taking a more ancient path that is neither playing the game at all or changing the rules and then asking the world to play by Jesus kingdom playbook.

        The late Robert Webber in his book "The Younger Evangelicals" wisely told atheists he was not playing the apologetic philosophy game any more when it came to whose arguments are better and who is the smartest person in the room. Webber challenged atheists to play a new game. This game was not about ideas and arguments but stories. Let me tell you a story of God, Israel, Jesus, and the church and how that has shaped the world and you tell me how your story of atheism makes this world a better place?

        Webber comes off too much like Jesus so I am  surprised that it is not atheists but other academic Christian scholars who take Webber to task. "That is not fair or how the game is to be played!" Or as one academic Christian scholar said in an article that Webber is going into retreat and simply refuses to answer legitimate intellectual objections people have to belief. He rightly says that people will probably then not hear your story. But isn't this exactly the point and what happens to Jesus in his encounters? His critics did not want to listen to Jesus, they wanted to make him look bad. The religious leaders did not want to follow Jesus, they wanted to destroy him.

        In the end, how far does a Christian really think he is going to get with a person actually believes that Christianity is the real enemy to life and world peace? How far does the Christian have to go before he or she realizes one is dealing with some people who are not skeptical seekers but hostile antagonists.  How long does it take before Christians wake up to realize that our time may be better spent in quiet discipleship and spiritual disciplines that feeds the soul rather than loud debates and long drawn out arguments that are typically a waist of everyone’s time. 

        I certainly believe Christians have to give answers to questions of faith but sometimes a Christian may need to be more like Jesus and answer a question with a question. And if others refuse to answer our questions, rather than arguing with them, we may be doing them and ourselves a favor to refuse to enter into a whole debate that often makes God's people look bad.

         A very real difference between Christians and skeptics are Christians through the ages have read the Scripture as an icon, image, and full of Christ whereas the atheists and skeptics read it as logic, argument, and a flat one dimensional book. The sad reality is too many believers and unbelievers read the Bible this one dimensional way and then fight violently for the acceptance or rejection of this image of an angry Father who endorses every kind of violence imaginable.

Maybe the ghost that haunts some skeptics is the ghost of a higher love? Atheists who are quick to say they don't believe in God will just as quickly suggest they believe in love. I want to tear down the false idols and illusions of the Christian faith just as much as the atheists do on some issues.

I also want to point them to the real living God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and not the small god of the philosophers. I want them to see the glorious truly human-God man of Jesus stripped of all the confusions and modern human projections. I want the atheists to understand that the love they believe in is God because God is love (1 John 4:8).