Kyrie eleison, Lord have mercy
Kyrie eleison (Greek for Lord have mercy)
Hate steers vehicles down crowded streets in Charlottesville … Barcelona.
Leaders of nations rattling sabers, making ultimatums, … across the ocean … threats with unfathomable consequences for all.
Angry words, disrespect, fear, silences guests to our community. Hardened hearts, unwilling or unable to hear the experiences of people helping the alien and stranger escape hate and violence from other countries.
On the lips of a foreigner, a Gentile, a woman, a mother desperate to help her child be free … joins the cries for mercy from the Gospel of Matthew 15:21-28.
Instead of compassion, Jesus’ response reveals a side we don’t want to imagine. First, silence. Next, dismissive. Then, downright disrespectful. If Jesus treated others this way, what hope is there for us?
Kyrie eleison.
This unnamed mother from scripture, hears Jesus is passing through town. She spots him and shouts out, “Kyrie eleison! Please, my daughter needs your help!”
Many pray this prayer. Nothing more powerful than a parent desperate to help their child. Nothing worse than feeling powerless to make things better. So, we pray. Kyrie eleison
Jesus keeps walking. Doesn’t even turn his head. And Jesus’ silence, the disciples take as agreement. The pagan woman is a problem, a typical dog (a derogatory word used for anyone not chosen by God). Not the disciples’ concern.
So, they go to Jesus. Can’t you hear all the commotion? Come on! Get rid of her! We don’t want her kind here.
Worse than the silence, Jesus turns to her dismissively, “I am only here for the lost ones among my people, the Israelites.”
Does Jesus really mean this? Because, if he does, … it sounds pretty prejudiced. Maybe, we can explain Jesus’ silence; he was lost in thought. But, this?
Undeterred, the mother falls to her knees before him. She begs the only one she knows who can make her daughter’s life better. “Lord, help me!”
A brave act. Risky. Yet, she will not be stopped by the cultural boundaries, the silence, the prejudice, the injustice and barriers raised to get her to quit. Then, the last blow. Jesus says, “My Good News cannot be wasted on dogs like you, when I have children of Israel to feed.”
How can Jesus say that? After just feeding the five thousand, did he really say there isn’t enough to go around? Did he really call her a dog? Dehumanize her, so he can justify his refusal to help?
Some deal with the discomfort of this story by explaining it away. Jesus isn’t really prejudiced, he’s just testing to see how faithful she is. This doesn’t help. It implies Jesus is playing with a mother at her most desperate moment. Just picture arguing on the phone over an insurance claim, when all you want is to be caring for yourself or your ill loved one.
Others try to explain Jesus’ actions as an attempt to hold a mirror up to what the disciples are truly thinking. Jesus is trying to break through the disciples’ prejudice, what their tradition has taught them, their tendency to judge what is on the outside, rather than what comes from the heart. But, when they hear their thoughts spoken out loud, esp. out of Jesus’ mouth, maybe they’ll realize their actions do not reflect the grace of God.
The woman exposes all of this with her word … her feisty comeback, “Even dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” (U2 wrote a song based on this verse.)
Whether these words wake Jesus up to a part of his ministry he did not know. Or cracked through his or his disciples’ prejudice. Or helped Jesus remember his own genealogy connected to three Gentile women: Rahab, Tamar, and Ruth. Ultimately, what this encounter reveals is the wideness of God’s mercy. And, the power of this to bring healing and a deep hope, which will not turn back, … until it at least receives crumbs from its master’s table.
As children of God, saved by the grace of Christ Jesus, we cannot respond to the pleas for help: the dehumanizing of human beings created in the image of God, the disregard for creation, and the hatred spewed by our neighbors with silence, anymore. We cannot justify why the rights of others are not our problem. While the Canaanite woman persisted, too many others in our own community, nation and world go unheard or ignored.
Jesus calls us to speak into all places and times with the mercy and love of God. “Not returning evil for evil, but daily seeking to do what is right for one another and for all” (1 Thess 5:15 and Romans 12:17).
Lori Morton is pastor of First Lutheran Church in Sandpoint. She can be reached at 526 S. Olive Ave., or 208-263-2048.