Matthew 15: 10-28. It can be surprising to learn how human societies organize themselves. We draw lines between the in-group and the outsiders. God knows this about us. The trouble comes when we go too far—when we decide certain people are “anomalies” to be pushed out, rather than neighbors to be loved. From the beginning, God wanted to correct this impulse. To Israel he said, in Ex. 12:49, “
There shall be one law for the native and for the alien residing among you.” God knew how quickly we would create laws for different people and decided to clear this up. History tells us that we have done this over and over again. Yet humans became creative at building walls. Let me tell you Angelique’s story. When the civil war broke out in Rwanda, she was caught in the violence, badly injured, and left unconscious. The Red Cross found her hours later, under a pile of dead bodies, and pulled her out. Society had decided she was the ‘anomaly’ to be eliminated. That same ‘in-group’ mentality is sadly found everywhere: in school playgrounds, churches, governments, and even animal herds that push out the weak. The Cape-buffalo herd is a great example of this.I came across a term: "Herd mentality bias": it describes this tendency to follow what most other people are doing or believing rather than make our own independent judgment. God is good at respecting our choices, even when we go far from God's boundary. Jesus described the Pharisees as “
blind guides of the blind… if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.” The Pharisees were busy doing in-group work, and went too far by deciding who was clean enough to belong. But that wasn’t God’s mission.
The debate that day was about one question: What defiles a person? Because if you have the right criteria, you can know who is in and who is out. But Jesus flips the script.
What defiles a person is not what goes into the body, but what comes out of the mouth. The real problem is the evil that flows from the heart: murder, false witness, slander, and more. We are to be careful because our words can accuse, condemn, and kill. Without God, every soul is sick. We see sickness and longing for healing in these three people: (1) Nicodemus,a religious leader in search for God who came at night to seek Christ (2) the Samaritan woman at the well, who was in a mess and found by Christ at noon while avoiding in-group people, and (3) the Canaanite woman from Tyre and Sidon—a foreigner, an outsider, an “anomaly” to in-group Israel. All of them met a God who cares for all creation. God cares for you no matters where you come from. God had been clear about this when He told Israelites in Isaiah 56:1-8: “
maintain justice, do what is right, and welcome those who love him, even if they are foreigners or outcasts.” The outcasts of Israel were never the anomaly to be discarded in the first place. They loved God and God loved them. Why would we want to go between God and his people? Yet, the Pharisees focused more on outward observance and missed God’s true goal: inner cleanliness through repentance. So, Jesus decided to travel north and met this Canaanite woman. I imagine her rushing toward him, shouting, “
Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon! Lord Help me!” The disciples said:
send her away… That sounds very proper from an in-group perspective! But listen: She calls him “
Son of David,” using a Jewish messianic title. She knows who Christ is!
Eventually Jesus stops and answers her, “
I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel,” and then, “
It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She replies with one of the greatest lines in the New Testament/ a great come back indeed: “
Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table!” Meaning:
God’s healing is never insignificant even when it comes in the form of a bread crumb! she knew God’s order/ priority to Israel was important, and yet she stood in her God-given dignity and boldly asked for her miracle. And she received it. Her daughter was healed. What a faith, from an “outsider!” A huge lesson to Israel as Christ praises a faith from a foreigner.
Today, we are invited to look beyond our small circle: Outsiders are closer to us than we think. Become generous hosts! Invite and welcome new guests, reflecting the God who gathers and heals outcasts. Amen!
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