Happy Ramadan, Syria, Matthew 15 -- Clean/Unclean Hearts; Woman of Great Faith

First things first: Happy Ramadan to all my sweet Muslim friends!  I hope you have a joyful month and that God blesses you by guiding you closer to Himself!

Secondly, I8 months ago right now, Andrew and I were on that loooooooong flight from Istanbul to Chicago after having not slept all night and leaving Damascus in the wee morning hours.  Some days it seems like our trip to Syria was only a dream! Did we really walk where Paul did? Did we really visit the ruins of a Crusader castle and see the shrine to John the Baptist in the Umayyad mosque? But then I look at all my pictures and see myself there and realize it did happen! Seems like a lifetime ago though. I miss it.

So yesterday I talked a bit about tradition and today I'll continue with what Jesus said about washing your hands before eating.  From Matthew 15,

 ¹⁰Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. ¹¹What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.' "

 ¹²Then the disciples came to him and asked, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?"

 ¹³He replied, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. ¹⁴Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit."

 ¹⁵Peter said, "Explain the parable to us."

 ¹⁶"Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them. ¹⁷"Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? ¹⁸But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' ¹⁹For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. ²⁰These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.' "

I think that's understandable enough.  What we say and do reveals the inner man or woman.  It reveals whether we have a pure heart or whether our hearts are vile. This is also a warning to make sure we don't have blind guides, huh? 

²¹Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. ²²A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession."

 ²³Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us."

 ²⁴He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."

 ²⁵The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said.

 ²⁶He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."

 ²⁷"Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."

 ²⁸Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

Amber and I recently talked a bit about this on her blog.  In my comment I discussed why Jesus called her a dog.  I'll just repost most of it here.

I remember reading about this in Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes. The author wondered if Jesus were also teaching his disciples at the same time. Notice they wanted to send her away. Yes, Jesus was ignoring her, but they likely were irritated with her

1. She wasn't Jewish
2. She was a woman
3. She was yelling

The author of JTMEE reminded me of how sometimes when our racism is pointed out...like thrown back into our faces and "said out loud" (like Jesus was speaking of her people as dogs) then it has more of a shock value. It's one thing to have buried racism - thinking that blacks aren't as great as whites or calling blacks "monkeys", but when it's said out loud BY A HOLY MAN it seems much more shocking to realize "wow, I think this way?" *blush, blush*

So I don't know if that is part of it or not, but that book was helpful to me in explaining this.


I like that she recognized Jesus as someone who could help her...and persisted with faith. What a lesson.

What's also interesting to me is that Jesus commended her for her great faith.  I read that only twice is it recorded that Jesus said this and both times he said it to non-Jewish people who recognized that he was able to heal as they requested. The other was a Roman centurion. This story shows me that Jesus' mercy extends to all people. He didn't stay only in Jewish towns, but traveled places where Gentiles would be and he graciously met their needs - physical and spiritual ones (such as the woman at the well.)

 ²⁹Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. ³⁰Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. ³¹The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.

Jesus recognized these people needed to eat so, moved by his compassion, he again fed them miraculously by making a few fish and loaves of bread into a meal for more than four thousand.