Is Jesus a sexist, or does he have some remarkable view about women?
“Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.”
In this passage - Jesus talks about unclean and clean foods - but the significance of this is easy to miss. And I want to show you how Jesus is, in fact, talking about prejudice.
Is Jesus being rude here?
At first reading, this story can seem a bit troubling or embarrassing because Jesus looks standoffish, racist and rude. Is he actually calling this woman a dog? Let’s look at it closer and see.
An important part of this passage is that the woman and Jesus are not the only ones present. The UK, and many other nations, are quite individualistic societies - it’s seen as a good thing for people to make their own choices about where they live and what they do without having to get anyone else’s approval or input, but in the bible (and in many other cultures around the world and even communities within the UK) people lived very much as part of a community and the community has to be taken into account when reading the passage. The community in this passage are the disciples who are with Jesus when the woman arrives. Jesus is not just dealing with the woman but also with the disciples.
The woman in effect asks Jesus for help three times and Jesus gives a different response each time so we’re going to look at the requests for help and at Jesus’s responses.
The first request
The woman begins with the cry of a beggar, ‘Have mercy on me’. She uses the title ‘Lord’ and adds the Jewish Messianic title, ‘Son of David’ which implies she had some contact with Judaism.
She reached out to Jesus across two barriers.
Firstly, she is a woman and Jesus is a man. Men and women did not talk to strangers across the gender barrier. Some rabbis didn’t even talk to female members of their own families in public.
Secondly, she is a Gentile and Jesus is a Jew. A Gentile just means a non-Jew.
So what was Jesus’s response?
He ignored her. Why? Is he indifferent? Is he rejecting her? Isn’t he meant to be all about love? How would you have felt? Would you have given up? Would you have, ‘Oh well, I tried.’ Would you have been angry? Would you have thought, ‘Who do you think you are? My daughter deserves to be healed. I deserve for her to be healed. I’m a good moral person. I fight for good causes. God owes me’.
As I said before Jesus isn’t just dealing with the woman but also with the disciples. He’s giving the woman a test and teaching the disciples at the same time. A test is not a putdown.
In fact, if you’re at school or Uni, and you take a test, or you do a course for your work and you pass a difficult test at the end, you actually get a sense of achievement and honour when you pass. Taking a test isn’t pleasant but getting a good result in a test is very satisfying.
A few years ago I did a TESOL course that is a course so that I could teach non-English speakers to speak English. At the start of the course, I hoped that I’d get a distinction. After a few days and finding it quite intense I decided I’d be happy with a pass. After a few more days I thought I would be glad to get through the course even if I didn’t pass. After a few more days I was just focusing on getting through the day. So when I got to the end of the course and I actually passed I was really pleased and had a sense of achievement.
The test that Jesus gives her has three parts which correspond to her three appeals for help of which this is the first. Here, Jesus pretends indifference.
Self-respecting Rabbi’s did not talk to women.
God's view of women v's the (then) Jewish view of Women
In the beginning, God intended men and women to be equal. In Genesis, we see that Adam and Eve are both created in God’s image. Together they give a more full reflection of God. They were also told to rule over the world together. It says that Eve was created as a helper for Adam.
We tend to think of the word helper as meaning someone who can’t really do much so they just do a little bit while someone else does the real, skilled work. But, the word used for helper to describe Eve in Genesis is the same word used to describe the help God gives to us. Genesis implies that Adam has strengths but he also has areas of need and that Eve was created as someone capable who could help him.
Over time this understanding of the value God placed on women had become warped. About two hundred years before Jesus, a Jewish scholar called Ben Sirach wrote, ‘A man’s spite is preferable to a woman’s kindness: women give rise to shame and reproach (Sir 42:14).
He did write some positive things about women but not many.
In the Easter service, we learnt that a woman’s testimony didn’t count making it quite shocking that God chose women to be the first ones to testify about Jesus resurrection.
Rabi Levi Ben Gershon said this about women, ‘She has no more qualities than animals if she even has a brain.’
Another writing said, ‘Woe to him whose children are female.’
Another rabbi considered it permissible to starve a woman until she did what her husband commanded.
So there were some extremely negative views towards women available to Jesus, and I’ve not even mentioned Roman’s view of women. The Romans were the occupying nation at the time.
So, when Jesus didn’t respond to the woman’s cry for help, he was probably seen by the disciples to be acting in an appropriate way. That is, by ignoring the woman’s desperate pleas for help it looks like he’s endorsing that view of women. So their response then is “Send her away for she keeps crying after us.’ They assume that Jesus has no time for her but they are mistaken.
In John 4 v 27 the disciples return to Jacob’s well to find Jesus talking to a Samaritan woman and say to him, “What do you wish?” In other words, do you want us to get rid of her?
“At that moment the disciples returned and were stunned to see Jesus speaking with the Samaritan woman. Yet none of them dared to ask him why or what they were discussing.”
Jesus challenges their attitude toward women
In last week's message we looked at the subject of prejudice including racism, This week builds on that. It touches on the subjects of racism and sexism. I think that Jesus doesn’t actually approve of his disciple's attitudes towards women and Gentiles and that he’s actually impressed by the woman’s love for her daughter and her confidence in him.
He decides to use the situation to help her and to challenge the disciples' prejudices in their hearts. In the process, he gives the woman a chance to show the depth of her courage and faith. Jesus' teaching method is subtle and powerful. He doesn’t lecture them, in fact, he appears to agree with them.
He seems to be saying: I’ll just keep ignoring her and hopefully she’ll go away. I’m a self-respecting Rabbi. I do not talk to women - especially Gentile women. If she doesn’t go away I’ll just tell her I’m only here for Israel then she’ll go.
He was exposing the prejudices in the disciple's hearts. To the disciples Jesus was communicating, ‘Of course, I want to get rid of her. I have no time for such female Gentile trash.
To the woman he was communicating, ‘You are a Canaanite and a woman. I am a Jew. I’m here for the Jewish people. Why should I help a Gentile like you?
So why didn’t she just give up and go? I don’t think she thought Jesus really meant it.
She passed the first test.
The Second Request
Now we’re onto the second part of her test. Was her love for her child so deep and her confidence in Jesus so strong that she would continue with her request despite the resistance?
“The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.””
This time she leaves out the titles and just cries out from her heart, ‘Lord, help me.” As a mum, when your kids are suffering and you can’t do anything about it, that’s hard.
Our son Zak was ill for years from when he was about 5 or 6. There were times where the teacher would call me into school to pick him up because he was in so much pain. I would arrive at school to find him hardly able to walk because of the pain he was in. There was a time when I gave up looking for a solution because we had been to so many doctors and no-one seemed to know what was wrong. It was the encouragement of friends that helped me keep going.
Eventually, quite by accident (or was it the answer to years of praying) that we discovered that he was gluten-intolerant and once he stopped eating gluten all his symptoms disappeared.
But back to the story, would Jesus still ignore the woman? Would he help her now?
Not just yet. First, he expresses the disciples' thoughts. The language Jesus uses is very strong. In the UK, if you call someone a dog it’s not exactly a compliment but in Middle Eastern traditional culture dogs are almost a despised as pigs. Dogs were never pets. They were kept as half-wild guard dogs or left to wander unattended as dangerous street scavengers who ate rubbish.
Ignoring a beggar is one thing but to insult her with such language is another. But the harsh language carries a touch of gentleness. Jesus word Jesus uses for dogs means little dogs, not fully grown, vicious guard dogs. The reference to dogs is really for the disciples. Jesus is saying, “I know you think Gentiles are dogs and you want to treat them like they are.” Gentiles were seen as dogs because they were considered immoral.
So how will the woman respond? Will she reply with an insult or will she keep pushing Jesus to help her? What would you do if you were in her?
The Third Request
““Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.”
She passes the test with flying colours. She accepts the insult and asks again with a little touch of humour.
Tim Keller in his book on the gospel of Mark says:
Isn’t this amazing? She doesn’t take offence; she doesn’t stand on her rights. She says, “All right. I may not have a place at the table–but there’s more than enough on that table for everyone in the world, and I need mine now.” She is wrestling with Jesus in the most respectful way and she will not take no for an answer. I love what this woman is doing.
In Western cultures, we don’t have anything like this kind of assertiveness. We only have an assertion of our rights. We do not know how to contend unless we’re standing up for our rights, standing on our own dignity and our goodness and saying, “This is what I’m owed.” But this woman is not doing that at all. This is rightless assertiveness, something we know little about. She’s not saying, “Lord, give me what I deserve on the basis of my goodness.” She’s saying, “Give me what I don’t deserve on the basis of your goodness–and I need it now.”
You know, it was always God’s intention to bless all nations not just the Jews. In the book of Genesis, we see a man called Abraham who is considered to be the father of the Jewish nation. God says that Abraham will become a great nation and that through him all the nations on the earth will be blessed. We see this God sending Jesus though the Jewish nation to die for all nations, to pay for all the bad things we have done so that we could all have a relationship with God, not because of our goodness but because of His goodness.
So what does this all mean for us?
Firstly, if you don’t know God you can know him through Jesus. He loves you no matter what gender or nationality you are and wants a relationship with you. All you have to do is turn away from living life your own way and ask Him to come into your life. If you want to know more about this we’re running an Alpha course on Fridays at 7.30 pm. The Alpha course looks at what we believe as Christians but is a chance for you to give your opinion and ask questions. Do join us.
Secondly, for those of us who are girls or women we need to know that we are created in God’s image, that we were created as equal to men. That we are valued and capable. Women in Jesus’ time were not thought of well by society and in many ways that haven’t changed. Around the world, many women are being treated really badly, just because of their gender. In some places, women are considered the property of their father first and then of their husband when they get married. They can’t make their own decisions. Women are blamed when men do bad things. In the UK women may have it better than in many places but we’re not without our own issues. It’s not that long ago that it came to light that women have been paid less than men for doing the same job, and then there was the whole Me Too movement to name just a couple of issues.
Thirdly, If you’re not a girl or woman think about your attitude towards us. Do you write us off or are you doing what you can to respect and encourage the women in your life to be all that God has created them to be? Do you accept help and input for women?
Following on from last week, do you look down on certain nationalities or do you want to bless them?
Questions
What would have happened if the woman had not persisted in asking Jesus to heal her daughter?
How can you encourage and support the women in your life to be all that God has created them to be?
Do you expect God to do things for you because you’ve been good? Or do you ask him for help because you know that He is good?
Does anyone want us to pray for healing for them?