Learning from Jesus’ Xenophobic Moment
- Shea Watts Writer, Speaker, Activist, soon-to-be PhD student
In our current political climate,
simply mentioning immigration or the refugee crisis can end in heated
conversation with lasting scrutiny and disdain. Family dinner tables host
horrific debates and families turn against each other: siblings against parents
against siblings against cousins against those closest to us.
For those of us that are religious,
we look to our sacred texts in hopes that we might find the wisdom to deal with
the issues honorably and appropriately. While there are certainly religious
folks on all sides of the arguments, there is a passage in the gospels that I
find appropriate in what is one of the most widely interpreted - and often
avoided - passages in the Jesus story.
In this story, Jesus is in the area
of Tyre, which was home to mostly Gentiles (non-Jews) and encounters a
Syrophoenician woman (Mark 7:24-29; CEB). We should not be surprised that Jesus
meets a Gentile woman in a Gentile area. What we should notice, however, that
Jesus is trying to hide, though unsuccessfully: “He didn’t want anyone to know
that he had entered a house, but he couldn’t hide” (v. 24). He did not go to
Tyre on mission. Instead, he was seeking to escape all the chaos (i.e. the
crowds that were following him). Knowing that, we might understand the cause
for his ornery attitude.
But are we really willing to give
Jesus a “pass” for his degrading comments to the lady?
When the lady “came and fell at his
feet” and “begged” Jesus to heal her possessed daughter, he responded, “The
children have to be fed first. It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and
toss it to the dogs.” Wow. Really, Jesus? Who are the children? The Jews? Is
not calling an immigrant a “dog” xenophobic?
Yes, the gospel of Mark makes clear
that Jesus’ message is to the Jew, first, then the Gentile. Yes, the Gentiles
have, until this point in Jewish tradition, been labeled as “unclean.” So what
is happening here? Why has this messianic figure spoken so harshly to a woman
in need? If this were a Jewish woman, would she have to beg and insist like
this?
Context helps further explore some
of these questions.
Right before the story of the
Syrophoenician woman is a story about the disciples eating food with unclean
hands. This was an obvious violation of the Law, thus the Pharisees and legal
experts asked Jesus, “Why are your disciples not living according to the rules
handed down by the elders but instead eat food with ritually unclean hands?”
(v. 5) Jesus responds that it is from within that someone is unclean or
contaminated. In other words, it is the heart and the sins that come from it
that make one unclean: “All these evil things come from the inside and
contaminate a person in God’s sight” (v. 23).
That gives us a little background
for the story, but fails to answer why Jesus responds to the woman the way he
does. After Jesus’ comments likening her to a dog, the woman’s insistent,
humble response surprises Jesus, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the
children’s crumbs” (v. 28). Jesus then responds, “Good answer!” he said. “Go on
home. The demon has already left your daughter” (v. 29). Amazingly, the woman
uses Jesus’ own argument as a way to trap or trick him into healing her
daughter.
And with that, the story ends.
This leaves us, the readers, with
some hard choices to make. We have a few options: 1) Jesus makes a xenophobic
comment but is impressed by the persistence of this woman; 2) Jesus learns that
he was mistaken about the woman and this shows us how his mission is expanding
beyond the Jewish territory and mindset. There are, of course, many that try to
dilute this comment by adding some type of metaphorical or allegorical element
to suggest that Jesus was justified in calling this woman a dog.
I reject these attempts to
sterilize this story because I believe it carries a very important message for
us today: we can learn some things from Jesus’ xenophobic comment.
Notice that Jesus makes a statement
about the woman, but once he listens to her, he learns about her and his
experience with her changes his mind. It is so easy to “other” those that are
different than us - whether that be Syrian refugees, or those coming to America
from Mexico - but how much time do we spend talking to them? How much time do
we spend seeking to understand where they are coming from and the loss or grief
or sadness that they have experienced? Have we heard their stories? Are we even
open to listening?
Jesus’ xenophobic comments
highlight his humanity. He was, after all, a man. He sweated and bled and
cried. He spent his time and effort walking around to spread his message and
recruit for his mission. And, from time to time, he got grumpy and sought to
escape the crowds that followed. In this story, he let the pressures of his
everyday life lead him to a moment that he learned from: he is initially wrong,
but corrects his mistake.
If Jesus can learn from his own
xenophobia, it is time that we learn from his, first, and then hopefully learn
from our own. Perhaps that is the point, after all?
Follow Shea Watts on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sheawatts
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