Sheringham: St Peter

Jesus said, “…great is your faith.”

Matthew 15.28

The readings today are all about Faith, and about whose faith is acceptable, and about our own faith. What we learn is that the Kingdom of God is not a closed shop. The Kingdom of God is open to everyone. Nothing can stand in the way of anyone taking a place within the Kingdom of God.

Open access to the Kingdom of God was what Matthew had in mind as he recalled for the purpose of his Gospel the occasion when Jesus travelled out of the geographical area of the Jewish nation.

When we travel we can be certain we are going to bump into some foreigners. And so it was for Jesus. This foreign Mum with concerns for her daughter’s well-being saw her chance. Here was Jesus on her doorstep teaching Love for God and for neighbour, surely her concerns could be shared with him?

Matthew takes us through the progression, as the teaching developed.

The first response of Jesus was traditional. Positive discrimination; no contact; no reply. In those days, that was how the people of God treated outsiders. And notice how the disciples urged Jesus to send the woman away. Group think comes easily; being open to everyone is a very difficult concept to get ones head around. It takes great faith to put it into action.

The second response of Jesus was affirmation of the traditional: ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ In other words: I have enough on my plate trying to help my own people widen their horizons, without you making life difficult. We can imagine the disciples saying: hear, hear!!

The third response is a developing debate around who qualifies for God’s love. It is only when one gets to know a person that they cease to be an outsider. It is very difficult to maintain an exclusive position with someone you know. The debate started from the traditional position: ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’

But this was easily challenged with the retort… “…even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ The unsustainable position was quickly demolished. We can imagine the disciples were now in a tizz; here is Jesus engaging with an outsider – whatever next!

This leads to the fourth response of Jesus, an acceptance of what he sees as a declaration of faith made by the foreigner. He says: “Great is your faith.”

Isn’t that humbling. In order to share the benefits of the Kingdom the outsider is prepared to receive a few crumbs. For the disciples perhaps this represented the least damage – share a few crumbs, that’s possible – but no more, surely.

For St Matthew, if it was good enough for Jesus to share the crumbs of the Kingdom with a foreigner then it was good enough for him and the other disciples; it would be good enough for the community of believers for whom he was writing, and it should be good enough for us, his readers.

But why stop at crumbs? Elsewhere Jesus refers to God’s love in abundance, pressed down, and overflowing. Lets not begrudge people the experience of knowing the fullness of God’s love.

Being open to everyone is a very difficult concept to get ones head around. It takes great faith to put it into action. Through this encounter between Jesus and the foreigner, we are taught how to get our head around the concept of open access for all to the Kingdom of God.

In God’s Kingdom, the Christian Way is to be open, welcoming, and encouraging of everyone around us. We should not be urging God to send away people who come with a different approach to life. It is up to us to share our faith and not deny the faith of others.

What makes the practice of open access to the kingdom of God possible is the teaching of Jesus that there are only two rules:

Love God; love your neighbour.

Once we get our head around these two rules, the unconditional welcoming of people into the Kingdom of God and into church life follows seamlessly!

And notice that once we share life in the Kingdom of God with others, healing follows. The woman and her daughter found peace with God in the acceptance by Jesus of their faith.

It takes great faith to follow the teachings of Jesus. Lets pray that we may have courage to share the love of God unconditionally with all the people we meet.

The Revd Malcolm France

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