Sermon for Proper 15, Year A

Matthew 15:10–20, 21–28

Dearly beloved kindred in Christ:
Don’t be stupid. Amen.

Okay, I should probably unpack that a little bit before I sit down. When I say, “don’t be stupid,” I’m not talking about a lack of intelligence or knowledge. That’s ignorance. And the fact is that every single one of us is ignorant about something (or many things).

Stupidity is not a lack of information.

Learning is hard work, but there comes a point when it takes more work to not learn something than it would take to just go ahead and learn.

And when we reach that point, we have become committed to our ignorance. And it’s that commitment to ignorance that I define as “stupidity.”

Therefore, stupidity is not an intelligence problem at all. It’s a moral problem.

Stupidity is a sin in the eyes of God.

I bring this up because today’s gospel contains a story where Jesus refuses to be stupid.

The scene begins with him traveling to the region of Tyre and Sidon. This is Gentile territory, not Jewish. A bunch of pagans running around with different culture, and different customs. Things that Jesus and his disciples were probably not familiar with on a day-to-day basis.

While they’re traveling through this area, a very impertinent woman comes and starts shouting after them. “Jesus, Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

And at first, Jesus is just ignoring her, not responding at all, until his disciples get annoyed.

“Jesus, can you send her away or something? She’s really getting annoying.”

Jesus says, “Listen, ma’am, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Does she listen? No. She stays on him, blocks his path, kneels in front of him, and says, “Lord, help me.”

Jesus says something really rude at this point. He says, “It is not fair to take children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

He’s calling this woman a dog. We have a word for that in English. I’m not going to repeat it, but you know what it is. It’s really uncomfortable to imagine Jesus talking to someone in that way, especially someone who’s just a mother seeking help for her child! So what if she’s from a different culture?

But still, this woman doesn’t give up. She says to him, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs receive the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

Jesus is taken aback.

“Woman,” he says, “great is your faith.”

And let’s not gloss over that moment. Remember that Jesus, a faithful Jew, the central figure of the Christian religion, is talking to a pagan and saying, “You’ve got a lot of faith.”

That’s the way Jesus interacts with people of different religious beliefs.

What we see happening here is Jesus changing his mind.

That also might make us uncomfortable.

We have this idea that Jesus is perfect, he’s the sinless son of God, and things that are perfect don’t change. So why would Jesus change his mind? Unless… changing is part of his perfection.

Jesus here is refusing to be stupid. He’s willing to change his mind when love demands it.

In the beginning, it seems like he really thought his whole movement was just for Jews only. But then, as a result of this encounter, Jesus changes his mind.

In Luke’s Gospel, it says that Jesus “increased in wisdom.”
In the letter to the Hebrews, it says that Jesus as the son of God “learned obedience.”

Jesus learns.
Jesus grows.
This makes sense because Jesus was fully human.
And human beings grow.

If that’s true for Jesus, then it can be true for us too.

I think of the people who I tend to write off because they disagree with me, or because I think they don’t know as much as me about something.

Sometimes I get a big ego about it.
I want to write them off, and in that moment, Jesus comes to me and warns me about the sin of stupidity.

The sin of stupidity is not about being wrong. It’s about being so convinced that I am right, that I am not willing to consider any other perspectives, or change my mind, no matter what truth or love demands of me.

That’s the sin that Jesus avoided and gave us an example for how to avoid.

Here in today’s gospel, the incarnate Son of God is willing to be challenged. He’s humble enough to consider someone else’s situation and change his mind when he’s presented with new information.

Jesus refuses to be stupid.
Our invitation is to do likewise.

As we go into this week, encountering people who may differ from us or disagree with us, let’s remember how Jesus acted with someone who disagreed with him:

Let’s keep an open mind.
Let’s be like Jesus.

And most of all,
Let’s not be stupid.