“The Last Word in a Crumb”
Mark 7:24-30; James 5:13-20
A few weeks ago we heard this Gospel lesson in worship
But the
focus for the sermon was the James text
“Mercy
triumphs over judgment” James 2:13
Someone told me they were disappointed that I hadn’t
tackled
This
fascinating and disturbing story of the Gentile women
Who
seemingly outwits Jesus.
So I will let this Gospel lesson have
the last word
On our World Communion Sunday.
Have you ever wondered why we celebrate the most holy
and
Special
meal of the whole Christian faith
by eating a
tiny little crumb of bread?
It’s
not like the Bible isn’t filled with stories of
Wonderful
banquets in honor of God.
The Passover is an elaborate multi
course meal
Prepared each year to celebrate
the exodus;
The first thing Jesus does in the
Gospel of John is
To attend an elaborate
wedding feast with
His disciples as he
changes water into wine;
In all the Gospels, we hear the story
of the feeding
Of the five thousand with
their fill of bread and
Fish and enough
left over to fill 12 baskets;
Jesus tells several parables with
great feasts that
Point us to the
eschatological banquet.
So why do
you suppose that the most holy meal we share
As disciples of Jesus Christ is shared
with a crumb?
Perhaps today’s lesson
contains the answer.
Today’s lesson is a turning point of
Jesus ministry.
Up
until this point Jesus ministry in Mark was primarily
To
Jesus starts his ministry in his
hometown of
He
is baptized by his cousin John in the River
He
recruits his disciples by the
preaches in the
synagogue in
He
did have one brief trip to the Gerasa
Where
he stilled the storm and healed the demoniac,
But
then he returned home immediately to heal
The
daughter of the synagogue
President, Jairus,
And
to continue his teaching and preaching
In
the synagogue, and he even fed the 5000
Israelites
in the wilderness,
Reminiscent of Moses in the wilderness.
Today’s lesson is the beginning of a
journey beyond
It
begins with an argument with the Pharisees
About
whether his disciples should be allowed to eat
Without honoring all the Jewish dietary laws.
And
it continues with Jesus encounter with a Gentile,
A Syrophoenician women.
She
merely asked him to do the same thing
For
her daughter that he had done for Jairus’
Daughter- to heal her.
His response is curious because it
sounds so unlike Jesus,
“Let the children be fed first, for it is not
fair
To take the children’s food
and throw it to the dogs.”
This just doesn’t sound like the Jesus
who stopped
On
his way to heal Jairus’ daughter to heal
The
unclean women with a flow of blood;
It
just doesn’t sound like the Jesus who didn’t want to
Send
the crowd in the wilderness away but
Instead
instructed his disciples to feed them;
And
it doesn’t sound like the Jesus who just had
An
argument with the Pharisees saying that:
“It
is not what goes into your mouth
but what comes out that defiles a person.”
And yet I am not with the Jesus Seminar
people
Who
suggest that if it doesn’t sound like Jesus
We
can somehow discount or throw it out.
Instead,
I think that Jesus probably said this.
And if the saying is controversial
or different
Then we should consider the impact
Of
these words and what Jesus is really saying
And doing when he says them.
We know that he is starting his outreach
to the Gentiles
We
know that the Jewish people would discount this person
Because she is not only a Gentile but a woman.
And
so Jesus allows this Gentile women to become
The hero and the teacher in the story- that’s grace.
Jesus
says what the Jewish audience would have been thinking
“This
Messianic word is for Jewish ears only.
You,
a Gentile woman can hardly hope to understand”
But
Jesus also lets her get the last word:
“Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the
children’s crumb.”
And the last
word is a crumb.
A
tiny bit of the meal that is served to the chosen people
Falls
off the Eschatological banquet table
And
is gobbled up by the outsiders
And
that crumb is enough.
The daughter is healed, the demon is
left, the women is saved.
And the
was only for the children of Abraham is now seen
As
a kingdom that embraces the whole world.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his
only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal
life. God sent the son into the world,
not to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him.” John 3:16
Here in the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 7
verse 24
is the seed
which will ultimately grow into World Communion.
The official start of World Communion was
70 years ago
In 1936 when
the Presbyterian Church came up with
This idea as a way
to celebrate the
Christian
faith and mission work
Around the world.
The idea spread in 1940 to the World
Council of Churches
And has been adapted by many
denominations
So that it is a
truly ecumenical effort today.
But I think that the real start of World
Communion Sunday was
Nearly 2000
years ago, when Jesus used this encounter with the
Syrophoenician
women, a Gentile, to teach his disciples
That his mission was not just
to one group of people
But to the whole
world and that we can all
Learn from
each other if we actually listen,
If we are willing
to say “I’m wrong, your right.”
When we can listen to each and really
hear each other then
the demons disappear,
children are healed
we get a
little closer to the banquet table of God
And Christ has the last word.
Without that word of Christ
we would not be at the communion table today
for none of us are
Jews, we are all Gentiles.
And perhaps that is why we take
communion,
The
most holy of Christian meals,
As a little
tiny crumb of bread.
To remind us
that we are all under the Lord’s table
Looking for
the crumbs that fall off,
And that crumb is enough to heal us,
to save us,
To bring the
kingdom a little closer
And to make the
demons disappear.
Jesus has the last word and that word is
a crumb of bread,
The
very Body of Christ fallen from the banquet table of God
To earth, to feed us for the work of the Kingdom. Amen