I recently saw and shared a Christian spoken word performance by artist Jackie Hill Perry. In the Bible-centered performance, the born-again Christian uses an ugly racial slur---- repeatedly. That made me think about Jesus.
In
Matthew chapter 15, Jesus used a racial slur. My Savior uttered an ugly ethnic epithet, and I couldn’t understand why.
Mark 7 confirms the same incident.
It happened in the region around Tyre and Sidon.
Jesus’
people had gotten on His last nerve. The
Jews in Galiliee, the Hellenized people in Decapolis on the far side of the Sea
of Galilee, the Jewish Pharisees and the Sadducees: they had all doubted Him, while demanding signs and blessings. They'd misconstrued His mission, and asked Him dumb questions. (Yes. There is such a thing.) Even His disciples seemed infected with the
spirit of stupid.
The
disciples had tried to get Jesus to modify His message to more politically
palatable language.
Then
His disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were
offended when they heard this saying?” (Matthew 15: 12)
Despite Jesus’ constant tutoring and personal
example, the Twelve held onto the same mentalities and mental blocks everybody else
in their culture seemed to have; until Jesus asked Peter and them, “Are ya’ll
stupid, too?”(Mark
7: 18, Anderson’s paraphrase)
Jesus needed a break and the disciples needed some
serious retraining. So, Jesus went out from there and departed to the region
of Tyre and Sidon. (Matthew 15:21)
Tyre
and Sidon are pagan cities on the Mediterranean coast, just northwest of
Israeli territory. Mark 7: 24 says that He entered a
house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.
A
Canaanite woman native to that pagan area heard Jesus was hiding out in town. She found out where He was staying, fell at his feet and cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son
of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.” (Matthew 15: 22)
Jesus
ignored her,and the disciples, who were
probably irritated that she had interrupted their leadership retreat,
urged Jesus to get rid of this doggone lady because she was getting on
their nerves. (Matthew 15:23)
And that’s when Jesus used some very “non-inclusive language.”
And that’s when Jesus used some very “non-inclusive language.”
But He answered and said, “I
was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew 15: 24)
So
if Jesus ONLY came for Israel, that means that He’s not going to even talk to
this non-Jewish woman, right? And
then, as if there had been any doubt about Jesus’ attitude toward her and
people like her, Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it
is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little
dogs.” (Mark 7:27)
The
D-word was the 1st century Jewish equivalent of the N-word. It was a slur Jews used for Gentiles and other non-Jewish peoples.
In contemporary language, Jesus said,
“I help My people before I help niggas.”
To
which the mother of the spiritually and mentally oppressed child replied,
“Whatever I am, Jesus, only You can help me!”
And she answered and said to
Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the
children’s crumbs.” (Mark 7: 28)
And
now I’m confused.
Because
I want to say that the ugly word Jesus used wasn’t as ugly as it sounded. I want to say he meant it as a term of
endearment, you know the way ya’ll say it to each it other. But that’s garbage. It didn’t work that way then and it doesn’t
work that way now.
That’s
the interpretation we want so we can feel better about the times our hate
overflows our hearts and spills over the edge of our lips.
Peter
didn’t profess the inclusion of Gentiles in the gospel by saying, “Can anyone
forbid water, that these dogs should
not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” (Acts 10:47)
The
word Jesus used WAS a racial epithet.
You know a tree by its fruit. As
Jesus Himself had said to the disciples before taking this retreat to Typre and
Sidon, “It’s what comes out that defiles”(Mark
7: 18-23)
In
light of this word, what fruit had Jesus produced toward non-Jews?
In
the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus held up non-Jews as the epitome of
godly grace and mercy.
To
minister to the woman at the well, Jesus deliberately went into non-Jewish
Samaria to and developed rapport with the most troubled in those neighborhoods.
Jesus
spent time in the Hellenised Decapolis
healing the sick and casting out demons.
Jesus
healed the servant of a Roman centurion and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, I
have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” (Matthew 8: 10)
Alongside
all the times Jesus rebuked the Jews and their leaders, Jesus said that many
Gentiles and non-Jews would join Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of
heaven while many Jews, aka “sons of the kingdom,” would be left out. (Matthew
8: 11, 12)
But that’s not hate.
That’s not discrimination. That’s
not what you expect from a Jewish rabbi who used that Word.
Maybe Jesus was selectively hateful. He just didn’t like the Tyre and Sidon folks. Some people love and accept everybody----
except “those people.” It’s time to be
honest about how Jesus treated “those people” in Tyre and Sidon.
When people from Tyre a Sidon came to Jesus in Luke 6:17, 18, Jesus healed their diseases and cast out their demons.
When
Jesus was around Jews like Himself and He talked about those people, Jesus said
that if those people in Tyre and Sidon
had been given equal opportunity to witness His works, the Tyre and Sidonese
would have done a 100% better than the Jews.
Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to
you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in
Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
But I say to you, it will be
more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. (Matthew 11: 20-22)
All of that is clearly evidence that Jesus DIDN’T HATE non-Jews. Jesus wasn’t racist. Jesus saw, loved, healed, delivered, and applauded genuine faith to all people, ethnicities, nationalities, genders, and background.
And, after using the D-word in His conversation with the
Canaanite woman, Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your
faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that
very hour! (Matthew 15:28)
That’s not crumbs.
That’s healing. That’s not a leftovers that accidentally fall off the table.That’s a big, warm, fluffy oversized loaf of demon-casting-out
deliverance.
Jesus said that it wasn’t right to give THE CHILDREN’S bread
to the D-words. And Jesus always did what was right.
Tyre, Sidon, Samaria, Decapolis on the far side of the Sea
of Galiliee and some of the other places
where Jesus travelled and ministered where not considered part of Jewish
territory. Some had long been in the hands
of other nations. Some had broken away
from the unified Jewish state under David and Solomon. Some regions like Tyre and Sidon were never
conquered during the Israelite invasion of Palestine way back under Joshua.
But, all of those lands,
including Tyre and Sidon were inside the boundaries of Israel that God had
marked for His people Israel. (Genesis
49:13; Joshua
13: 6; Joshua 19: 24-29).
The ethnic majority Jews didn’t
think so. The ethnic minority Gentiles
didn’t think so. The ethnicity of political
power, the Romans, didn’t think so; but as far as God was concerned, they were
all Israel!
All of them were His
children!
That’s why Jesus healed the
Canaanite woman’s daughter. She wasn’t a
dog. She was a child of God.
Jesus confronted her with the
word they called her. Jesus used the
word they called themselves (Don’t think that’s something Black people just
made up in America.) Jesus used that
ugly racial epithet and his beautiful Divine power in the same conversation so that
she, and the watching disciples, and you and I would understand.
Despite what they call you, despite what we call ourselves, you’re not a dog, you’re not a nigger, or a nigga, you’re not a whatever the current epithet is.
You are a child of God.
Don’t let history or current
event convince you otherwise. Take your
seat at your Father’s table.
And enjoy.
Here is the spoken word performance that inspired this post.
Here is the spoken word performance that inspired this post.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is
pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama; executive director
of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO); and director of rural leadership development
for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
You can help support Rev.
Graves’ work by visiting his personal
blog and clicking the DONATE
button on the right-hand sidebar.
Support by check or money
order may be mailed to
Miles Chapel CME Church
P O Box 132
Fairfield, Al 35064
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