Jesus Was a Racist

There was a time in my life where I loved Jesus. I believed he was the best, most divine person ever to walk the earth. I believed he is 100% God and 100% man. So, the way I read the scripture was based on this belief. Every word that I read was through the lens of "Jesus is perfect. He is perfect love in action." Therefore, he can do nothing wrong. 

Now, when I read the Bible. I read it through the lens of curiosity. What can I learn now that I would not have let myself learn then? I take the stories at face value, at their true value (within the context of the ancient time period and the rest of scripture). 

Let's read a story together with fresh eyes. 

Matthew 15:21-28 NIV 

Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

Let's break this down. 

Jesus and his disciples travel into Gentile territory. While they are in this place that is foreign to them, a woman comes up and talks to them. Her daughter is suffering from an unknown illness and she has heard that a miracle worker has come into town. 

When she addresses him, she does so with upmost respect. She calls him Lord and recognizes him as having a royal lineage, saying that he is the son of the King David of Israel. She doesn't demand his time or healing as if she deserves it. But she says in spite of her sin, she asks him to have mercy and heal her daughter. She tries to invoke his empathy letting him know how her daughter is suffering. 

Jesus ignores her. The God of the universe is here on earth at that time. And even then, the woman standing in front of his face cannot get a reply to her prayer.

I guess she isn't worth his time or response. He has no reaction to her reaching out for empathy. He does not offer her even a "no" in reply. Who is she to him? A nobody. That's who.

When Jesus' disciples see that he is not helping her or responding to her, they tell him to do something decisive and just send her away "for she keeps crying out after us." It seems that it has gotten to the point that Jesus has ignored her for such a long period of time with her following and imploring for help for her daughter that the disciples are getting annoyed. They don't have a problem with Jesus not helping her. They don't think anything of it. 

The disciples don't encourage Jesus to just help her anyway. They don't even say "heal her daughter, just to get rid of her!" They say "send her away." Make it final and say "no" the way your actions are already showing. Use your words, Jesus!

Jesus takes their advice. He finally addresses her directly and explains why he does not care to heal her daughter. "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." 

Quick question...

How will the 2 minutes it takes to heal this woman's daughter not be worth the time? Or maybe that it's not that, but that he isn't allowed?

Did Jesus say this because he wasn't allowed to heal Canaanites? Maybe God told him "Jews only!" 

After all, Jesus had spent most of his time speaking to Israelites, healing Israelites. But now, they're in Gentile territory, staying for a period of time. Even if he is sent to Israel to be a prophet to them specifically and he is not teaching his message in "the region of Tyre and Sidon," where they are at right now, what is stopping him from healing one girl?

I was always taught that Jesus loved everyone. Jew, Gentile, everyone. That he is the "lover of our souls." He is the bridegroom of every man, woman and child on earth... *shudder* That thought is so creepy. 

REGARDLESS! If Jesus loves everyone (because he is 100% divine remember), then he should be aching to want to heal her. Just Dying to want to bring her wholeness. (see what I did there?)

Let's take a second to pause here and give the woman and the daughter names - stand-in names, anyway, since the Bible does not mention their names. The woman is just "A Canaanite woman" and the daughter is just her daughter. Let's call them Sarah and Mel. 

Sarah, the mother, who knows how far she traveled to see Jesus? She is "in the vicinity," but does that mean next door or was she making the trek across town every day? How many years had she spent trying to take care of her daughter, Mel? When was it that she gave up hope in finding help from the local healers? How many days did she stay in this part of town to try to get Jesus' attention? From all the stories she had heard, Jesus could heal a person in just a moment. Was this her daughter's last chance? 

Finally! Jesus, the miracle worker, has responded to her! He finally spoke! Sarah runs to him. She continues her utmost respect that she is treating this man, this traveler that has come into town. She kneels in front of him, treating him like a king. 

She speaks to him again, "Lord, help me!"

Jesus replies: "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs."

...

Let's ignore the fact that healing Mel wouldn't take a single thing away from the Israelites. It would not affect the "children," the Israelites in any way positive or negative for Jesus to heal this Gentile girl. There is no "bread" being taken away here. Ok? Skipping past that. Let's just focus on Jesus' use of  the word "dog" that he called Sarah and her daughter, Mel.

Some apologists try to explain away this comment by saying that the word "dogs" that Jesus is using to refer to Sarah and Mel, doesn't mean the common racial slur of the time. Basically, for Israelites to call Gentiles "dog" was an ancient racist norm. The word that Jesus used still means dog. It just means small pet dog. Can you think of any racial slur that when changed slightly people say it's not as bad? 

How is "not as bad" the category of racist slur that we're comfortable with for the divine? God walks on earth but still uses the same racist slur of the time period? Oh, sorry, not the same. A slightly altered racist slur. That's so much better...! (sarcasm)

...

How does this story end? Sarah has groveled. She has begged for days, to the point where it irritates the disciples. When she is finally given the time of day by Jesus, she continues her reverence and respect. She refers to Jesus as a king and kneels to him as such. 

But when Jesus speaks to Sarah? What does he say? He basically says: "You are a dog. You are not worth my time. You are not a Jew. So, you can forget about your daughter getting healed from her illness."

And how does Sarah respond to this slur? She does whatever she can to get her daughter's healing, that's what. She goes beyond reverence and respect for Jesus. She turns to self-debasement. "Yes, Jesus, I am a dog," she says. "I am a Gentile dog. My daughter and I are little pet dogs and we beg at your table. Please have mercy."

This self-debasing statement is named as "great faith" by Jesus and he declares her daughter healed. I guess Jesus thought that Sarah really believed God was that extremely good, that he would even help a little dog. What great faith! Sarah and Mel being dogs was a given premise. Jesus was satisfied that they both (Jesus and Sarah) stated agreement about that. 

Sarah behaves in a more divine way than Jesus does in this story. She does whatever she can for her daughter, even if that means putting up with the racist abusive slur of a traveling miracle worker just for the chance that it is true that he can heal. And that...is a crazy thought. That Sarah, the unnamed Canaanite woman of scripture, would shine the Light stronger and brighter than than the man who supposedly is 100% Divine. In his own story no less.

Side note: Who is going to tell Jesus that healing, somewhat like bankruptcy, cannot just be "declared?" I want you to mentally insert Michael Scott (The Office) meme "I. Declare. Bankruptcy!" - "That's not how that works, Michael."

Wrapping up...

There are no details in scripture as to what symptoms Mel was experiencing. All we know is she was suffering terribly and Sarah, her mother, was having to watch. Sarah felt powerless. She wanted to do whatever it took to help Mel. And after Mel was "healed," no disciple went to do a home visit. They took Jesus' word for it that Mel was all better now. 

We know now that miracle healings don't happen. The placebo effect can only go so far. So, the end of this story is untold, but if we're honest, we know what happened. Sarah went home, daring to hope. And she found her daughter, Mel, just as sick as when she left. And that's how this story really ends.

I wish I had a better story to tell you. But that is what the scripture says. And if God says it, I believe it: 

Jesus was a racist.