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Departing The Heart
Who Can This Be?
Episodic Study of the Character of Jesus – Book II

In this book, I explore a strange Gospel episode found in Matthew 15:21-28 and Jesus’ treatment of a Gentile woman seeking His help.

What would you call a religious leader who would purposefully ignore someone desperately seeking help for their tormented child? A person who then sides with his friends, agreeing that the mother is annoying and needs to be sent away? Not only that, but he is openly bigoted, mocking her with a racist slur. What?

I’ll let you come up with the appropriate descriptor for a religious leader who behaves so hypocritically.

So, I ask what many in His day asked of Jesus, “Who can this be?”

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Excerpt from Chapter 4 of DEPARTING THE HEART

Come On, Jesus! Practice What You Preach!

“. . . And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.” But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, “Send her away, for she cries out after us.” But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” But He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” – Matthew 15:21-26

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” —Luke 6:45

“As Christians, we’re irritated when we see other Christians behaving badly. We grow frustrated when we see people inside the church treating others unkindly.” —Jim Daley, President of Focus on the Family

To What Standard Should We Hold Jesus?

Acknowledging my struggles with judging others (including myself) as jerks, I’m working on it. I can say, however, that there are not a lot of things in this world that I truly hate. One of them, though, is the Double Standard.

The “Double Standard” is defined by Merriam-Webster as: a set of principles that applies differently and usually more rigorously to one group of people or circumstances than to another.

Although the application of the double standard is universally frowned upon, we see it applied across society. We see it in social clubs and schools when someone with a lower eligibility ranking gains entrance because of other influences such as racial, ethnic, religious, political and socioeconomic biases.

Those who excel in business, sports, or academics seem to get away with things that the rest of us can’t. People who are inside the government often benefit from a different set of rules. Our laws can be adjudicated unevenly merely because some can afford to hire better legal representation. Unfortunately, we see plenty of examples in which our moral leaders fail to practice what they preach.

One of the things that attracts people to Christianity is the premise that we, as human beings, are all in the same boat. According to the Bible, we all have sin in our lives and we all fall short of the perfection of God. But the Christian Good News is that Christ died for all as a sacrifice for our sins, and all of us are now offered equal access to God. God does not favor anyone based on racial, ethnic, religious, political, or any socioeconomic differences (although he does seem to have an affinity for the poor).

Matthew records Jesus as He speaks out against this behavior by the religious leaders of his day in Matthew 23:3-7: “Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries (scripture boxes) broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’”

Some Get All the Breaks

I particularly don’t like it when I find myself keeping to the rules and looking around to see others flaunting their rebellion. In the U.S., we often have some recourse when the abusers are identified, and sometimes it’s corrected. But, with the wealthy and powerful and connected, there seems no recourse; it’s just part of the system. Because of this double standard, people become jaded and apathetic, and you find a growing culture of people trying to take advantage wherever they can. Rules and laws lose their meaning and purpose.

So, what do Jesus’ critics say when they see Jesus seemingly behaving badly? More importantly, what do Christians do when Jesus Himself does not seem to be behaving consistently with the moral standards taught by the New Testament writers and even with Jesus’s own teachings?

What do Christians do with that? Christ-followers can rely on their knowledge of Jesus’ inherent goodness, but don’t we want to know why Jesus does all that He does?

As a Christian, one is encouraged, beseeched and instructed to live up to a higher moral standard that takes them beyond keeping the letter of the Old Testament Commandments and laws to allowing God to develop a certain character in the Christian. Our motivation is to become more like the one who authored our salvation—to put on the character of Jesus.

In Paul’s letter to the Colossian church, he writes, “Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free (no distinction or double standard), but Christ is all and in all. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do” (Colossians 3:11-13).

So, what are the major New Testament moral teachings that Christians are taught to live up to? Without republishing the entire New Testament, I’ll list some of the major instructions I have gleaned, in addition to the Colossians 3 teaching identified above.

Consider how some of Jesus’ words and behavior while interacting with the Phoenician woman fit with the New Testament teachings on how Christians should behave.

• Matthew 7:12 (NIV) (The Golden Rule) “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
• Matthew 5:44 “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.”
• Romans 12:21 “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
• 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (The love chapter, not just for married couples) “Love suffers long and is kind . . .; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, endures all things.”
• Matthew 5:3-12 (The Beatitudes) “Blessed are the poor in spirit, . . . Blessed are the meek, . . . blessed are the merciful, . . . blessed are the peacemakers, . . . blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, . . . blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.”

Finally, there is what I consider the core scripture describing the Character of Jesus: Galatians 5:22-23 (The Fruit of the Spirit) “But the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

So, do we find Jesus acting righteously loving in this particular episode?

The Old Covenant standard for righteousness was found in the Mosaic Law—the Ten Commandments and all the rules built around the Commandments.

The New Covenant standard is of the heart and the Spirit which is succinctly summed up in Galatians 5:22-23 above which concludes with, “Against such there is no law.” This substantiates the truth that if your heart expresses the Fruit of the Spirit, there is no need for the Law.

If this is the standard, as I go through the Gospels Jesus does not always seem to live up to the standard of the Fruit of the Spirit. As an example, do we see love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in his speech and behavior toward this woman? Reading through this episode it is hard to see Jesus demonstrating the full Fruit of the Spirit.

The only other mention of the Fruit of the Spirit is found in Ephesians 5:8-10: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the Fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.”

It appears that all of the Fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5 rests on these three things: goodness, righteousness, and truth. When you look at the original Greek, this is the fruit that overlaps the two passages that mention the Fruit of the Spirit. In my estimation, these three are the foundation of all the Fruit. But how do these three work together?

Foundational Fruit Example

We had just gone to my eldest son’s college graduation. Unfortunately, I did not have time to make plans for lunch afterward, and many area restaurants were already booked, so we ended up at a Chili’s restaurant. After we finished our entrées, we all agreed that we would share one of their infamous lava cakes for dessert. Chili’s offers a chocolate and a vanilla lava cake. We took a vote and all agreed on ordering the vanilla and gave our order to the waitress.

Minutes later the waitress returned with the lava cake, put it down, and distributed the spoons. We looked at each other a bit stunned until I spoke up and announced, “I’m sorry, Miss, but this is chocolate and we ordered the vanilla.” She immediately recognized her error and replied, “I’m sorry. You’re right. I’ll be right back with the vanilla cake.” She left the cake and came back in five minutes with the vanilla cake.

I can only imagine what she thought by the look on her face when she returned to see only a few crumbs of the chocolate lava cake left on the plate and all of us still licking off the chocolate smeared on our lips. The truth was that the chocolate lava cake was good but it wasn’t right.

Whatever God does meets all three standards—it is all perfectly good, it is all perfectly right, and it is all perfectly true. . . For more go to: