Rude Awakenings

Why are people sometimes so rude nowadays? From Heads of State to ‘keyboard warriors’ when did we lose the ability to disagree graciously? Maybe someone has offended you and it still hurts. So, perhaps I should say something about the importance of forgiveness and overcoming offence. After all, Scripture says we should be slow to anger, overlook offence and strive for unity in relationships.

But wait a minute! In the Gospels, we often see Jesus being rude. For example, He’s rude to the Pharisees, calling them “hypocrites” for their outward display of devotion when their hearts were far from Him (Matthew 23). No wonder they walked away angry with Him!

And He’s rude to the Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:22-28). She asks Him to heal her demonised daughter but He completely ignores her. That’s rude. Then He tells her ,“I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel”, which is another way of saying, “I can’t help you, you’re not Jewish.” She cries, “Lord, help me”, but He wants nothing to do with her. “It is not right”, He says, “to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs.” Yes, you heard that right! Jesus calls her and her kind “dogs.” How rude is that? It’s like He’s saying, “I’m not here to help people who just want a handout or a free ride, sick daughter or not!” You can imagine the ‘Twitter storm’ if that happened today. “Hey, preacher man, watch your mouth! hashtag: #CanaaniteLivesMatter.”

But the woman doesn’t take Jesus’ “no!” for an answer. Possibly, she’d witnessed the feeding of the 5,000 in Matthew 14 and understood the symbolic meaning of the 12 leftover baskets – that Jesus has enough for everyone, even the “dogs”. Or, maybe, she is just so desperate to see her daughter healed. Either way, she is undeterred and, riding all Jesus’ rudeness, she answers Him: “even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” That finally puts an end to Jesus’ rudeness and He replies “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter is healed.

The story of the Canaanite woman demonstrates that the response to offence is faith. When Jesus is rude to the Pharisees, they are offended and set off to do away with Him. With the Canaanite woman, though, Jesus’ rudeness creates a ‘rude awakening’ in her. The law-abiding, but self-righteous, Pharisees fail Jesus’ ‘rudeness test’ because they lack faith. The Gentile “dog” passes the test because she has great faith.

Likewise, we should expect Jesus’ rudeness to test us. He may use uncompromising words and make uncomfortable demands that intrude into our lives. He may pose questions about our motivations and desires. He will compel us to love and pray for those who are different or behaving in a way we disagree with. He may ask us to do things with our money and our time that don’t seem right. We can either walk away offended or embrace the tests as positive challenges to our faith. The choice is ours. But, if we are open to the rude awakening of our faith, then, as the Canaanite woman discovered, He promises us a superabundance of blessings.