What I’m Thinking: Defiled

Jesus had just told people that it was what they said and did, rather than what they ate or drank, which would defile them. And then he refused a request for healing. With words that still echo as harsh. 

Here’s a transcript:

As I’m recording my thoughts, it’s just two days after the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, just two days after we saw once again the banners of white supremacy and racism; the voices raised in opposition to justice, to love, to everything that the mind and heart of Jesus Christ are about. And so that’s really what I’m thinking about.

But I am also thinking about the fifteenth chapter of Matthew, and it’s relevant. Because there Jesus talks about what it is that defiles a person, and it’s not what somebody eats or somebody drinks. It’s what somebody says. It’s what somebody does.

Immediately after that Jesus finds himself being asked to heal the daughter of a Syro-Phoenician woman. And he doesn’t want to hear it. He says it’s not appropriate to take the children’s food and give it to the dogs.

What defiles somebody?

When she challenges him, he realizes that he’s defiled himself for a moment with those words.

And so the healing happens, not just of the girl, but of the relationship between Jesus and this woman, between this woman’s people, and Jesus’ people.

That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear about what you’re thinking. So leave me your thoughts in the comment section below; I’d love to hear from you.