F4F | ELCA Pastrix Claims Jesus Screwed Up

Fighting for the Faith

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:15

Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Rosebro. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

00:21

This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God. Now a quick shout out to start this off.

00:29

After our last video, several of you in the comments posted a link to the

00:34

Revealing Truth YouTube channel. Sean, the guy who runs that, I actually watch his stuff.

00:39

I've been subscribed for years and watch his stuff and don't always cover the same things that he does, but he actually had a video.

00:47

In fact, let me do this. I'm gonna whirl up the desktop. This is what we're gonna be reviewing.

00:53

Bummer for me. Alright, and Sean, this is the link where it took me to his website,

01:02

Revealing Truth. Lutheran pastor says Jesus screwed up big -time, and boy is this thing a hot mess.

01:09

Holy smokes. And so I want to let you know that near the end of this video, I'm gonna come back to Sean's video, because about this point,

01:18

I got it queued up, Sean has a question for myself, Stephen Kozar, Daniel Long, as it relates to, you know,

01:26

Lutheran pastrixes and things like this, and it actually bears giving a response to.

01:33

In fact, you know, it's a friendly question and a good one. In fact, one that I was confused about long ago before I ever became a confessional

01:41

Lutheran. What do you do with all these liberals that call themselves Lutheran? We'll address that.

01:47

But what we're gonna do, we're gonna listen to a pretty good swath of this chapel sermon, and this woman is an

02:04

ELCA pastrix. By the way, I'm the guy who coined the phrase pastrix. Initially used it in reference to Nadia Bowles Weber.

02:13

She ended up hijacking the term, saying, oh, are you gonna call me pastrix? I'm gonna embrace it myself. Wrote a New York Times best -selling book called

02:19

Pastrix, and I didn't even get any royalties for coining the word pastrix.

02:25

Anyway, in chapter 13, she talks about our, you know, our conversations, which haven't always been very friendly.

02:35

Anyway, you get the idea. But all of that being said, we're gonna listen to this lady's name, Andrea Rosk Metcalf, and so we're gonna listen to a portion of this.

02:45

This is on a tough text. In fact, a good way to think about what we're gonna do here is we're not gonna just listen and respond and go, yuck, that's terrible.

02:53

We're actually going to ask the question, what are we supposed to do with tough text, especially the tough text where Jesus calls a

03:02

Syrophoenician woman, get this, a dog? It's right, he does.

03:10

What are we supposed to do with that? You know, and by the way, I'm not really nervous about this at all.

03:16

In fact, we'll walk you through how to understand this text, what's really going on, and the importance of the word dog, because there's an interesting switcheroo that takes place in the

03:26

Scriptures, and we'll even consult the the church patriarchs. Yeah, they called church fathers, but I just feel ornery today, so we'll call them the church patriarchs.

03:35

Yeah, those terrible patriarchy guys, right? Anyway, so a lot of ground that we're gonna cover today, and so let me read out, in fact, let me do this.

03:44

I'm gonna pull this up, and let's take a look at the biblical text that she's supposedly preaching on, and it's from Mark chapter 7, and she had just read this out, but we're gonna pick up where she, you know, right after she reads it, but here's the text, and from there

04:00

Jesus, he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden.

04:09

So apparently Jesus is, you know, trying to get a little bit of a breather, but immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him, came and fell down at his feet.

04:18

Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to cast the demon out of her, and he said to her, let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.

04:32

Plural, by the way. But she answered him, yes, Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.

04:39

And he said to her, well from this statement you may go your way, the demon has left your daughter, and she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

04:50

Now, what are we supposed to do with this? Because today's postmodern, you know, feminists and woke types, well, can you believe this?

04:58

Jesus called her a dog! Uh -huh. Yeah, I know, it's scandalous, isn't it? But really it's not.

05:04

In fact, this is a great story of faith, and so we'll take a look at the cross -reference today, we'll take a look at what the

05:10

Church Patriarchs, yeah, the Church Fathers have to say about this, and kind of walk through how are we to understand a text like this, and what is it really pointing to?

05:19

But I assure you that Andrea here, she's not going to be engaging in sound biblical exegesis, far from it.

05:30

This is more like woke rhetoric that she'll be engaging in, and she's gonna be blaspheming

05:36

Christ. I mean, straight out attacking him, and in ways that just, wow.

05:45

It's been a long time since I've heard somebody this brazen in their attacks against Jesus. So, if you're ready,

05:51

I'm not ready, but let's do this. Here we go. This has been my favorite

06:02

Bible story for a very long time. It used to be because it's a blatant example of the humanity of Jesus.

06:10

He screws up bigger here than in any story I know. Hang on a second here.

06:19

I'm afraid I'm going to spontaneously combust. I need to quench the fire before I catch fire.

06:25

Hang on. Really? You think Jesus screwed up?

06:32

Wrong. God never screws up. I mean, God is omniscient, all -powerful.

06:40

He's good. He's kind. And Jesus himself, well, let's take a look at a text. I knew this was going to go bad.

06:46

Hebrews 4 .15. Here's what it says about Jesus. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin.

07:05

So, if you're thinking that Jesus screwed up, something wrong with your theology.

07:11

It's not biblical. And so, I mean, this is just a foretaste of what we're going to get.

07:16

And I should give you a language alert. She's going to be using some harsh language. We'll beep out the relevant words so we don't end up running afoul of any community guidelines as it relates to Google's use of particular words.

07:31

That's still the case. But this is my favorite Bible story today because of the Syrophoenician woman's improv skills.

07:45

So, this is a sermon about this keen observation that Andrea has had here about the

07:54

Syrophoenician woman's improv skills. I kid you not. This is like the main point of this so -called sermon.

08:04

Because the Syrophoenician woman says, yes, and. Yes, and.

08:12

It's the most subversive phrase in the English language. Yeah.

08:18

Improv skills and subversion sound like you're projecting these things onto the

08:23

Syrophoenician woman that maybe things that you value in your own life, but that's not what's going on here.

08:29

This woman is Syrophoenician. She is from the city of Tyre, which was considered unclean by.

08:36

Right. Okay. Now I'm going to back this up just a little bit because in fact, I cannot even do it the way

08:41

I have this set up. Hang on a second here. There we go. So, you'll note

08:47

I'm trying to keep it, keep a tight crop on here. So, backing up is going to be a little bit of a challenge.

08:54

But here's the thing. It's absolutely true that the Jews of Jesus' day considered them to be, quote, unclean.

09:01

The people in Tyre and Sidon and in the, why? Because they worshipped idols.

09:07

They were flat out pagans. They were immoral. And they worshipped false gods that don't exist, right?

09:16

These are clearly, these ideas are clearly taught in the Old Testament. This woman is

09:22

Syrophoenician. She is from the city of Tyre, which was considered unclean by observant Jews.

09:29

From the sounds of it, she is not married, which means that she is divorced or widowed or abandoned. In a culture where a woman's social capital is defined entirely by her connections to men.

09:40

This woman is an outcast. It sounds like Andrea is a feminist.

09:47

I can think of other things that you point to that kind of bear that out. The fact that she's even preaching, wearing a clerical collar, claiming to be a pastor.

09:56

You get the idea. It doesn't say that it was empty, by the way.

10:10

So, she's kind of embellishing a little bit here. Again, taking a look at the text itself, and he entered a house and did not want anyone to know yet he could not be hidden.

10:22

So, we don't know the property status here. You know, was it some kind of a derelict house?

10:28

It doesn't say. She's adding and embellishing a little bit here. Away from all the people. She follows him.

10:34

She pursues him. She corners him. Her daughter is sick, possessed, unwell.

10:42

This woman has heard what this man can do. She is desperate.

10:49

She has nothing to lose. So, she asks him to heal her daughter and Jesus responds by calling her a...

11:01

No, he did not. That is absolutely false. Jesus did nothing of the sort.

11:08

So, this woman claims that Jesus called the Syrophoenician woman, the term for a female dog, starts with a

11:17

B, ends with an itch. No, did not. And by the way,

11:23

Greek doesn't have a term like that, okay? So, we use idiomatic phrases and we have words that are bad words or words that are on the line or they're really bold or strong.

11:35

Greek doesn't use the term for female dogs the way we do.

11:41

In fact, the phrase that Jesus used, I'm going to point this out.

11:47

In fact, let's do this now. Jesus said, let the children be fed first.

11:52

It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs, plural.

11:59

Jesus didn't say to her, how dare you bother me, you blank.

12:06

It's absolutely scandalous to even say such words. You're going to have to explain this to Jesus, by the way, when he comes back, if you don't repent.

12:15

But Jesus did not call her a B, didn't call her that. Instead, he said, it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.

12:25

Now, a little bit of a note here. There are some scholars who attempt to rescue Jesus here by pointing out that the word that Jesus uses, kunarion, that this word means little dogs or house dogs.

12:41

This is true, okay? This is true, but it doesn't really take away the bite.

12:48

The bite needs to stay. And Jesus definitely did not call her a female dog.

12:55

That's not what he did, but he did call, did say and imply that she was part of a group of people known as the little dogs.

13:03

And we'll come back to that in a minute, but I want you to get a flavor of just what kind of blasphemy we're dealing with here with Andrea.

13:12

He said to her, let the children be fed first. He is referring here to the children of Israel, to the

13:19

Jews. So far, they have been the entire focus of his ministry, but then he continues, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.

13:32

There's not enough to go around, he could have said to her, not enough healing, not enough blessing, not enough God for you or your daughter.

13:39

Yeah, you're isageating now. You're not.

13:47

Jesus is tired. He is frustrated. Whatever is going on with him, he calls her people dogs. Some biblical scholars, they try to pull

13:56

Jesus out of the hole that he has dug for himself here. And that's true. Some do. Okay.

14:01

I have commentaries that are not quite sure what to make of that. Calling them little puppies, they say, but he is not.

14:10

It's a term of endearment, they say, but it is not. Now, this is where, oddly enough,

14:16

I agree with her. It's not a term of endearment. It was never meant to be that. This Syrophoenician woman, this marginalized outcast woman whose daughter is sick, she comes to Jesus for help.

14:27

Marginalized outcast woman. You've just stuck that in.

14:32

So, this is all woke ideology that she's sticking in here. This shows that Andrea is not a theologian, she's an ideologue.

14:39

Okay. And we're not going to sit here and just talk about how many oppression points the

14:45

Syrophoenician woman has. That's all part of CRT and this nonsense that goes along with postmodern liberalism.

14:53

Help, and he calls her a dog. Right to her face. Boy, you like just twisting that knife, don't you?

15:03

Wait till you see what the Church Patriarchs had to say about this and what the text actually says. And we'll check the cross -reference too.

15:09

Cross -reference is brilliant. She could have slapped him. She could have. We would have forgiven her for that.

15:15

Yes. We would have understood. Who's the hero in this sermon?

15:22

The Syrophoenician woman. Have told him off, yelled and screamed in his face. We would have forgiven her for this too. But she does none of these things.

15:30

Instead, she shifts to improv. Are you talking about she shifts to improv?

15:39

No, she doesn't. All right. Now it's at this point we're going to spend a little time working this out.

15:45

What do you do when you have a difficult text like this? Because oftentimes, whether we try to or not, we end up approaching biblical text with our current worldview foremost and do not understand that our culture and our current worldview are not the culture and worldview of the people of the past.

16:09

Like, not even close. And as a result of it, we make judgments and evaluations based upon modern concepts or modern beliefs that are not true at all.

16:20

So for instance, in the world that we live in, the most egregious thing that you could possibly do is offend somebody.

16:29

If you say something and you offend somebody, cancel, cancel, cancel.

16:35

Oh, you're going to be deplatformed and you get the idea, right? Yeah. But you don't have a right to not be offended at all.

16:45

And this text, this woman doesn't take any offense at all. So here's what we do.

16:52

All right. So when you're dealing with a difficult text like this, number one, see if there's a cross -reference and try to, you know, harmonize them so you kind of get the fuller picture.

17:01

So we've already read out Mark's account, and this is the account that she's supposedly preaching from. And we're going to take a look now at Matthew's version of this, and we're going to apply a little bit more context.

17:17

So when we use our three rules of sound biblical exegesis, context, context, and what's the other one?

17:24

Yes, context. Oftentimes, we're going to note that that context needs to widen out a little bit, and there's a reason why here.

17:34

So this is not just the immediate context we're going to have to pull out just a minute. And if you look at the gospel of Matthew chapter 12, we're going to note that something interesting is happening.

17:45

And that is that Jesus came to his own, but his own did not receive him.

17:51

Jesus is a Jew, and the Jews and the Pharisees and the scribes are the ones that are pushing back hard against Christ and rejecting him.

18:01

So we're going to note here. So in Matthew chapter 12, Jesus went on from there, entered their synagogue.

18:08

A man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him?

18:15

And then he said to them, well, which one of you has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out?

18:22

Of how much more value is a man than a sheep? So it is lawful to do good on the

18:28

Sabbath. So then he said to the man, stretch out your hand. And the man stretched out his hand.

18:34

It was restored healthy like the other, and watch the reaction. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him how to destroy

18:41

Jesus. You, you'll be out on Sabbath. I kill you.

18:47

I kill you, Jesus. Yeah, that's what's going on here. And it gets a little bit worse. In Matthew chapter 12, it goes on to say, then a demon oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him and he healed him so that the man spoke and saw.

19:01

And all the people were amazed and said, can this be the son of David? But when the

19:06

Pharisees heard it, they said, it is only by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons, that this man casts out demons.

19:13

And then knowing their thoughts, he said to them, every kingdom divide against itself is laid waste and no city or house divided against itself will stand.

19:22

If Satan casts out Satan, he's divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?

19:28

So, you can see what's happening here is that Jesus is, well, preaching, teaching, healing, casting out demons, and Jews are accusing him of doing this all under the power of the devil.

19:46

In the Gospel of John chapter 1, we hear what

19:52

John says about Christ in this beautiful opening words, in the beginning was the word, in Arche, in Halagos, Kai Halagos, in Prostanteon, Kaitheos, in Halagos.

20:03

In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God. He was in the beginning with God, all things were made through him.

20:10

Without him was not anything made that was made, in him was life and the life was the light of men.

20:15

The light shines in the darkness, the darkness does not overcome it. Now, there was a man sent from God, whose name was

20:22

John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light.

20:30

The true light, which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.

20:37

He came to his own Jews, right? His own people did not receive him, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

20:56

So, this is part of what's going on here. So, by the time we get to Matthew chapter 15,

21:02

Jesus is already being rejected by the

21:07

Jews. And so, the dog comment is an important comment, and I mean vital in understanding this because what

21:18

Jesus is going to end up doing is pointing out who the real dogs were and who the real children are.

21:26

Let me explain. So, Jesus went away from there. This is Matthew's version of it. He withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.

21:32

Behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, and listen to the words, have mercy on me, oh

21:41

Lord, son of David, my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon. Now, first note, that's a prayer.

21:49

This woman is praying to Jesus, not for herself, for somebody else, for her daughter.

21:57

And what is she saying? Have mercy on me, oh Lord. She's calling

22:02

Jesus Lord, son of David. Holy smokes.

22:08

This woman already believes the word had gotten out.

22:13

It had made its way all the way to Tyre and Sidon. And this woman, in hearing the reports about Jesus, knew exactly who he was.

22:20

She had just enough information from her understanding of the Hebrew Bible that Jesus is the long -promised

22:27

Messiah, and she is crying out to Jesus in prayer for somebody else, and her statement proves she has faith in Christ.

22:40

Now, remember what we read in John. Hang on a second here. All who did receive him who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

22:49

Jesus came to his own, his own people did not receive him. All who did receive him who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

22:59

So, already we're confronted with the fact this woman believes in Jesus. All right?

23:07

She's got really good theology. So, but watch this. He did not answer her a word.

23:15

Say what? What's going on here? Now, before you judge Christ, this is a big theme in scripture, prayer that goes unanswered for long stretches of time.

23:32

Have you ever read Psalm 13? Psalm 13, listen to this, the Psalm of David. How long,

23:38

O Yahweh, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

23:45

How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day long?

23:51

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me,

23:56

O Yahweh my God. Light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Lest my enemies say

24:02

I have prevailed over him. Lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

24:08

But I've trusted in your steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to Yahweh because he has dealt bountifully with me.

24:18

So, we can see here that praying and not getting an immediate answer, that's a normal thing when it comes to God.

24:28

In fact, Jesus himself, and here's another text, Matthew 7, ask,

24:35

Jesus says, Matthew 7, 7, and it will be given to you. Now, a little bit of a note, this doesn't translate very well.

24:42

So, the Greek verb here, ateo, this verb shows up in this passage in the present active imperative.

24:53

Now, I teach Greek. So, present active imperative is a, there's a time aspect to this.

25:01

It basically shows that the verb is continuous. So, here's how it works out. Ask, keep on asking, okay?

25:10

That's the import of the present active imperative. Ask, keep on asking, and it will be given to you.

25:17

Seek, zetete, seek, keep on seeking.

25:22

Again, another present active imperative, and you will find. Knock, okay?

25:28

This was Cruo, knock and keep on knocking, present active imperative, and it will be open to you.

25:36

So, note, this is why you need to have pastors that faithfully know their original languages, because these nuances are important.

25:44

Ask, keep on asking, it will be given to you. Seek, keep on seeking, and you'll find. Knock, keep on knocking, it'll be open to you.

25:52

Everyone who asks receives. The one who seeks finds to the one who knocks, it will be opened.

25:57

All right? Or to which one of you, if his son, note again, children talk here. If his son asks him for bread, we'll give him a stone.

26:06

Or if he asks for a fish, we'll give him a serpent. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask.

26:18

All right? Coming back to our text here. So, this woman's praying, have mercy on me, oh

26:27

Lord, son of David. My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon, but he did not answer her a word.

26:34

And his disciples came and begged him, saying, send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.

26:39

He answered, I was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

26:45

True, by the way. Now, when you understand that everyone who is a believer in Christ is grafted into Israel, that begins to change what

26:58

Jesus says here. But, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but she came and she, now we're going to do a little bit of work here.

27:05

Okay? Another Greek word, proskuneo. And this word, proskuneo, listen to what this means.

27:13

All right? To express in attitude or gesture one's complete dependence on or submission to a high authority figure, to fall down and worship, to do obeisance, to prostrate oneself before, to do reverence, to welcome respectfully.

27:32

So, this word shows up, proskuneo here, where it says knelt. A completely legitimate translation is she worshiped him.

27:43

She completely prostrates herself before him and submits herself to his authority.

27:51

She's worshiping Christ. And here's what she says to him, Lord, help me.

28:02

And here it comes. And he answered, oh, it's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.

28:09

Plural. And watch what she says here. Now, the children here are clearly referring to the children of Israel.

28:17

Okay? And yes, the pagans of the ancient world who worshiped false gods were viewed as unclean dogs by those who worshiped

28:32

Yahweh. This is true. All right? But watch what this woman does. She doesn't take any offense at all.

28:39

We already know from her prayer she already has faith in Christ. She's not going to take offense at all.

28:45

She said, yes, Lord. Yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table.

28:56

Now, another thing is in play here. Jesus says, the one who exalts himself will be humbled.

29:03

The one who humbles himself will be exalted. Not only did this woman not take offense, and I mean at all, at what

29:11

Jesus said, she humbled herself even further. Jesus says it's not right to take the children's, children's, children's bread and throw it to the dogs.

29:22

She humbles herself even further and she refers to those children as her own masters.

29:29

Because note, it's plural. From their master's table. And so, in fact, the, let me find this in the

29:37

Greek here because hold on there. There we go. Ton kurion. Ton kurion auton.

29:44

All right? Yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their

29:52

Lord's or their master's plural table. Jesus says their children, she calls them master.

29:59

She humbles herself even farther, taking no offense. And then

30:05

Jesus said this, oh woman, great is your faith. Be it done for you as you desire.

30:13

And her daughter was healed instantly. Which then begs the question, is she really a dog?

30:23

Because she received her, the answer to her prayer as if she was a child.

30:29

And scripture so clearly says in John 1 that all who received him,

30:34

Christ gave the right to be children of God. So now you begin to see what's happening here is that the

30:41

Jews who are rejecting Christ are really the ones who are the dogs. The ones who are the, even the

30:48

Gentiles who are believing in Jesus, they're the children. This is a turning point.

30:55

This is a watershed moment, if you would, theologically in what's going on here.

31:00

And I would note that this theme bears out. So for instance, in Psalm 22, a prophecy written by King David, hundreds of years before Christ ever walked the earth, hundreds of years before his crucifixion, listen to how this one plays out.

31:20

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me?

31:26

From the words of my groaning. Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer. And by night, but I find no rest.

31:34

Yet you are holy and thrown on the praises of Israel. In you, our fathers trusted.

31:39

They trusted and you delivered them. To you, they cried and they were rescued. In you, they trusted and they were not put to shame.

31:46

But I'm a worm, not a man, scorned by mankind, despised by my people. All who see me mock me.

31:53

They make mouths at me. They wag their heads. He trusted in Yahweh. Let him deliver him.

31:59

Let him rescue him for he delights in him. And you're going to note here, this is a very specific prophecy about some of the very specific details that occurred while Christ was being crucified for your sins, by the way and mine.

32:17

Yet you are he who took me from the womb. You made me to trust at my mother's breasts. On you,

32:23

I was cast from my birth and from my mother's womb, you have been my God. Be not far from me for trouble is near and there is none to help.

32:32

Many bulls encompass me. Strong bulls of Bashan surround me. They open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion.

32:40

I'm poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax.

32:47

It is melted within my breast. My strength is dried up like the pot shirt and my tongue sticks to my jaws and you lay me in the dust of death.

32:56

And here, listen to this. For dogs encompass me. A company of evildoers encircles me.

33:04

They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones.

33:10

So, note when you start to connect thematically, biblically, this concept of dogs, note then that the psalmist

33:18

David, hundreds of years before Christ was crucified, prophetically outlining the gory, gruesome details of Christ's vicarious death on the cross for your sins and mine, included the words, dogs encompass me.

33:34

Who were the dogs then that encompassed Christ? The Jews who didn't believe in him.

33:41

They were idolaters. They were true idolaters. And David, foreseeing all of that, prophesied that they would be dogs.

33:49

And then you'll note then in Paul's epistle to the Philippians chapter three, talking about the

33:56

Judaizers, those who say, unless you're circumcised, you Christians, unless you're circumcised, you can't be saved.

34:03

Listen to what Paul says. He says, look out for the dogs. Look out for the evildoers.

34:09

Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. And here, Paul uses the word kunos, which is way stronger than a little dog.

34:18

It's a junkyard, unclean, you know, street wandering stray is what he's talking about.

34:26

Look out for the dogs. Look out for the evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision who worship by the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh.

34:40

So when you put this all together, scripture interprets scripture, you do the fuller context, look at the cross references, and then for good measure, you know, if you need to pay attention to what's going on with the biblical languages to see if there's any nuances, but then also it's a good idea to check with the church fathers, the church patriarchs, you know, and how they handled this.

35:05

So I've got a couple of examples. So the first one is

35:10

Epaphanius, the Latin, and here's what he writes regarding this passage.

35:17

He says, then in the face of the Jews who are rejecting him, this

35:22

Gentile woman asked him to heal her daughter. So note here, he's picking up on the wider context that the

35:31

Jews were rejecting Christ in the midst of all of that, while that was going on, this

35:37

Gentile woman asked Jesus to heal her daughter, but the Lord turned a deaf ear to her. She fell down on his feet and adored him saying, note he says adored.

35:46

So he's picking up on worship, right? Saying, Lord, help me. And then the

35:51

Lord said to her, it's not fair to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. What have the Jews to say to this?

35:57

Plainly, he implied that they were children and called the Gentiles dogs.

36:03

The woman agreed saying to the Savior, yes, Lord, that is to say, I know,

36:08

Lord, that the Gentile people are dogs in worshiping idols and barking at God.

36:14

Yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table. In other words, you came to the

36:20

Jews, manifested yourself to them, and they didn't want you to make exceptions. What they rejected, what they rejected, which is namely you

36:29

Jesus, give to us who are asking for it. Knowing the important faith of this woman, our

36:36

Lord said, oh woman, your faith is great. Let it be done for you as you desire. Faith accepts what work does not merit.

36:44

And through faith, the Gentiles were made children out of dogs.

36:50

That's what's happening here. As the Lord spoke through the prophet, in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people, it shall be said to them, sons of the living

36:59

God. This is from the prophet Hosea. On the other hand, the unreceptive Jews were made loathsome dogs out of children.

37:07

As the Lord himself said in his passion through the prophet, many dogs surrounded me, a company of evildoers encircles me.

37:15

Let's take a look at what John Christostom says in this regards. This is from his sermon on this text.

37:21

And he says, see her humility as well as her faith. For he had called the

37:26

Jews children, but she was not satisfied with this. She even called, she even called them masters, right?

37:34

She calls them masters. So far was she from grieving at the praises of others. She said, yes,

37:40

Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table. Behold the woman's wisdom.

37:45

She did not venture so much as to say a word against anyone else. She was not stung to see others praised, nor was she indignant to be reproached.

37:55

Behold her constancy. When he answered, it is not fair to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.

38:01

She said, yes, Lord. And he called them children, but she called them masters.

38:07

He used the name of dog, but she described the action of the dog. Do you see this woman's humility?

38:15

So then compare her humility with the proud language of the Jews. We are

38:20

Abraham seen. We have never been in bondage to any man. This is what the Jews said in reaction to some of the things that Christ said.

38:28

We are born of God, but not so this woman, rather she calls herself a dog and them masters.

38:35

So for this reason, she became a child. For what does Christ then say? Oh, woman, great, great is your faith.

38:44

So we might surmise that this is the reason he put her off in order that he might proclaim aloud the saying, and that he might crown the woman, be it done for you as you desire.

38:56

This means your faith indeed is able to affect even greater things than these. Nevertheless, be it unto you, even as you wish.

39:04

This voice was at one with the voice that said, let the heavens be, and it was, and her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

39:12

Do you see how this woman too contributed not a little to the healing of her daughter? For note that Christ did not say to her, let your little child, let your little daughter be made whole, but instead great is your faith, be it done for you as you desire.

39:26

These words were not uttered at random, nor were they flattering words, but great was the power of her faith and for our learning.

39:35

He left the certain test and demonstration, however, to the issue of events. Her daughter accordingly was immediately healed.

39:43

So the idea then is, is that when you run across a difficult passage, difficult passage, maybe like Matthew chapter 15 in the

39:53

Syrophoenician woman, or the version in Mark 7, stop.

39:59

Put your assumptions aside and ask what's really going on here. Get some help.

40:06

Look at the writings and the sermons of the church fathers. Look at a good commentary and see what's going on.

40:12

Back up and look at the fuller context. And when you do that, there is no scandal here, because by answering this woman's prayer, and that's what that was, he was showing she was the child.

40:24

And in the context of Matthew, the Jews who were rejecting Jesus and claiming that he was doing healings by the power of Beelzebul, they were the real dogs.

40:34

And David proves it in Psalm 22, when he describes the Jews around Christ's cross as dogs who are encircling him.

40:42

That's the point. But do you think that this ideologue feminist, Pastrix, cares about anything like that?

40:52

No. She's forwarding her agenda and her ideological agenda, not a sound understanding of God's word.

41:00

So, we continue. Instead, she agrees with him. Instead, she says, yes, and. She answered him, sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.

41:12

She takes this horrible thing that Jesus has called her and she uses it for her own ends.

41:18

She tells him, you have so much healing. You have so much blessing, so much God. All I need are the crumbs.

41:26

Yeah, that's not really what she said. I know we have heard and we have read all kinds of things about Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine.

41:36

Maybe you have heard that he got his professional start as a comedian. I told you that this idea of improv is like the main point of her understanding of this text.

41:48

This made sense to me when I first heard it, because he has such a comfortable presence in front of the camera. It made even more sense when

41:55

I learned that it was not stand -up comedy. It was competitive improv. Stand -up comedy is an individual event.

42:04

Make the people laugh or don't, but it's entirely on you. But improv is a team sport, and the president of Ukraine is inviting his entire country to participate.

42:16

Yes, and is the basis for improv. You have to agree immediately to the most outlandish scenario that someone has handed you, and you have to run with it.

42:27

You always expected to find yourself there. And if you really commit, then you can take that outlandish scenario in any direction you choose.

42:38

This is what the Syrophoenician Woman did. The Syrophoenician Woman basically engaged in competitive improv.

42:50

If my eyes roll any harder in my head, they're going to be on the floor, and I'm going to have a hard time finding them, because I can't find them without being able to see.

42:59

With the insult that Jesus handed to her, you want to call me a dog? Fine. You want to talk about feeding the choice cuts to everyone else?

43:06

Fine. Because if you are the Son of God, then there is enough to go around.

43:13

There is enough healing and enough blessing and enough God to go around. All I need. Yeah, you're just adding, adding, adding stuff that isn't even in this text.

43:23

Are the table scraps. I would bet good money that Jesus wasn't expecting that.

43:31

Really? Jesus, the Son of God, who knows everything inside of a person that can look into their heart.

43:41

The God who knows the end from the beginning. The God who said, let there be light, and there was light.

43:47

That guy, he didn't see this coming. I assure you that the last entity in the universe that you can play hide and seek with is

43:57

God. He always knows where you're at. And that fact that scripture basically says, where can

44:02

I go? Where God doesn't know where I am, right? You can't surprise God.

44:07

I don't care if he's the Son of God. He didn't see that coming. I don't care if he's the Son of God. He didn't see that coming.

44:13

Utter blasphemy, woman. You're reducing Christ down to mere humanity. And that's not what this text says either.

44:22

And your Christology is not in error. It's heretical. This is the beauty of improv.

44:29

This is what makes it so subversive. Nobody sees it coming. If you pay attention, you will see people on the margins using it all the time.

44:41

Yeah. Those people on the margins, you know, the oppressed, you know, pull out your oppression points, you know, intersectionality and all this kind of stuff.

44:49

The stories coming out of Ukraine are chock full of examples. Now I'm going to warn you, there is a, there is an

44:55

F bomb here. We will bleep it. The older Ukrainian woman shoving sunflower seeds into the hands of the

45:01

Russian soldiers so that when they die, their rotting corpses will fertilize the sunflowers that grow out of their pockets.

45:08

I don't think the Russian soldiers saw that coming. Are you likening Jesus to a

45:13

Russian soldier and the Syrophoenician woman to the sunflower lady? Did you note that?

45:21

It's not even subtle. The Ukrainian soldiers just stopped the coast when the

45:27

Russian warship told them to surrender or be blown to bits, who responded by saying, Russian warship, go f*** yourself.

45:34

Yep. She actually said the word. She dropped the F bomb in the middle of a sermon. Lawlessness here.

45:42

Utter lawlessness. I don't think the Russians saw that coming, but these are the narratives that are buoying a nation right now.

45:52

I have seen examples of this subversive kind of improv on the picket line this week with Minneapolis teachers.

45:58

Show me any situation with a massive power differential, and I will promise you, you can find examples of massive power differential.

46:07

Oh, true postmodern, right? It's all about power and conflict. That's not what this text is about at all.

46:17

Subversive improv examples of people on the margins spinning the narrative, spinning that power differential in order to claim some agency of their own.

46:30

So note this chapel service is designed to twist the word of God, to make it look like the word of God, teaches

46:39

CRT, intersectionality, postmodern conflict theory, and all this kind of stuff.

46:44

So these college students that are hearing this chapel service, they are being falsely led to believe that this is what the

46:52

Bible is all about. No, it's not about any of this. It changes the course of history. Jesus said no to the

47:00

Syrophoenician woman. No, he would not heal her daughter. He called them all dogs. He actually didn't say no.

47:09

But that woman said, yes, and, and by the end of this story, her daughter is made whole again.

47:17

Jesus screwed up. The Syrophoenician woman, the words are so blasphemous.

47:27

I am surprised that God didn't strike her down. That's how blasphemous this is.

47:32

Really, Jesus screwed up. The Syrophoenician woman used her improv skills to call him on it. Jesus changes course, and this story marks the beginning of his ministry among the

47:43

Gentiles. Dear friends, I find my redemption in Jesus Christ.

47:51

But on this day, in this story, the Syrophoenician woman is the one who redeems him.

47:58

Jesus never needed redeeming at all. Utterly blasphemous.

48:04

So he, she takes the Syrophoenician woman, turns her into an object of oppression, power dynamics, disparity, and all this kind of stuff.

48:13

And she's a victim of intersectionality and all this kind of stuff. She's the one who redeems Jesus. Hogwash.

48:21

Christ is her redeemer. The fact that she got on her face and worshiped

48:27

Jesus and prayed to him shows exactly who her redeemer is.

48:33

In fact, a good way to think about this, Jesus praises her faith. What is faith?

48:40

Faith is trust. And trust, faith always has an object.

48:46

Who is the object of this woman's faith? Jesus. And Jesus redeemed her by bleeding and dying for her sins on the cross.

49:00

So yeah, what we just heard here, utter blasphemy. Now it's at this point, a little bit of a note here.

49:07

In order to put this together, I got a little bit of help because the folks at Protestia had put up a portion of that video on their

49:15

YouTube channel and it got copyright striked. So Protestia was able to help me. Justin Germain, the editor there at Protestia was able to help me get a hold of this video.

49:27

So I wanted to give him a shout out and say thank you for making it possible for me to review this. But I come back to my original point and that was that I was sent the video, links to the video by several people in my comments saying that I needed to address this.

49:43

And so let me show you what Sean from Revealing Truth said, because this is a common misconception.

49:51

I'm a confessional Lutheran. So the question is, how do we confessional Lutherans deal with this?

49:57

Because this woman claims that she's a Lutheran pastor. So let's hear what Sean said so that I can actually respond to him.

50:04

I don't know how anyone who calls themselves a Christian could sit through a service like that. I completely agree,

50:11

Sean. Is this how much the Lutheran church has declined? Yeah, except for you're thinking of the term

50:17

Lutheran as kind of monolithic, and I'll explain that in a minute. I know Chris Rosebrew, Stephen Kozar, and Daniel Long from Long for Truth are

50:25

Lutherans, but I couldn't imagine they would attend a church like this. Correct. Not on your life.

50:32

So how can people just sit there and listen to this nonsense? Yeah, because they're apostate.

50:38

They're basically believing what they want to believe, and they don't want to believe what the scriptures say. So when we deal with something like this, so this is the same problem that appears in the

50:49

Episcopalian church, in Presbyterian circles, kind of the old mainline denominations, if you would, even within Methodism.

50:57

And that's the problem of, well, the constant issue of, how do

51:03

I put this politely? Liberalism. And so within Lutheran circles, the word

51:10

Lutheran, there isn't one Lutheran denomination. There are many Lutheran denominations.

51:16

And the denomination that that woman is a part of is called the ELCA. And I would say this, the

51:23

ELCA stands for Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. They are not evangelical. They deny the gospel.

51:29

They are Lutheran in name only. They are Evangelical Lutheran. They're not a church.

51:36

They're more like a Gnostic society. And yes, they're in America, but they're completely apostate, and we do not have any fellowship with them.

51:47

I was confirmed in what was called the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. I became a

51:53

Lutheran as an adult, having grown up in the Nazarene church and in Methodist circles.

51:59

But when I made the switch over to Lutheranism, I was in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, which is a conservative church body.

52:07

However, I would note this, there are forces within the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod that are akin to what's in the

52:13

ELCA. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod has fights coming up in the future that are going to look and sound a lot like the same fights that are going on in the

52:22

Southern Baptist Convention. Now, I personally am no longer in the Missouri Synod. I was ordained in a church body called the

52:29

American Association of Lutheran Churches, the AALC. And the

52:36

AALC was formed when the ELCA was created. When the

52:41

ELCA was created, there was a bunch of churches that jumped ship because they could see what was going to happen, and that was that they were going to be taken over by liberal pastrixes and things like this.

52:50

And so they got out of the ELCA at the time of the merger. The congregation that I serve,

52:56

Lutheran Church in Oslo, Minnesota, don't you know, that particular congregation jumped ship right at the same time that the

53:04

ELCA was formed and joined the AALC in order to be able to maintain its confession that God's Word, that the

53:13

Bible is the Word of God, and that our lives and our doctrine are to be ordered according to it. And so I would also note this, and I'll put a link down below in the description.

53:24

The first year that I was a pastor in the AALC, back in 2014, at a very first conference that I attended as an ordained pastor of the

53:34

AALC, I helped write a resolution calling the ELCA to repentance.

53:40

I'm not going to read it in its entirety, but I was part of the committee, the group that was working on wordsmithing this, and it begins with the words, whereas the foundation of the

53:53

Lutheran doctrine has always been Scripture alone, and whereas the ELCA has consciously departed from the clear teaching of God's Holy Word and denied

54:02

Scripture alone by chasing after the false spirit of the age, such as blasphemously affirming homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle and pronouncing

54:12

God's blessing on same -sex marriages, and you get the point. We basically, the whole point of the resolution was to call the

54:21

ELCA to repentance, and we did. Let's just say it wasn't received very well.

54:28

So at the end of the day, we have no fellowship with the ELCA, none whatsoever, and the church body that I'm a part of, we have formally called the

54:40

ELCA to repentance. So our position is that they're apostate and heretical, and they need to repent so that they can be forgiven by Christ.

54:49

So when somebody, like Sean says, you guys are Lutheran, what do you deal with this?

54:56

I would note that the word Lutheran can be deceptive. I don't even like the term myself, but the term

55:03

Lutheran can be deceptive because it implies that somehow there's uniformity across everybody who uses that label.

55:10

And the problem is there isn't. Just the same way there are liberals and woke people in the

55:16

Presbyterian church, and you have to judge them kind of congregation by congregation, and there's an entire group, the

55:23

Orthodox Presbyterians who've departed out of the PCUSA and things like this. Same thing with Baptists.

55:28

If you say you're a Southern Baptist today, there's a lot of guys, conservative guys that are Southern Baptists who loathe using the phrase because it's clear the direction that the

55:38

SBC is heading. So that being the case, I thought it would be worth mentioning that for Sean to give him basically a shout out and encouragement for him to keep doing what he's doing.

55:51

He's put some really good stuff together on his channel. So hopefully that answers the question, and I think you get the idea.

55:58

So if you found this helpful, and now you have a better understanding of the account of the

56:05

Syrophoenician woman and Jesus talking about the Gentiles as dogs and how it then relates to the fuller understanding of Scripture, then please, by all means, share this video.

56:16

Give it a like and a thumbs up and ring the bell and all those kind of things, and take the link and share it with other people so that they can benefit from that as well.

56:25

So until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.