Bigoted, Biased and Racist Jesus

6/8/2015

Mark Fitzsimmons is the senior pastor at the ELCA’s Lutheran Church of the Nativity in Arden, North Carolina. On August 14, 2011, the Gospel lesson was from Matthew 15 where Jesus is asked to heal a Canaanite woman's daughter, and here is what Pastor Fitzimmons had to say in his sermon:

“In the lesson we see a little prejudice, we see a little racism. And unfortunately it’s coming off the lips of Jesus, our Savior, our messiah. Did you hear it?”

Pastor Fitzsimmons then focuses in on Jesus’ comment to the Canaanite woman in which He says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel...It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” Pastor Fitzsimmons responds, “In Jesus day, ‘dog’ is the derogatory, racist slur that a Jew would use for a Gentile. Jesus said that.” (Listen here. Also, sermons from church here)

This isn’t the first time an ELCA leader criticizes Jesus’ words in Matthew 15. Last year we reported on Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney, associate professor of Hebrew and Old Testament at the ELCA’s Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (LTSP) make some audacious statements:

“Jesus said to a woman kneeling at his feet begging for help for her child, 'Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.' Did Jesus just call that woman a b----? I know this is Jesus and we’ve been trained to read him and hear him religiously, more than religiously, divinely, incarnationally. But where I come from you cannot call a child a dog without calling her mama a dog and you cannot call a woman a dog without calling her a b----.”

“How human, how divine is your Jesus? Is he human enough to be bigoted and biased? Or does your preconceived notion of the divinity of Jesus mean that whatever he said was holy.” (read here)

Jesus is bigoted, biased and racist? Jesus sinned? That’s the claim of these ELCA leaders. These leaders are teaching about the Son of God? God incarnate.

Are these the words of God or those of the devil?

"Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” - Matthew 7:15

5 Comments

Didaskalos link

6/9/2015 01:44:42 am

If Martin Luther were alive today and witnessing the manifold heresies and apostasies of the ELCA that illegitimately claims his name, he would (as one Twitter correspondent put it) "be nailing his arm off." The Higgins Road ELCA headquarters door wouldn't have room for Luther's indictments.

The ELCA is wholly "committed to the mission of revising the Christian faith in order to make peace with the spirit of the age.” -- http://www.albertmohler.com/2013/05/01/confessional-integrity-and-the-stewardship-of-words/

About the Syrophoenician woman, Luther preached:

“. . . All this, however, is written for our comfort and instruction, that we may know how deeply God conceals his grace before our face, and that we may not estimate him according to our feelings and thinking, but strictly according to his Word. For here you see, though Christ appears to be even hardhearted, yet he gives no final decision by saying "No." All his answers indeed sound like no, but they are not no, they remain undecided and pending. For he does not say: I will not hear thee; but is silent and passive, and says neither yes nor no. In like manner he does not say she is not of the house of Israel; but he is sent only to the house of Israel; he leaves it undecided and pending between yes and no. So he does not say, Thou art a dog, one should not give thee of the children's bread; but it is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs; leaving it undecided whether she is a dog or not. Yet all those trials of her faith sounded more like no than yes; but there was more yea in them than nay; aye, there is only yes in them, but it is very deep and very concealed, while there appears to be nothing but no.

"By this is set forth the condition of our heart in times of temptation; Christ here represents how it feels. It thinks there is nothing but no and yet that is not true. Therefore it must turn from this feeling and lay hold of and retain the deep spiritual yes under and above the no with a firm faith in God's Word, as this poor woman does, and say God is right in his judgment which he visits upon us; then we have triumphed and caught Christ in his own words. As for example when we feel in our conscience that God rebukes us as sinners and judges us unworthy of the kingdom of heaven, then we experience hell, and we think we are lost forever. Now whoever understands here the actions of this poor woman and catches God in his own judgment, and says: Lord, it is true, I am a sinner and not worthy of thy grace; but still thou hast promised sinners forgiveness, and thou art come not to call the righteous, but, as St. Paul says in I Tim 1, 15, "to save sinners." Behold, then must God according to his own judgment have mercy upon us.

"King Manasseh did likewise in his penitence as his prayer proves; he conceded that God was right in his judgment and accused himself as a great sinner and yet he laid hold of the promised forgiveness of sins. David also does likewise in Ps 51, 4 and says: "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight; that thou mayest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest." For God's disfavor in every way visits us when we cannot agree with his judgment nor say yea and amen, when he considers and judges us to be sinners. If the condemned could do this, they would that very moment be saved. We say indeed with our mouth that we are sinners; but when God himself says it in our hearts, then we are not sinners, and eagerly wish to be considered pious and free from that judgment. But it must be so; if God is to be righteous, in his words that teach you are a sinner, then you may claim the rights of all sinners that God has given them, namely, the forgiveness of sins. Then you eat not only the crumbs under the table as the little dogs do; but you are also a child and have God as your portion according to the pleasure of your will.

"This is the spiritual meaning of our Gospel and the scriptural explanation of it. For what this poor woman experienced in the bodily affliction of her daughter, whom she miraculously caused to be restored to health again by her faith, that we also experience when we wish to be healed of our sins and of our spiritual diseases, which is truly a wicked devil possessing us; here she must become a dog and we become sinners and brands of hell, and then we have already recovered from our sickness and are saved.”

Martin Luther, “The Faith of the Syrophoenician Woman: Sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent (Matthew 15:21-28)”

Stacey

6/11/2015 10:54:49 am

Thank you for posting that, Didaskalos. I think we can all rest assured that very few ELCA clergy or hierarchy are familiar with Luther anymore, let alone his explanation of this Scripture.

Erik link

6/11/2015 10:35:17 pm

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (1 John 4:1-6)

Jerry Haynes

7/5/2015 12:02:01 pm

ELCA pastors seem to be unable to understand the meaning of Jesus' statement, "Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair take the children's food and throw it to the dogs" (Mt 15:26; Mk 7:27). But the rest of us, who know what it means to have to make do, have no trouble understanding the concept of feeding the children before the dogs, or paying the heating bill before the cable, etc.

Although Jesus performed miracles by the power of God, his time and human energy were limited; and his first responsibility was to the Jews, not the Gentiles.

Kevin Haug link

9/8/2015 09:49:08 am

If you will permit, here is my sermon and full exegesis on this text. It is a far cry from what many of my colleagues will preach:

http://countrypreacherscorner.blogspot.com/2015/08/why-would-jesus-call-woman-dog.html

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Bigoted, Biased and Racist Jesus

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