Former ELCA head bishop: Jesus was hurtful and mean to Syrophoenician woman, but He changed His mind

8/21/2023

(The following article was written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and Twitter - here.)

I have reported before on Elk River Lutheran Church in Elk River, Minnesota, and their gay pride worship services. It makes sense that they have twice invited former presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Mark Hanson, to speak since it was during his leadership in 2009 that the ELCA voted to perform gay weddings and ordain practicing homosexuals. In his sermon, Hanson defended “children who are transitioning” (to the opposite sex). Hanson then preached that Jesus was mean and hurtful in His response to the Syrophoenician woman. Gratefully, according to Hanson, Jesus changed His mind and showed mercy to the woman.

Also, Hanson stated that the woman’s daughter was not really demon possessed in Matthew 15:21 but instead she had a mental illness.

Hanson could have pointed out that Jesus was challenging and testing the Syrophoenician woman’s faith and then He rewarded her faith. Instead, Hanson stated that Jesus used despicable language to her. Hanson states that he was “flummoxed” by the way Jesus treated her (start about minute 35:24 below).

But if Jesus sinned against this woman, then He would not be the innocent Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. If Jesus sinned, He would have to die for His own sins and could not die for ours. For this reason, the New Testament insists that Jesus was sinless (I Peter 1:18-19, 2:22, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 4:15, I John 3:5). Sadly, this former head bishop of the ELCA did not insist on that point.

In Christ,

Pastor Tom Brock

5 Comments

Didaskalos link

8/21/2023 02:27:45 pm

When Jesus is only your denomination's Great Example of How To Stand Up To the Establishment, not mankind's only Savior from sin and the only way to the Father, of course you're going to drag the sinless Son of God down to a level that doesn't threaten your impenitent sin-embracing lifestyles.

The exegesis of David Guzik and others like Charles Spurgeon, whom Guzik cites in his commentary on Matthew 15, stand in stark contrast to the eisegesis of the Bible-disdaining, Bible-flouting ELCA clerics:

[ . . .] . "It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs": Jesus continued to say discouraging things to the woman, yet this was not quite as severe as it might first sound. When Jesus called her one of the little dogs, He used little as a way to soften the harshness of calling her a dog. This softened the traditional Jewish slur towards Gentiles, which called them dogs in the most derogatory sense.

i. We are at the great disadvantage of not hearing the tone of Jesus’ voice as He spoke to this woman. We suspect that His tone was not harsh; we rather suspect that it was winsome with the effect of inviting greater faith from the woman. It is possible to speak harsh words in a playful or winsome manner.

ii. “Its harshest word [dogs] contains a loophole. [Dogs] does not compare Gentiles to the dogs without, in the street, but to the household dogs belonging to the family, which have their portion though not the children’s.” (Bruce)

c. "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table": The woman responded with great faith. She admitted her low estate, and did not debate the issue when Jesus called her one of the little dogs. She did not demand to be seen as a child; but only to be blessed as a dog.

i. It was as if she said, “Jesus, I understand that the focus of Your ministry is to the Jews – that they have a special place in God’s redemptive plan. Yet I also understand that Your ministry extends beyond the Jewish people, and I want to be part of that extended blessing.”

ii. Her response is especially meaningful in light of the increasing rejection of Jesus by the Jewish religious leaders. It was as if the woman said, “I’m not asking for the portion that belongs to the children, just the crumbs that they don’t want.” In the flow of Matthew’s gospel, there was more and more that the Jewish religious establishment did not want to receive.

iii. These were two faith-filled words: "Yet even." She accepted Jesus’ description and asked for mercy despite it – or perhaps because of it. “She would not give over, though he gave her three repulses. So as she said, like Jacob, I will not thee go, until thou bless me. And as he, like a prince, so she, like a princess, prevailed with God and obtained the thing which she desired.” (Poole)

iv. “Dear friend, possibly someone has whispered in your ear, ‘Suppose you are not one of the elect.’ Well, that was very much what our Lord’s expression meant to her…Notice that this woman does not battle with that truth at all, she does not raise any question about it; she wisely waives it, and she just goes on praying, ‘Lord, help me! Lord, have mercy upon me!’ I invite you, dear friend, to do just the same.” (Spurgeon)

4. (28) Jesus rewards the great faith of the Gentile woman.
Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour. . . .

"O woman, great is your faith!" Jesus never said this to another person. He complimented the great faith of the Roman centurion who asked Jesus to heal his servant (Matthew 8:10), but He said it to the crowd, not to the centurion directly. This Gentile woman heard it from Jesus directly.

Significantly, the only two people to receive this compliment from Jesus were these Gentiles. . . .

We read of nothing else that Jesus did during this time in Tyre and Sidon. It would seem that His only divine appointment was to meet the need of this woman of faith and her afflicted daughter.

Enduring Word Bible Commentary
-- https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/matthew-15/

Born again

8/21/2023 05:06:37 pm

Jesus has already won against this woke mob. The woke mob is losing in other places too. Look at Bud Light failing. Target sales are way off. Songs against wokeness are topping the charts. Time to boycott the ELCA.

Ken

8/22/2023 09:43:58 am

I’m less concerned about his sermon and more about his pro-trans rhetoric. How can he claim to be Christian and yet be in favor of mutilating young kids before they are old enough to understand the consequences? Smh.

Snuggarunt

8/29/2023 07:11:09 am

Sometimes, God can be such a bigot! If only His thoughts and His ways were more like mine! Amen.

Wally Schiller

9/10/2023 07:13:45 pm

Poor sermon in any event.
A dose of feel-good claptrap for most of it, sadly. One would expect better from a one-time leader.

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Former ELCA head bishop: Jesus was hurtful and mean to Syrophoenician woman, but He changed His mind

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