The Christian Chronicle (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 76, No. 1, Ed. 1 Tuesday, January 1, 2019 Page: 4 of 35
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CONTACT: erik@christianchronicle.org
the problem, I think, is that we’re so
focused on the woman that we forget
the actual audience — the disciples.
These are, after all, the same
disciples who, one chapter earlier,
tried to send away a multitude that
had gathered to hear Jesus. His
response: “You give them something
to eat. ’’They did, and he blessed it.
Oh, and there were 12 baskets —
baskets of crumbs — left over.
A few verses later, Jesus walks
on water, and Peter attempts to join
him. As he looks away from Christ
and sinks, Peter cries out, “Lord,
save me!” much like the Canaanite
woman cries out, “Lord, help me!”
In the end, Jesus praises the
woman’s faith and grants her
FROM PAGE 3
I could’ve listed dozens of reasons
for supporting mission work. But I
kept thinking of that circle of hate.
I decided to preach on how God
uses global missions to change the
“other” into “brother.”
Take, for example, the migrant
caravan at the U.S. border. I hesitate
to bring it up because of the charged
political climate, but that’s the point.
For some of us, the souls who are
wearing out their soles as they walk
from Honduras are the “other” —
the threat at our doors. They’re law-
breakers and drug dealers.
But some of us use the caravan to
demonize another “other” — those
with legitimate concerns about
border security, terrorism, human
trafficking. We paint them as cold,
ignorant and heartless. They’re not.
Amidst the polarizing noise, very
few of us are getting reliable infor-
mation about who these people are
and why they’re coming here.
I was at the U.S./Mexico border
just a few months ago, covering a
story about the Church of Christ
North in Pharr, Texas, and their
outreach to Spanish speakers on
both sides of the border. Just south
of McAllen, in Reynosa, Mexico,
I met a Mexican woman named
Virginia who had worked in the U.S.
illegally and raised four kids there.
“I know what you think of me,”
she said, but she wanted me to know
that, when she was in the U.S., she
worked hard and didn’t take anything
from my government After all, she
added, “Even dogs labor to eat.”
At that moment, Virginia was no
longer the “other” to me. She was a
real person, and her words reminded
me of the Canaanite woman’s
response to Jesus in Matthew 15:
“Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall
from their master’s table. ”
It’s from a story that really disturbs
me. You see, this woman (a Canaanite,
someone the Jews were warned to
stay away from in the Old Testament,
an “other”) wants Jesus to cast out
a demon from her daughter, but the
disciples try to send her away. Finally,
Jesus says, “It is not right to take the
children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
Ouch! That can’t be right, can it?
Biblical scholars have tried, in vain,
to water down Jesus’ words. Part of
ERIKTRYGGESTAD
Christian Derendorf visits the book-burning memorial in Frankfurt, Germany.
'OTHER: We struggle with Jesus words to the Canaanite woman
request. I think he also challenges
his disciples to see her as more
than an “other.” She’s not just a
Canaanite; she’s a fellow recipient
of God’s mercy. Jesus takes a name
spoken in hatred and redefines it.
(He does this a lot. Remember
that other group of people loathed
by Jesus’ followers, the Samaritans?
What’s the first word that comes to
mind when we think of them now?)
Back in Frankfurt, one of the most
striking features of that book-burning
memorial is the building next to it
— Old Nikolai Church, which dates
back to the 1300s. What did the
people who worshiped here have to
say about what happened in 1933?
Did they sit in silence? Did they
participate? Did they later join the
Confessing Church, the group asso-
ciated with Dietrich Bonhoeffer that
stood up to the evil of the Nazis?
My tour guide, Christian, visited
the U.S. with his wife in 2017 when
that white nationalist rally took place
in Charlottesville, Va., resulting in the
death of a counter-protester.
He couldn’t believe what he saw
on TV — young men marching with
torches, yelling “Jews will not replace
us!” His country still wears the scars
of that hatred, even 85 years later.
We can’t allow that again. In 2019, we
must not shut out the world and live
in fear of the “other.” I pray that God
— through our mission work, through
whatever means necessary — will
help us see his children as they are:
brothers all, in need of a Savior.
*
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erik@christianchronicle.org
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4 THE CHRISTIAN CHRONICLE
JANUARY 2019
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Tryggestad, Erik. The Christian Chronicle (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 76, No. 1, Ed. 1 Tuesday, January 1, 2019, newspaper, January 1, 2019; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1509397/m1/4/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Christian University Library.