Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Does the Bible Talk About Race? | New Testament | Matthew 15

Episode Date: January 20, 2023

Is race a social issue or a gospel issue? What does the New Testament say about race? Is Jesus for everyone? Are you missing the heart of Jesus? In today's episode, Keith discusses Matthew 15 and shares the Bible's view on race. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in 2023. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Matthew 15 Want to learn more? Check out these resources: A Racial Reconciliation Playbook with Derwin Gray Talking About Race with Isaac Adams

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. After I preached a sermon on race a few years ago, more than one person in our congregation said something to me to the effect of, look, you're a pastor. Why are you talking about race? You should be preaching the gospel. Race is a social issue. It's not a gospel issue.

Now, I don't think those people who said that to me are unique or unusual. That's a common view inside of American Christianity. And I admit that for several years after coming to faith in college, I would have agreed with those sentiments. I probably said something very similar to race as a social issue, not a gospel issue. Here's the problem with that. It's a misreading of the Bible and the gospel. Racial reconciliation is a gospel issue. It's a biblical issue.

It takes great effort to read the Bible and miss how it addresses race. Just in the New Testament, Race is at the center of the differences between Jews and Samaritans that we read about in the Gospels. It's behind the charges of unfair treatment the widows of the Hellenistic Jews received at the hands of the Hebraic Jews in Acts 6. It's the reason the early church was unsure Samaritans could become Christians in Acts 18. It's the reason Peter wouldn't eat with the Gentiles in the Book of Galatians. It's the reason that some Jews wanted to kill Jesus us by throwing him off a cliff in Luke 4. In Ephesians 2, Paul tells us that Jesus tears down the dividing

wall between Jew and Gentile. You could make a good case that the entire book of Romans was written to address the rift between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. Now, is the difference between Jew and Samaritan or Jew Gentile the exact same thing as we mean by race today? Well, no, the way we define race today is a relatively modern construct. But, but, But these divisions share many of the same underlying issues. People who look different and speak different and have different cultures always find it hard to form a community. All the way back in Genesis 11, we see the world divided at the Tower of Babel.

In the very next chapter, chapter 12, God promises to create a new family through Abraham and through that family to bless all the nations of the world. Then at the end of the Bible, in the book of Revelation, we're told of a multi-ethnic, multilingual, multinational church worshiping Jesus. God kept his promise to Abraham. Okay, so today we're in Matthew chapter 15. We'll pick up in verse 21. Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

Tire and Sidon are about a 30-mile walk from where Jesus is. But the distance isn't as shocking as the destination. These are two cities in Gentile territory. So what is the Jewish Messiah doing among the pagans? Well, you could say that Jesus is on a mission trip. He's doing the Great Commission before he commands the Great Commission. Verse 22. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him crying out,

Lord, son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly. In Mark's version of the story, he identifies this woman as being from Cyphranicia, which is accurate, but Matthew calls her a Canaanite, which is also accurate. Now Matthew refers to her as a Canaanite because he's telling his Jewish readers that this woman is of a different race. She's one of those bad people who was spoken of back in the Old Testament. Jesus is extending grace to a Canaanite woman. Both descriptions of her are striking.

First, she's a Canaanite. That's pretty bad. This is somebody that everyone would have thought Jesus should have stayed away from. But she's also a woman. Jewish men were not to associate with any woman who is not their wife. from mother, and Jewish rabbis were never to associate with Gentile sinners. Remember how shocked the disciples were when Jesus talked with the woman at the well? She was a Samaritan woman.

Well, this is a Canaanite woman. Everyone would have been shocked that Jesus was giving her time and attention. The disciples want Jesus to send this woman away, but he says to her in verse 24, I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. So this woman begs again for help. And then this is how the story finishes. Jesus tells her, it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs. Yes, it is, Lord, she said.

Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table. Then Jesus said to her, woman, you have great faith. Your request is granted. And her daughter was healed that moment. The children that Jesus is referring to are the people of Israel. And the dogs, well, that's a derogatory slur for Gentiles. Jesus is willing to let a Canaanite woman become a child of Abraham. The kingdom of God is open to everyone, Jew and Gentile, men and women, rich and poor.

Everyone is welcome. Right after this, Jesus goes to the Sea of Galilee where he feeds 4,000 people in a story that sounds very similar to the feeding of 5,000. Now, it's similar, but it's not the same because there's one major difference. When Jesus fed 5,000 people, it was full of people who were primarily, Jewish, and the 4,000 people were primarily Gentiles. Do you see what he's doing? He's saying that I've come for everyone, that there are no people who are excluded from my kingdom if they will only repent of their sin and believe in me. Jesus is creating a new family of people who are of different races, different economic backgrounds, different politics, but what they have in common is they are all

pledging their allegiance to Jesus. John 1335 says, by this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. Jesus says that we show the world that he is our Lord, that we are his followers when we love people who are different than us. If you want to learn more about God's diverse kingdom, the kingdom that is made up of people from every tongue, tribe, and nation, I would encourage you to read a book like Healing the Racial Divide by Derwin Gray, or the one written by I Isaac Adams called Talking About Race. We had both of those pastors, Pastor Gray and Pastor Adams, on one of our other podcasts

called Truth Over Tribe. You can listen to those conversations there if you want. Let me finish with a personal story. Promise Keepers was a men's ministry that used to have big stadium events, where men would come and sing and worship and listen to a lineup of speakers. I went to one of those events, and the theme of the one I went to was, let the walls fall down. The whole event was focused on racial reconciliation. I was a very young Christian and immature in every way that you can imagine. I didn't realize the wall that they were saying needed to fall

down was a reference to Ephesians 2. I didn't realize how important the issue of racial unity is to God. I thought promise keepers was taking their focus off Jesus by talking about racial unity. It turns out, that I didn't understand the Bible. I'd miss the heart of Jesus. Jesus came to reconcile sinners to God and to each other. Amen. Hey, thanks for listening. If you want to go deeper, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talk newsletter.

You'll get a short email once a week. It'll challenge you to grow in your faith, give you interesting background on today's passage, and a lot, lot more. Just click the link in the show notes to sign up. It'll help you deepen your journey with Jesus.