Insiders Or Outsiders
Every community has people who are insiders and outsiders. It does not matter whether you are part of a group of people or by yourself; your particular characteristics, beliefs, race, skin color, education, wealth, and behavior judge you. Others will see you as either a winner or a loser. If I were a Jew in Nazi Germany, for example, I would have been an “outsider” and required to wear a yellow Star of David on my clothes. If I were a Tutsi in Rwanda in the 1990s, I would have had an ID card identifying my race. If my skin color were a specific shade, it would designate me as a racial “outsider.”
However, who is inside and outside any culture is a matter of perspective. I have a friend in Tennessee who is an Anabaptist. He told me his church community intentionally lives as “outsiders.” They push away most of the modern ways of the secular culture in the United States. Being an outsider is their desired identity. We live in a world of suits and ties, tattoos, and body piercings that define us as an insider or outsider. People choose to live as outsiders for different reasons; body art is just a means of “dressing” that differs from the rest of society. The boundaries around who is in and out shift and change constantly.
The Gospel record of Jesus’ life often blurred the lines between who was inside and outside. He frequently said those outside of society were actually on the inside. In his “outside-in” statements, the first would be last, and the last first. He rejected the outsider rules that rejected the poor, the broken, the sick, the disabled, and persons of a different race. He came to save the lost and went out into the community where the outsiders lived, offering them the opportunity to be insiders in the Kingdom of Heaven. For those whom the community said were on the outside, Jesus opened his arms and heart wide in hospitality, far beyond what was acceptable at that time.
Jesus’ example during an encounter with an unnamed woman was a great teaching moment for me. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is passing through a gentile region of Tyre and Sidon when a believed to be gentile woman asks Him to heal her daughter, who was possessed by an evil spirit. Being a male from the tribe of Judah, her people saw him as an outsider in their gentile land. But, he speaks to her as He being an Israelite insider. “It is not good to take the children’s food and give it to the dogs.”In the Gospel of Mark, there is a story about Jesus interacting with an unnamed woman that has been very impactful to me. Jesus is traveling through a gentile region when a woman, believed to be a gentile, asks Him to heal her daughter who was possessed by an evil spirit. Even though the woman and her people were seen as outsiders, he still talks to her, referring to his heritage from Judah. He says, “It is not good to take the children’s food and give it to the dogs.”
(1) in Matthew’s account of a woman of outsider status is highlighted in even stronger terms. She was a Canaanite woman—a member of the people group Israel was commanded to expel from the land but didn’t many years earlier.
I was more familiar with a loving, welcoming Jesus and was shocked by what seemed like a very uncaring response. Matthew said that the woman pleaded with Jesus to help her, yet “he did not answer her a word.”
(2) Is this the same Jesus who told of the good Samaritan who welcomed an outsider into his care? How is it that Jesus could ignore her cries for help? Or was He just waiting for her to plead and keep pleading for her daughter’s needs? This woman was not discouraged with Him being slow to respond. She may have experienced many times how others treated her as an outsider. She loved her daughter, and after hearing news reports about Jesus, she was not giving up. She reminded me of other great negotiators in the Scriptures—Abraham, when he bargained with the heavenly visitors over the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah; Moses, who bargained with Jesus over destroying the people in the wilderness; and King Hezekiah, who bargained for more years of life—she said: “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
Matthew and Mark record Jesus’ delight at her response, which came from Faith. In Mark, Jesus is impressed simply by what she has said; “For this saying you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” In Matthew, Jesus acknowledges her extraordinary Faith; “O woman, great is your faith!” For a long time, I did not realize the boldness and courage of this outsider and the gift of Jesus in allowing her to speak to him. A Gentile woman alone with a daughter did not have a very good position in first-century society, and I am sad to say that has not changed. As a Gentile and a woman, she was an alien invisible to the insider society. Her ‘outsider’ status was very low because she did not have a husband to represent her in the community. The number of men she has been with shows that life was not easy or secure. Yet, this woman stepped beyond the boundaries set by the insiders and, most likely, also the outsiders to seek out Jesus for her daughter. Jesus speaks of her great Faith and determination. This woman’s story demonstrates that the Covenant given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob overflows to the outside. This woman, with great Faith, demonstrates this lesson more than other lessons given inside Jesus’ own circles. This story also enlarges Father’s Grace to the Gentile world.
We never have to worry that a blessing given to someone on the outside does not take away the blessings allotted to someone on the inside. As Peter said to the gentile Cornelius, “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, anyone who fears Almighty Father and is “Born Again” does what is right is acceptable to God.”
(3) Beyond this ancient story, if we ever feel ourselves as an outsider, be encouraged. For here, this outsider of outsiders is the recipient of healing. Read the full story in Mark 7:24-30. Matthew 15:21-28, and Acts 10:34-35.
To the Israelites & Gentiles today, we don’t know what DNA blood we have. Both Natural and Wild Branches must be grafted into the True Vine of Jesus. The Father will soon gather the adopted Gentiles, the house of Judah and house of Israel, at “The Last Trump.” We will all know what Tribe we are in and what gate of the New Jerusalem we are to enter to come and worship around the Father and Lamb’s Throne and enjoy our city home. Then the saved will all become Insiders!
