‘“Lord,’ she replied, ‘even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs’” (Mark 7:28).
I met Kamran on my first day in Thermodynamics. We became fast friends and study buddies. Truth be told, Kamran got me through Thermo. We would go on to take several other engineering courses together. I always did better when Kamran was in the room.
One day after a particularly grueling racquetball match, Kamran and I were sitting on the racquetball court floor sharing a bottle of gatorade when he began to tell me his story. Kamran was from Iran. His father had been a cabinet member in the Shah’s regime. Kamran’s family narrowly escaped the violent overthrow of the Shah’s government in 1979.
He and his family went from living in a mansion in Tehran with a dozen servants to a one bedroom apartment on the seedy side of Chicago. He watched his father’s instantaneous descent from a decorated soldier and respected diplomat to a dishwasher at a nearby deli during the day and a pizza delivery boy at night.
There was a tone of pride in his voice as he described how his Muslim father endured discrimination in his new home in America (thanks to the Iran hostage crisis), and how he worked three jobs to claw his way into the middle class, saving every penny he could for his son’s education.
Kamran took a swig of Gatorade, handed the bottle back to me and said, “Your Jesus was right when he said, ‘What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, but lose their soul.’” At the time I had only a Sunday School education and had no idea Jesus said that. I had to go home and look it up.
What was Kamran’s point? They could take away all his father’s wealth, but his soul was still intact.
Two things have stayed with me about that conversation: (1) My Muslim friend may have known more about what Jesus said than I did; and, (2) He was much wiser than I was because of his experiences (The worst thing that had happened to me up to that point was that I bounced a check and had to call my Dad for more money).
Kamran and I couldn’t have been more different, yet his friendship enriched me.
Jesus Honors a Grecian Woman’s Faith
One day Jesus was traveling through the gentile province of Tyre. He was dining at the home of a friend when a Grecian woman of Tyre approached the table to ask him for help. Her daughter was very sick and she hoped that Jesus might heal her.
Jesus indicated that he couldn’t help her because she was not Jewish. She was a triple outsider to his little missionary group – a female, gentile, pagan. Whatever you conclude about Jesus’ motives and what he was trying to do with this woman will impact your Christology, but is irrelevant to the point of the story.
This pagan, gentile, woman who had the audacity to approach Jesus and the tenacity to not back down, taught everyone at the table an important lesson about faith. Jesus always seemed to discover this kind of faith in the most unusual and unexpected places.
In doing so, he taught us the value of staying at the table.
Jesus Eats With Sinners
One day the Pharisees saw that Jesus was eating at the table of Levi the tax-collector and all his tax collector friends. They pulled some of the disciples aside and asked them why Jesus was eating with these trashy people.
Jesus overheard them and responded, “Because that’s my mission in life.” Jesus seemed to say, “Trashy people are my kind of people.”
In fact, Jesus ate at the table with all kinds of trashy people – tax collectors, prostitutes, cheaters, religious bigots, hypocrites – he didn’t cherry-pick one sin over the other the way we do.
For instance, one day Jesus was sitting at the table of a local Pharisee (i.e., a religious bigot and hypocrite). An uninvited woman from the streets came in and began to wash Jesus’ feet with her tears and dry them with her hair. The Pharisee criticized Jesus for claiming to be a prophet yet unable to discern that this woman was a terrible sinner and therefore beneath him.
Jesus told the Pharisee that the one who is forgiven much loves much and the one who is forgiven little loves little. The woman was simply acknowledging the magnitude of her own sins. Everyone in town knew all about her sins. Unlike the Pharisees, she couldn’t hide them. Truth be told, the Pharisee’s sins were just as bad, but had been so whitewashed, and made so socially acceptable that the Pharisee and everyone else in town could no longer see them.
That’s why staying at the table is so important.
The Virtue of Staying at the Table
When you stay at the table you make a public statement about the nature of your own sins compared to those of others, you foster a kinship with those who are still grappling, still searching, and you are enriched by the wisdom gleaned from a new and foreign perspective.
As the Christian faith experiences massive cultural shifts in America, more and more Christians are threatened by the diversity of the national table. Disguising their fear with bravado, they flip the table over and stomp off in self-righteous indignation.
They misunderstand the words of John, “Do not love the world or anything in the world” (1 John 2:15), and elevate them above the words of Jesus, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:39).
They will always be poorer for having allowed their fears to drive them from the table.
The only tables Jesus ever turned over and walked away from were those used by the religious elite to discriminate against the poor, the marginalized, and the foreigner. Every other time he stayed at the table, no matter who was sitting across from him.
Be like Jesus. Stay at the table. You’ll be richer for it. I know I have been.
This insight was written by Dr. Ellis Orozco. Dr. Orozco served in ministry as a pastor for 30 years. He is the founder and CEO of Karooso Ministries and the Public Theologian in Residence at Stark College & Seminary.