“Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” Jesus in today’s Gospel, Matthew 15:21-28.
“Racism in academia is a fact of life and must be addressed.” Paul Boateng, on the death of Jason Arday, a former professor at Cambridge University.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus has left Galilee and gone to Tyre and Sidon, a place where Gentiles live and he is an outsider. Perhaps he was doing this to have some time to himself, having left the crowds behind, but Jesus is interrupted by a Canaanite woman who persists in asking him to heal her daughter. This nameless woman represents ancient divisions and enmities with the Jews but although custom dictated that they should be separate, she approaches Jesus and his male disciples without hesitation, respectfully addressing him as, “Lord, Son of David.” That Messianic title is one that his own disciples have not yet used for Jesus, but this female Gentile stranger seems to grasp his identity more readily than they do.
As she does this, Jesus at first says nothing. Perhaps he was obeying the rules of separation, taking time to think or embarrassed by what was happening – maybe, even hoping she would just go away! Matthew writes that the woman was shouting, imploring Jesus to help her daughter – to the extent that his disciples tell him to send her away because she’s shouting after them too. Jesus then says that he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel – he sees his ministry as being specifically to the Jews – but the woman kneels before him. Humbling herself, recognising Jesus’ authority in this way and desperate as any parent might be for their child’s sake, she simply says, “Lord, help me.”
However, this direct plea receives an unsettling reply from one who has previously urged his followers to love their enemy as well as their neighbour (Matthew 5:43,44). Jesus tells the Canaanite woman that the children’s food should not be taken from them and thrown to the dogs, a disrespectful and racist term sometimes used by Jews for Gentiles, at which she could have taken offence. However, her courteous and clever riposte is that dogs eat even the crumbs that fall from the table – with which I can identify, as my dog recently snatched food from my plate while I was answering the phone, snaffling not just crumbs but most of my meal! The woman accepts her lowly status and is hopeful of just receiving the leftovers which those at the table don’t want. She doesn’t try to deter his ministry to the Jews but rather to extend it to her for the sake of her daughter. The woman’s persistence and repartee break through the religious and cultural differences between them and Jesus praises her for her faith, her daughter then being instantly healed.
A woman and a Gentile who was even a Canaanite, one of the traditional enemies of the Jews – who would have thought that she would be the person who challenged Jesus to interpret his ministry more widely? Perhaps this encounter is at the heart of the later Great Commission when Jesus entrusts his ministry to his followers and tells them to make disciples of all nations and not just the house of Israel (28:19). His words to the Canaanite woman and final instructions to the disciples before leaving them still challenge Jesus’ followers today to look beyond the boundaries and restrictions, which can confine expectations and hopes, and to consider wider ways of overcoming racism, injustice and enmity. Doing so may seem intimidating or futile so we can be heartened by the example of that courageous Canaanite woman who differed so greatly from Jesus and yet found and extended God’s healing grace because of her persistence and need. Today, there may be situations in our own families and lives where our faith and persistence is also needed and could make a positive difference. Or maybe that’s coming from a different, perhaps even unlikely, source that we might struggle to even want to accept. Perhaps, then the example of the nameless Canaanite who made such a difference to the ministry of Jesus that day might hearten us as we consider the divisions and hopes of our own situations or those in the news. If that seems unlikely, then perhaps our prayer today could echo hers: “Lord, help me.”
With my prayers; pob bendith,
Christine, Priest Guardian.