Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-november-14-2023
Matthew 15:21-28
The Faith of a Canaanite Woman
21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon possession.”
23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”
24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.
In seminary preaching classes, small groups of students would listen to sermons we had written. Then the listeners would give feedback. But they would not say they thought the sermon was good or bad. Instead, they’d try to see how much of the sermon they could remember. The idea is that a good sermon should “form in memory” – people should remember the theological ideas they had heard.
In my class, one of my classmates preached a sermon on this text. He’s a really bright guy, and it was probably the most memorable sermon I heard in the class. (He’s now a member of our denomination’s staff.) In his sermon, the student preacher said that lots of people hate this passage because Jesus seems to be calling the woman and her child ‘dogs.’ He said we think that was rude of Jesus, and that we secretly think Jesus should have been more polite to the woman. The student preacher said we want to domesticate Jesus. He said a part of our minds says, “Here, Jesus. Stay, Jesus. Sit, Jesus.”
In the story, Jesus and his disciples had traveled to “the region of Tyre and Sidon.” This was an area along the Mediterranean coast northwest of Galilee, where Jesus did most of his ministry. We’re not told why Jesus went there, but it seems possible that he had just gone to rest and relax at the shore. The gospels say the crowds that came out to hear him made it hard for Jesus to get any rest in Judea and Galilee.
Most of the people around Tyre and Sidon were Phoenician or Canaanite. One of the local people, a Canaanite woman, starts to follow Jesus around, asking for healing for her daughter, who she says is suffering from demonic possession.
And there’s something interesting about the way the woman addresses Jesus. She calls him “Lord, Son of David.” Think about that – for a typical Canaanite woman, it would be unusual to know that the expected Hebrew Messiah would be descended from David. It would be even more unusual for a Canaanite woman to identify a visiting rabbi from Galilee as being that Messiah. So either she had done some checking about who Jesus was, or the Holy Spirit had revealed to her his true identity.
At first Jesus just ignores the woman’s pleas, but she persists. Eventually she starts to annoy the disciples, so they ask Jesus to send her away. But somehow she gets past the disciples, throws herself at the feet of Jesus, and pleads for help for her child.
That brings us to the part of the story that bothers us. At first, Jesus doesn’t help the woman. He tells her he has been sent only to “the lost sheep of Israel.” And then he says something even more troubling: “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” That’s the part we really hate – the thought that Jesus refuses to help a woman and her sick child – and that he calls them “dogs.”
The Bible scholars wrestle with this story about as much as we do, and they haven’t managed to agree on an explanation. But it seems to me that this story is what some of the scholars call an “enacted parable.” In other words, sometimes Jesus would do something in such a way that his actions communicated an important lesson, just as his spoken parables used stories to teach lessons.
When you look at what happens here, Jesus starts out by saying that he had been sent to the lost sheep of Israel. And we know that’s true; he did appear among the Hebrew people. But in this story, Jesus has led his disciples outside the borders of the promised land into the gentile world. And when the Canaanite woman continues in her humble faith to ask for healing, Jesus grants her plea and provides that healing for her daughter. So it seems to me that we’re meant to see Jesus’ action as a sign of what God was doing: having sent the Word first to Israel, God was now extending it into a gentile world that was crying out for its healing power.
And the New Testament scholars say the part about the dogs had a different meaning to ancient readers than it does to us. The Greek term used here has more of a sense of domestic ‘puppies’ – than it does of dirty, wild dogs. (Some scholars say people in those days didn’t have pet dogs, but the fact that they had a separate word for domestic dogs kind of blows up that theory.)
In any case, what Jesus says to the woman gives her an opening to say something like, “Then we’re willing to take even ‘leftover’ blessings” – as though even the tiniest bit of Jesus’ power would be enough to heal her child. Which Jesus then seems happy to provide. He compliments the woman on her great faith, and heals her daughter.
Throughout history, God has often acted in surprising ways. God has always chosen surprising people to do his work for him, and has directed them to work in ways that others found shocking. We tend to miss that because we’re so familiar with lots of the stories. But throughout history, the ‘shock value’ in God’s actions has tended to grab people’s attention. Just think about how different Jesus was from his people’s expectations of the Messiah. Shockingly different, in fact. So we probably shouldn’t be surprised if he occasionally acted in ways that seem shocking to us.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for your willingness to spread your blessing into the whole world, including to our gentile ancestors and to us. Renew our willingness to wrestle with the stories of scripture so that you can surprise and challenge and transform us by your word and the teachings of Jesus. Amen.
Every Blessing,
Henry
(The other readings for today are Psalms 81 and 82; Nehemiah 4:1-23; and Revelation 18:9-20. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
Recent Comments