12th Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 15A – Rev. Mark S Winward, MDiv, ThM
Jesus answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” — Matthew 15:26–27
Introduction
Today’s Gospel, at first glance, sounds pretty rough. Jesus has some pretty harsh words for this woman, who is clearly from a different ethnic group. And given the racial history and strife in our own nation, this doesn’t fall very well on our modern ears. Given wars in the Middle East, Russia pummeling Ukraine, and the mistreatment of immigrants in our own country, I need some good news right now. It is in times like these that our hearts are heavy with the reminder that evil exists and that, for many, their identity is defined by what divides them from others.
I want to suggest to you that today’s Gospel contains the seed of hope for a bitterly divided world. Although, on the surface, we might mistake it for being about sectarian divisions, it foreshadows the beginning of the end of all barriers. On the only recorded occasion when Jesus ventures outside Jewish territory, this account represents the first time Jesus’ message of hope, healing, and reconciliation touches non-Jews on its inevitable journey to transform the whole world.
Jesus in the Land of Tyre and Sidon
Even Jesus needed time to renew himself and prepare for what inevitably lay before him. For Jesus, this was almost certainly a deliberate withdrawal on the heels of the death of his kinsman, prophetic herald, and friend, John the Baptist. There was no place in Palestine where he could be sure of privacy; wherever he went, the crowds would find him.
So he went north through Galilee until he came to the Phoenician territory of Tyre and Sidon—what is now southern Lebanon. At least for a little while, he would get some relief from the scribes and Pharisees and from the fickle crowds. It would have been unlikely that any Jew would have followed him into non-Jewish territory.
This is not, in any sense, a picture of Jesus running away; it is a picture of him preparing himself and his disciples for the final and decisive battle that lay so close ahead.
The Canaanite Woman
No sooner does Jesus’ retreat begin than he is met by a Canaanite woman desperately crying out for him to heal her daughter. At first, Jesus seems to ignore her, until her pleading begins to annoy his disciples. The disciples come and complain, “Now she’s bothering us. Would you please take care of her? She’s driving us crazy” (The Message). This is not exactly a picture of Christian compassion. The reaction of the disciples is not really compassion at all; it is the reverse. To them, the woman is a nuisance, and all they want is to be rid of her as quickly as possible.
If we are going to be honest with ourselves, we have all been there at one time or another. We may eventually cave in just to get rid of this kind of person. But this is quite a bit different from the love, compassion, and outreach Christ calls us to.
But Jesus has a problem here. She is a Gentile. Not only is she a Gentile, but her ancestors were the Canaanites, the ancient enemies of the Jewish people. More importantly, God’s plan for the world was to work through the Jewish people. God’s covenant with them was that, if they would commit themselves to him, he would be their God and they would be his people. Jesus knew his mission was first to the Jewish people so that, through them, God’s covenant could be extended to all people. But before that happened, he needed to concentrate on Israel.
Still, the woman persists, throwing herself before him. So Jesus begins to banter with the woman through a pun that is pretty much lost in English.
Food for the Dogs
Jesus finally turns to her and says, “It’s not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” To call someone a dog in ancient Israel, as in today’s Middle Eastern cultures, is a serious insult. Wild dogs were common scavengers in every village—lean, mean, and diseased. Jews scorned non-Jews as “Gentile dogs,” “infidel dogs,” and, later, “Christian dogs.”
But the fact that the woman shoots back a clever response may mean that Jesus’ tone is hardly intended as an insult. I can imagine Jesus saying it with a slight smile that robs the words of any sting. The woman catches on and responds with a pun: “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
Scholars tell us that the kind of dogs she refers to might better be translated as “pups” or “pet dogs.” Not only does she turn the phrase from “street dog” to “pup,” but she also points to her dependence on him as a pet depends on its master!
I can see Jesus chuckling, amused by her faith, persistence, and sense of humor. Perhaps we can imagine Jesus’ eyes lighting up when he responds, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”
This Woman Had Some Important Characteristics
So what does this exchange teach us? First and foremost, she had faith. It was a faith that grew when she was before Jesus. She began by calling him “Son of David.” That was a popular title—a political title. It was a title that looked upon Jesus as a great and powerful wonder-worker, but it saw him in terms of earthly power and glory. She came with a kind of superstition, as she might have come to any magician. She ended by calling Jesus “Lord.”
Likewise, we may come to Jesus for many different reasons. Perhaps we need forgiveness to put to rest guilt we have long borne. Perhaps we are at the end of our rope and need a miracle. Perhaps we just need a change in our lives. But any genuine encounter with Jesus Christ, regardless of what brought us to him, ends in our transformation, as we come to know him as our Lord.
Second, this woman was persistent. She simply refused to turn away. This woman came to Jesus because he was her last and only hope, and she passionately clung to that hope, refusing to be discouraged.
Likewise, many people toss a prayer to heaven, thinking it can’t hurt but not really convinced it will help. Such faith generally does not stand up very well against adversity. Real persistence is ultimately born of love. In the words of Paul, love hopes all things, believes all things, and does not fail. Enduring hope trusts that God will answer our prayer while we place ourselves in his loving hands.
Finally, this woman kept a positive attitude even in the midst of crisis. Her response to Jesus could have been born of despair and anger. Instead, she kept her sense of humor.
Likewise, we can become negative and pessimistic in times of trouble. We can use our words to complain or, out of frustration, tear others down. But then there are those people who, no matter how bad the circumstances, will always find something positive to say. God loves the kind of faith in which there is always a glimmer of hope—a faith that can still find a smile even in desperate times.
Perhaps one of the most notable examples of such faith was Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch Christian who harbored Jews during World War II and was later imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp. By the way, I had the privilege of meeting this twentieth-century saint at a college chapel service in 1977. Corrie famously wrote, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.” This was born of her conviction that “there is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.”
Conclusion
The Canaanite woman came to Jesus with unwavering faith, indomitable persistence, and an irrepressible spirit. Jesus’ response as a Jew was to cross ethnic boundaries, ignore ancient rivalries, and put aside cultural prejudices to reach out to a child of God in need. In doing so, Jesus foreshadowed a faith on the other side of the cross, where Paul could write, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”
Many in this broken world may define themselves by their differences. But Christ calls us to break down the walls that divide us and to define ourselves as the children of a loving God. That begins with each one of us living into the hope to which he has called us—with faith, persistence, and joy.