Do we find the “Man of Compassion” out of sorts in this morning's Gospel lesson? Are we startled as we hear that he ignores a Canaanite woman's cry for help, are we dismayed when he says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” - horrified when he goes even farther and says, “It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.” ?
I would hope that these remarks offend our sensibilities. I know that there are people among us who have experienced the pain of being considered different, people who have born the label of “outsider.” Surely each one of our lives has been touched by prejudice – whether we have felt the burden of it turned upon us, or we have allowed its influence alienate us from others.
Within Israel, it began as an attempt to create a people apart, a people who would become a means of grace for the world – showing what it means to interact with God with intelligence and love rather than to react fearfully to a remote and unknown deity. But the shining beauty of a divine call to be witnesses of God's activity with human persons became tarnished, was demoniacally diminished by an attitude we now call prejudice.
Jesus only spoke the words which were expected of him. Are we disappointed in him? Do we wonder what has happened to make him say these things?
He has just ended a debate with some Pharisees over legal definitions of what ritually defiles a person. He has quoted Isaiah
“This people honours me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me
teaching human precepts as doctrines.”
Jesus has insisted that what defiles one comes forth from one, it isn't what one takes into one's self. And this debate about what/how one may eat could carry us forward to the account in the Acts of the Apostles, to Peter's vision of the sail let down from heaven with the unclean animals - “Rise, kill and eat” Peter is told – three times in fact, because he argues that he has never eaten anything unclean. Immediately after this vision, while he is still pondering its meaning, he is called to bring the Good News of Christ's resurrection and forgiveness to an outsider -- to the righteous centurion, Cornelius. (Acts 10)
If you think it is cheating to interpret this passage by moving “forward” in time – from Jesus' interaction with individuals to decades later when he is no longer upon the earth, I would remind you that the Gospel accounts themselves were written much later than the actual events, certainly influenced by the experiences of the faithful in light of the resurrection. But even if I were to take things chronologically within the Gospel of Matthew itself, I would be able to show you that in chapter 8 verse 10ff Jesus heals a Roman centurion's servant. Certainly you might argue that the slave was perhaps of the house of Israel, but Jesus spoke with and responded to the foreigner. So while in fact he says to the Canaanite women, “it is not right to take the children's food and give it to the dogs,” we recall that he has already said, “I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven...”
So, just what is Jesus up to now?
I suspect that Jesus knows that a woman desperate enough to cry out to him in public will not be easily put off. Never mind that she is a woman, never mind that she is a foreigner.
She is a mother, grieving for her daughter who suffers from a terrible affliction. Nothing else matters. The woman recognizes him as the Son of David – she recognizes his compassionate power. “Have mercy on me, my daughter is tormented by a demon.”
Jesus is silent. Is he praying? Is he waiting to hear what those around him would say?
And even after all they have seen him do; all the things they have heard him say, his disciples say, “Send her away.”
It says then, that Jesus answers, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
But to whom is he responding? It seems that he is responding to the woman.
But what would happen if he were actually asking a question, his voice rising to signal the interrogative? (“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel?”)
Of course in the next moment we have the woman kneeling before him, “Lord, help me,” she says. He responds (and one wonders if it might not be a quotation) “It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.” Now when has Jesus ever been concerned with “fairness” ? He has been excessive in his mercy, boundlessly compassionate. Most of his unpleasant words (epitaphs) have been reserved for the self-righteous: “blind guides” he calls the Pharisees who have just most recently argued with him. Is it the fact that she crouches before him that he thinks of “dogs” ? Is it because there is a profound animosity between Israel and Canaanites?
The woman can not be deterred. She points out that crumbs fall from the table and the dogs are allowed to each these. She is asking for a crumb of mercy. How many of us would be satisfied with a crumb?
....
I believe that we have been witness to a prophetic moment. They have enacted a parable for the sake of those who stand as witnesses, for those of us who read and listen and wonder.
“Great is your faith. Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
Her humility and trust are such that Jesus, in fact, makes her a partner in the healing of her daughter... “Let it be done for you as you wish.” His word entering her heart is enough to bring healing to her daughter.
What if she had allowed prejudice to stand in the way of her faith, had allowed discrimination to block the healing that was meant for her daughter?
Well, of course we would have no story –
but as it is, we see in this story of healing, not only the faithfulness of a desperate mother, we see yet another divine invitation to heal our petty prejudices. Jesus meets us where we are, and then pushes a little, in order to show us that God's grace is intended for all people – regardless of gender or nationality – regardless of any label you might want to use to exclude. Jesus shows us that to any and to all who desire and believe, God's mercy and compassion are freely given.
