Matthew 15:21-28

TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST | AUGUST 20, 2023 | Matthew 15:21-28 (RCL) | David Zersen |

Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, „Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.“ 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.“ He answered, „I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.“ The woman came and knelt before him. „Lord, help me!“ she said. He replied, „It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.“ „Yes it is, Lord,“ she said. „Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.“ Then Jesus said to her, „Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.“ And her daughter was healed at that moment. (NIV)

BEGINNING WITH ME

Traditionally, today’s Gospel lesson is one of those stories that creates problems for the reader. Why does Jesus treat this woman so rudely? Of course, she is a Canaanite, and in the Old Testament, the Jews were commanded to eradicate the Canaanites. That too is problematic. What kind of God does such things? How do we make sense of a rude and prejudiced religious model and of a God who is intent to save all humankind, but treats some with violence?

Elton Trueblood, author of The Humor of Christ (Harper and Row, 1975) tries to solve the problem by saying that Jesus was playing with the woman’s own understanding of herself as a „dog,“ letting us see a little-known side of his humor. While this is quite possible, another theologian, Grant LeMarquand, in an article entitled „The Canaanite Conquest of Jesus“ *.) suggests another possibility. He proposes that Matthew is using this story to propose a new Canaanite conquest, not the Old Testament one with Joshua, but a new one with the New Testament Joshua, Jesus. And, true to form with a new style of conquest, he the conqueror reigns solely because he allows himself to be conquered by the Canaanite. That’s some heavy thinking, but I think it’s worth exploring together.

Different Possibilities in the Jesus Story

On the one hand, we are well acquainted with the approach that appears to be used in the story. People have their place. Whether for reasons of economic status, ethnic prejudice or criminal behavior, some people, humanly speaking, don’t need to be considered respectfully or considerately. That is the way of the world. We have all learned the shibboleths and slang expressions for people who simply aren’t worthy. In Jewish society, this woman was a „Caney“ or whatever nasty term could be applied to the original people of the land conquered by the Jews.

In some ways, it’s surprising to find her in this story. There is some justification for a theory about Canaanite genocide. Matthew makes an occasional case for the Gospel being brought to non-Jews (Infancy narratives, story of the centurion, and the Great Commission). However, Jesus makes his case for being sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and the Canaanites, however many of them might remain, are off limits.’

It’s a fascinating reflection for us citizens of the U.S. because we hold a position in this country that has allowed suppression of the earlier inhabitants, sometimes called the first

people or the Native Americans. The conquest of Canaan may in many ways have been like the conquest of native America and it continues in some ways that are problematic and repressive.

Yet, as Paul and Peter discovered when they preached the Gospel, non-Jews came to believe as well (causing initial problems for the Jerusalem church). And this woman’s faith, confidence, trust, persistence laid such claim to Jesus‘ self-understanding that he knew himself called to minister to her as well. Whether this was a revolutionary insight or an inevitable conclusion is not as important as the reality that „there’s wideness in God’s mercy.“ And because there is, what this woman sought was granted.

There is something fundamentally true here that is more fully explained at the cross. The conquered one who could have challenged his servants to fight and defend him becomes the conqueror in letting himself be conquered. To say it in another way, this is a whole new way of thinking and acting. The entire process of dealing with violence and control is changed. We know the way called „show no mercy.“ The new way revealed in Jesus shows mercy through a willingness to suffer violence rather than inflict it.

Furthermore, in this new way of living in love, Jesus shows a power of healing and nourishing in a transformative way. The Canaanite woman wins, much as did the widow before the judge (Luke 18: 1-8), through faith and persistence. And Jesus, who gives her what she asks for, is seen not as weak and helpless, but rather as generous and merciful in a heroic kind of way.

From a theological standpoint, for Matthew this is perhaps the first fruit of a new mission to the Gentiles. From our standpoint, however, this is the New Covenant approach to dealing with scandal, intimidation, and violence. This is the new revelation. It’s called mercy.

Let’s explore the example given in our Old Testament lesson (Gen. 45:1-15) for today, a section of the ongoing saga which involves the encounter of Joseph with his brothers. They had sold him into slavery in Egypt. Through a remarkable set of circumstances, he comes to work as a right-hand-man of the pharaoh. When the starving brothers come to Egypt to get grain, they are brought into his presence and have every right to be condemned and resisted. However, Joseph is an Old Testament type of the New Testament man of sorrows who is acquainted with grief, yet receives a portion among the great (Is. 53). He chooses not to be scandalized by the actions of his brothers, but as they plead for help and sustenance, to treat them with mercy. This is the lifestyle that conquers in the face of challenge.

In some senses, it is a rewriting of human history. There is the story, as Paul might have put it, of doing what we do not want to do (Rom.7:19). However, there is also the story of letting the new and transformative life of Jesus become life in me so that I die to sin and daily rise to a new life in Christ. In the story of the Canaanite woman, Jesus allows himself to be challenged to become that new model of humanity which is our calling as well. Jesus who was true man allows us to see in him another potential for our human nature.

Ways of Rethinking my own Story

Interestingly, in the first part of today’s Gospel lesson, the Pharisees are scandalized by what Jesus says. They had a practice of washing their hands before they ate with their hands so as not to defile what entered their body. Not a bad practice given what we learned about unclean hands being one of that major ways of transmitting COVID in our society. We now have dispensers with disinfectant hand-cleansing lotion attached to almost everything! Jesus, however, had a different point. He was dealing with spiritual matters and he wanted to say that what came from the heart and out of the mouth, all kinds of unclean remarks, was really worse than the infected food that was placed into the mouth. Such a challenge to pharisaic piety was not taken kindly. So, the natural thing to do would be to grumble, to criticize, to challenge and to debate. Or worse, to fight.

It is very difficult in our society to talk about this subject. We would like to restrict such talk to religious settings. Keep it out of the public square. Separate church and state. We have, however, gone too far with such talk, no matter what the U.S. Constitution may or may not say. People riot and burn, loot and destroy buildings because of disagreements about things. In Niger they are killing one another because of differences of opinion about the role of the government. In the U.S., the media never tires of reminding us of the anniversaries of riots and killings that build on a lifestyle of control-taking, self-assertion and insistence of our way. It is our human style of settling issues, of dealing with resentment, of addressing scandals.

I confess, at the most personal level, to being much challenged when my wife criticizes the simplest procedure or application which my own little mind created. After all, it is my way of doing things. However, as I age, I have learned, with disagreement just to be silent, to wait for the dust to settle, and to discover that we are still at one with one another, despite our seeming and momentary differences.

How to rewrite our own potential histories? This is an important question. Is it possible that the transformative lifestyle that Jesus exhibits at the cross and in his interaction with Pharisees and a Canaanite woman can bless us with new beginnings? Is it possible that the cross was the point at which human life was given new direction?

The great Welsh hymn, sung at every Welsh funeral, sounds it out so well:

Jesus I live to Thee,

The Loveliest and Best;

My life in Thee, Thy life in me,

In Thy blest love I rest.

Is it not possible that my story can have a new side to it when I let Jesus be my tutor and mentor, my Saviour and Lord?

 Of course, the whole world would be better off with such a new reorientation.

But it would be good to begin just with me.

—

David Zersen, D.Min., Ed.D., FRHistS

President Emeritus, Concordia University Texas
E-Mail: zersendj@gmail.com