If ever there is a portrayal of Jesus I never want to read, it’s this one. It’s the kind in which you either look for excuses (like who could ever excuse the Son of God?), or with which you are made to wrestle until you come up with explanations, honest ones that you’re forced to accept whether you want them or not. If nothing else, the passage proves Jesus’ refusal to meet our expectations, not the other way around.

Stranger in a Strange Land

Jesus is in a foreign place, away from his home territory of Galilee. In a real way, he was outside his neighborhood, in that part where “good” Jews don’t go. Whomever he might meet in that place was surely not of his kind. Canaanites were to Jews, the “other.”

When a Canaanite woman came to him begging for help, she had first to face that due to her religion, ethnicity, race and gender, she had nothing to recommend in and of herself to him. Add to that she had a “demon-possessed” daughter, and she was carrying a negative zero. All good Jews considered such illnesses characterized by mental illness and neurological dysfunction as possibly brought on by a parent’s sin, a spiritual issue carrying a judgement. Why should this rabbi and prophet pay attention to her?

He didn’t. Her cries, fueled by her desperation, had a decibel level somewhere between croaking and screaming. Jesus ignored her. As any behavioralist knows, ignored behavior increases its frequency. The disciples couldn’t stand it and ask Jesus to get rid of her.

Supremist Attitude

This is where it starts. Jesus tells her he was sent to just help the Israelites, not Gentiles. Gentiles, all non-Jews, the goyim, were the enemy of those who considered themselves the chosen people of God. She was not like them, like him and those of his heritage.

Jesus displays the attitude of one raised to not associate or see value in those who do not look like, worship like, have recent heritage and history like his, like mine, like yours. His attitude toward her confirms it as he doesn’t seem to hear her plea to save her daughter. If she had a son, would her value and her child’s have been different to him? Basically, if the oppression and injustice others experience isn’t happening to us or those we love, it generally gets dismissed.

Yeah, we’ve heard this before: Why doesn’t she go away? Or, why do they keep bringing up what happened years, decades, centuries ago? Just get over it, for goodness’ sake!

She persists. Throwing herself before him, she begs for succor and help. She relinquishes all dignity, making it clear this is going to take more than a “I’m sorry, and I’ll pray for you,” kind of response. Evidently the situation is not going to be resolved easily. Jesus has to make it very clear to her.

Demean and Destroy

He does. He also makes it clear what some people will do to segregate their kind from “those kind of people.” He tells her what she is to him with a racial slur. “It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.”

Yes, Jesus calls her a dog. This “love your neighbor” thing apparently had some limitations. Women in this period, women particularly without resources and protection, were often victims of rape. Add in that intermarriage sometimes happened between Jews and Gentiles, (please don’t romanticize this; usually women didn’t get to choose their husbands). Both would result in mixed-blood births, mongrels, mutts, the Bs of the day. That’s how he sees her.

Good God! Jesus is racist! What’s going on here? The devil got to him after all. He’s sold out and will only pander to the crowd he’s garnered in Galilee. Yeah, we’ve seen this kind before. Looks like there’s a traitor in the Trinity.

Take a deep breath now. She’s been slammed and takes the punch where it lands. She knows what she’s up against, and she knows today is not the day to claim her full rights. Like more mothers than could ever be counted, she has first to fight for justice for her child. She’ll do what she has to do.

Faith That Fights

“Yes, Lord, but even dogs are permitted to eat crumbs that fall beneath the master’s table.” She meets him where he is in his own cultural context. Some dogs were allowed to hang around during the meals, small ones tolerated like pets. He’d seen it and knows what she’s saying.

She isn’t asking to change the world and all that’s wrong in it. She only asks something for herself, a crumb of compassion and healing considering all he had done in healing those of his own kind, sometimes just by touching the hem of his robe. (Matthew 14:36) https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+14%3A36&version=NLT She gives him a perspective by which he can consider her.

It pays off. “Woman, your faith is great. Your request is granted.” Healing comes not by laying on hands or calling out the daughter’s demon, but by a mother’s faith. Her belief that Jesus was the only hope she had for the life of her daughter fueled her persistence. There was no way she could have given up. Because of her persistence, Jesus recognized her faith, a faith that demanded she be listened to in her plea for help, a faith that would sacrifice her own dignity and self-worth, a faith that would cross all human boundaries constructed to separate neighbors and enemies. She came believing he could help her and laid it at his feet.

Wonderful. But there remains a question. Why couldn’t Jesus just see her need and heal her daughter? Why did he put her through such turmoil to get what any person could see?

Was he testing her, seeing if she’d back off, reject him and his power? She didn’t. But why her and not the Roman officer who came asking for healing for his servant? He also had great faith, but Jesus didn’t give him a hard time about it. Or was it because the Roman centurion was male and had power? (Matthew 8:5-13)  This woman had no chance with Jesus if that’s what you needed to move him.

Good thinking. But consider this. Did something happen in Jesus in this incident? Was Jesus changed in his perspective that he was Messiah and Savior to all peoples of the world and not just these God-worshippers? It also makes you think that if you cry hard and loud enough, you can change God’s mind. But that would imply human justice is above divine justice, and God needs a shaking from time to time.

Or rather, was there something here that was inherent in Jesus’ ministry defined by his teaching, preaching and healing? All of these expressions are vital in how he brought a new realization of God’s love for the world. He knew as much as any the struggles of the oppressed, the poor, the sick, and the powerless. Yet, Jesus also knew that human desire for power and control over others could only be dismantled by his example. Whereas this Canaanite woman laid at his feet her dignity and worth, Jesus modeled that when persons in their pain are heard and valued, healing occurs.

Interestingly, Jesus could debate with the best of the religious leaders and always came out on top. Yet, it was a woman who showed him the fallacy in his initial position. He accepted it by her appeal to what was right for all persons. He knew it was based in what he could do, not in a dramatic exorcism of a young girl, but in a greater exorcism of injustice in the world, a change and reversal beyond the deep and heartfelt needs of a mother and her little girl.

Matthew 15: 21-28

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