Matthew 15:21-28
Jesus left the country around Gennesaret and walked the fifty miles to Tyre and Sidon, where a Canaanite woman who was living there came to him, pleading, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, King David’s Son, for my daughter has a demon within her, and it torments her constantly.” But Jesus gave her no reply—not even a word.
Then his disciples urged him to send her away. “Tell her to get going,” they said, “for she is bothering us with all her begging.” Then he said to the woman, “I was sent to help the Jews—the lost sheep of Israel—not the Gentiles.”
But she came and knelt before him, pleading again, “Sir, help me!” He finally replied, saying, “It isn’t good to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
“Yes, yes, it is!” she replied, “for even the dogs are permitted to eat the crumbs that fall beneath the table.”
“Woman,” Jesus told her, “your faith is great. Let it be done as you wish.” And her daughter was healed right then.
In the time since his baptism by John Jesus has been all around Galilee. When he came down from the wilderness where he had been tested by Satan, he returned to Nazareth but shortly thereafter moved his base to Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee, and began to gather his disciples to him.
As it tells us back in the 4th chapter of Matthew:
- Jesus went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, people possessed by demons or having epilepsy or afflicted with paralysis, and he cured them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.
In this time a great many things happened – there was the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord’s Prayer, the parables of Salt and Light, and then the healings -- of the Leper, the Centurian’s Boy, and Peter’s Mother, as well as many, many more of the stories we are familiar with from reading the gospels. Jesus was decidedly no longer an unknown teacher.
He and the disciples had returned to Capernaum, where they heard the news of the death of John the Baptist at Herod’s command. Seeking time alone, Jesus spent the night walking the edge of the sea after sending the disciples out in their boat. When a strong wind prevented the others from returning to land, Jesus walked across the water to the boat, causing much consternation – but that’s another story.....
They finally went ashore at Gennesaret, where last week’s story took place, and today’s then begins with, Jesus left the country around Gennesaret and walked the fifty miles to Tyre and Sidon, where he ran into a determined Canaanite woman.....
Jesus and his followers have now crossed over to the coast – to the area around Tyre and Sidon – major seaport towns in Phoenicia, which was the dominate maritime trader in biblical times. They were polytheists there, worshiping many gods, primarily Ba’al and Astarte – clearly not compatible with Jews or Christians. It was an odd place for Jesus to be and an even odder response to meeting the Canaanite woman there.
This woman, who is neither a Jew nor a Christian herself, still recognizes Jesus for who he is and cries out to him for healing for her daughter – but Jesus flat-out ignores her, as if she isn’t even there. When she begs him again, he finally acknowledges her, but in a most rude and dismissive manner, calling her a “dog”. What is going on here?
If we only read this far, this is a very disturbing story of a rude and dismissive Jesus. It seems very out of character for the justice-seeking healer we’ve come to know through other stories.
When she reminds him that even the dogs get the scraps and crumbs from the table he seems to finally recognize her faith and heals her daughter as she has requested. I’ve always found this piece interesting because it’s one of the few (if not the only) occasions where Jesus seems to change his mind.
There are at least three explanations for this brief story. The first is that we are simply hearing Matthew’s grumpy misogyny once again coming through as Jesus’ rude speech and making it sound much worse to our modern sensibilities than it might have in Jesus’ day.
The second is that this story – as presented – is simply inauthentic. Something did happen but however it went at the time was altered by later editors to fit their pro-Jewish, anti-Gentile worldview – a common tactic found often enough all through scripture.
The third is that it is authentic and simply reflects Jesus’ actual belief that he wasn’t here to reach the Gentiles – he was only here for God’s chosen children – and being a Jewish man of his day he would certainly have misogyny built into his beliefs.
Which of these three explanations seems the most likely to you? Which fits best with the Jesus you have come to know through other scripture, other writers? Through your own personal interactions with Jesus in your own life?
Each is an equal possibility because we don’t have any way to know which it actually is. What we do know is that in the story Jesus changes his mind and apparently begins a slow change in his beliefs. He still speaks, all throughout the rest of Matthew of being sent to the lost children of the Jews – not the Gentiles – and we don’t hear much about gentiles until the resurrection, at the very end of this gospel, when Jesus sends his followers out again to “make disciples of all nations – all nations -- baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Did it really all start with one determined Canaanite woman? A woman who was determined to advocate for her daughter and simply would not allow Jesus to rebuff her request/demand?