Proper 15-A, 2020
“Have mercy on me, Lord, son of David, my daughter is tormented by a demon.”
I admit, there have been a few times in my life when I have felt as if I am walking around in a fog, and this is one of those times. It’s a feeling I image to be some mild form of trauma to my brain, and my ability to process it all if there is such a thing. Maybe it’s just my way of trying to survive. Because everything I read in the media or watch on the evening news seems to be bad. Just bad news. The pandemic and the devastation from it overwhelm me. The economy is beyond my comprehension. Certain reactions and reactions to social justice break my heart. Where is the Good News? That’s what I want to know.
And yet, even with these feelings, there’s still that part of me that believes there is good news. Jesus taught us that it is our job, our responsibility to spread the Good News. And Jesus was always very clear that no matter how bad things seem, no matter what the situation, we are called to bearers of Good News. Being called to proclaim the Good News of the Gospel is not always easy. Oh, it’s easy to say, or to preach the Good News but when we’re out there in the real world it becomes more difficult. We’d rather stow it away than give it away. And yet, even today I feel drawn to look under my mattress or in our pantry to see if it might be hiding.
In our story today we meet a Gentile woman who comes begging Jesus to heal her daughter. I personally find this story about Jesus and the Canaanite woman painful and disturbing. But I also find it very timely this morning.
It’s painful because when I first read the story, it felt like I turned on the evening news and saw Jesus’ treatment toward the Canaanite woman exactly what we have been observing in our own society over the past weeks and months and it just isn’t becoming of our Jesus. His treatment of her upset me.
She shows up with three strikes against her before she asks anything of Jesus. Not only is she not a Jew but the Canaanite people AND she’s a woman. But she throws all of that aside and is willing to risk everything, including her life, to come to Jesus on behalf of her daughter who is tormented by a demon. She has no doubt heard of Jesus’ teachings and healings or she wouldn’t be there. She has, more than likely, tried everything she knows to help her daughter. So, for her, coming to Jesus on behalf of her daughter was, in her mind, her last hope for healing. Certainly we can all appreciate her situation.
So, she calls out to Jesus, “Have mercy on me, Lord, son of David, my daughter is tormented by a demon.” And what does Jesus do? He ignores her. Jesus treats this woman as the outsider she is. She may as well have been invisible. It’s no secret the Canaanite people were no friends of the Jews but here we have Jesus doing exactly what he told us not to do - refusing to speak to her because she was different; because she didn’t look like him, because she was an outcast, and because she was not a Jew.
Is this not the same Jesus that told us to love our neighbor no matter whom they are? Is it not this same Jesus that told us to love our enemy? Is this not the same Jesus who sat at the table and ate with sinners, tax collectors, prostitute, all people just like her, all the ner-do-wells of his society? The same Jesus whose disciples were chastised for easting without first washing their hands. This is the table where Jesus shows the world who God is.
Even the disciples seem to pressure him to send her away. Did they not also hear Jesus’ command to love? This woman is a heroin. She is going to speak to power no matter what it takes. She refuses to be ignored and continues to plead her case. And Jesus’ response? He turns to her and insults her by calling her a dog! At this point in the story I am very confused. I feel that what I am reading is utterly opposed to what I expect from Jesus. What is going on?
According to David Lose’s blog, In the Meantime, the traditional interpretation of this story says that Jesus isn’t really being mean to her, he’s just testing her – putting barriers in her way to see if she’ll overcome them. And then when she passes the test, he gives her an “A” by healing her daughter. We all know better. The whole idea of Jesus testing us just falls flat for me. I don’t buy it. The Jesus I know doesn’t test. It’s the worl tests, but not Jesus. And besides, this runs contrary to almost every other story of Jesus in the Gospels. In fact this is the only place in Scripture where Jesus loses a verbal contest.
What is going on here is that this woman, whether she realizes it or not, is being used by God as a vessel for God’s plan to expand Jesus’ horizons, his understanding of just who is a child of God, who is welcomed at the table. This is a pivotal moment in Jesus mission. Until now Jesus believed his mission was specifically focused on Israel. But because of the audacity, persistence, and faith of this woman, Jesus’ focus is broken wide open. “Yes, Lord,” she rebukes him, “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
With her painful, persistent, and faithful pleas the Canaanite woman demands to be seen, to be heard, and to be recognized as a child of God who is welcomed at the table. It is through her plea she teaches Jesus something about himself and his mission that is crucial for him to learn; that God welcomes all of God’s children to the table.
Jesus’ perspective is changed. His new perspective moves him from narrow-mindedness to one of total inclusion. Barbara Brown-Taylor says: “You can almost hear the huge wheel of history turning as Jesus comes to a new understanding of who he is and what he has been called to do.” God’s purpose “Is bigger than he had imagined, that there is enough of him to go around.” It is good news to recognize that God works through this marginalized woman to bring insight to Jesus. And it’s great news to realize that Jesus listened; listened to an outsider, to one of the most vulnerable in society – JESUS LISTENED!
What might it look like if we were to humble ourselves to listen to what the “other” whether other are Black. White, Latinx, Hindu, Buddhist, or anyone we consider different from us? What might we learn? What good news might we bring to them? If the Good News of the Gospel is only good for me and people just like me, then it’s not good.
This story captures Jesus’ expanded sense of mission in Matthew’s Gospel, the same Gospel that ends with Jesus’ Great Commission, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” - take the Good News to the ends of the earth. All are welcome at the table.
It’s way too easy for us to assume that God is on our side, looks like us, favors our positions and endorses our views. It’s really easy for us to imagine God is just like us. Imagining God looking like us is, in a sense, the whole point of the Incarnation – that God became one of us, allowing us to imagine being in relationship with God. The problem is when we imagine God is ONLY like us – as in, not like anyone else, says Lose. The Good News is that God looks like every one of us no matter our race, color, ethnicity or religion.
Just as the Canaanite woman taught Jesus that God’s mission and vision and compassion and mercy are bigger than what he may have initially imagined, so might the Canaanite woman teach us the same thing in our time when people are dying of COVID, or standing on line at food banks, or suddenly find themselves homeless or without jobs as our cities and towns deal with peaceful protests turned riots. I know I’ve said this before but I believe it bears repeating: Every time we draw a line between who’s in and who’s out, we will find the God made manifest in Jesus is on the other side. n God’s house everyone is welcome at the table of love. And this is Good News. Amen