20th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Matt 15: 21-28
St. Ursula, Mt. Vernon, N.Y.
Aug. 17, 2014
“A Canaanite woman of that district came
and called out, ‘Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!’” (Matt 15: 22).
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| Christ & the Canaanite Woman Juan de Flandes, c. 1500 |
Earlier in this chapter, Matt 15, Jesus
has been arguing with the scribes and Pharisees (15:1-9) and dealing with his
own disciples’ lack of understanding (15:10-20). Now Jesus has left Jewish territory; it would
seem—we can’t say, for sure, on the basis of what Matthew tells us—that he
wants to get a break, get some R&R.
If something like that is the case, this
Canaanite woman is interrupting the peace and rest that Jesus and the apostles
are seeking and, no doubt, need. She’s
intruding.
She is, moreover, a Gentile, a non-Jew, a
pagan. The Jews would naturally be
prejudiced against her, look down on her, and want nothing to do with her. Jesus doesn’t automatically act that way—when
a Roman centurion came to him with a similar plea, he was very receptive (Matt
8:5-13)—but he does initially ignore this woman and then speak harshly and
dismissively to her, it certainly appears.
This woman even comes with faith. Notice how she addresses Jesus: “Lord, Son of David.” Tho not Jewish, she recognizes him as
Messiah! She’s steps ahead of the
apostles, even, in that recognition, and way ahead of the scribes and Pharisees
who are giving Jesus such a hard time.
She probably doesn’t have a deep understanding of what Jesus’
messiahship means—the apostles haven’t got a clue, either—but she recognizes
that he has power over the demons. She
appeals to him for a kind of salvation—not eternal salvation but liberation
from this demon who “is tormenting her daughter, whatever that may mean. She makes the cry of a concerned mother: Jesus, Lord, save my daughter!
When the disciples beg Jesus to shoo her
away—“She’s a pest! Get rid of her!”
(cf. 15:23)—he answers them that his mission is to Israel, not the
Gentiles. Jesus demonstrates the very
issue that the early Church would struggle with for at least a generation,
maybe longer: Is Jesus the Savior of all
people, or only of the Jews? Does God
care about the pagans, or only the Jews?
Here, he limits himself, and God’s care, to “the lost sheep of the house
of Israel” (15:24).
She pleads again with him. Her address, “Lord” a 2d time, could be taken
to refer again to Jesus as Messiah, the way that title is used in Ps 110, for
example (not that this woman from Phoenicia would have known Ps 110). The other way of using the title Lord is as a divine address, the
equivalent of YHWH, God’s personal name:
e.g., when St. Paul proclaims in Philippians, “Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father”(2:11). The
woman could be recognizing Jesus’ divine power, which not even the apostles
have done yet.
And again, Jesus denies her—with an
insult! “It’s not right to take the
children’s food”—God’s gifts to Israel—“and throw it to the dogs” (15:26). He’s calling her a Gentile, a dog—as great an
insult as you can utter in the Middle East.
Dogs are scavengers that roam the streets and the fields. They’re unclean. They’re not welcome in polite society.
But the woman’s not insulted, or at least
doesn’t indicate she is. She’s humble,
realizing that she’s imposing on Jesus and is crossing the line of a cultural
taboo, the line of separation between Jews and Gentiles, like that between Jew
and Palestinian today.
She’s also quick-witted. She has a comeback: Yes, you might have to feed the kids first;
but the dogs get the table scraps! (15:27)
Jesus admires that. He’s also aware that the scribes and
Pharisees have been refusing to come to the table of his teaching, his healing
power, and his forgiveness. So what
should happen with the “leftovers” that they won’t partake of? Even more, he can’t resist this woman’s
faith—the faith that acknowledges he’s the Messiah, that he’s the devil’s
master, that he acts with God’s own power, that he can save anyone. “Woman, great is your faith,” he
exclaims. “I grant your wish” (15:28).
By listening to the prayer of a Gentile
woman, Jesus also signals how the Church will eventually settle the great
argument—not too strong a word—about whether to bring the Gospel to the
Gentiles. Those, like St. Paul, in favor
of taking in the Gentiles could point back to Jesus’ own actions: responding not to blood or nationality, but
to faith. It’s faith in Jesus Christ
that saves us, not our race or external religion.
This Canaanite woman shows us what
faith-filled prayer is like. She’s
persistent. She’s not put off. She won’t take no as God’s final answer.
She just keeps at it, even to the point of annoying the heck out of the apostles
(which probably didn’t take much).
She’s humble. She knows she needs help. She can’t save her daughter, as none of us
can resolve our most fundamental concerns, especially those of the heart and
the soul. She pleads, perhaps on her
knees, perhaps prostrate, completely helpless—which is the only position in
which God can help us. That, as you may
know, is the starting point for A.A. and similar groups; it’s the necessary
starting point of our spiritual lives. I
don’t have the answers. I don’t know how
to overcome my sins. I don’t know how to
get to heaven. I need God. I need Jesus as my
Savior.
A 3d thing about this woman, a very
interesting thing, is that she talks back!
She debates with Jesus. She does
this with the humility to accept an insult but with openness and
sincerity. “You have a point,” she tells
him, “but how about thinking about this?”
Yes, we can argue with God—a tradition as old as the prophet Jeremiah
and the Book of Job—complain to God, even tell God off, so long as we’re
speaking from our hearts and ultimately are prepared to do his will, as Jesus
did.
Those 3 ingredients—persistence,
humility, and sincere dialog with God—are great faith and true prayer.
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