Jesus and the Canaanite Woman

The Gospel lesson for Proper 15, Year A (Matthew 15:21-28) which we heard this morning tells a troubling story about an encounter between Jesus and a Canaanite woman. As Jesus enters the region of Tyre and Sidon, a Canaanite woman asks him to heal her daughter who is possessed by a demon. He doesn’t respond to the woman.  His disciples tell him to “send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” Jesus then says that his mission is “only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” That statement is the first shocking aspect of this story. It makes us think that God’s love and mercy is limited. It makes the Good News of the Kingdom of Heaven sound not so good after all.

But the story gets worse before it gets better. The Canaanite woman continues to plea for Jesus’s help kneeling before him and “saying, ‘Lord, help me.’” Jesus’s response comes at us like a gut punch—“It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” 

Yet even being called a dog doesn’t deter the Canaanite woman. She replies to Jesus, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” 

And in that moment, everything changes. Jesus responds, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” Her daughter is healed, and we’re left wondering why Jesus didn’t just heal the girl from the beginning. Was the refusal necessary at all?

Perhaps it was. My friend Lynn (of blessed memory), who was a member of what I’ll jokingly call the Insurgent Sunday School Class at St. Andrew’s in Birmingham, boldly proclaimed that we owe our salvation to that Canaanite woman because she was willing to argue with Jesus. Lynn made this bold statement with such joy and delight that it was clear to me then (and maybe clearer now many years later) that he understood exactly how good the Good News is. It’s good enough that we can risk arguing with Jesus about it.

The faith of the Church is that Jesus is one person with two natures—one fully human and one fully divine. I don’t know exactly what it means to be fully divine, but I have some insight into what it’s like to be fully human. We aren’t able to see too far ahead, and it can be difficult for us to imagine a reality that isn’t exactly like we perceive it right now. We are trapped within social constructs and cultural expectations. Considering these things it’s easy to see the fully human nature of Jesus in his exchange with the Canaanite woman. His ministry was only for “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” It was limited.

But when the woman pushes back against that definition, preaching from the margins, it seems that Jesus sees the situation differently. He changes his mind. Perhaps, he recognizes that his mission is broader than he imagined. Perhaps, his fully divine part knew that all along. It remains a holy mystery. The crucial lesson for us is that we don’t have to remain exactly the same way we’ve always been. Change is built into our call to follow Jesus. It may be essential for us to see the fully human Jesus changing his mind in response to a cry for help. Voices from the margins remind us that the Kingdom of Heaven always transcends our limited imaginations.