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Mt 15:(10-20), 21-28

For many of us, today’s Gospel is difficult.

We believe that Jesus reveals God’s unconditional and boundless love, granting blessings. Yet in this story, Jesus appears to turn away a woman who is pleading for help for her suffering daughter. He not only seems to ignore her; he also speaks of her as a “dog.” Unlike many other passages where Jesus initiates contact with the marginalized and Gentiles, and prioritized them over those considered righteous, here, it baffles us since he did the opposite.

How are we to understand this passage?

There are at least three perspectives that may help us make sense of these passages.

First, we might ask what the original audience would have heard in this story. Although the story also appears in Mark’s Gospel, we need to think why the author of Matthew’s Gospel included this story. Matthew’s audience was primarily Jewish Christian.

For them, it was important to understand Jesus as the Messiah promised in their Jewish tradition. Matthew’s Gospel begins with a genealogy, presents Jesus in ways that echo Moses, and repeatedly emphasizes the fulfilment of God’s promises to Israel.

And yet the kingdom Jesus brings is far greater than many expected. It is not merely political liberation for Israel; it is the fulfilment of God’s whole creation beyond time and space. We can therefore understand the tension within the early Jewish Christian community. They needed to affirm that Jesus was the promised Messiah, while also recognizing that God’s promise was being fulfilled in ways that exceeded their expectations.

That tension is present in today’s Gospel. This story is not necessarily about Jesus being inconsistent with his usual compassion. Rather, it reflects and responds to the struggle of people living on the threshold between the old and the new. "God’s blessing is not just for me, or for us only, but for all."

Second, this story reminds us that Jesus was truly human. The Letter to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus “Jesus had to become like us, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God.” This is a profound mystery. How can the Son of God, who is fully divine, take on the limitations of human life? Why did God choose to come among us in this way?

I believe God chose the Incarnation because God desired to draw near to us, to know us, encounter us, and love us in the most intimate way. At the same time, by showing us what human life can become in communion with God, Jesus opens the way for us to become whole and holy.

But becoming human also meant accepting real human limitations. He got tired, thirsty, hungry as we all do. He was tempted to take a comfortable path, boost his ego as we all do. He felt the pain and grieving as he faced sufferings of others. He did not fully know everything regarding what the other was thinking, what was going to happen. Just like us, he had limitations and potentials. Certainly, he was not someone like superman from a different planet who was invincible.

If you have watched episodes of “Chosen”, the producer portrays the humanity of Jesus so well. Here, when Jesus performed a miracle, it does not appear to be a foreign, overpowering, magical performance. It comes through a genuine, intimate encounter. He draws attention of the person, and share the story of the person, breaks the boundary in between, and make a deep connection through empathy.

When there is this human connection, where the person stands before Jesus with naked heart, showing their long forgotten and hidden desire, shame, pain, and hope, only then, Jesus was able to deliver the power for the person. The healing is not mechanical or impersonal. It comes through relationship, compassion, and trust.

We do not know precisely why Jesus initially resists the woman. Perhaps he was exhausted. Perhaps he was focused on the particular mission before him. Perhaps, as some interpreters suggest, the encounter became a means of drawing out and revealing her faith.

This brings us to the third perspective: the faith of the Canaanite woman. When people heard about Jesus’ miracles, particularly among those suffering from illness, oppression, exclusion, and loneliness, they must have thought finally they found a hope, but maybe with skepticism, and concern.

“Would he see me, help me, a person like me, a gentile woman, whose daughter was demon possessed?”

That must have been the first obstacle she had to face in her own mind. Among those, there were ones who were bold enough, or so desperate came forward asking for help. The Canaanite woman was one of them. They may be so eager to receive blessing, almost like a drowning person grabbing anything.

But I assume Jesus needed connection, understanding, an encounter to make that happen. At first, Jesus’ response must have felt like cold water thrown over her hope: “You are not an Israelite. I have been sent first to others, not to you.”

But she did not give up. She could have walked away in anger or shame. Instead, she remained. She accepted the painful truth of how others regarded her, but she refused to believe that was how God saw her as well. “Yes, I know I am one of those who you Israelite call a dog, unclean.”

At this moment, she finally had to let go of the last thread, her pride. “It does not matter what people call me, or consider me. But I lay down before God for even a piece of mercy.”

At what seemed to be the dead end of her hope, she laid her down before God with total humility and trust. "Even the dogs are fed with crumbles at the table…"

It is striking that, in this story, the woman uses Jesus’ own image to make her appeal. Probably, this was the only time someone used analogy to Jesus to appeal a message not the other way around.  She does not argue from status or entitlement. She appeals simply to mercy.

And at that moment, I imagine, Jesus finally saw this woman.

A woman who would to anything for her daughter, who hold onto God no matter what happens, who could let go of her ego because of her love for someone, and her trust in God.

Many of us know something of her experience. We ask God for help, but it may seem as though God is silent. The problem may grow worse, and new difficulties may arise. Some people respond by giving up, thinking that God does not exist or does not care. Others become angry with God because they believe they deserve better. Still others fall into despair because they feel unworthy of God’s attention.

The Canaanite woman shows us another way. Even life brings her despair, she refuses to let go of God’s goodness. When we feel ignored, rejected, or unworthy, may we remember this woman. May we continue to bring our whole selves before God: our fear, our grief, our hope, and our need. And may we trust that even when we cannot yet see the answer, God’s mercy is already reaching toward us.

So let us pray.

Merciful God, teach us to trust in your boundless mercy and to share that mercy with one another.  Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Fr. James