Today brothers and sisters, we are pausing to reflect on a character in the gospel of St. Matthew who would not be considered in any way comparable to those two great personalities of biblical history, Jacob and Elijah who we reflected on in the last two weeks. Despite that her story is poignant for the fact that it shows us again how Jesus interacted with someone who would in those times be considered an outsider.
The Canaanite woman who is the focus of our reflection today is an outsider because she is a woman first of all and secondly she is a gentile, someone who is not a part of God’s chosen people according to the scripture. As a Canaanite she is considered a heathen by the average Jew who would have had no dealings with people like her. We can therefore understand why some of Jesus’ disciples were impatiently urging him to send her away. I would like us to note that this is not the only time the disciples show their impatience and misplaced concern for Jesus with people who they thought were a bother to him The story of the women bringing their children to be blessed in St. Matthew 19 comes readily to mind.
The gospel of Mark calls this same woman a Syro-Phoenician woman which was another name for the general area from which she came. (St. Mark 7:24-29)
We cannot escape noting that Jesus has left his own area around Galilee and gone further north into these gentile regions with the hope of escaping the crowds that would always find him and follow him.
As the woman approaches him we can from our reading and even the video that was just shown tell how desperate this woman is. After all, her little girl is demon-possessed and none of us can imagine how frightening and heart-wrenching that must be for a mother. Her pleas are first met with silence as if she isn’t there. Then as she continues to beg for help the only response she gets is a rebuff. “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” (St. Matthew 19:26 NIV) There are two things to note here. First, the idea of giving the children’s bread to dogs suggests that the priority that is placed on children is a metaphor for God’s people. The Jews were taught from the Old Testament that they were God’s chosen people, meaning God’s care and attention should be for them alone and not be given to outsiders. Secondly, the idea of tossing is a disparaging way of showing how much you are belittling the recipient. You only toss out things that you don’t care whether the intended recipients receive it or they don’t. This account at first reading doesn’t put Jesus nor his disciples in a favorable light. There is an unmistakable bias and even prejudice emanating from this story. But the story has more to offer than that.
The first thing we observe is the obvious fact that this woman is an outsider and as such could be considered as totally undeserving of any attention from Jesus irrespective of how serious her situation is. As I said earlier she is a woman but in Jewish society at the time, even women had their needs attended to as in the case of the woman with the issue of blood. But this woman is a heathen outsider. No wonder Jesus doesn’t answer her at all at first. It may seem strange to you reading this but in reality much of the conflict in our world stems from the fact that people constantly see each other and treat each through the lens of culture, religion, social positions and economic status and even gender by these we determine whether these people are worthy of the attention and respect of others who see themselves as more important than they. This is why we have so much division and inequity in our world leading to the endless conflicts and wars that we see all around. There are many who can see themselves as outsiders today and are equally shunned or made to feel less important depending on the values of that particular group that excludes them. In this case the natural prejudice of the Jews against people who were not considered as important to God as the Jews were, comes to the fore and is shown in the attitude of the disciples towards her and sadly so it seems is the case for Jesus as well. This text challenges all of us to look at how we view or think and act towards people who our society or culture consider to be less than or inferior to us.
Secondly, the woman is clearly desperate and her desperation leads to persistence. She has no thought about her position or status being a barrier to her receiving help. The only thing on her mind is her sick daughter. This woman was certainly not a Jew but she very likely heard about Jesus and was convinced that he had the power and authority to help her hence her calling him by the title, “Lord, Son of David”. We also know that she was being quite persistent because the disciples said to Jesus, “…she keeps crying out after us.” (verse 23) It’s interesting how one person’s desperation is another person’s annoyance. The clear message from the text is two-fold. First, when you are desperate for help you will be persistent and secondly, this persistence will lead to action. There are several other examples in scripture that speak to the power of persistence, that is to say not giving up until you get some action on your behalf. We may recall the account with blind Bar-Timaeus in St. Luke chapter 10 or the woman with the issue of blood in St. Matthew chapter 9 and also the story of the persistent widow in St. Luke 18. All of these accounts show that persistence leads to action.Persistence unlocks God’s blessing or favor on the persons who desperately needed it. No matter what you are facing you must not give up in calling to God because He does hear and will answer one way or the other.
Lastly, Jesus does respond to the woman and what a conversation that turned out to be. His first statement could only be seen by the woman as a rebuff of her pleas for help. He says, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” (St. Matthew 19:26 NIV) If you were standing there in your distress and hearing this from someone you expect to be sympathetic to your situation, how would you feel? Despite the fact that the word for dog here in the text is meant to be the domestic dog that is almost like a pet in the home, any reference to a dog in this context could only be seen as an insult. This could not be received by the hearer as a term of endearment. It is to remind the woman what her place or position is in the same way that we would say to someone, ‘Know your place.’ This makes the woman’s response even more insightful and profound. This is where the real power of the woman’s persistence comes to the fore. She is not backing down. Her classic response about the dogs getting what falls from the children’s table is her way of saying even the dogs are deserving of being noticed and having their needs attended to. Even the dogs are not left out of the goodness and kindness of their masters or mistresses. She may not by her status or ethnicity or religion be considered worthy of priority treatment but she is no less deserving as a human being in need of help and attention as any other person. It is this insightful response that unlocks Jesus’ power. He calls it faith. Perhaps she would call it something else. What is clear is that Jesus recognised a child of God who needed help and who knew that he had the power to help and who was insistent that social and religious barriers were never going to deter her from getting her blessing in the form of healing for her daughter.
The point is that ultimately our persistent faith unlocks God’s blessing or to put it another way our persistent faith is the key way to ensure God’s blessing on us.
How often have you allowed rules or traditions or culture or the negative responses of other people or the rebuff or the rebuke of others to prevent you from pressing your case to someone who can help you in a particular situation or you were even discouraged by others from seeking God persistently. This Canaanite woman, like Jacob who we read about last week or the persistent widow in St. Luke 18 proves again that it is only persistent sincere faith that will unlock God’s blessings on us. You may also realise that to be truly persistent you have to be courageous as well. You cannot worry about the consequences or how other people think or even how much people may try to dissuade you from reaching out to God or seeking for that which you need.
How many of us have not received what we needed from the Lord, not because He has not heard or is ignoring you but simply because you were not persistent. You did not keep knocking on the doors of Heaven. All of us must have that ‘never give up’ attitude and display in our living and in our prayer life a determination that says to the world and to God himself, I will not give up until you answer my prayer.
Persistent faith does unlock the blessings from above and you will get what God has stored up for you. It may not be immediate or it may not be at the time you wanted it but God does answer the earnest cry of his dear ones when they are in distress and in great need. Keep calling and keep persisting in faith and God’s blessings will indeed be yours as God is hearing your earnest plea right now.
May God bless us and give us the courage to be persistent in faith as we wait for his blessings to be poured out in His proper time. Amen.