What kind of picture of Jesus do we have?
There are so many stories in the gospels which emphasise Jesus' compassion and gentleness towards the sick and vulnerable. Several times we are told he was 'moved to pity' as he looked with compassion on people in their different needs. We may think of Jesus touching and healing a leper; his compassion and forgiveness for the woman caught in adultery; the healing and hope he gave to the blind beggar, Bartimaeus, or his welcome of the despised tax collector, Zaccheus. Of course Jesus wasn't always meek and mild; he spoke some hard hitting words to the religious leaders and some very challenging words to his disciples, but at the same time he showed compassion to the marginalised, the sick and the broken.
So, today's gospel reading may come as something of a shock, because in this story, Jesus seems harsh, not towards some of the religious teachers for their unbending legalism and hardness of heart, but towards a vulnerable and desperate woman. The encounter between Jesus and the Canaanite woman may make us sit up and feel uncomfortable; What are we to make of it?
Jesus is in the Gentile area of Tyre and Sidon when he is approached by the Canaanite woman, who shouts out, 'Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.' She is not a Jew, but she addresses Jesus with the Jewish Messianic title, Son of David, which is very striking on the lips of a Gentile. She recognises in some way that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah but she nevertheless hopes that this Jew will help her, a Gentile. So how does Jesus respond? To begin with he does not answer her at all. He ignores her. But she keeps on shouting and the disciples certainly view her as something of a nuisance. 'Send her away' they say. It may be by this that they meant 'please just give her whatever she wants quickly and get rid of her'.
Jesus responds by telling them that his mission is only to the lost sheep of Israel. We might be rather surprised by these words. Didn't Jesus come for everyone? For the whole world? Of course this is true and after Jesus' resurrection the message of God's love in Christ is understood more fully and preached more widely. But Jesus was a Jew, as David reminded us a few weeks ago; he was the Jewish Messiah and most of his earthly ministry was among his own people. Not just respectable Jews, of course, but also those who were poor, the disregarded outcasts, and those who were considered unclean. Nevertheless they were mostly Jews. When, earlier in Matthew's gospel, Jesus sends his disciples out on a mission to teach and to heal, he sends them only to the towns and villages of Israel. Jesus is occasionally approached by Gentiles and responds to their needs, as he does with the Roman centurion who asks him to heal his servant. More than that, Jesus commends the Roman centurion for his faith, as he does the Canaanite woman in our gospel reading today. However, particularly as recounted in Matthew's gospel, Jesus' primary concern in his earthly ministry seems to be to reach out to his own people, that they might then become salt and light to the world around them.
This is a continuation of the vision of OT: God calls the people of Israel and establishes his covenant with them. God chooses to work through a particular people, but this is not just for their own sake but for the whole world. This is God's strategy if you like; it's like ripples in a pond moving ever outwards. The OT focuses mostly on the relationship of God to the people of Israel, but yet it also holds out the vision that one day all peoples will come to worship the God of Israel. We see something of that in our reading this morning from the prophet Isaiah when we're told: 'foreigners that join themselves to the Lord...these I will bring to my holy mountain...for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.' Jesus takes up these very words when he rebukes the money changers in the temple. At the end of Matthew's gospel Jesus tells the disciples to 'go and make disciples of all nations' and that wider mission of course develops further after his resurrection. Nevertheless, Jesus' earthly ministry is mostly among his own people, the Jews.
Matthew emphasises that in our gospel reading this morning. When Jesus says to his disciples: 'I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel', he may be telling them that he should not at this present time be distracted from this primary task. But the Canaanite woman is not put off by Jesus' words. Maybe she senses already that in the long run his grace is for all. She is not deterred and pleads with Jesus again, kneeling at his feet and saying simply 'Lord, help me.'
At last Jesus answers the woman, but his response to her may again shock us: 'It is not fair,' he says, 'to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.' Jesus uses the common abusive term Jews used for Gentiles, calling them 'dogs'. What I offer is for the 'children' (the Jews) and not to be thrown away on the 'dogs' (the Gentiles) he seems to be saying. Does Jesus really mean this? Is he using these insulting terms seriously? Some commentators point out that we cannot hear Jesus' tone of voice and that there may be something of a teasing nature in his words. Others suggest that he may be testing the woman to see how she responds.
We cannot be sure, but what we do know is that his seemingly harsh reply still does not put the woman off. 'Yes, Lord,' she says, 'yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.' Even if the food is primarily for the children, the dogs still get the crumbs. Similarly, even if I am not one of the children, but one of the dogs, let me benefit in some small way from your grace.
Jesus is very impressed, we're told, by the woman's faith and promises her daughter will be healed, which she is, immediately.
So how are we to understand this gospel story and what does it say to us?
Firstly, as I said earlier, we have to see this story in the context of Jesus' earthly ministry. Matthew certainly emphasises that Jesus saw his mission as primarily to his own people. At the same time, Jesus was continually breaking down barriers and moving boundaries, welcoming, not only the respectable Jews, but the poor, the unclean, the marginalised and outcasts into the kingdom. But there is also the implication that one day the Gentiles too will be welcomed in and 'the first will be last and the last will be first.' Jesus' earthly ministry was only one phase of his mission, which he began mostly among his own people; after his death and resurrection his followers began to understand more fully that God's grace is for all; Jew and Gentile. Paul, especially in his letter to the Romans, ch 9-11, grapples with the painful question that many of his own people reject Jesus as the Messiah; nevertheless, he concludes God has not given up on them and affirms that God's purpose is to be merciful to all, as we heard in our reading from Romans this morning. Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, men and women are all welcome as children at God's table.
Of course, at the time, the disciples, and the Canaanite woman herself, couldn't see the full picture. However, one of the striking things about this story is the way the woman does not give up, but keeps on asking Jesus, keeps on trusting he will help her, despite several negative and very unpromising replies. This can speak to us. We, ourselves, often do not understand God's purposes and we cannot see the full picture, but we are encouraged not to give up.
When we pray and seek God's grace, we may sometimes feel, like the Canaanite woman, that there is simply no answer to our cries for help. We feel ignored. At other times we may feel that there is an answer but it is a hard one, it is one we don't really understand. It may even seem harsh. Do we give up on God in anger? The Canaanite woman didn't do that. She trusted she would receive mercy and grace in the end. She trusted in his mercy, even when she couldn't initially see any signs of it. This can be an inspiration and an encouragement to us not to give up, but to keep seeking God's grace and help even when the way seems dark and bleak and we cannot really understand what is happening.
As well as encouraging us not to give up, perhaps this story also reminds us that we do not have a 'right' to God's grace because of our own status, it is a gift. I wonder if any of you have noticed that, unlikely as it may seem, we use some of the words adapted from this difficult gospel story in our communion service? One of the prayers before communion has the words 'we are not worthy to gather up the crumbs under your table, but you are the same Lord whose nature is always to have mercy.'
That prayer adapts the words of the woman in our gospel story that even the dogs get to eat the crumbs under the table. In that prayer we describe ourselves as being even less worthy than the dogs in that we have no right even to the crumbs that fall from the table. Not a very positive image! I remember one woman in my first parish who really hated these words, and refused to say them because she felt they were demeaning and insulting. But the point of these words is not to make us feel bad about ourselves, even less to make us feel like dogs. We are invited to the Lord's table as his beloved children, but this prayer reminds us that we do not have a place at the table by 'right' whoever we are. Jew, Gentile, rich, poor, respectable Christian, criminal, saint or Archbishop, we are all invited to the table because of God's grace and mercy, not because of our own worthiness.
So let us pray and not give up. And let us come to God as his children to be fed, confident in his welcoming love, not because of our own status or goodness, but because of his abundant and freely given grace offered to all.
Revd Helen Marshall