Matthew 15:21-28
"Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon,” shouts a Canaanite woman over and over and over again. And what does Jesus do? Nothing. He ignores her! It’s only when the disciples can take no more of this screeching woman that they come to Jesus and ask him to so something, to send her away. To which Jesus declares, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Basically, I’m not here for people like her.
Although rejected, the woman takes this as her opportunity. At least he’s not ignoring her anymore. “Lord, help me,” she pleads. Yet once again, she is rebuffed as Jesus explains, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs."
At this point in the story I always want to ask, “Who is this Jesus, and what has he done with my Lord and Savior?!?” And I’m not the only one. Many have tried to explain this seemingly uncharacteristic behavior. Maybe Jesus was just having a bad day. Or maybe he was trying to teach his disciples something. Or perhaps he was testing the woman’s faith. Or maybe at this point in his ministry Jesus didn’t understand the full extent of his mission.
Regardless of why Jesus did what he did, honestly, I don’t like it. That’s not the Jesus I want and perhaps you feel the same. But that’s the Jesus we get in today’s gospel reading. And sometimes, that’s the Jesus we get in life. I mean, can’t we all identify with the Canaanite woman’s experience? Haven’t we all asked God in Christ for something and not gotten it? Begged for something - for healing, for help, for some kind of intervention - and felt like all we got in return was silence?
As uncomfortable as this story is, it bears witness to the reality that we don’t have God all figured out. And that faith is complicated and sometimes even a struggle. But this story also witnesses to someone who, in the face of it all, continues to insist that God is good and merciful and will come through.
This past week, as I’ve thought about this Canaanite woman and her dogged faith another woman has come to mind. A woman that many of us knew, the Rev. Jennifer Durant. She was my friend, my colleague, and my predecessor. And, as many of you know, Jennifer lived valiantly as ALS robbed her of everything. It was horrible. And no one knew that more than Jennifer. So it made an impression on me during one of the times we got together when she told me about a recent sermon she had just written. She said she quoted a verse from a contemporary Christian song that spoke to her. It went, “I don’t know what you’re doing [God], but I know who you are.”
That’s the faith that Jennifer held onto during her heartbreaking decline. I don’t know what you’re doing [God], but I know who you are.
And that is the faith of the Canaanite woman. The faith that even when God doesn’t do what we think God should be doing we know who God is. Good and merciful.
In the end, it is this dogged faith that gets Jesus’ attention. True, the Canaanite woman is a remarkably quick thinker. Taking Jesus’ statement about throwing children’s food to the dogs and turning it on it’s head - "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." But underneath that wit, what she really is saying is that, “I’m trusting you, Lord. I’m trusting that somehow you will come through. That your love will triumph. Your mercy will overcome. Your redemption will save. Even when I don’t know what you’re doing.
No wonder Jesus was impressed. "Woman,” he says, “great is your faith!” And her daughter was instantly healed. In this encounter, the problem is resolved fairly quickly. For us, though, redemption is often more slow in coming. We may not know what God is doing all the time, but we know who God is. Good and merciful. And because we know that, because that is the faith that together we proclaim, we can trust that in the end God will come through.
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