Matthew 15:21-28

Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed from that moment.

Sermon Text

Of all the scriptures in the Bible… This is certainly one of them. It tells a story that is uncomfortable to anyone who reads it honestly and is therefore turned into something far more palatable whenever it is read to a congregation. The motivation of Jesus, of the woman, even of the disciples is softened in a way that makes the harsh edges seem to disappear. Yet, at the same time the telling of the story, diminished in the way it is, becomes weaker with each alteration. No matter how we approach this interaction between Jesus and the Canaanite woman, we must do so honestly and without preemptive excuses.

In what seems to be a very out of character interaction, our scripture today shows Jesus seeming to do his best to ignore a woman in need. Traveling past Tyre and Sidon, two traditionally wicked cities, a woman emerges and begs Jesus to help her. She calls after him along the road, calling him the Son of David, acknowledging he is the Messiah. His Disciples, uncomfortable with this foreigner following them, ask Jesus to send her away. Yet, Jesus does not even look at her. He keeps walking in silence before telling his disciples why he keeps walking past. “I am sent only to the lost sheep of Israel…”

Undeterred, the woman throws herself at his feet, continuing to beg. Jesus here delivers his strangest judgment. “It is not right to give the food meant for the children to the dogs.” Now, here is where a thousand excuses usually enter the narrative about how it is actually normal to refer to foreigners as dogs or how Jesus is using a word that means something closer to “puppy,” or something like that. Yet, I can tell you, an honest reading does not allow for this. Jesus calls this woman a dog, and she responds by saying, “Even a dog may eat crumbs.” Jesus, without backing down from his insult or his mission statement, simply states that the woman’s faith is great, and her child is healed… What is going on in this scripture?!

If Jesus was just a person, I could accept the idea that people in that day and age would treat foreigners poorly and call them dogs. People treat foreigners poorly today and call them all kinds of horrible things. Yet, Jesus was not just a person. Jesus was, and is, fully God and fully man. Being the perfect human being and by nature of being God being without sin, Jesus cannot do something wrong at any point in his ministry. He is perfect in a way that is to be emulated for all eternity, because as God made flesh and as the perfection of humanity, Christ is incapable of sin and of doing wrong. Therefore, any description of this story that makes Jesus into a sinner must not be accepted nor can we accept a telling of this story that blesses insulting people for the conditions of their birth.

I wish I could, therefore, explain the conduct of Jesus in this passage, but it runs into a similar problem to the story of the Wedding at Cana.[1] In that passage, the wedding runs out of wine, and people are upset that there is nothing more to drink. Mary, Mother of Jesus, approaches her son and says, “Hey kid! You’re up, do a miracle!” Jesus responds, in a very relatable, but uncharacteristic way… Do we remember Jesus’s response? “Woman! It is not yet my time!” Now… Language changes… But imagine if you said to your mother, “Woman!” followed by anything… How’s that gonna go?

The two stories also share something else in common. Despite Jesus saying that this is not the time to work this kind of miracle… He does it anyway. Jesus makes water into wine at Cana and Jesus heals this woman’s daughter even though he speaks in what reads as a very frank, rude tone as to why he refuses to do so. Jesus, despite the fact the time is not right, still does the thing that is asked of him. What a strange look into the mind of God we are given.

The woman, unceasing in her prayer for her daughter to be saved, reveals something that we often forget ourselves. She never questions that a gentile is not worthy to receive God’s blessings. She accepts that she is unfit to be blessed in anyway. Yet, she does not cease to ask for it. Jesus has, at this point in his ministry, been preaching to people who are descendants of Abraham – inheritors then of a blessing that goes way back into antiquity. These folks are the closest to anyone that can claim a special status in this world… Yet it is those people who have rejected him again and again and again. They have, through lack of faith, given up on their inheritance. They have forgotten that they were not blessed because they deserved it, but because God was kind.

I do not know why this woman was called a dog, but I do know that she understood God’s economy of grace better than any of the “children,” who were sitting at God’s table. Last week we talked about holiness, about the need to approach God with an understanding of our own insignificance. This woman did just that. She humbly came forward, never claimed to be owed anything, and through that understanding received everything. Humility is an understanding of our status in the world, and when we realize all good gifts are ours simply out of God’s favor, out of a love that is revealed despite ourselves, we can truly enjoy God’s goodness.

I am a fan of doing Communion as often as we can. It is, after all, a meal in which we receive God’s grace to live a life worthy of our call. So many times I hear people oppose the idea of doing it too frequently. “It loses what makes it special!” “It takes too long!” “I need time to get ready for it!” “We used to do it once every three months!” Et cetera, et cetera. All these I could talk about for a long time. Yet, I think one of the key things that we forget about what we are offered in Communion is just how special it is.

God, not just a long time ago, but every time we offer up praise and thanksgiving over bread and wine, presents the sacrifice of Christ on the cross to us. Body and Bread, taken into ourselves, spiritual nourishment that connects us with Jesus Christ’s perfected humanity and sublime divinity. It is a meal that people long to eat, even if they do not know it yet. To be present with God, to share in that physical contact even for a moment, is worth more than just about anything.

I bring this up because the old communion liturgy contained a line I think we need to restore to our regular vocabulary. “We do not presume to come to this thy table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies.” That’s how it starts, but here’s the key piece, “We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy table. But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy…”

I do not know why Jesus calls this woman a dog. I do not know why Jesus sometimes seems to get angry with his disciples and family and respond to them in this seemingly rude manner. Yet, I know that regardless of the presentation of the action, it reveals two deep truths. Firstly, that we are, in fact, unworthy to receive God’s grace except by the love, mercy, and favor we receive from God through Jesus Christ. Secondly, that regardless of what is “proper,” Jesus never fails to show mercy. If the time isn’t quite right for a miracle, it can still be shown. If a person approaches the throne of grace “unworthily,” but does so full well knowing they do not deserve a crumb of that grace, then they will receive it in abundance.

I cannot speak for God, I cannot solve the unsolvable about the context of this story. Yet I can tell you today, God’s grace is here, it is being poured out on us all, and even as we strive to be holy and do right, it is available to us sometimes more than ever in the moments we do not deserve it. God is merciful, God is just, even to a wretched man such as me. – Amen.

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[1] John 2:1-12