Twentieth Sunday In Ordinary Time
MATTHEW 15:21-28 (Isaiah 56:1, 6-7; Romans 11:13-15, 29-32)
In the preceding story Matthew taught his Christian Community that the so-called unclean foods do not defile any one, that is, eating foods like pork, etc., does not make anyone incapable of engaging in community worship of God. In Mark’s version of the same story, the Marcan Jesus declares all foods clean. Matthew is not that explicit, but he does imply it. The topic of unclean foods leads logically to the topic of “unclean” people.
Were the Gentiles, the non-Jews, acceptable to God, or were they “unclean?” The story which is today’s gospel takes up this problem. It was indeed a problem in the early Church as we see in a confrontation between Peter and Paul in Galatians 2, and widely in Luke’s Acts of Apostles.
To answer this question Matthew first portrays Jesus leaving the Holy Land, God’s Land, a “clean” land, and going into heathen territory, “And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon,” two cities on the Mediterranean seacoast. “And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region approached and cried out, ‘Have mer-cy on me, O Lord, Son of David. My daughter is severely possessed by a demon.” A key word in the story is “Canaanite.” Who were the Canaanites? Being non-Jews, Gentiles, they were certainly considered unclean in the time of Jesus, and perhaps fifty years later by some of the most conservative Jewish Christians in Matthew’s Christian congregation at Antioch in Syria. But there is much more!
The Canaanites were the original settlers of the area which the Israelites (later called Jews from the name of their province Judea) claimed to have received from God through their ancestor Abraham. What were they to do with these natives, the Canaanites, when they finally entered their “Promised Land”? In an attempt to create God in their own image and likeness, their scholars attribute to God these words, “…I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you,” Exodus 23:31. The authors of Deuteronomy go further, “…when the Lord God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, you must utterly destroy them, make no covenant with them, show no mercy to them,” Deuteronomy 7:2. This was done also in our country toward Native Americans, toward African Americans – our own holocausts. More recently ethnic clean-sing happened in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
Not only was this a Canaanite who dared to approach Jesus the Jew, but was also a woman. Recall the words of the Samaritan woman to Jesus, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria,” John 4:9. Recall also how surprised Jesus’ disci-ples were when they returned from town, and “were amazed that he was talking with a woman,” John 4:27. In Middle Eastern societies it was bad form for women to speak in public with men outside their families. This distraught woman’s appeal is directed to Jesus as Lord, Son of David, a divine title and a royal title. What is Matthew up to? These titles hint that the Gentiles will eventually recognize Jesus as Lord and King. Matthew justifies the Christian mission to the Gentiles.
Jesus’ initial response is shocking. He ignores the woman, but she was persistent. Finally he answers, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Matthew’s theolog-ical plan is at work here. In his theology of salvation, Jesus’ ministry was restricted to his own people. Only after the resurrection, and through his Church, would the gospel be proclaimed to all nations through the nucleus of Jews whom he had formed for that purpose. The woman continues to plague Jesus. He has another harsh response implying again that his ministry is to Jews only, “It is not fair to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” She has a clever answer, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
Again she recognized his lordship, a great act of humility. Jesus acknowledges her faith and grants the petition for her daughter, “O Woman, great is your faith! Be it done to you as you wish.” Matthew adds, “And her daughter was healed instantly.” The Canaanite woman was not Matthew’s first clue that the proclamation of the gospel would be successful among the Gentiles. The first clue is in his genealogy of Jesus into which he inserts four Gentile women as ancestresses of Jesus.A second clue is the story of the Magi. These Gentile astrologers also recognize Jesus by a royal title, King of the Jews, seek him out, bring him royal gifts, and worship him in “a house,” which for Matthew indicates the Church
In Matthew 8:5-13, because of the pleading of a Roman centurion, Jesus cures the man’s servant, praises this Gentile’s faith, and says, “Not even in Israel have I found such faith.” Then Matthew, in words attributed to Jesus, proclaims the future mission to the Gentiles, “Many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” The plea of the Roman centurion and the plea of the Canaanite woman teach a valuable lesson –the power of prayer for others. Neither the one nor the other ask a favor from Jesus for themselves but for others.
