The
traditional approach to this passage focuses on Jesus opening the door to
mission and faith among the Gentiles. The strength of this approach is that
it locates the story within the broader purpose of Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew
15:1-20 relates a debate over purity rituals and defilement. After rebuking the
scribes and Pharisees and announcing that defilement comes from the heart, not
from unwashed hands, Jesus leaves the “clean” territory of Israel and heads for
the notoriously “unclean” and enemy Gentile area of Tyre and Sidon.
As he
enters this enemy territory, Jesus is pursued by a woman identified as a
Canaanite. This was not a current cultural or political category in Jesus’
time, unlike the designation of Syro-Phoenician used in Mark 7:24-29.[1] The Canaanites were “the
bitter biblical enemies of Israel whose paganism had often led Israel into
idolatry.”[2] So this story has Jesus,
fresh from a debate over purity and defilement, entering an historically
unclean land and meeting with an historically unclean woman, an obvious
religious outsider.[3]
This is an “intentional narrative strategy to accentuate the distinctions
between Jesus and the woman who approaches him. She is the enemy, not his
kind.”[4]
The
situation is a perfect test case for Jesus’ previous teaching on purity: can
God’s compassion extend even to the enemy? Can this woman, representing all
that is unclean and dangerous, ever have access the blessings of God’s Kingdom?
Not only is the answer yes, but by overcoming Jesus’ strenuous testing, this
Canaanite woman is said to possess “great” faith. This testing is the
traditional explanation for Jesus’ dismissive attitude and insults. There are
no “hints of ethnocentrism, sexism, or even conflicting messages” in this
reading; Jesus is demonstrating to the disciples what persistent faith looks
like, and revealing to them that it may be found in the unlikeliest of people.[5] Therefore he deliberately
puts obstacles in the way of the woman, to ensure her faith was legitimate, and
to magnify the surprising faith of this scandalous character.[6] The woman approaches Jesus
correctly, identifying him as Lord and the Son of David – thus confessing Jesus
as Messiah before even Peter does in 16:16 - and begging his mercy, just as the
blind men do in 9:37.[7] Though ignored she does
not give up, kneeling at Jesus’ feet in the proper posture of worship and
petition. She accepts Jesus’ statement that he has come only to the Jewish
people, thereby acknowledging Israel’s part in God’s salvation plan, but also
perceives that Jesus is the master of the children, the dogs, the food and the
table – indeed the Lord of all - and that he gets to bless whomever he wants.[8] In all of this she
impresses Jesus with her great faith.
This faith, like
that of the Magi (2:1-12), and the Roman soldiers (8:5-13; 27:54), is
contrasted with the lack of faith found in the ruling elite of Israel
(13:53-38), and the little faith displayed by Jesus’ own disciples (14:31;
16:8).[9] This point is foreshadowed
in Matthew 11:21-24, where Jesus announces that godless Tyre and Sidon would
have responded faithfully to him, unlike Chorazin and Bethsaida.[10] Rahab and Tamar, two Canaanite women who feature in Jesus’
parentage (Matthew 1:3, 5) also prepare readers to accept the faith of the
woman in this story. Matthew’s audience know that if Jesus rejects this woman
because of her ethnicity, he is rejecting at least two of his own ancestors.[11] During Jesus’ ministry there was still a real boundary between Jews and Gentiles, so “the woman’s
request on behalf of her daughter categorically has no place.”[12] The woman’s persistent
faith, however, combined with Jesus’ compassionate grace, overcomes the
boundary in this case.[13] What is more, the
daughter’s healing, which indicates the overflow of the God’s salvation for
Israel onto the Gentiles, is a foretaste of what is to come.[14] Following Jesus’
resurrection and his command to go into all the world to make disciples
(28:16-20), the barrier between Jews and Gentiles is completely removed.
There
are some obvious applications of this interpretation of the story for Matthew’s
community, and for ours. Matthew’s community was free to include Gentiles, but
not because Israel had been rejected.[15] The children do not need
to be starved for the dogs to be fed by the crumbs; the miraculous feedings
that frame this story (14:13-21; 15:29-39) show that there is enough “food” for
everyone.[16]
This story foreshadows and justifies the mission to the Gentiles and their
faithful response, which is where we also find our hope and mission.
We too are
Gentiles, and undeserving of God’s blessing, yet we have found a place in the
presence of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah. This gracious welcome from the Lord must
be received faithfully and humbly, in emulation of the woman who begged for
mercy from the Son of David. It reminds me of our friend Gina, who felt
worthless and out of place, rejected and isolated because of illness and
addiction, her ethnicity, and the “sexual defilement” of prostitution. When she
came to the Lord she was truly poor in spirit, bringing nothing but herself and
her desperate, faithful hope that Jesus in his mercy would offer her welcome
and freedom. Like Gina, and like the Canaanite woman, we all must throw
ourselves at Jesus’ feet, recognising our desperate position before God and our
need of healing and mercy. Having received that mercy, we must become the kind
of community which seeks to help everyone – regardless of background - find a
place in the presence of Jesus, and a place in our fellowship.
As genuine and helpful as this conclusion is, we are still left with some uncomfortable questions about Jesus’ treatment of the Canaanite woman. If Jesus tests this woman’s faith, the method is uniquely severe. Up to this point Jesus is compassionate and open to outsiders, sinners, even Gentiles. In Matthew 8:5-13 a Roman Centurion asks Jesus to heal his servant, using almost the exact same language as the Canaanite woman. These two stories are often paired to illustrate Jesus’ concern for non-Israelites.[17] Yet instead of ignoring and insulting the Centurion, Jesus offers healing.
So why does Jesus put a frantic mother through a rigorous testing period only seven chapters later? Is it because she is a foreign woman, and therefore even more out of place in his presence than the male Roman soldier? Is it fair of Jesus to wait until the woman abases herself and agrees that she is a dog worthy only of scraps before he heals her daughter? What does that mean for marginalised women in our world today: do they have to pass a special test before they can be accepted and find their place in the family of God? We know this is how many marginalised women feel when they seek inclusion in the Church.
Part 3 tomorrow...
[1] Gail
R. O’Day "Surprised by Faith: Jesus and the Canaanite Woman,", in A Feminist Companion to Matthew, edited
by Amy-Jill Levine, (Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 2001), 116; Stephenson Humphries-Brooks, “The
Canaanite Women in Matthew,” in A
Feminist Companion to Matthew, edited by Amy-Jill Levine, (Cleveland: The
Pilgrim Press, 2001), 142.
[2] Craig
S. Keener, A Commentary on the Gospel of
Matthew, (Grand Rapids: William B Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999), 414.
[3]
Christopher W. Skinner, “Review of ‘Have Mercy on Me”: The Story of the
Canaanite Woman in Matthew 15:21-28,’” by Glenna S. Jackson, Religious Studies Review Vol 33 Number 1
January 2007, 65.
[4] O’Day
"Surprised by Faith”, 116.
[5]
Amy-Jill Levine, “Matthew’s Advice to a Divided Readership”, in The Gospel of Matthew in Current Study, edited
by David E. Aune, (Grand Rapids: WM.
B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2001), 22.
[6] Robert
H. Gundry, Matthew: A Commentary on His
Handbook for a Mixed Church under Persecution, (Grand Rapids: William B
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994), 313.
[7]
Keener, Matthew, 415.
[8]
Gundry, Matthew, 315-316; Lilly
Nortje-Meyer,”Gentile Female Characters in Matthew’s Story: An Illustration of
Righteousness,” in Transformative
Encounters: Jesus and Women Re-viewed, edited by Ingrid Rosa Kitzberger,
(Boston: Brill, 1999), 70.
[9]
Keener, Matthew, 415; Gundry, Matthew, 316; Ben Witherington III, Women in the Ministry of Jesus: A Study of
Jesus’ Attitudes to Women and their Roles as Reflected in his Earthly Life, (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1984), 66.
[10]
Keener, Matthew, 415; David E. Garland, Reading Matthew: A Literary and Theological Commentary, (Macon:
Smyth and Helwys Publishing Incorporated, 2001), 164.
[11]
Keener, Matthew, 415.
[12] Matthias
Konradt, Israel, Church, and the Gentiles
in the Gospel of Matthew, (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2014), 65-66.
[13]
Garland, Reading Matthew, 167.
[14] Konradt,
Israel, 65-66.
[15]
Garland, Reading Matthew, 167.
[16] Anne
Thurston, Knowing Her Place: Gender and
the Gospels, (New York: Paulist Press, 1998), 27.
[17] Frances
Martin, The Feminist Question: Feminist
Theology in the Light of Christian Tradition”, (Grand Rapids: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994), 102.
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