Some
try to deal with this offensive passage by seeing the Canaanite woman, and not Jesus,
as the story’s protagonist. This approach shows a powerless, abused outsider
asserting herself in the presence of Jesus, proving that he is in the wrong,
and getting the healing she wants for her daughter. The offense of Jesus’
actions and words are not downplayed or justified; rather, the text is read
from the perspective of, and in conversation with, the Canaanite woman who is
the recipient of the offense.
That Jesus himself initially refuses to converse
with this woman only increases the importance of this reading.[1] Like all the Gentile women
in Matthew, the Canaanite here serves to “shift the normal ‘male gaze’ to a
distinctly female one.”[2] What does this gaze show
us? The geographical setting for this story is, like the woman, ambiguous,
marginal, dangerous and unclean.[3] As Anne Thurston says: “Our
definition of margin depends on our definition of place, our view of where the
centre is…Jesus and the disciples are concerned this is a voice from the edge.
She does not have a place, according to the terms of their understanding.”[4] This is the first
non-Israelite woman that Jesus meets, but expectations have already been set by
the mention of Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba. These women are all “out of
place” in Jesus’ genealogy and are all known for their marginality, their
aggression, and their sexual provocation.[5] Canaanite women in
particular were considered dangerous, for “it was by way of women that the Gentiles
were considered unclean since their women were considered ‘menstruants from the
cradle’.’”[6] That the Canaanite woman
accosts Jesus in the open, unattached to any man, is a scandal and a danger to
him, but also a bold and risky move for her.[7]
The
situation becomes even more tense because she refuses to be silenced, ignored,
or dismissed. The disciples ask Jesus to send this embarrassing, out-of-place
woman away, but she will not stop making her demands.[8] She takes on the role of a
poor, persistent, and desperate woman making supplication to a corrupt judge,
which certainly casts Jesus in an unflattering light.[9] In response to Jesus’
explanation to the disciples that he was “sent only to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel,” the woman unashamedly grovels before this Israelite man. Feminist
theologians mark this as “indicative of women’s marginalization and Jewish
colonialism.”[10] She refuses to remain a victim, however, forcing Jesus to acknowledge her
presence and her request for help. This is the part of the story that seems
truly at odds with our understanding of Jesus as a liberator of humans in
general, and women in particular.[11]
Finally addressing the
woman and her persistent plea, Jesus likens her, her daughter, and her kind to
dogs who should not get a share of food from the table. Some scholars have
suggested that this was an old maxim; or that Jesus really refers to “puppies” or
household pets; or that Jesus said this with an affectionate and humorous
twinkle in his eye. All attempts to take the sting out of this insult fail to
satisfy. This is offensive language, especially when spoken by a Jewish man to
a Gentile woman.[12]
And the offense is not simply ethnic, but religious as well. The later Babylonian
Talmud Hagiga states that “as the sacred food was intended for men, but not for
the dogs, the Torah was intended to be given to the Chosen People, but not to
the Gentiles.”[13]
Jesus is saying that her place is outside of the kingdom blessing, a place
where the demon-possessed should not expect healing.[14] Still the woman will not
relent, arguing back to Jesus that even the dogs might expect the crumbs of
blessing from the table. She demands that Jesus live up to the title of Lord,
and wins the healing of her daughter from him because of her bold faithfulness
and theological acuity. Some scholars believe Jesus here learns from the woman to
overcome his prejudices and change his missional priorities to include
Gentiles.[15]
Many
of us will find this approach deeply problematic. The notion that Jesus needed
to be educated out of his racist misogyny is troubling if we believe him to be
sinless and sovereign. This argument also unfairly promotes the idea that the Jewish
worldview was uniformly exclusivist and misogynistic, and portrays the woman as
an outcast victim of Jewish imperialistic tendencies, though if the woman faced
any displacement and oppression it was from Rome, just as it was for the Jews.[16]
However, we should not
dismiss the importance of the Canaanite woman being central to this story. Her
example reminds us that we need to read with people who are vulnerable,
oppressed, borderless, out of place, in order to hear this and other scripture
passages correctly.[17] Ethnic, gender and
socio-economic prejudices still very much exist, including in the Church, and require
great human effort and persistence to overcome.[18] Recognising great faith
and wisdom in people we might easily ignore and marginalize helps form the
shape of the Church and our discipleship in new and surprising ways.[19] It is arguably the great
faith of this woman that helped justify the Matthean community’s mission to
Gentiles and their inclusion in the church meals.[20]
Our
friend Jessie, like the Canaanite woman, came from a very marginal place, yet
that did not prevent her from approaching Jesus, and the Church, with her need.
Now a believer, she continues to aggressively advocate on behalf of First
Nations communities, prostituted women, missing and murdered survival sex
workers, addicts, and prisoners. Her voice demands to be heard, insisting that
the humanity of the marginalized be acknowledged. Starting from the outside,
distinctly “out of place,” she has moved herself into the centre of many Church
conversations and there are some, like the disciples, who want her silenced. Her
faith is not that of a quiet, submissive, “safe” woman, but of a bold,
relentless, loud champion of that which is right. She requires Jesus, and the
Church, to be who they claim to be and will not stop until she is satisfied.
She is therefore an essential part of shaping our Church discipleship,
constantly pushing us into areas of obedience where we might not otherwise go.
Jessie reminds us to pay careful attention to voices from the edge.
Part 4 tomorrow...
[1] Stephenson
Humphries-Brooks, “The Canaanite Women in Matthew,” in A Feminist Companion to Matthew, edited by Amy-Jill Levine,
(Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 2001), 155.
[2]
Humphries-Brooks, “Canaanite Women,” 156.
[3] Elaine
M Wainwright, “Not Without My Daughter: Gender and Demon Possession in Matthew
15:21-28,”, in A Feminist Companion to
Matthew, edited by Amy-Jill Levine, (Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 2001),
132.
[4]
Thurston, Knowing Her Place, 26.
[5] Kathleen
E. Corley, Private Women, Public Meals:
Social Conflict in the Synoptic Tradition, (Peabody: Hendrickson
Publishers, 1993), 166; Stuart L. Love, Jesus
and Marginal Women: The Gospel of Matthew in Social-Scientific Perspective,
(Eugene: Cascade Books, 2009), 160.
[6]
Elaine Wainwright, cited in Nortje-Meyer, “Gentile Female Characters,” 68.
[7] Lilly
Nortje-Meyer, “The Homosexual Body Without Apology: A Positive Link Between the Canaanite Woman
in Matthew 15:21-28 and Homosexual Interpretation of Biblical Texts,” in Religion and Theology, Vol 9, 2002, 130-131.
[8]
O’Day, “Surprised by Faith,” 118.
[9]
Keener, Matthew, 415.
[10]
Levine, “Matthew’s Advice,” 23.
[11] Evelyn
and Frank Stagg, cited in Willard M. Swartley, Slavery Sabbath War and Women: Case Issues in Biblical Interpretation,
(Scottdale, Pennsylvania: Herald Press, 1983), 183.
[12]
Witherington III, Women, 65.
[13] Babylonian
Talmud Hagiga 13a, cited in Garland, Reading
Matthew, 166.
[14] Wainwright,
“Not Without My Daughter,” 134.
[15] Daniel
Patte,“The Canaanite Woman and Jesus: Surprising Models of Discipleship (Matt
15:21-28) in Transformative Encounters:
Jesus and Women Re-viewed, edited by Ingrid Rosa Kitzberger, (Boston:
Brill, 1999), 35.
[16]
Levine, “Matthew’s Advice,” 26, 30.
[17]
Patte, “The Canaanite Woman,” 54-55.
[18] Frances
Taylor Gench, Back to the Well: Women’s
Encounters with Jesus in the Gospel, (Louisville: Westminster John Knox
Press, 2004), 20.
[19]
Patte, “The Canaanite Woman,” 35.
[20]
Corley, Private Women, 168-169.
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