The Canaanite woman

August 17, 2008
The Rev. Susan J. Latimer

We have been unpacking a lot of boxes at our house. I guess you never know how many things you really have until you have to move. Although the movers labeled the boxes, supposedly, there are often surprises when one is opened up. Some things are in completely different rooms, and some things we haven’t managed to find at all yet. A couple of days ago as I was opening up a box from our bedroom, I was very happy to see something that has hung on my bedroom wall for years.

It is an oval plate with an Eastern design on it – made of copper and silver or nickel – that my grandmother gave to me years ago. The design includes a dragon-like creature and much ornamentation. I like the plate itself, but it is the history behind it that keeps it in a favorite place on my wall.

My grandmother was an amazing woman. Born in 1898 in Covington, Kentucky, she lived much of her life in the mid-West. Independent beyond her era – she married my grandfather with enough money saved to divorce him, if it came to that. As she told me years later, “No man was going to make a fool out of me!” Well, she needn’t have worried. My grandparents were married for over 60 years.

In 1958, she and my grandfather moved to India for two years. He was a chemical engineer for Kaiser steel, and was sent there to help start up some steel plants. They lived in Jamshipur, and my grandmother set out to reform the country. If she had been there long enough, she probably could have! While they were there they traveled around a bit in India. I don’t remember where she was when she met the woman with the oval plate, but I do remember her story about the woman herself. She was a refugee from a nearby country – probably caught up in one of the many religious wars of the time – and she was traveling with her children. She had escaped with only what she could carry. She sold my grandmother the plate for traveling money. I remember my grandmother talking about this unnamed woman with great respect and admiration. Any one that my grandmother admired, was well worth admiring! And so the plate goes back up on my wall, in memory of a courageous refugee woman who was willing to make great sacrifices for the good of her children.

In another time and place altogether, there was another courageous woman who was fighting for her child’s life. She, too, was willing to risk crossing the boundaries of culture and religion. This Canaanite woman was so determined to help her daughter that she broke a cultural taboo – she spoke to a strange man in public.

The woman saw Jesus as he passed by. She must have heard that he was coming through the region and gotten herself positioned on the road. And so as Jesus and the disciples traveled by, she began to shout. “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon”.

Now this was strange. She recognized Jesus and used the title “Lord, Son of David” – but Jesus himself did not respond to her at all. And the disciples were getting tired of her loud, persistent shouting, and asked him to send her away.

This story of the Canaanite woman and Jesus is one of the strangest in the Gospels. We might wonder how it ever got included! Because Jesus comes across here as completely insensitive to the woman’s needs, if not downright rude. This is not Jesus the compassionate healer, or even Jesus the prophet. So what is going on?

Jesus finally says something. “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”. In other words, “you are outside the bounds of my ministry.” Many people would have taken that answer and left, disappointed. But not this woman. She will not give up.

She throws herself at his feet and says, “Lord, help me!”

And Jesus rebuffs her again. “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs”. That response would have sent most people running off with their tail between their legs, so to speak. But again, not this woman. She uses his analogy and turns it around – “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table”

At this point, Jesus seems to do a complete turn-around. He praises the woman for her great faith, and tells her that her daughter is healed.

What a strange story! It raises some interesting questions. When did Jesus understand his identity as the Son of God? Did Jesus’ understanding of his mission develop and change throughout his life?

Some commentators think that Jesus spoke with the Canaanite woman in order to teach the disciples a powerful lesson, and that may be true. But I agree with others who interpret this story very differently.

The Canaanite woman challenged Jesus’ self-understanding. Up to this point in the Gospels, Jesus’ ministry has been only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. After his encounter with this amazing woman, Jesus opens up the boundaries. He widens his ministry to include Gentiles and all people.

It is possible that the Canaanite woman was Jesus’ teacher – that she was the catalyst for him to widen his gaze and include all people. Maybe Jesus did not know everything all at once – he was human and divine, we must remember. Perhaps he was not born knowing all that he was and all that he had to do. Perhaps like the rest of humanity, he had to learn a lot of it along the way. Perhaps he was willing to admit that he had made a mistake, or that it was time to change the rules that he was living by.

In any case, the Canaanite woman remains for us a model of persistent faith and courage. She encounters Jesus at a turning point in his ministry, and he will never again narrow his focus.

Could it be that God actually needs us? That is an astonishing idea to some. But many of the mystics make that point over and over. Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th century mystic, spoke of humans as Co-Creators with God.
Perhaps the Canaanite woman was a co-creator with God of the second part of Jesus’ ministry among us….

Amen.