Wednesday in the 18th Week of Ordinary Time, August 7, 2024

Matthew 15, 21-28

At that time Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!  My daughter is tormented by a demon.”  But he did not say a word in answer to her.  His disciples came and asked him, “Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.”  He said in reply, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  But the woman came and did him homage, saying, “Lord, help me.”  He said in reply, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.”  She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” Then Jesus said to her in reply, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed from that hour.

“At that time Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came.”  Both St. Matthew and St. Mark record that the Lord Jesus went to the coast of what is now Lebanon after answering the concerns of some Pharisees who came to him from Jerusalem, and teaching them about inward cleanliness as distinct from the  outward.  He may have felt a need to give his Apostles a chance to get away from the constant demands imposed on him by those seeking to be cured as well as those who only wanted to criticize and challenge him.  He certainly did not intend to preach there, for as Mark 7, 24 tells us, “He would that no man should know it.”  Mark also tells us that he accepted hospitality in a house in the region, meaning a Jewish house, but few Jews lived in that land.  Despite his preference to maintain a low profile, “he could not be hid”, as Mark puts it succinctly.  As he and his Apostles walked along one day, “a Canaanite woman” came to him.  The term was an anachronism even in Matthew’s day but he uses it to make it clear that she was not a Greek visitor.  She belonged to a formerly great nation with a proud history.  They were masters of the sea before anyone else dared to sail.  They invented an alphabet which greatly influenced the later Greek and Roman alphabets.  The woman’s forebears had cut down the mighty cedar trees which went into the building of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem.

“Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!  My daughter is tormented by a demon.”  According to the Greek text she did not as much as “call out” as shout out or even shriek.  This implies that she kept her distance from the Lord, knowing that the Jews do not mix with Gentiles.  This is quite a concession on her part, for the Lord was in her land and she could have come much closer to him had she wanted.  Her action is a desperate one, born out of dire need.  She acknowledges him as her “Lord” (not merely a “teacher”) and as the Son of David, the Messiah of Israel.  Somehow this woman, far from the borders of Galilee, not only knows him to be a Jew (as she would from his distinctive clothing) but that he is also the Messiah, and she calls him her Lord.  This is quite extraordinary, and it contrasts starkly with the treatment he had earlier received from the Pharisees who should have recognized him as the One who fulfilled the prophesies.  

“Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.”  The Apostles may be attempting to protect Jesus from the importunities of a Gentile or simply to protect his rest.  They may also have felt very self-conscious in a foreign land.

“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  Since she shows knowledge and belief that he is the Messiah, the Lord speaks to her as the One who is sent by the Father.  He speaks of the lost sheep of Israel for the benefit of the Apostles as well as to test the woman.  In answer to her repeated plea, the Lord gave her a severe answer: “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.”  He uses the epithet which the Jews employed for Gentiles at that time. But she replies, for her back is against the wall: “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”  The woman shows tremendous humility here, abasing herself publicly.  This humility makes faith possible.  “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”  The first part of what the Lord says, he says for the Apostles to hear.  The second part was for her, and when she returned home, she found that “her daughter was healed from that hour.”

While Jesus acted as he did to save the woman’s daughter from the demons, he also does so in order to teach his Apostles and those to whom the Apostles related the event.  This sums up his ministry in Israel, in fact.  Departing the land of the Jews for their faithlessness, the Lord comes into a foreign land where he is treated with great respect, and where the need for him is acknowledged.  The woman is found worthy of the favor she asks through the testing of her faith, and the favor is granted.  That is, Israel, almost as a whole, rejected the Faith, but the Faith found acceptance among the Gentiles, who received the forgiveness of their sins as a result.  Matthew, writing for his fellow Jewish Christians at a time when Christian missionaries are beginning to go out beyond Israel to preach the Gospel, reminds them that this was the will of Jesus Christ by reporting to them on this miracle and how it came to be performed.  The Jewish Pharisees acted towards Jesus as one would have expected Gentiles to do, and a Gentile woman acts towards him as the Pharisees should have.  We can see something of this too in the Gospel of St. Luke where the formally Jewish ruler Herod mocks Jesus whereas the Gentile governor Pilate treats him with respect and seeks to free him.

For our part, we see how we should reverence the Lord Jesus, coming before him in the deepest humility, fully aware of our sins and our helplessness.