The Canaanite Woman Who Changed Jesus' Mind

A Story That Shocks

Have you ever read the Bible and been shocked? Do you ever sit with the readings for a week and think, "Wow, that really challenges me"? For me, the story of the unnamed Canaanite woman who calls out Jesus and changes his mind is up there.

Let me explain.

We've got this lady. She's a nameless woman descended from the people who survived the conquest of Canaan by the Hebrews. Today, we would describe the Canaanites as First Nations people — the original inhabitants of the land before the Hebrews invaded, and way before the Romans arrived. Jesus and his religion, his culture, considered these people to be pagans, unclean, and idolatrous. They were thought of as thieves, dishonest, and impure simply because of their racial identity.

The unnamed woman is also a woman, a female, and we know it's culturally inappropriate in Jesus' day for a rabbi to be talking to a woman in public.

Silence and Stonewalling

So when Jesus and his disciples hear a Canaanite woman calling out, asking for help, their immediate reaction is silence. Stonewalling.

The disciples want to send her away, and Jesus apparently is in agreement. Consistent with earlier parts of Matthew — like Matthew 10 — Jesus insists his mission is not to the Gentiles, but is only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

But the Canaanite woman, probably expecting this kind of rejection, doesn't give up. She comes forward a second time, asking for his help so directly that Jesus can't avoid answering. And so he says to her:

"It's not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs."

As far as I can understand, to be likened to a dog was as insulting then as it is in many cultures now, today, around the world. It's a clear rejection and a smack down.

I have to say that as a woman from the dominant culture in Australia, used to a certain level of respectful treatment — if someone said that to me, I'd probably be pushed immediately into a flight or fight response. I'd either be running away as quickly as I could, going and hiding in a corner and licking my wounds, so shocked I'd been spoken to like that. Or alternatively, I'd get so angry I'd attempt to throttle them.

Resilience and Sharp Wit

But this woman — she's clearly resilient in the face of a challenge like this. She can push through the insult. Maybe she's heard it all before. Maybe she's treated like this quite often. So she doesn't get pushed into a flight or fight response, and she's able to reply calmly and with sharp wit:

"Even the dogs eat the crumbs from the master's table."

As in: "Sure, call me a dog if you like, but even the dogs are part of the master's household."

And Jesus — he knows she's right. And surprise of surprises, he admits it. The Son of David listens and is turned around, saying:

"Woman, great is your faith. Let it be done for you as you wish."

And her daughter is healed.

A Story Deliberately Preserved

So — hang on. Did Jesus just disrespect a person from the margins and end up having his backside handed to him on a plate? And we deliberately kept that story in the Bible?

Because with all due respect to people in power and people that we respect and uphold as great, one thing I notice is they don't generally like being called out or to admit that they're wrong — especially if it involves being called out by someone more lowly and humble than themselves. Especially if they think that person's unclean or idolatrous or dishonest or a thief.

And yet, we have the writer of the Gospel of Matthew deliberately including this scene in his retelling of the life and mission of Jesus. Let's remember that Jesus is someone the gospel writer wants his listeners to follow, to emulate.

Jesus listens to a voice from the margins and is changed by the encounter. It becomes a turning point in Jesus' ministry and in Matthew's own account of God's grace offered to all through Jesus.

Two Key Questions

I think there are two key questions for us in this passage. First: who is God's grace for? And second: in light of this, how are we to relate to one another?

We look not only to this passage, but to all of the lectionary readings for today.

God's Grace Is for Everyone

If we read Matthew and the Romans reading together, we get this clear message: God's grace is for everyone. It's not limited along cultural or racial lines. God is bigger than that, more gracious and expansive than that. God doesn't give up on anyone. God's mercy is for everyone.

How We Relate to One Another

As to how we're to relate to each other, there's a lot of depth within this set of lectionary readings to explore — far more than we have time for today. But these key messages stand out for me:

• No one, not even Jesus himself, knows everything and is always right. So be prepared to listen to diverse voices, especially those on the margins, and be willing to be changed by what you hear and to go somewhere new.
• We're called to unity, but not to monoculture. Those who put the lectionary together did so very deliberately. It's no accident that Psalm 133, which celebrates how good and pleasant it is when we live together in unity, appears alongside a story of a bold Canaanite woman bravely arguing for the expansion of the circle of belonging, and also alongside Paul asserting that God's mercy extends to everyone. We don't all have to be the same, but we can actively engage in the process of uniting — bringing our different perspectives together, coming together to talk, to discuss, to be in our diversity, to celebrate that and see it as a gift that can take us somewhere new together.
• We need to be on our guard against those who would exploit our woundedness and otherness to create division and conflict for personal gain, to grab power for themselves, or to spread hate.

As we see in Joseph's example in the Genesis story, we're called to reconciliation — not to forget the past, not to pretend it didn't happen, not to attempt to go back to that past, and not to act in retribution, but to find ways to tell the truth, weep over it, and come together to go forward to a more positive and life-giving future for everyone.

A Challenge for the Church

These are real challenges for us as church. To be the uniting church is to be a church with much diversity, uniting in our diversity — our cultural diversity, our linguistic diversity.

May God help us to unite in that diversity and to live into God's kingdom together: widening our boundaries, deepening our truth, strengthening our unity, and enlarging the grace that God offers to all.