Terri Stewart · Matthew 15:21-28

²¹ Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. ²² Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” ²³ But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” ²⁴ He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” ²⁵ But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” ²⁶ He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” ²⁷ She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” ²⁸ Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly. (NRSV)

The scripture story today is titled “The Canaanite Woman.” I think that it should be changed! It should be titled The Canaanite Mother. And further, to give voice to this mother’s pain, we can use the name she is given in other historical resources, Justa1 Wainwright, Elaine M. “Not Without My Daughter: Gender and Demon Possession in Matthew.” A Feminist Companion to Matthew. Ed. Amy-Jill Levine with Marianne Blickenstaff. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic P, 2001, p. 126.. Matthew comes to us with a story about ultimate motherhood through the story of Justa.

Justa, a mother of compassion, is seeking out healing for her daughter. Mothers and fathers everywhere know the pain of a hurt child. There is nothing more we seek that to create healing and safety for our children. My son, Kennedy, suffers from horrible migraines. He gets them about every three weeks now, which is a big improvement. However, at their peak, he would get them weekly with the longest one lasting sixteen days. During that time, I would have gone anywhere and done anything to seek healing for my son. Justa does the same.

Justa crosses ethnic and gender boundaries to seek healing for her daughter. She is a Syro-Phoenician woman descended from the Canaanites. This Canaanite mother is seeking healing from a Jewish man. There is a history of hatred between the Israelites and the Canaanites. So, seeking out a Jewish man is a big risk. This is a border she must cross.

Additionally, she is a woman and meets the disciples outdoors in the male domain. These are risky behaviors! It takes courage to meet a man in the open spaces of the frontiers during that time. That is a border she must cross.But Justa crosses borders to bring healing to her daughter. And in her daughter’s healing, there is healing for the world.

Ultimately, though, we are confronted with the question of what do we do with this Jesus? This Jesus seems to be caught “with his compassion down2 Carter, Warren. Matthew and the Margins: A Sociopolitical and Religious Reading. Mary Knoll: Orbis Books, 2000, p. 324”. Justa comes to Jesus and asks for a healing gift and Jesus treats her with silence! What could his silence indicate? Is he formulating a snappy repartee? Or is he thinking that he might have a teachable moment with his disciples? Or, could it be that a Canaanite woman is so far out of his cultural context that he is taken by surprise? While I would love to embrace the idea that Jesus was creating a teachable moment for his disciples, I have to stick to the context of his social environment. Socially, it would be accurate for a Jewish man to silence a Canaanite woman. His disciples do not even speak directly to her, but ask Jesus to send her away. Nobody talks to Justa.

She pleads again and his response is a rejection of her one more time. He bolsters his disciples and the Jewish community by putting the sheep of Israel ahead of her. He compares healing her daughter to throwing the bread to the dogs. Then in a clever reversal, she outsmarts Matthew’s Jesus. This is the man who has outsmarted Pharisees throughout his life. She out-thinks, out-smarts him and out-compassions him. This is another twist to our modern Christian world-view. Jesus was out-done by a mother. But, his undoing is our saving grace.

God’s universal grace is in every step of this story-grace upon grace. Grace prepares the way for us to act responsibly with God. It gives us a chance at hearing God through the sinfulness of our world–the sinfulness that causes disease, inequality, pain, and crime. Somehow, God, through grace, finds a way to cut through all of that. We can see this in Justa’s story. Justa comes to Jesus. Why does she come to him? There are other magical healers. What is it that brings her to Jesus? It is God’s grace. It is nudging her right along. It is opening her to the healing possibilities of God.

But, is God’s grace and God’s nudges enough? No, Justa has to respond to God’s call. If she is not willing to cross her boundaries, then it is simply not going to happen for her. Therefore, she does cross the boundaries into a male dominated, Jewish social group. However, Jesus, has crossed into her boundaries too. That is where grace is found. This is significant for our story. Jesus and God will meet us where we are. We just have to listen and respond.

And it does require a response. God is not having a one-way conversation with us. God requires a response in order to create a relationship with God and with the world. Often, God is calling us into unfamiliar territory, demanding that we cross a border and meet God where God is. Jesus shows us over and over that he finds God in the homeless, the hungry, the poor, and the alien. Jesus calls us to cross borders and to be his action in the world. Saying yes to God’s presence in our lives.

Justa said “yes” to God’s presence in her life. Should she just go home because she did not get what she asked for? No. She continues asking for what she wants while worshiping and recognizing Jesus as “Lord, Son of David.” She is allowing God to work in her life. She is not letting impediments block her way. She is doing her part in responding to God’s grace.

While developing a relationship with Christ, we become more “response-able3 Maddox, Randy L. Responsible Grace. Nashville: Abingdon, 1994, p. 98.” The ultimate in responsiveness is to defend the least among us. Justa is seeking a defense for the least in society-today, we could imagine her child as a Latina from a broken home with an illegal immigrant for a mother. There is not much available in social justice for this child. For her, justice must start with God’s grace. For us, justice also starts with God’s grace. Then, perhaps, we can begin to feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the ill, and visit the imprisoned (Matt 25:34-40).

Justa continues to respond to God’s grace. I am reminded of the story in Genesis where Abraham is arguing with God about the destruction of Sodom. Abraham is trying to convince God that there are some worthy people in Sodom. He bargains God all the way down from total, sure destruction for all, to just finding five righteous men (Genesis 18:16-33 NRSV). This is good news for Justa and for all of us! I take great comfort in the fact that we can talk to God and God will respond. God will change things. For Justa, Jesus changed and he recognized her great faith. Justa fulfills God’s word in every way. She responds to his grace and she protects those who are unprotected.

The real story for us is the change in Matthew’s Jesus. It is hard to imagine Christ changing. We grow up with the most challenging story being that of the temple and the tables being overturned. Nevertheless, we understand that story. We can understand righteous anger and the indignation we would feel at the abuse of God’s house. It would be unnatural for Jesus if he were not angry. What do we do with a Jesus that ignores the marginalized and denies their requests? This Jesus is outside of our common understanding. We must come to terms with the words of Jesus. To increase this challenge, we find that when Jesus is bested theologically by a Canaanite mother, he has a fundamental shift in his point-of-view.

That is uncomfortable for us. Thankfully, we have examples in the Hebrew Scriptures of God changing that we can draw on to comfort ourselves, such as Abraham’s argument with God. Abraham essentially bests God’s argument and the results are saving grace. Here, Justa bests Jesus’ argument and the results are saving grace. It changes his ministry from a Jewish centered ministry to a full embracing of all of humanity. It is a pivotal story and we are meant to hear and feel Jesus’ climactic words when he cries with emotion “O Woman, you have great faith.” Jesus transforms to Holy Parent in that moment and Justa becomes the child. Jesus becomes the Holy Parent that protects, heals, and transforms her children’s lives. He is the mother that stays with her sick child; the father that teaches multiplication tables; and the parent that creates a safe place for her children. He is grace upon grace.

Shalom and Amen!

[1] Wainwright, Elaine M. “Not Without My Daughter: Gender and Demon Possession in Matthew.” A Feminist Companion to Matthew. Ed. Amy-Jill Levine with Marianne Blickenstaff. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic P, 2001, p. 126.

[2] Carter, Warren. Matthew and the Margins: A Sociopolitical and Religious Reading. Mary Knoll: Orbis Books, 2000, p. 324

[3] Maddox, Randy L. Responsible Grace. Nashville: Abingdon, 1994, p. 98