Engaging Others
To All,
In our Gospel reading for Sunday (Matthew 15:21-28), we hear about an encounter between Jesus and a “Canaanite woman.” This is another encounter between Jesus and someone who is not a Jew. For me, this encounter challenges us how we are to relate to those considered “other.”
The reason the Canaainite woman comes to Jesus is that her daughter is “tormented by a demon.” At first, Jesus does not respond to her at all. The disciples ask Jesus to send her away, and Jesus’ response to them is. “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Meanwhile, the woman has not left. She comes up to Jesus, does Him homage, and again pleads with Jesus to help her. And then Jesus says something startling to our modern ears, in what appears to be quoting some proverb: “It is not right to take the food of children and throw it to the dogs.”
If the encounter ended there, I can imagine some people thinking and saying, “See! Even Jesus says those people should not get anything we get. America is for Americans!”
Thankfully, the encounter doesn’t end there. The woman stands her ground, and says to Jesus in reply, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the tables of their masters.” And then Jesus says, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And Matthew tells us that the woman’s daughter was healed.
I have heard and read various interpretations of why Jesus responded in the way that He did. Was the exchange between Jesus and the woman some kind of Middle Eastern banter? Or was Jesus doing this for the edification of the disciples? Or was Jesus really changed by the encounter to think that His mission might go beyond the “lost sheep of the house of Israel?”
There is something else I read in the commentaries that helped me consider what all this means for us today. The commentaries say that when the disciples ask Jesus to send the woman away, they are actually asking Jesus to give her what she wants. And I think they ask Him to do this so she will stop bothering them.
In having that exchange, for whatever reason, Jesus actually engages the woman and recognizes her faith and also, I think, her determination. In dealing with those considered “other,” we can be ruled by bigotry, or indifference, or even by a sense of charity that allows us to remain aloof, and therefore dismiss them. Or we can actually engage others and interact with them with the love Christ has for us. That is the challenge!
May we not dismiss others as unworthy of God’s love or ours. May we actually encounter others as beloved of God and seek justice for all.
I welcome any comments or questions. Thanks for your time.
In Christ,
Phil, CP
