The Canaanite Woman

I do not like this parable. I don’t like the thought of Jesus giving someone in pain the cold shoulder. I do not like the idea of Jesus calling someone a dog. I do not like the way this meshes against other stories of Jesus including Gentiles into his ministry. But maybe that’s the point.

The story of this woman comes in Matthew 15, placed in the text after an account of the Pharisees and even the Disciples getting tripped up over external appearances. The first account shows the Pharisees and scribes trying to understand Jesus’ weird ways that appears to be in opposition to Jewish traditional practices. Why is Jesus breaking the law? Jesus is quick to point out that they themselves are lawbreakers simply by what has formed in their hearts. Evil is formed on the inside of someone.

At the outset of coming across the Canaanite woman, Jesus ignores her, following the standards of Jewish existence—ignoring Israel’s enemies, ignoring and putting a boundary between what is clean and not clean. It is interesting that this woman calls Jesus “Lord.” I’m not sure if this is a widely used term in Matthew or not, but it seems to show that this woman has already seen something kingly and/or Messianic even about Jesus. Her only hope is Jesus. As Dr. Jennings has so wonderfully explained about Gentile existence, this woman is putting herself in a vulnerable spot, going to an “enemy” and asking for help. She clearly believes that there is something to the Jewish people, their God and this Jesus.

She reminds me of Rahab, the prostitute who sheltered the spies sent into Canaan by Joshua. Rahab was an unlikely “convert.” She abandoned her Canaanite people, her gods, her king and forsake them out of fear of the Lord. This woman and her family was spared when Israel came to pursue the land that was promised. Perhaps this is what is going on with Matthew’s Canaanite woman. She puts herself in a vulnerable place, forsaking all others, hoping for the in breaking of the new Promised Land. Jesus seems to tell her that the covenant relationship is not for her, yet she argues that she is still desperate for Jesus. She does not revoke his title of Lord, but rather she still begs for him.

In light of both OT and NT examples of sparing/inclusion of Gentiles, it seems clear to me that Jesus is not saying that the Gospel is never for the Gentiles, but rather that the covenant has graciously been opened for them. I’m not sure what the fine differences are in these distinctions, but I still hold tightly to Gentile inclusion yet through the sheer grace of God. After a closer look, this passage begins to sit a little better with me. It reminds me of a deep fight I had with God where I was ready to give up because following Jesus was seeming to be too hard, too costly. I remember crying out to God, screaming and in tears, angry that God wouldn’t operate on my terms and save me from hardship. “If I leave you, where else will I go?” I thought to myself. How excited I was when I realized that I was not the first to have uttered such words. In John, when Jesus asks the disciples if they too would like to withdraw from discipleship, Peter says “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life (Jn 6:68).”

Where else does the woman have to go if she has already identified and believed that Jesus is the one, the only one who could help her? This woman is reminder to me of what it means to have the doors of grace and mercy opened for me. My salvation is NOT about me. It is about a story that is larger than me. It is about Jesus. Not only is it about Jesus, but it runs deeper through the history of Israel. It is a reminder that humility and faith can and should co-exist. This woman knows her place, yet confidently looks to Jesus to what He alone can offer. So often I go to the Lord out of the assumption of how good and deserving I am rather than out of acknowledgement of my own wretchedness and inability to provide for myself, yet deeply in need of the Lord.