Conversation in Faith

Sometimes Biblical texts are difficult and problematic. In the story of Jesus and the Canaanite woman, Jesus does not come off looking good. He just doesn’t. He refused to help the woman’s demon possessed daughter. He essentially called her a dog. And then he changed his mind.

This story comes just after Jesus feeds the five thousand and walks on water. What happened to the Jesus who had compassion for the crowd? What happened to the Jesus who healed and fed people? What happened to the Jesus who overcame the forces of chaos? Where is that Jesus?

Just before this text begins, there is a conflict between Jesus and the religious elites where Jesus was accused of “breaking the tradition of the elders.¹ Jesus responded to the elites, and then talked to the crowd.

Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.” But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”

Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 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.” 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.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed from that moment. Matthew 15:10-28 NRSVue

Part of what is troubling about this story is that Jesus has healed gentiles before in Matthew’s gospel. He has healed in gentile areas before. Jesus healed the Centurion’s servant.² Jesus immediate response to him was, “I will come and cure him.”³ Jesus healed two men possessed by demons near Gadarenes, a gentile area.⁴

Biblical commentators struggle with this story of Jesus and the Canaanite woman. It is so unlike the way Jesus is portrayed in the rest of the gospels. Scholars offer a variety of ways of understanding this text. None of which is particularly satisfying.

Some commentators suggest Jesus’ response is ethnocentric and perhaps even racist. Canaanites were not only foreigners but enemies of Israel since the curse of Canaan in Gen 9. They are part of the enemies that Israel was supposed to annihilate (Deut 20:16-18). ⁵ They suggest that Jesus initially accepted the cultural, religious, and ethnic ideas of his time.

Some commentators suggest that we not take this as a historical “report” but rather Matthew making a theological statement about God’s salvation and human faith. Perhaps this is a story of God’s kingdom and plan for salvation unexpectedly breaking into the gospel text.⁶

Others suggest that perhaps Jesus is not the focus of the story, rather the we should focus on the Canaanite woman. “The structure of the narrative, along with her persistence until she gets what she wants, centers her and her actions.”⁷

All of these options help, and none of them by themselves are entirely satisfactory.

Matthew portrays the Canaanite woman as a disciple. She calls Jesus “Lord”. She cries out “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David.” She knees before him and says “Lord, help me.” All phrases and actions of a believer.

Jesus’ response to her is first to ignore her. Then when the disciples ask him to send her away because she is causing a disturbance by shouting, Jesus replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” One might wonder, then, what he is doing in gentile territory. Finally the woman kneels in front of him, physically blocking his way. And Jesus responses with a slur, that targets both her ethnicity and gender. She persists. She knows Jesus could heal her daughter and she is not stopping until he does.

And Jesus changes his mind.⁸ He heals her daughter.

I wonder, once the words, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” left his mouth if Jesus remembered what he told the crowds? “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness and slander.” Did he remember his own Sermon on the Mound?

Jesus is not the only person to have warned of certain behaviors and then have unthinkingly done exactly what the warned against.

As we read the gospels we need to remember that they are not eyewitness accounts. Matthew’s gospel may have been written anytime from the early 70s to the late 80s. This puts the gospel forty plus years after the resurrection. It is helpful to wonder why this story was important to Matthew and his first audience.

If we try to read this story as Matthew’s audience might have heard it, what do we discover? One of the issues the early church had to negotiate was if gentiles could join with Jewish believers. And if so, how was that to happen? In this story, a gentile woman makes her plea to the Messiah and (ultimately) her prayer is answered. Her daughter does not receive a lesser healing. And the woman’s faith is commended. In this story Jesus moves from exclusion to inclusion.

This story may have functioned as an example for early believers. They need to learn from Jesus. They need to watch out for the uncritical, unthinking prejudices and assumptions they may have adopted. Just because “everyone knows (fill in your favorite assumption)” doesn’t make it right. Just because “they could never be one of us”, or “they could never believe or belong” doesn’t make it so. The early believers had to learn to listen to people they may not have wanted to listen to. They needed to learn admit when they are wrong and to do better. They needed to welcome and honor the strangers among them.

Jesus did. And so they also need to. And so we also need to.

I wonder if this story is so uncomfortable for us, not because of how Jesus behaves, but because we know we have behaved like this. In this story we recognize ourselves in what Jesus says and does. We have ignored someone asking for help. We have said, “This isn’t my problem.” We have thought and maybe even said something mean that belittled and dismissed a human being. Jesus actions make us uncomfortable because we have done the same thing. It is ugly when Jesus does it. It’s ugly when we do it.

We live in a time when people, leaders especially, don’t want to admit a mistake. They do their best to avoid responsibility for words and actions. If someone persists in challenging them, they double down rather than admit an error. I don’t need to offer examples, they’re everywhere, including the church.

Here’s the good news. Jesus listened to his own words. Jesus remembered his own teaching. And then Jesus changed his mind and did better.

And so can our leaders. And so can we.

1. Matthew 15:1-9 ↩︎
2. Matt 8:5-13 ↩︎
3. Matt 8:7 ↩︎
4. Matt 8:28-34 ↩︎
5. Park, Wongi, “Going Deeper: Does Jesus Display Ethnocentrism or Harbor Racism toward the Canaanite Woman? in The Westminster Study Bible, NRSVue, Westminster JohnKnox Press,2024, page 1746. ↩︎
6. Boring, M. Eugene, “The Gospel of Matthew” in The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol VIII Abingdon Press, Leander E. Keck Ed. 1994, page 337. ↩︎
7. Carey, Holly J., Women Who Do: Female Disciples in the Gospels, Eerdmans, 2023, page 88-89. ↩︎
8. If the idea of Jesus changing his mind is uncomfortable for you, remember the Bible has a few stories where God changes God’s mind. The flood happens because God regrets making humans. Abraham negotiates with God about the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. Several times Moses convinces God to change God’s plans. ↩︎