Is. 56:1, 6-7; Rom. 11:13-15, 29-32; Mt. 15:21-28
Today's Reading from the Gospel of
Matthew, [Mt. 15:21-28] the account of Jesus and the Canaanite woman, is one of
the rare encounters of Jesus with Gentiles. Most likely this woman heard
of the great miracles that Jesus was performing towards the Jewish people.
Hence she took it upon herself
to personally locate Jesus and to beg His mercy
on her. In deuteronomic and postdeuteronomic literature, the
Canaanites were viewed as a very sinful race that embodied every possible evil
and godlessness. The Canaanites were viewed as a nation that was to be
exterminated. It was not the general practice for the Jewish people to mix with
the Canaanites.
So, when Jesus was approached by
woman from a race that was avoided by the Jewish people, at first, he ignored
her. He did not answer her at all. [Mt. 15:23] The more Jesus ignored her, the
more the woman shouted, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!" The
more the woman shouted, the more the disciples of Jesus were getting annoyed
and urged Jesus to send her away so she would stop shouting. [Mt. 15:23] The
determined woman did not want to give up on Jesus. She threw herself at His feet
and repeated herself, "Lord, help me." [Mt. 15:25] Jesus responded,
"It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the
dogs." [Mt. 15:26] To this, she answered, "Yes, Lord, yet even the
dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table." [Mt. 15:27]
Seeing how great her faith was, she having remarkably persisted, Jesus told
her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish. And
her daughter was healed instantly." [Mt. 15:28]
There
are certain things about this woman that we must learn. First and
foremost, she had love. She made the misery of her child her own. It was
love for her child that made her approach this stranger; it was love for her
child that made her accept his silence and yet still appeal; it was love
for her child that enabled her to endure the apparent rebuffs; and
it was love for her child that helped her to see the compassion in the
words of Jesus.
There is an incident reported during the
China Earth quake. After the
Earthquake had subsided, when the rescuers reached the ruins of a young woman's
house, they saw her body through the cracks. But her pose was somehow
strange that she knelt on her knees; her body was leaning forward, and her two
hands were supporting an object. The house had collapsed on her. With so
many difficulties, the leader of the rescuer team put his hand through a narrow
gap on the wall to reach the woman's body. He hoped that this woman could
be still alive. However, the cold and stiff body told him that she had passed away
for sure. They left this house and were going to search the next
collapsed building. For some reasons, the team leader was driven by a
compelling force to go back to the ruined house of the dead woman. Again, he
knelt down and used his hand through the narrow cracks to search the little
space under the dead body. Suddenly, he screamed with excitement," A
child! There is a child! " The whole team worked together; carefully they
removed the piles of ruined objects around the dead woman. There was a 3 months
old little boy wrapped in a flowery blanket under his mother's dead body.
Obviously, the woman had made an ultimate sacrifice for saving her son. When
her house was falling, she used her body to make a cover to protect her son.
The little boy was still sleeping peacefully when the team leader picked him
up.
Jesus saw such a sacrificial love in the Canaanite
woman. The driving force of her heart was love; and there is nothing nearer to
God than love. And Jesus recognized her love for her child and rewarded
her by granting her request.
Secondly, this woman had faith. It was her faith
that made her call Jesus "Son of David". It was a popular and
political title. It was a title that looked on Jesus as a great wonder worker.
This is a title that projected Jesus as a great and powerful man. So, she
put her trust in the earthly aspect of Jesus. But Jesus made her look
beyond the earthly, and in him she recognized something that was not expressible
in earthly terms. Jesus changed her faith in the wonder worker to a faith
that worshipped. She began by following and ended up on her knees. She
began with a request and ended in prayer.
This is a great lesson we have to learn from this
woman. Often, our approach to Jesus, too, is the same. Our petitions remain at
the temporal and mundane level. But Jesus invites us to go beyond.
"If God answers your prayer, He is increasing your faith. If He
delays He is increasing your patience. If He doesn't answer, He has something
better for you."(Dato Vijay Eswaran – In the sphere of silence). This is
what we see in the life of the Canaanite woman. Hence, when we feel that our
prayers are not answered be assured that He has something better for us.
Thirdly, this woman had indomitable
persistence. She did not come to Jesus as a possible helper, but she looked
upon him as her only hope. She came with a passionate hope. She came to him
with a clamant need; and she refused to be discouraged. Prayer for her was the
outpouring of her passionate need. Hence she could not accept a "no"
for answer. She went on till she received what she wanted, an ultimate
"yes" from Jesus. She was focused on what she wanted. Hence, she
ignored the crowd around her; she ignored the disciples; she ignored the
comments of the people. She was focused on what she wanted.
There was once an arrow maker who had a shop
in one of the streets of a tiny village in ancient India. One day, a
king's procession passed by while he was busy shaping and making
each arrow perfect. The magnificent procession went past and not once did he
look up. Dattatreya, a sage who was passing through the village at that
time, crossed the street and asked the arrow maker if he saw the procession.
The arrow maker asked him, "What procession?" Dattatreya
immediately prostrated himself before the arrow maker and told him,
"you are my guru."
The
story of the Canaanite woman teachers us to grow in love, faith and to be
focused on what we want to achieve in life. Then it is certain that we will
strive till we turn all the "nos" to "yes". May God help
us.
Satish