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 Deuteronomy and post-deuteronomic 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 teaches 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