Ah, sweet grace!
God is full of grace, compassion, mercy, understanding and is for-ever-flowing with great love.
It is a good text, if – rightfully understood. Like all texts – its context is everything. It is easy to get side-lined and miss the point.
The focus of Jesus’ ministry was upon the “House of Israel” — but in this encounter with a “Canaanite woman,” Matthew is reminding us — that the issue of a person being “ceremonially clean or unclean” of being – a “Jew or a Gentile,” is “ultimately superseded” by God’s “overflowing grace” appropriated through faith!
I know that was a mouthful…but it is important to say and important to hear!
It was “the quality of the woman’s faith” that “released” Jesus’ saving power, not her “religious credentials.” (Or lack thereof!)
She had “GREAT FAITH” and she knew her daughter could be freed from her torment, bondage and captivity. And, she believed that Jesus was “just the one to do it!” She was certain!
As a matter of fact, Matthew is “lifting her up” and comparing her to the Pharisees, Scribes, Sadducees and all the elite of Jerusalem and the Temple.
There are so many pitfalls. So many ways to become side-tracked with this text!
She was a woman. She was a Canaanite. She is a foreigner. She was ritually unclean! Canaanites were enemies of Jews, going back well over a thousand years. There was a racial prejudice and bigotry implied. The only women who spoke to men were said to be prostitutes. How dare she speak to Jesus and to do so openly!
Jesus is in Gentile territory. Tyre and Sidon were both ancient Phoenician ports. It is one of two trips outside of Israel that Jesus will make in Matthew’s gospel. One trip to the south and one trip to the north…each time going into Gentile lands…
The Canaanites once occupied the “Promised Land.” They were said to have had an “evil and abominable religion.” They worshiped “false idols,” “sacrificed their own children” and married people of “other religions.” (Or so it was said!)
If anyone wasn’t saved, it was this lady. If anyone was going to hell, she was. If anyone was damned, it would be her and her kind.
Talk about religious intolerance!
She was “of the wrong religion” – “the wrong kind” that was most despicable -for a “True-Blue-Jew” of the first century.
She was not only unclean, but detestable. There was a demanding kind of arrogance about her. She kept shouting her needs. She obviously had no respect for herself or for Jesus. And yet, her language said otherwise.
She was a nuisance. She annoyed the disciples…she was a shouter, a holler-er, almost a screamer. She was a persistent beggar! She badgered. She was neither quiet, polite or sensitive. She was a “mother on a mission.” A “momma Bear if you will, with all claws out! She was unwavering, nagging and persistent. She would not be silenced.
The point is being made that “true faith” was not to be found in the epicenter of Judaism — but strangely enough – it was found in the “genuine faith of a simple Gentile woman.”
The Pharisees and “their kind” become the symbol of “little faith” – while this “outsider” this “non-Jew” becomes a symbol of “GREAT faith.”
Jesus comes off as being cool, cold, arrogant and a little bit insensitive to the woman’s needs. Some have even gone so far as to call him a racist. It is perplexing to many that Jesus would treat another human being – the way he treats this woman.
And the disciples seem to always react in the same manner – by wanting to send the crowds or individuals AWAY from Jesus.
The disciples merely want her to scram and to leave them alone. They want her to be gone…to disappear…to stop bothering them…
The woman just happens to be “a primary example” of deep faith in Jesus and in “his ability to heal” and “to make whole.”
The focus is on “the faith of the woman,” even over and against that of the twelve male disciples.
She seemingly has more faith than all twelve of the disciples put together!
It doesn’t matter “where you come from,” “who your people are,” nor “what they believe in.” Apparently if you have faith in Jesus, it is enough. It is all that is necessary.
A deep abiding faith will get you far. You will always have “your faith” to rely on. No one can ever “take that faith from you.”
It doesn’t matter whether you are considered “ceremonially clean or not.”
According to our text what matters most, is that “simple faith in Jesus.”
And because of it, her daughter is healed. Sweet grace!
Amen.