ONE TRUTH about dogs is that they are motivated by food. If you want to get a dog to do something, rewarding them with a treat usually guarantees a result. Dogs enjoy our company, they like to be with us, and spend time around us. Also, if at all possible, they like to share what we are eating. It makes them feel part of a pack, part of a family. Dogs like our scraps. Certainly our whippet does! Feeding our four-legged friends titbits is an endearing image, but the use of this image in today’s Gospel is somewhat problematic. 

Our Lord has been engaging the religious authorities, the Scribes and Pharisees on matters of religious law. In particular, what makes a person clean or unclean. Jesus heads North-West from near Capernaum up to the Mediterranean coast of Syria. As they travel, He and His disciples meet a Canaanite woman who is clearly distressed. She begs Him:

“Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” (Mt 15:22)

The mother is desperate, her daughter is very ill, so she asks someone with a reputation for performing miraculous healings to help her. The woman addresses Our Lord as the Messiah, and begs for mercy. This seems quite straightforward, but Jesus’ response is strange and troubling: 

‘But he did not answer her a word’ (Mt 15:23)

This is not the sort of detail one would invent. It does not show Jesus in a very favourable light. Not only is Our Lord silent, but His disciples beg Him to get rid of the unnamed woman:

“Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” (Mt 15:23)

They see this anxious mother as a nuisance, a distraction, someone to be ignored. Jesus answers them saying:

“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Mt 15:24)

Christ states that He is the Jewish Messiah, sent to save the Jewish people. Taken at face value this position appears to exclude non-Jews, and at this time the dividing line between Jews and Gentiles was a strict ‘Us and them’. This idea is challenged by St Paul who says in his letter to the Galatians, ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus’ (Gal 3:28).

The distraught mother, however, is not deterred:

‘But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.”’ (Mt 15:25)

The woman continues to ask for the Messiah’s help. Her daughter is unwell, and she needs healing, which only Jesus can provide. The Canaanite woman’s plea for assistance provokes a response from Our Lord:

“It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” (Mt 15:26)

This appears to us both rude and xenophobic, but at that time it was perfectly normal for such terminology to be used. The mother, however, is undeterred, and counters by arguing as follows:

“Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” (Mt 15:27)

She takes the characterisation of Gentiles as dogs, and uses it to her own advantage. The Gentile woman may be seen as being unclean, in the eyes of the strict Jews, like a dog. But even dogs can expect to be fed something from their masters’ table. She perseveres to ask for a crumb of support and healing, and her perseverance is duly rewarded: 

‘Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.’ (Mt 15:28)

This awkward and drawn-out encounter ends with faith being rewarded with healing. In addition, Jesus goes against the exclusive Jewish position, held by the Scribes and Pharisees, showing it to be false. Rather than stating that healing and salvation are for Jew and Gentile alike, as Paul does, Matthew’s Gospel, like any good storyteller, does not simply tell, but rather shows through example. 

This is radical Good News. God offers salvation and healing to both Jew and Gentile alike. The Christian Church is inclusive, it does not exclude people. The reward for the Syro-Phoenicean woman’s faith and tenacity is God’s healing. The first reading from the prophet Isaiah sees God’s promises offered to all who wish to try and live holy lives. It ends with the words,

“these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” (Isa 56:7)

Through His prophet, God promises to gather all peoples to Himself. This is the inclusive vision of the Kingdom which is brought to fruition, first in the healing of the Syro-Phoenicean woman’s daughter, and later in the Church. As Christians we recognise that that we cannot earn God’s mercy, instead it is offered to us. In a few minutes, in our service, we will declare that:

We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your Table. But you are the same Lord, whose nature is always to have mercy:

God is merciful. Like the daughter in the Gospel we need God’s merciful love to be poured out upon us. We long for healing, and we experience this through the Eucharist, the Sacrament of Our Lord’s Body and Blood. Like the Syro-Phoenicean woman we need to recognise that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of David, and that while we are not worthy, nonetheless God loves us and heals us. We come to Calvary, to that altar where God is both priest and victim, and where humanity is healed: Jew and Gentile alike. 

St Paul was profoundly aware of this inclusive aspect of the Church, even though it flew in the face of his religious training as a pharisee of the school of Hillel. Paul knows God to be faithful, but his life’s work was to proclaim the Good News of God’s Kingdom to Gentiles, to non-Jews. God is merciful to all, and longs to see all people reconciled to Him, and each other. Rather than simply making a pronouncement, Jesus shows His disciples the new reality of God’s Kingdom, and leads them from being exclusive, to becoming inclusive and welcoming. 

The woman’s prolonged encounter with Jesus in today’s Gospel, is a metaphor for the life of faith lived out by Christians. The Christian life requires perseverance. It is the work of a lifetime to be transformed by God. This is to prepare us to enjoy being with Him forever in the next life. So may we, like the Canaanite woman persevere in our faith, and come to sing the praises of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. To whom be ascribed all glory, dominion, and power, now and forever. Amen.

The Canaanite Woman detail from Folio 164r of Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry