MT 15: (10-20) 21-28 

Matthew in the Margins…11th S. After Pentecost…Revised 2017

Within the brackets, Jesus poses another riddle. Parables are riddles. Meant to be puzzled over. This time about what’s clean or unclean, allowed or not permitted, all that kind of thing. His attitude to such things, &, more importantly, to the people involved, flows on into the story that follows. People always have a face to Jesus. Those who espouse narrow interpretations of Law (whose law?) & seek to impose their own law over Love, beware!

Jesus says it's what comes out of us that defiles, rather than what goes into us. I take this to mean that devil, demons, evil in general, all too often emerge from the dark side of myself.  'Demons in the air' is as unhelpful an approach to life's ills as 'Reds under the beds’! Scape-goating demons may be a facile avoidance of issues simmering & festering inside our own skin. Scapegoating anything, or anyone doesn’t equip us to confront on-the-ground issues where we live & move have our being. Nor does ranting about that kind of thing in public. (Or in church!)

The rougher side of Jesus' tongue (we’re fooling ourselves if we don't admit it has such a side) has come to the fore earlier, as he talks about ‘weeds’, & ‘blind’ people, & rebukes Peter. Perish the thought of being a ‘weed’, ‘blind’, or ‘thick’, in the things of God! 

Let’s call the Canaanite woman ‘Canea’ to give her a name, show her respect. She’s an important  figure in the Gospel. Canea doggedly keeps at Jesus. At first, He's silent. Which doesn't mean he's not ‘taking her on board’. Not at all! He tells the disciples, & Canea, by implication, in curt terms where His priorities lie. When He speaks to her so brusquely, likening her to a dog, Warren Carter¹ quoting Ringe, in ‘Gentile Woman's Story’, puts it: ‘Jesus seems to be caught with his compassion down’.

But can’t we also see a smile on His face as He picks up on her doggedness? Canea’s shrewd enough to keep the joke going, & claim a kind of honorary citizenship in Israel by admitting to being just like one of their dogs. She breaks through Jesus' defences & He welcomes her, &, by extension, her sick daughter, as one of his own. It's a great story, & illustrates how relating seriously to God may take all the doggedness we can muster!

There’s more in this encounter than that. In His exchange with Canea, Jesus finds a kind of  healing of His own, too, humanly speaking. Resolving His dilemma about extending His ministry beyond Judaism. Resolving serious life-dilemmas is also a kind of healing, surely?  

If Canea can be an encouragement to Jesus Himself, she can also be  an encouragement to any of us who feel disregarded within or outside Church or other social structures. If we are finding it hard to embrace ‘outsiders’ by our attitudes, rules, practices, & traditions, Canea can also encourage us to persist - doggedly - in showing God’s all-embracing love in Jesus, & in recognising Bonhoeffer’s point that grace isn’t cheap.

¹ Matthew and the Margins, Orbis, 2000, ad loc.  See also David Lose..In the meantime, ad loc