Homily for Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The parallel passage to this is found in Mark 7:24-37. This incident follows the Lord's encounter with the scribes and Pharisees who came to him from Jerusalem (Matt. 15:1-20). (All Scriptures quoted from the NASB).
Down the years, this particular section of Matthew's gospel has often been a source of embarrassment for the Church and for its preachers. First of all, the Lord refused to talk to the Canannite woman at the outset; 'he answered her not a word', Matthew tell us. When he eventually decided to address her, he seem to have been downright rude to her: 'It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the pet dogs' he told her. This woman, whose daughter was ill, came in search of healing; for her pains she is confronted with an insulting, dismissive response. This is not at all characteristic of the compassionate, gentle figure that we usually encounter in the New Testament. Perhaps Jesus was just having an 'off day'.
As you know, all of the New Testament documents were written for various Judeo-Christian communities scattered around the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Matthew's community is made up entirely of converted Palestinian Jews. Which explains the narrow mission statement of Jesus in today's excerpt: "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel" Obviously, Matthew has the concerns and needs of his Jewish community uppermost in his mind.
Yet, in today's gospel, Jesus crosses from Jewish territory into gentile territory, the district of Tyre and Sidon. This is the only time in Matthew's gospel that we find Jesus on gentile soil. But this deviation has come after something of a domestic crisis. He has just had a blazing row with the sanctimonious Pharisees who thought the whole world outside of Judea to be unclean. So immediately after this row, Matthew brings Jesus away from this religious claustrophobia, into the fresh air of the pagan lands. Jesus crosses over the border and still feels that he is still in God's world. It may also have been to teach the lesson here to his disciples. God is indeed interested in the salvation of the Gentiles, even though their work would initially involve only the Jews.
It was at this point that the Canaanite woman approaches Jesus. The Canaanites were foreigners. They had been planters in Palestine while the Jews were in exile. Whey the Jews returned they drove them north. The Canaanites were regarded as 'land-grabber' by the Jews, the lowest of the low. They had exploited the Jewish exile to their own advantage. And the Jews never allowed them forget that fact. Our own history has some interesting parallels.
But the woman's faith overcomes centuries of prejudice. Mark records that she fell at his feet and appealed to him. Matthew says that he did not say a word to her initially. In many ways this is a remarkable passage. It has been called the silence of love; Jesus replys "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Matthew is teaching a few lessons here to his Jewish community. He is saying: 'OK we Jews have a special place in God's plan; but there is great faith to be found among the pagans too. We cannot remain indifferent or unresponsive to that faith."
His infamous response: "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." Must be read in this context too. The picture here is that of a family meal, with the pet dogs running around the table and begging for something to eat. There was therefore nothing degrading about the Lord's metaphor; he was simply emphasizing the relative positions of the Jews and Gentiles. The children of Israel first, then their pets (the gentiles, obviously). The woman makes the point that the pet dogs (gentiles) can be fed without any loss to the household. Matthew is saying to this community: "Look, we can minister to the gentiles without neglecting the Jews." But the most important lesson is that faith in Jesus transcends all boundaries and barriers. In the new dispensation, the terms Jew and Gentile have become religiously irrelevant.