Reflections...

She spotted him from a distance. The miraculous healer everyone was talking about. She had run through this scenario dozen of times fumbling through the lines she would say to him in her head. Her legs trembled with fear, but as adrenaline surged through her body, inhibition waned and instinct took over. She darted toward the man and pleaded at the top of her lungs: "Have mercy on me, Son of David! My daughter is desperately ill! Help us! Please!" All of Tyre froze for a moment to see what all the commotion was about. But the man, undisturbed, silently marched onward.

The story of the Canaanite woman is perhaps one of the strangest interactions of Jesus’ ministry. And to be honest, it is still one that continues to perplex and challenge me. But I want to dive deeper into the story because I think it has a lot to speak to us about concerning the situations we face today. I’ll be primarily focusing on the text from Matthew 15:21-28. It is the parallel passage to the reading in Mark, which we would typically read as part of the liturgical calendar. But in my studies over the past year, I have specifically focused on the book of Matthew, so I thought I would share from the Mathew version of the story with you today. So let’s take a closer look as we recap what’s happening in the story:

Jesus is walking with his disciples down the streets of Tyre when a woman begins crying loudly pleading for his help. But he just ignores her and…

He keeps marching onward.

But his disciples couldn’t take it anymore. They must have forgotten their noise-cancelling earbuds at home because they were getting massively annoyed at all the yelling. Since Jesus wasn’t doing anything about the ear-splitting disruption, the disciples confront Jesus themselves and tell him, “Yo, Jesus, this woman is tripping. Can you just give her what she wants, so she’ll leave us alone?”

Jesus gives a curt response - but  not to the woman mind you – he’s still ignoring her. He says dismissively to the disciples, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

He keeps marching onward.

Jesus’ response is a call back to Matthew 10 when he sent out the twelve on a mission to heal the sick and preach the good news. Before he sent them out he gave them these special instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles…but only go the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” So in effect he’s saying to his disciples: “This Gentile woman obviously doesn’t qualify to receive Israel’s special privileges, so just ignore her. We don’t have the time or resources to waste.”

But it’s not just that she’s a just Gentile. The term Canaanite is unique to Matthew’s telling of the story. Mark tells a similar story in his Gospel, but he refers to the woman as being Syrophoenician, or of Greek ethnicity. But Matthew uses the archaic term Canaanite – referring to a historic group of people that weren’t even around at Jesus’ time anymore. The Canaanites were an enemy of ancient Israel who they battled with in the OT to take possession of the Promised Land. So the term Canaanite clues us into the violent, traumatic history of Israel.

But it wasn’t only a traumatic historical memory. Looking at details of both Mark’s and Matthew’s accounts, many think the woman was associated with the wealthy, urban elite who were funneling food and resources away from rural Jewish areas towards Gentiles cities like Tyre – where this story is taking place. So Jesus’ dismissive attitude also maybe reflects a desire to protect Israel’s precious resources rather than giving them to a woman associated with both the stinging reality of historical trauma and those in contemporary times already rich with food.

So he keeps marching onward.

But the Canaanite woman is growing weary of the chase, she throws herself in front of Jesus. Matthew says she kneels before him – a position of worship – and cries out again, “Help me!” The Greek verbs being used for both shouting and kneeling are in the imperfect tense – which means the author wants us to know the shouting and kneeling are happening continuously and not just one time. So the woman cries out and kneels before Jesus.

But Jesus just keeps marching onward.

So the woman is forced to spring back up the ground, to run and catch up to Jesus, only to kneel and plead again.  Jesus responds this time but it would probably have been better if he didn’t say anything at all. He says, “It’s not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

The word for food is actually the Greek word for bread. So Jesus is telling the woman – not only are you a dog but you’re not even worthy to break bread with because you’re an unclean Gentile, and it would not be proper to eat with you.

And he just keeps marching onward.

But the woman is persistent. She responds, “Yes Lord, even the dogs eat crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

Jesus suddenly halts his march. His disciples stumble over one another glancing quizzically at each wondering what Jesus will say next. Jesus pauses and turns to look at the woman. He sees the sweat beading and dripping down her face. She is gasping for air, trying to catch her breath. Jesus looks into her tired eyes and says directly to her this time, “Woman, great is your faith, Let it be done as you wish.” With this, Matthew says: The Canaanite woman’s daughter was healed instantly.

My grandma gave me an Illongo translation of the Bible many years ago. Illongo is the Filipino language I grew up hearing as a child. Thanks to my grandma I can understand Illongo whenever it’s spoken to me even though I can’t speak it back. Sometimes, when I have a hard time understanding the Bible, I open up my grandma’s Illongo Bible and wonder what she might think about a particular passage I’m struggling with. This week, I wondered what she would think about the story of the Canaanite Woman.

The Bible is a black, hard cover book resembling something you might find in the wooden pews of a church. Inside is my grandma’s name, the person who gave her the Bible, and the date it was given to her: September 23, 1990. When I opened the Bible and read the Canaanite woman’s story in Illongo, I realized that the harshness of the text becomes even more apparent to me then it is in English. I imagined Jesus as a grumpy Filipino man who was saying mean things to my grandma, and it made me feel really sad. It made me also think about the ways my grandmother and other Filipino women in my life have had harsh words spoken to them and have been disregarded by both individuals and larger society. I wish I could ask my grandma about how she feels about the story now, but she has dementia, so our conversations are somewhat limited.

But when I think back about what my grandma’s life was like, I recall the ways she must have been shut down and made to feel stupid by others her whole life. Maybe because of the way she grew up being mostly uneducated and from a poor village, but her opinion was never really taken seriously when making big decisions. She always just had to do whatever everyone else around her wanted. She raised all of the grandkids and was always available to her family. But she often isn’t credited when my family talks about our success adapting amidst the struggles of immigrating to America from the Philippines.

This time, when I read about the Canaanite woman’s story imagining my grandma, I also thought about my Titas and Ates – my aunties and older sisters, who I have become friends with here in Hong Kong and who have taken care of me while being so far from my own family in the US. They are the Filipino domestic workers who have left their own children in the Philippines to take care of their employers’ kids here in Hong Kong. They do this, so they can send money back home to their family in the Philippines, where it’s hard to find jobs. They want to help their children have a better life.

They are like the Canaanite woman. She also left her home to find the resources her daughter needed to be healed from demonic oppression, so her daughter could have a better life. But like the Canaanite woman, Filipino domestic workers are also so often overlooked and ignored. When much of Hong Kong got stipends from the government to cope with the difficulties of covid-19, domestic workers were not allotted an extra penny. When fears of covid-19 and its spread were at the highest, domestic workers were also always the ones unfairly blamed and forced to take extra precautions and take extra tests while the rest of society continued its daily routines.

But like the Canaanite woman, many of the Filipino women in my life talk back in the midst of the injustices they face. Many domestic workers use their only day off on Sundays to speak out against injustices they experience both in Hong Kong and the Philippines. They create colorful banners with protest slogans, they write solidarity statements, and host Zoom rallies to gather online even when they can’t meet in person. Their efforts have led to increases in minimum wage, and they have fought for better rights and protections both in Hong Kong and for their families in the Philippines.

And even though my grandma has dementia now, I actually think I hear snippets of the words of resistance she might have said to those who looked down on her. Our topics of conversations are somewhat limited. But every time we talk, she always makes jokes about how her grandkids are such great people because of her. She sassily says: “You are so smart, and you have so much money, and you’re a good pastor …because of me.”

She also always reminds us that if it wasn’t for her, all of her family would have been captured by the Aswang by now. The Aswang is a reference to an evil, shapeshifting, bloodsucking creature in Filipino folklore. It’s like my Grandma wants to let us know that she has kept a watchful eye on us all along. She wanted us to be protected, even from demonic spiritual forces – just like the Canaanite woman did on behalf of her daughter. We always laugh at my grandma’s jokes about the Aswang, but I think she’s on to something. My grandma’s sassy resistance is a form of protest. It’s a lament at the ways she has been treated for many years, and it’s a call for me and my family to recognize her dignity and to acknowledge her struggle.

Similarly, the Canaanite woman’s prayers of protest are also a call for us to see her and the many like her who resist injustice today. She models faithful persistence as she specifically challenges Jesus by using the formula associated with Israel’s prayer of lament. In her opening cries to Jesus she says, “Have Mercy on Me, Lord, Son of David.” These words mirror the cries of David in the Psalms when he seeks God for deliverance. In the woman’s persistent chasing after Jesus, she is like Job who insistently questions God without fear and is subsequently honored for his honest cries. In struggling back and forth with Jesus, she is like Jacob who wouldn’t leave God alone until he received the blessing of being renamed “Israel.” In the same way, the woman wins her wrestling match with Jesus. She changes God’s heart just like Israel’s heroes of faith did before her.

When domestic workers lament – when they protest the injustices they experience – or when my grandma expresses her sassy forms of resistance, the reality is that this doesn’t necessarily lead people in authority to change.  But the good news is that Jesus is more willing to change when we cry out. When confronted by the Canaanite woman for his exclusionary attitude, he responds graciously and humbly in both interpersonal and systemic ways. He heals the woman’s daughter and calls her faith great – no other character in Matthew is lauded in this same way. But he does more than just heal the woman’s daughter.

Just before his interaction with the Canaanite woman, Jesus had fed 5000 Jewish people. They had so much food that there were twelve baskets of leftovers. Then, immediately after his interactions with the Canaanite woman, there is another food multiplication story. This time 4000 people are fed. But this is not just any group of people – these 4000 were most likely Gentiles. We think this because after they are fed, Matthew 15:31 says that “they praised the God of Israel.” No longer was Jesus stingy with his blessing. He doesn’t just give them crumbs. He provides abundantly for them and there are over 7 large baskets of food leftover. Something truly remarkable has happened. Jesus and his disciples shared a meal with the Gentiles who they once saw as unclean and not worthy to eat with. The Canaanite woman’s prayers of lament have changed the heart of Jesus and made a way for Gentiles to be included in God’s abundant blessing.

See, even before Peter’s vision of unclean animals and his interaction with Cornelius, and even before Paul’s transformative Damascus road experience - both moments in the book of Acts we associate with making a way for Gentiles to be included in the church, there was first the Canaanite woman, whose persistent appeal to Jesus made a way for Jews and Gentiles to break bread together foreshadowing the greater things to come. Because of this, the Canaanite woman could be seen as the Mother of the Gentile church. And so, our very inclusion in God’s work today, as Gentile Christians gathered here together in Kowloon Union Church, was born out of the protest and cries of lament of a Canaanite mother.

We live in a difficult time here in Hong Kong where we can all relate to our protests and cries of lament being left unheard. Whether it is the silencing of dissent in Hong Kong or the ongoing marginalization of domestic workers, refugees, or the LGBT community, we have experienced the collective pain of our heartfelt requests being rejected. The story of the Canaanite woman reminds us that though the authorities of this world ignore our cries, we can appeal to a God who listens to our prayers of anguish longing for justice, healing, and inclusion.

It is a reminder also, for those of us in relative positions of privilege, to carefully heed and respond to the cries of those most overlooked in our communities and our church. Jesus has modeled the way for us to respond when confronted by the limitations of our own narrow mission statements and exclusionary ideologies.

Finally, as we partake in Communion this morning, let us remember that our inclusion as Gentiles in the ritual of breaking of bread together is, in part, born out of the protest and lament of a Canaanite mother. As a Gentile outsider, all she wanted was the crumbs from Israel’s table. But the extravagant love of God made a way, not only for her then, but us also today, to receive more than just crumbs. Instead, we receive overwhelming abundance and inclusion as part of God’s family. The very act of us sharing bread together today is a reminder of Jesus’ revolutionary act of inclusion and sacrificial love that broke boundaries and social stigmas.

As we break bread together, let us lift our cries to Christ longing for him to make things right in our world, and let us also remember our communal conviction to respond in loving humility to the cries of those around us and with the very ones we share bread with today - just as we have seen Christ do for us.

Let us pray: God, we thank you that you hear our cries of lament and do not turn away from us. We pray that you would also give us the boldness to respond in solidarity to the cries of those in need around us today. As we break bread together, we pray that you would knit our hearts together in unity as recommit ourselves to love one another just as you have first loved us.  In your name we pray, Amen.