One word I learned in my first year of divinity school was “Immutable.” This is a characteristic of God in the traditional Christian understanding of who God is. It means “unchangeable” or “cannot be acted upon.” It is puzzling, because there are stories in both Old and New Testaments in which God seems to be swayed from an announced course of action by some human input. (A prime example is Abraham’s dickering with God over the fate of Sodom.)
In this week’s story about the Canaanite woman who implored Jesus to heal her daughter, Jesus seems change his mind. Let’s review the conversation: She asks for healing for her daughter. Jesus replies dismissively, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She reminds him that, “even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.”
The notion that Jesus – God – could change his mind is troublesome for those on the “predestination/everything-is-preordained” end of the theological spectrum. From this view, Jesus must have planned all along to accede to the woman’s pleas, and was somehow testing his followers or setting up a miracle. That scenario does not work for me. Not only does it clash with the story as both Matthew and Mark present it, it makes Jesus look manipulative and cruel in addition to rude and uncaring. That does not square with the way he is portrayed in most Gospel scenes.
I go for the plainer sense of the words as we have them. They appear to show Jesus making a transition. While we cannot know why he at first rebuffed this woman, he is clearly moved by her persistence and faith and pronounces the healing of her daughter. Perhaps he recalled his own teaching that even a mustard seed of true faith Is sufficient to move mountains. Perhaps he was moved by her calling him “Lord.” Perhaps he truly looked at her for the first time. We don’t know. We only know he arrived at a different place than where he started.
This should not surprise us. Exercising free will is intrinsic to what it means to be a human being made in the image of God. That, according to our Genesis story, is what got us into trouble in the first place. And it is our also our will which allows us to accept God’s grace and forgiveness. If it is both human and divine to exercise free will, then we can rejoice that Jesus displayed this quality. It gives us yet another point for connecting with him, and enlivens our relationship as we interact with him in prayer through the Holy Spirit.
Though it is comforting to know that Jesus was capable of a turn of mind, I dare say it is more often our minds that will be changed as we seek God’s wisdom. We are invited to share the mind of Christ. (“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” – Phil 2:5), to allow our wills to be united with the will of God.
Are there issues in your life in which you feel you and Jesus want different things? Have you brought that up in prayer? Are you willing to be shown God’s view on that matter? Can you tell God yours? That’s a rich prayer conversation.
If we leave this story with nothing else, I hope it has given us a renewed awareness of how lively our relationship with God in Christ can be. It’s not a stiff, stale historical drama – it’s up-to-the-minute eyewitness news. So let’s keep our eyes open, and our minds as well, and bear witness to the healing love of God, which is never too late.
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