(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)
There are few expressions of humility in the Bible more beautiful than the response of the Syro-Phoenician mother when Jesus denies her request that he heal her daughter, saying, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
But she answered him, ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’
Jesus’ words sound harsh and unfeeling, no matter how we try to interpret them. In Matthew's version of this story the woman is identified as “Canaanite,” still obviously a Gentile. And Jesus gives a fuller reason for not helping her: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” By these lights, he is just staying “on mission.” His own people and target audience are “the children,” and outsiders are “dogs.”
Where is the Jesus who heals a Roman centurion’s servant, who frees a man in Gentile territory of a legion of demons, who stays for two days among Samaritans and holds up those disdained relatives of the Jews – though not regarded as Gentiles – as models of compassionate service?
Well, we’ll see him in a few minutes, when he fully digests this woman’s breathtakingly faithful reply: “Even the dogs under the table eat crumbs that fall from the table.”
Jesus’ words sound harsh and unfeeling, no matter how we try to interpret them. In Matthew's version of this story the woman is identified as “Canaanite,” still obviously a Gentile. And Jesus gives a fuller reason for not helping her: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” By these lights, he is just staying “on mission.” His own people and target audience are “the children,” and outsiders are “dogs.”
Where is the Jesus who heals a Roman centurion’s servant, who frees a man in Gentile territory of a legion of demons, who stays for two days among Samaritans and holds up those disdained relatives of the Jews – though not regarded as Gentiles – as models of compassionate service?
Well, we’ll see him in a few minutes, when he fully digests this woman’s breathtakingly faithful reply: “Even the dogs under the table eat crumbs that fall from the table.”
She knows that his “crumbs” hold power enough to heal her little girl, and she doesn’t care where she gets them or for whom they were intended. Her faith gets through to him, and he pronounces her daughter free and healed.
This story invites us to stay tuned to discern faith in people outside what we recognize as the community of faith. Those of us who are longtime churchgoers and deeply steeped in our religious tradition don’t always see that the woman with the angel pins, or the multiply "tatted" guy at the shelter may have a clearer, less complicated, more powerful faith than we do. And some people who’ve never belonged to a church, or have heard the gospel only in its cultural iterations, might find it much easier than we to trust God.
It’s worth asking ourselves, who do we consider the “children,” and who do we regard as “dogs under the table?” Who is under your table? Many of our churches offer feasts that precious few people partake in, while at our margins there are many who would love to receive our “crumbs” of true faith, of loving community, of the power of God’s Spirit, of access to God in Christ. How do we make the invitation to those people who look and act so different from us?
Jesus always commended faith where he found it, telling people “Your faith has made you whole.” As we recognize faith where we find it, we can make it our mission to invite those “outsiders” to become part of our community, to draw nearer to Christ. We may just find that it is they who make Christ known to us once again.
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