20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Fr. Simham)

Today’s gospel about Jesus encounter with a Canaanite woman is the most difficult passage to understand. If we don’t make effort to understand it correctly there is danger of misunderstanding the person of Jesus himself.

Look at the story. Jesus is on a Summer holiday. He and his disciples wanted to get away from the crowds and wanted to take rest. So they leave Judea and Galilee (the place of their work) and go to an unknown territory, that is Tyre and Sidon. It is a pagan land. Even there he cannot escape from his work. There comes a woman who was desperate to save her daughter. She says, “Jesus, son of David, save my daughter.” Is it not usual that we get annoyed when someone comes and disturbs our holiday mood? We usually respond with irritation and anger. Is it not? It is understandable. This is how the disciples respond. . They say “Lord, do something and send her away. She has become a nuisance. Get rid of her. She is spoiling our holiday mood.” We can see real irritation in the tone of their voice.

But Jesus response is not one of irritation or anger but it seems to be one filled with pride and arrogance. Look at Jesus’ response. First, he ignores her as if she doesn’t exist. Secondly when she pleads again he says “you are not a Jew, I cannot help you.” and when she pleads for the third time, he says “It is not good to throw the children’s food to the dogs” comparing her ultimately to a dog. You can see clearly a touch of arrogance and pride in his tone. Now let me ask you, ‘Why was he responding like that? Why was he behaving like that? If it is one of irritation and anger, we can understand; but not pride and prejudice and arrogance from the messiah, the saviour of the world.

This is where we need to careful to understand the cultural and religious background of the Jesus‘ time, before we interpret these words of Jesus. First of all we need to understand that evangelist Mathew was writing this Gospel to Jewish converts who believed that Messiah was for them: them alone. And Jesus was surrounded by disciples who again were Jews. And this was the first time Jesus was away to a pagan territory and he was asked to do something which he was doing in Jewish country and region. And the cultural and religious relationship of Jews and pagans , in this case Canaanites was not so good. Jews always believed that they are the chosen people of God. God chose Abraham and his descendents and blessed them and told that through them he will bless all the nation. But as the time passed by they forgot that they were chosen only to save all the nations. They thought that because they are the chosen children of God, anything that belonged to God belonged to them. They took so much pride in their ancestry and thought owing to God’s promise to Abraham if God has to do anything he has to do to them and in their place. Not anywhere else. Jerusalem is the centre of blessings. If there was a Messiah he should be for them. And they went up to the extent of calling the pagan dogs because they were their cruel and fierce enemies.

Now, in this context, Jesus had to teach them that what is necessary for blessing or miracle is not your ancestry but faith. Where to begin now to teach this lesson? He begins with the typical mentality of the Jews ignoring her and calling her a dog. This is how any Jew would have responded to a pagan and invokes from her a faith response from her, which she does calling him, “Jesus, son of David,” a messianic statement. And reminding him that blessings are due even for dogs. Happy with the faith she demonstrated he says “woman, great is your faith. This is what is needed for a miracle not ancestry. Go your daughter is healed.”

Jesus had a great point to prove here. Rudeness, arrogance and pride were the attitudes of Jews not so much of Jesus. He wanted to contrast these with the humility and strong faith of the woman. To get this faith response he delayed the miracle. If he were to do the miracle immediately, there would not have been a lesson for the Jewish followers to learn.

Now, this is the lesson for us too. What is needed for a blessing from the Lord is not our ancestry but our simplicity of faith. My grandpa would have been a great believer, that does not mean that I will great and blessed in the presence of God. It is my faith that will save me not my grandpa’s or grandma’s faith. Let us today approach the alter of the Lord with humility and faith to get all his blessings. Amen

Fr. Showreelu Simham