When I think about this Gospel text about the Canaanite woman coming to Jesus and shouting at him about her daughter being tormented by a demon... When I think about this Gospel text about the way Jesus initially ignores this woman's appeal for mercy... When I think about this Gospel text about Jesus' disciples trying to protect him from the riffraff and desperados and the scoundrels of society...
When I think about what we just heard...the best thing that might be said about all this is: it sure would have been a lot easier on the woman, on Jesus, on the disciples, if the Gospel writer would just have left this entire story out of the Gospel completely. Think about it! That would have been the best thing! Forget this story...forget this woman that the Jews didn't like anyway...ignore this insignificant incident...wipe it out of the Bible totally. After all, what's the big deal? Who's going to know the difference! After all, Canaanites don't read the Bible!
It would have been a lot easier. It would have put Jesus and his disciples in a better light. Nothing lost. Nothing remembered! Everything forgotten! It would have been so much easier! Gosh, if the story had been eliminated, I wouldn't have to stand here now and try to put a good spin on how Jesus responded or on how the disciples reacted. It would be a lot easier on me, too!
Well, guess what! I'm not gong to put a spin on this story at all. I'm not going to! Maybe this story says more about the humanity of Jesus than we care to hear about.
How about if I share an image? This may be one many of you have experienced. It actually is taken from the most recent novel by Annie Dillard, entitled, The Maytrees. Maytree is a family name. At one point Lou Maytree is walking the beach and notices "...the draining tide leaving a ring of debris."
For anyone who has walked on a beach at low tide, I think you can probably picture this image. Very often, at low tide, you will see a ring of debris which is an indication as to how far the water had come in at high tide. Unfortunately it is debris. Usually, it is trash. You can often find soda cans, beer bottles, plastic bags, twisted fishing line, broken toys, dead fish, sometimes even discarded food. In the book, Lou is walking the beach and sees this debris and it reminds her of how her life very often feels.
I suspect that is how the Canaanite woman felt. And I suspect that's why she wouldn't go away and why she kept on shouting after Jesus and his disciples. And surely she is desperate and she is angry and she is frustrated and tired of being treated by Jesus and his disciples the way everyone else treated her. After all, from everything she's heard, they are supposed to be different.
And then (and this is important to notice from the story), then, despite her anger and her frustration and her desperation, she still has faith. She still has faith...she still has faith. All the debris in her life, all the junk that society had washed up onto her does not extinguish her faith.
And so she kneels before Jesus and pleads one more time...and Jesus heals her daughter. Jesus has compassion for her. And it does not matter that she is not one of the lost sheep of Israel. And it doesn't matter that the disciples wanted Jesus to send her away. And it doesn't matter that she had been angry and frustrated and tired.
What does matter is that Jesus did look at her with compassion, and that Jesus did not listen to the disciples who wanted to send her away. What does matter is that Jesus did recognize his ministry to be extended to all people. What does matter is that Jesus knew her faith and healed her daughter. That's what mattered then and it still matters today!
In the Introduction to the Healing Rite, found on page 276, in the ELW, we read, "In its ministry of healing, the church does not promise a cure. Rather, the church ...celebrates God's presence of strength in times of suffering, God's promise of wholeness and peace, and God's love embodied in the community of faith."
Today, the proclamation of the Good News is that even when you are afraid because your life looks like that line of debris washed up upon the beach, and even when you are hurting physically, emotionally, spiritually-even when you are angry with God, frustrated with doctors and counselors and social workers, even when you are so desperate that you push your closest friends away-The Good News is that God cannot be pushed away and that you-each one of you-does matter to God. You do matter to the community of faith.
In a few minutes all are invited to take part in the Rite of Healing, laying on of hands, not necessarily to be cured, but surely, to experience more deeply God's healing presence, promise and love.
One more thing: I'm really glad that Matthew chose to include this story of the Canaanite woman in his Gospel. Yes, it is a story that could easily have been eliminated. It is a story we would not have missed. But I am ever so grateful that Matthew included it. I'm ever so grateful that the Gospel writer saw the hurt done to this woman. I'm grateful the writer noticed the hurt felt by this woman, and it mattered enough to include the story.
No less, be assured that your hurt and pain and your lack of wholeness-in body, spirit and mind-does matter to God. In faith we celebrate God's promise of wholeness. May we, likewise, embody God's healing love as a community, in our faith community. Amen.