crumbs (Mt 15:21-28)

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Psalm 123; Matthew 15:21-28


"O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire."
(Matthew 15:28)

Interestingly, Jesus moves into an area of "unclean" people, outside of Israel, immediately following the story of defilement and cleansing - where we heard that it is sin that defiles the heart, and a clean heart (not hands) is what matters.

This Canaanite woman comes crying after Jesus, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon." The story goes back and forth as Jesus does not answer her a word, the disciples beg him to send her away, and then he says he was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. She comes again, kneeling before him, and saying "Lord, help me." He again puts her off with a reference to the children's bread and the dogs. She comes back again (third time), "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." It's at this point Jesus celebrates her great faith and grants her desire / wish / will.

I have always stumbled with this text. Even though I read that the reference to children and dogs was a common sort of reference to the Jews and the surrounding pagan people, I still wish he had chosen some other metaphor. However, Jesus delights and marvels over her faith, and it moves him to heal her daughter. What is going on here?

Our dog, Maggie, sits under my chair whenever we eat - right there between my legs, virtually every time I sit down at the table to eat. She may want to be close to us, but I think her main agenda is that she's actively looking for "crumbs that fall" from her master's table. She's ready and waiting, she's expectant. And as far as she knows, there's plenty to go around so why not expect some of the bounty. (Or maybe she just knows I'm a messy eater!)

That's something like what I think may be going on here. I wonder if the point is not so much that Israel was rejecting the bread of life and so there was some for a Canaanite woman - that is, that they're like little bratty kids pushing their unwanted food off the table onto the floor - just that she believed there was plenty to go around. There was so much bounty, so much grace and favor and blessing and healing pouring forth from this man that the table and the children who were being served just couldn't contain it.

This Son of David would have mercy on her, he would help her, and there is plenty of bread to go around. Of course this story ties in with the big story that the gospel is for the Gentiles, which Jesus' own people largely rejected, and this healing is another precursor, downpayment, or guarantee of what was coming. But I think Jesus so appreciates that in the midst of her desperation and her persistence, and despite her outsider, unclean status, she recognizes that there is such abundance with him, that there is more than enough to go around, and that he is gracious and kind and generous toward any that were hungry and needy.

And that even crumbs from this One are enough to satisfy.

+ + + + +

As you read Psalm 123, think of the Canaanite woman praying it to Jesus:

To you I lift up my eyes,
O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the LORD our God,
till he has mercy upon us.
Have mercy upon us, O LORD,
have mercy upon us,
for we have had more than enough contempt.
Our soul has had more than enough
of the scorn of those who are at ease,
of the contempt of the proud.

I love it when my different readings tie in together so beautifully!