20th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (A)

“O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”

Mt 15:21-28

Since I am away from my homebase till mid-September, God´s Word on a Sunday Morning might not come out regularly.

At that time, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

Tyre; usually Tyre and Sidon in the N.T. A seaport and commercial cernter on the east coast of the Mediterannean Sea (in general history known as a Phoenician city). In O.T. times it was a city-state with its own king. From Tyre, ships went all over the Mediterranean world to trade and to establish colonies. One of the chief products of Tyre was a dye known as Tyrian purple, made from shellfish.

Sidon. A city on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, about twenty-five miles north of Tyre, with which it is often named in both the O.T. and the N.T. Sidon was an old city before the time of the Israelites. LikeTyre, it was a commercial city and port for fleet of trading ships that went to all parts of the world of that time. It reached the height of its prosperity about the time of Solomon. Today the city is called. Saida.

Young People's Bible Dictionary
by Barbara Smith (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1965)

And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, "Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!

The Canaanite woman was a gentile or pagan. By addressing Jesus as Son of David, she was actually publicly recognizing Jesus as the messiah promised in the Old Testament.

My daughter is tormented by a demon.

In those days various illnesses were attributed to demonic activity.

But Jesus did not say a word in answer to her.

Jesus did not want to have anything to do with her because he “was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” This was the same rule that Jesus gave to the twelve when he sent them out to proclaim the good news: "Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

But, as we shall see, Jesus did finally grant her request because of her faith. It was also on account of his faith that Jesus granted the centurion´s request on behalf of his servant.

“Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.”

The woman wouldn´t take no for an answer. She was persistent. And her persistence is not only that she believed Jesus could heal but that he would heal her daughter. Her persistence reminds us of two parables of Jesus: the parable of the widow and the unjust judge and the parable of the persistent friend.

The parable of the widow and the unjust judge ends this way: "Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them?"

On the other hand, the parable of the persistent friend ends with this teaching of Jesus: "I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence. And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened."

“It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.”

Jews despised gentiles and called them dogs and pigs.

She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”

The seeming insult of Jesus did not discourage the woman. On the contrary she used it to her advantage by responding the way she did.

Jesus responded by recognizing her great faith. What did she believe? I think this was what she believed in: "Yes, the people of Israel might be the chosen people. But God does not love only them. We, too, are loved by God. We, too, receive blessings from him."