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

Before this incident there was the question of what defiles? In this section, the subject is the relation between Jews and Gentiles. The connection between the two sections is the belief of the Jews that Gentiles are a cause of defilement for them. This is the reason why Jews keep themselves separate from the Gentiles. Jesus Christ has broken down this dividing wall which enabled the Church to accept Gentiles on equal footing with the Jews (Eph 2:11-22).The incident in today’s gospel reading looks forward to that time when this will happen.

It is also possible that this story of the Gentile woman was being circulated among Christians when the debate regarding the admission of Gentiles into the Church was raging. Certain details seem to confirm this.

• The disciples asks Jesus to send the Gentile woman away much as some Jewish Christians had opposed preaching to the Gentiles and contact with them (Acts 11:1ff).
• Matthew reports Jesus as saying that he was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. This may support those who say that Jesus himself had not gone outside Israel during his ministry.
• There is a delay between the coming of the woman and the granting of her request. This delay corresponds to the interval between the ministry of Jesus and the time when Gentiles were admitted into the Church.

v. 21. Then Jesus went from that place and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

Withdrew is a favorite word of Matthew. He uses it when the rejection of God’s word in one place leads to the preaching of it in another place (4:12). In this section, the use of the word may point to the future when the rejection of the good news by the Jews leads to its offer to the Gentiles as personified by the Gentile woman.

Tyre and Sidon are on the coast of the Mediterranean sea and it is the farthest north that Jesus is said to have gone. The two towns have been mentioned before in 11:21f.

v. 22. And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, "Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon."

Mark describes the woman as “Greek, Syrophoenician by birth”. There is some evidence to show that Canaan and Canaanite were used of Phoenicia and also of the countryside as opposed to the Greek towns.

The woman was not only a Gentile. She was a Canaanite and these were the ancestral enemies of the Jews. Even at the time of Josephus, he could assert: “Of the Phoenicians, the Tyrians have the most ill-feeling towards us.”

Jesus is frequently addressed as Lord in Matthew’s gospel. Son of David is also a characteristic title of Jesus in this gospel (1:1).

v. 23. But he did not say a word in answer to her. His disciples came and asked him, "Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us."

“Send her away” may either mean “dismiss her” or “Do what she asks and so let her go away”. The latter is probably what is meant.

v. 24. He said in reply, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

Jesus has given the same command to the Twelve in 10:6.

Matthew sees the time before the crucifixion as the time when the Gospel is offered to the Jews and the time after the Resurrection as the time for preaching to the Gentiles (28:19).

v. 26. He said in reply, "It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs."

The children are the Jews, God’s people; the dogs are the gentiles. The Jews used to call the Gentiles dogs and the Christians, claiming to be the true Jews, in turn called the unbelieving Jews dogs (Phil 3:2f).

The Greek used for dogs was “kunaria” which is the diminutive of dogs. The word is not used for street dogs (askal in Pilipino) but of the household pets and this is why the woman could say what she did in v. 27.

Bread is used here as a symbol of salvation as in the feeding miracles (14:13ff and 15:32ff).

See also 7:6.

v. 27. She said, "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters."

The faith of the woman is heightened by the admission that the Jews are mastes over the Gentiles.

v. 28. Then Jesus said to her in reply, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed from that hour.

We see the woman’s faith in her address to Jesus. She began with “Son of David” which was a popular but political title. She sees Jesus as possessing only earthly power. But she ended by calling him “Lord”, a divine title.

In v. 25 “homage” may also be translated as “falling on one’s knees” and “worship”. “Worship is an act of faith.“Falling on her knees” is a posture of prayer. She began with a request and ended with a prayer.

Compare the words of Jesus to that which he uttered to the Gentile centurion in 8:13.