Matthew 15
This Sunday’s gospel might embarrass Christians who try to be politically correct. Jesus presses the worst buttons. He ignores a woman’s pleading with no answer at all: degrading women, misogynist. He declares he is sent only to the Jews: preferential treatment for one’s nation – nationalism. He compares foreigners to household animals: dehumanizing racism. His words and behaviours are far beyond being politically incorrect. Jesus would have to be in a human rights tribunal. It’s not easy to watch how Jesus escalates humiliating this wretched woman pleading for her daughter who suffers demonic possession. Why does he do this? Is it just a literary device to escalate the emotional tension of readers?
In the same gospel, St Matthew tells us about the encounter of a rich young man with Jesus. This young man wants to receive life eternal. This young man has kept all the commandments. Jesus looks at him with love. And Jesus tells him: to sell all he has and to give the money to the poor and then follow him. The rich young man becomes sad because he is very rich. He goes away from Jesus. Jesus asks us to give up. He teaches us abandonment. Only then, we can receive. But the rich young man could not give up. He failed.
In the 2nd book of Kings, prophet Elisha heals Naaman, a commander of Aram, of his leprosy. Naaman was a foreigner. He heard there was a great prophet in the Northern kingdom of Israel. But when Elisha ordered him to bathe in the Jordan, he refused. His pride could not allow himself to do such a simple thing. But his servants advised, “if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” Naaman abandoned his pride and did what the prophet told him, and was healed. Abandonment in humility saved Naaman from leprosy.
At the end of today’s gospel, Jesus highly praises the Canaanite woman’s faith. There is another one Jesus highly praised in St Matthew’s gospel. It is the Roman centurion who asked Jesus to heal his paralyzed servant. But he said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed.” This Roman centurion, a foreigner, gave up his pride and status. He didn’t try to threaten or offer any gift. All he offered was his faith in humility.
God chastises whom he loves. He tests his sons and daughters. Beyond the racial and national barrier, Jesus tests this foreign woman for her faith. He even humiliates her seemingly unfairly. Through humiliation, Jesus takes away all her human pride. As gold is purified through fire and steel is forged through beating, this woman’s faith is purified and strengthened through the humiliations. When she demonstrated her self-abandonment saying, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table,” Jesus did not hesitate to praise this foreign woman for her faith. In the end, these rejections and humiliations help Jesus break the racial, national, gender barriers, to answer her request. All he wanted was her faith in humility.
