Lectionary 20A

Matthew 15:21-28

Listening to Jesus’ encounter with the Canaanite woman, I wonder what Jesus means when he says, “Woman, great is your faith!” (15:28)
 
In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus talks a lot about the measure of faith.
 
Addressing the disciples, he tells the parable of the mustard seed (13:31) and later he says, “…if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you." (17:20)
 
But he also scolds the disciples for having “little faith” when they are afraid of the storm that swamps their boat (8:26);
he accuses Peter of having little faith when he tests Jesus on the water (14:31); and,
he faults the disciples for having “little faith” when they don’t’ understand his teaching. (16:8)
 
Jesus shows more compassion to others though.
 
When the Roman centurion came to Jesus and asked for him to heal his servant, Jesus said with amazement that he knew no one in Israel with such faith as the soldier demonstrated. (8:10)
 
In his hometown when friends brought a paralyzed man to Jesus to be healed, Matthew says, “When [Jesus] saw their faith”, the man was healed. (9:2)
When a hemorrhaging woman reached out to Jesus and touched the hem of his cloak, Jesus said to her, “your faith has made you well.” (9:22)
 
So, is the measure of faith what matters to Jesus?
Or is it something else?
 
I think the moments where Jesus criticizes his followers for having “little faith” are situations when we forget who Jesus is and what Jesus does. For me, the language of mountains and seas recall images of creation and I’m reminded of the creation story in Genesis 1 when we hear that God is the one who “called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas.” (Gen. 1:10 NRS) Our God is a mighty God , whose works are powerful and unexpected.
 
Often, when we hear the stories of Jesus in the Bible, we see ourselves as the ones who are righteous, thinking, “We would never make that mistake…” And, other times, we make God small, or we understand God as made in our image, instead of the other way around.
 
In today’s Gospel, even Jesus starts out with a narrow vision for what God’s kingdom is about.
 
He is traveling with his disciples when he hears someone shouting. Loud and disruptive. You can picture the scene, right? There’s a bunch of noise coming from the other side of the street. Are you one of the people who inches closer to see what the ruckus is, or do you avert your eyes and look anywhere else, trying to ignore the trouble?
 
Jesus looks and sees who’s causing the disturbance. It isn’t one of his followers. No, instead it’s a woman, and a “foreigner” at that. She’s yelling something about her daughter needing help.
 
His friends urge him to send her away, and Jesus dismisses her, telling her that he is only there for “the lost sheep of Israel”. (15:24)
 
She is an unnamed woman, who isn’t Jewish and doesn’t worship the God of Israel. He doesn’t pretend not to hear her or see her; he just doesn’t think she’s worth his time.
 
Ouch.
 
I admit that this isn’t my favorite portrayal of Jesus. It’s devoid of the compassion and care we come to expect from him.
 
But the woman doesn’t slink away, and she doesn’t apologize. Instead, she says, “Lord, help me.”
 
And it’s not a coincidence or our imagination; we are meant to hear the echo of Peter’s words from last week, “Lord, save me.”
 
Her initial plea doesn’t convince Jesus though and he says again that he’s not there for her. But when she speaks again, it appears that Jesus changes his mind, and that’s when he makes the declaration, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed.” (15:28)
 
Today’s gospel reminds us that moments of “great faith” are not grand gestures or extravagant sacrifices. We show great faith when we show up in everyday life and name our need for compassion and healing. Because in these times of need, our faith reveals what we believe about who God is and what God does.
 
For anyone who has prayed for healing or God’s help and wondered whether God heard or answered your prayer, I want to say explicitly that suffering, and the absence of physical healing are not caused by “too little faith.”
And, as importantly, the opposite of faith is not doubt or despair. (Paul Tillich, The Courage to Be).
 
Those were popular beliefs in the ancient world - that sin or some paucity of faith was the cause of a person’s illness or suffering. And it persists in whispered gossip and sideways looks in our modern world.
 
Instead, faith says that God sees our suffering and accompanies us in those exact moments when we feel abandoned or rejected.
 
Martin Luther writes that, “Faith is a living, bold trust in God's grace, so certain of God's favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it.”[i]  It is trusting that God is greater than our understanding and is acting in unexpected ways for our good.
 
Let us pray…
Good and gracious God,
Thank you for your Son Jesus who shows us how to widen our understanding of your love for the world.
Help us have courage to come to you in our every need and to ask for your help.
Sustain us with your presence and invite us to share your compassion with our neighbors.
We pray in Jesus’ name.

Amen.

[i] Martin Luther, “An Introduction to St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans,” Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings, Ed. Timothy Lull (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2005), 101.