The story of a Canaanite woman
She Inspires me
I was reading through chapter 15 of Matthew, and it’s about the faith that this woman exhibited struck me and gave me answers to many questions that I was searching for for the past 4 years of my life.
So, the story goes like this. Jesus went out of Israel along with his disciples and on his way, he encountered a woman who wanted him to heal her daughter.
As a few questions revolving around my mind, I decided to take a step further to explore the history of Gentiles and the Israelites. Jews referred to Gentiles as “dogs”. The original Greek translation of this word was “kuon”, meaning “wild cur”. People who were non-jews were considered unclean and unpure. Even their presence around them was considered taboo. This woman just wasn’t living in the lands of Gentile but she was a Canaanite (They were considered as the people of the lowlands). I wouldn’t go deeper into the history but I wanna mention that these people were considered extremely sinful.
So coming to the story, at first you can see that God didn’t respond to her and why? I will explain this later. The disciples wanted Jesus to send her away as she constantly cried out for help. But instead of sending her away, he starts an interesting conversation with her. He says “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel”. This means that Canaanites weren’t involved in his mission of finding the lost sheep, right? She understood what he meant but she persisted. She again pleaded with him for his help.
He again replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” This implies that his priority was the people of Israelites (children). What made me wonder was that as an average human being you normally wouldn’t be constantly asking for help considering that this conversation comes out as an insult in the first read. She said, “Yes it is, Lord”. She accepted what he meant! But what blew me away was the next reply she gave him. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Meaning that she might not deserve this but every loving and merciful master serves his pet dog. This reply became the turning point of this story. He saw that this woman has great faith and he granted her request and her daughter was healed.
So, coming to the question of why God didn’t reply at first can be attributed to the fact that he was waiting to see the actions of the disciples. Jews believed that the Messiah came only for them and on the contrary, this story became teaching to his disciples as you can read that he eventually healed the woman’s daughter. This taught them the compassion he has for everyone, and we as readers should also learn to be compassionate to people whom we might not like or not considered our circle. At first, it might seem like he was only talking to the woman but in fact, was talking to his disciples too. He proved the fact that he came not just for the Jews but for everyone.
But what inspired me was the way she caught on to the things that he meant and she understood that this wasn’t just the conversation that they are having at this point but in fact, he wasn’t referring to her but the disciples.
So, what do we as the readers understand about the attitude that this woman had throughout this story? It was her faith. Though people believed that he came only for the jews (But throughout, you can see all the encounters he had with the Gentiles and the miracles he did for them as well) and considering the fact he was born to a Jewish mother, we would expect people (say, non-jews) to believe that he wouldn’t be helping them at any point. She recognized him and even called out to him as the “Son of David.”. He was even rejected by his own people but not only did she recognize him but had the faith and the persistence to get what she wanted.
You might think why I am not surprised about the miracle that Jesus made instead focus on this woman who persisted throughout this story. There were points in my life where I had asked for something and never waited (or even put in the efforts from my side) for the miracle to happen (The horse prepares for the battle, but victory rests with the LORD).
This Canaanite woman taught me to be persistent about the things that we want in life and also be patient and understanding of the things that are happening around us. Be it the request you have for God or even the smallest of things that you want to achieve in life, you have to be patient and also be persistent; put in the work and also be aware of the things surrounding you. And most of all have FAITH in yourself and a bigger FAITH in the one who makes everything happen.
