Reflection for North Balwyn Uniting Church
16^th of August 2026

Matthew 15:1-21

Jesus said: ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’

A couple of weeks ago, a BBC journalist interviewed an Israeli lawyer, Yehuda Shimon, who supports illegal settlers accused of committing violence against Palestinians. She asked him how Israel should respond if a Palestinian in the West Bank dares to fight back against the settlers. Shimon responded that if one Israeli is killed, Israel needs to kill all the Palestinians in multiple West Bank villages. The BBC journalist then said: ‘It sounds like you’re saying one Jewish life is worth hundreds of thousands of Palestinian lives.’ Shimon answered: ‘No, million. One Jewish life, it’s ten million.’ The journalist was shocked: ‘Okay. That just sounds racist.’ And Shimon agreed: ‘Yes, I know. I know. But this is the truth because God chose us. Because of this, you are jealous.’

Would Jesus at the beginning of today’s gospel story have agreed with Yehuda Shimon? Do we even recognise the Jesus in today’s story? The author of the Gospel according to Matthew tells us that Jesus first ignores the foreign woman who approaches him in desperation, and discourages his disciples, who suggest that he send her away by just giving her what she wants, by saying: ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ When he is forced to engage with the woman, because she has the temerity to approach him and kneel before him, he rejects her by comparing her and her daughter to dogs. Some commentators have suggested that Jesus was testing this woman’s faith; that all the time he intended to cure her daughter and he wanted to see how far she was willing to go in her quest for healing; how committed she was; how much she trusted the one she called ‘Lord, Son of David’. Other commentators have tried to excuse him for using the term ‘dogs’ by saying that it was almost affectionate; that the Greek word quoted is the equivalent of ‘puppies.’ But the equivalent would be an English speaker calling a woman a bitch. It is an appropriate term for a female dog, but not for a female human. And a Jesus who tests the faith of a desperate mother seems to me to be as cruel as one who rejects her.

The Revised Common Lectionary gives us only a small portion of this fifteenth chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, but I think it is important to see the context in which this encounter takes place. The recent feeding of the many thousands took place in the context of Herod’s murder of John the Baptist, foretelling the way Jesus’ own ministry will end. (Matthew 14:13-21) Jesus then discovered, while crossing the water, how little faith his own disciples had. (Matthew 14:22-33) Now the Pharisees and scribes have come to Jesus from Jerusalem, from the centre of Jewish life, with all their authority, to challenge him over his failure to adhere to the traditions of the elders. They take offence at his teaching that the law, the Torah, should always take priority over the later traditions that have been added to it. If Jesus believes that he has been sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, he is discovering that many of those sheep do not want him. Even those who accept him, even Peter, have turned out to be people of little faith who doubt him. This may be why he travels to the district of Tyre and Sidon, in modern-day Lebanon, far away from the centres of Jewish power. But it seems that he comes to this area only to minister to the minority of Jewish residents there, not the majority Gentiles.

The woman who calls out to Jesus differs from him in race, nationality, gender and religion. The author of Mark describes her as ‘a gentile, of Syrophoenician origin.’ (Mark 7:26) But the author of Matthew describes her as a Canaanite, that is, as one of the Indigenous peoples of the land. Canaanites were among the seven nations that Deuteronomy tells us the Israelites were meant to wipe out: ‘when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy.’ (Deuteronomy 7:2) This woman is described as a descendant of the people the Lord had ordered the Israelites to exterminate; she could not be less important to a Jewish man.

Culturally, she is behaving completely badly. She has come out from her own Gentile region of Tyre and Sidon to approach Jesus, and she does not approach him quietly, but instead shouts at him publicly. She is crossing all sorts of boundaries, including the boundary that marks appropriate behaviour from behaviour that is completely and utterly inappropriate. But we know why she is doing it. Her daughter is being tormented by a demon, and this woman will do anything, whatever it takes, to get her daughter the help she needs. She will put up with being first ignored and then verbally abused. She will argue back when condemned, rather than slinking away in shame.

We can also understand why Jesus says what he does. His ministry is in crisis. He has come to save the lost sheep of Israel, but it seems that most of the lost sheep of Israel do not recognise him as their shepherd. His identity as prophet, preacher, and teacher is being challenged. He must reconsider his calling. Both Jesus and the unnamed woman are passionately concerned for children: the woman for her only daughter and Jesus for all the sons and daughters of Israel. They are his mission, the people of the Covenant for whom the scribes and the Pharisees tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear (Matthew 23:4); those who are currently being led by ‘blind guides of the blind.’ It is for them that he has come to proclaim mercy, not sacrifice.

The woman agrees! She does not challenge Jesus’ characterisation of her and her people as dogs when compared to the children of Israel. She does not demand that Jesus treat her as an equal of his own people. Instead, she takes up Jesus’ use of the description ‘dogs’ and turns it to her benefit: ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ There is room, she argues, for Gentiles at the feast of the kingdom. The Jews may come first, but there is a place even for Gentiles at the banquet. And so clever is her argument that Jesus accepts it: ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’

Jesus’ first response to this woman was dismissive and cruel, but he was able to recognise the truth when he heard it, even if the speaker was a Canaanite woman. He was able to listen to someone whom other Jewish men would have ignored, and he then chose to act compassionately in a situation where no one would have blamed him for moving on. Because of this, Jesus was converted to a larger vision of God’s kingdom and a fuller revelation of his mission. His powers were not given to him only for the Jews, but for the Gentile world too. Earlier in the gospel, Matthew described Jesus as fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy about the coming of the Messiah in whose name the Gentiles will hope. (Matthew 12:20-22) Here we see that prophecy in action. At the end of this gospel Jesus tells his disciples, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’ (Matthew 28:18-20)

Rather than believing that he had been sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, the risen Christ knew that he had been sent to all nations. I would argue that today’s encounter with the Canaanite woman was an important stage on the path that led to Christian inclusion and universalism.

We know that the scribes and the Pharisees are Jesus’ arguing partners throughout the Gospel according to Matthew because of the competition between them and the followers of Jesus over which group was the true heir of Temple Judaism after Rome had destroyed the Temple. With the Temple destroyed, it was no longer possible for Jews to make sacrifices or celebrate their festivals as tradition demanded, and priests no longer had a role. But the Pharisees, who had argued that by following the traditions of the elders in their daily life, all Jews could be priests, and the scribes, who interpreted the Scriptures in the synagogues, enabled Jews to continue to worship God in the absence of the Temple. They created the Judaism, based around synagogues and led by rabbis, teachers, that we see today.

Followers of Jesus also argued that worship of the God of Israel could continue in the absence of the Temple, because Jesus himself had replaced the Temple and God could be worshipped anywhere through him. They went further. They argued that the community that worshipped the God of Israel was not limited to Jews. Gentiles, too, could be part of it. As I have said several times before, as Gentile followers of Jesus we have been welcomed into an inclusive Israel. The reason that we, with all our different ethnic backgrounds, are worshipping the God of Israel here on the other side of the world is that Jesus and his first followers were able to extend his mission beyond his own people, his own religion, and his own nation. In today’s story, we see Jesus taking the first steps toward that universalism, learning from the passionate love and clever arguments of this desperate Canaanite mother.

If even Jesus can change his mind and discover that God’s love and care are infinitely more inclusive and extensive than he thought, the same must be true for all of us who seek to follow in his footsteps. There is a terrifying trend among some Christians today to argue that true Christians are of particular races or that the only true citizens of particular nations are Christian. Christian nationalism is an important part of the politics in countries including Russia and Ukraine, the USA and Brazil, Ghana and South Korea. It is so important for us to remember that exactly because we ourselves have been welcomed into an inclusive Israel, we must welcome others. Christianity can never be exclusive, never be an excuse to exclude others.

And as we remember Jesus, the Jewish man, learning something of God’s inclusive, universal love from an Indigenous woman, let us thank God for all the mouthy women throughout history who, by behaving badly, have made the world a better place.