Dogs and When Jesus Grew

Matthew 15:21-28
Gospel Reading for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost (Year A)

Matthew 15:21-28 goes a little something like this:

Canaanite woman asks Jesus to heal her daughter. Jesus ignores her. Canaanite woman persists. Jesus implies Canaanite woman is a dog. Canaanite woman points out that even dogs get scraps. Jesus is impressed with the Canaanite woman’s response and heals her daughter.

Pardon?

This is the gospel passage for the Lectionary today. People have to actually preach on it. It’s a crazy passage because on the surface it undermines one of the most fundamental things that Christians have long believed about Jesus: that he was the compassionate, sinless human embodiment of God. Yet in this passage, he coldly shoots down the requests of a mother with a sick child; all because she was not one of his people.

²⁵ But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” ²⁶ He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

That isn’t great! It’s disconcerting and troubling. It seemingly runs against a lot of what Jesus says/does when he encounters Gentiles in other passages. It seems to run counter Jesus preaching that we love our enemies. The problems are only amplified as we are presently having important cultural conversations about how certain people groups are discriminated against.

Some commentators have tried to skirt the issue by saying that when Jesus called the woman a “dog,” he was merely comparing her to a beloved household pet and not a mangy street mutt. That’s not much better and, besides, does not make much contextual sense. "Awww, Jesus is referring to this woman as a pet" is still pretty demeaning.

So how is initially refusing to heal a sick child and referring to an entire race of people as dogs okay? I have a hard time finding a way that it is. I still believe that Jesus was the compassionate, sinless human embodiment of God. Yet this passage seems incongruous with that belief. It’s possible that Matthew doesn’t accurately capture this exchange. Regardless, I don’t have a good answer.

So let me pivot. If we get hung up on how scripture does or does not fit into our preconceived notions then we might miss something valuable that it might teach us. That’s where I think this difficult passage might be helpful to us because this is a passage about something interrupting preconceived notions and fostering growth.

We often think that God just zapped everything into Jesus’ head. As if, Jesus almost immediately knew everything from how his life would play out to how he could whip a massive feast out of a kid’s meal. Yet Luke 2:52 tells us that Jesus increased in wisdom, years, and in favor of God and people.

He grew.

It would seem that his understanding of who he was and what his mission looked like matured over time. God spoke to Jesus through the scriptures and prayer. And it seems in this passage that God spoke to Jesus through this Canaanite woman. After all, Matthew ends with Jesus telling his disciples to take the gospel to all nations. That’s a far cry from believing that he only came for the children of Israel. You could make a good case that beautiful passage in Matthew 25 is thanks to this woman.

That’s a pretty big deal and I realize it can be a little disconcerting for people. Historically there are people that get uneasy when we highlight the humanity of Jesus. Yet when I think about it, that’s pretty great news for Christians as we’re supposed to follow the life of Christ.

So we can learn from the fact that Jesus was always keenly aware that God was speaking to him in a myriad of ways. We need to keep our eyes and ears open for those places where God speaks, especially the unexpected ones (and a Canaanite woman was about the most unexpected place a rabbi could hear the voice of God short of a talking pig wearing a shirt of wool and linen).

We can also learn from the way he responds to her; the end result, not the dog part. When the woman persisted, Jesus could have responded to her by saying, “Do you realize who I am? How dare you question me?” If anyone ever had the right to respond that way, it was Jesus. But he didn’t. He was impressed by her faith (my commentary said “master’s table” could just as easily be translate as “Lord’s table”) and it changed his outlook.

I know that may not sit well with some. The idea that Jesus grew and matured as he pursued God resonates me. As I said earlier, as a Christian I am supposed to follow Christ. If Jesus grew, learned, and matured then I can better follow in his footsteps because I need to grow, learn, and mature all the more. If Jesus kept looking for God to speak to him for ways that would expand his mission, I need to do keep my eyes open as well. I don’t have many answers for the theological dissonance that this passage causes. Yet from a discipleship perspective? It helps me to know that Jesus grew.