A Place for Everyone

Gospel: Matthew 15: 21-28

The Canaanite woman in today's Gospel has some similarities to the Samaritan woman in John's Gospel.  Aside from their gender, both are foreigners and people of another religious sect.  In both stories the disciples are urging Jesus to send them away and are shocked he talks to these women.  And Jesus once again rejects the narrow view of his followers and provides care for these women.  

We might be shocked at the way in which Jesus speaks to this woman.  The reality, however, is that these objections of Jesus are in reality the objections of his disciples - those who followed him then, and those who claim to follow him now.  Jesus raises them up in order to tear them down, not through argumentation but by actions of love and mercy extended to the one who would be excluded by disciples.  

When we see people being excluded and rejected by church communities, we may hear the echoes of Jesus' rebuke to the disciples of his day.  We may also hear within our own hearts a call from the Lord to care for those people who have been rejected and cast out - to do for them as Jesus did for the outcasts and unclean of his own day.