But Jesus did not say a word in answer to her.
When he does say something it isn't always something which immediately fill us with hope. Is he saying he isn't here for us? Is this like all of those other good things about which we hear, for someone else but not for us? He isn't even speaking directly to the Canaanite woman when his first response finally comes.
I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Is he avoiding responding directly to us because he doesn't want to deal with us? Does he imply that we aren't worthy of his love? Are we less than the blessed, undeserving of the grace which he lavishes on people better than us?
“It is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs.”
It sure seems like this is what he is saying. And yet, we know it cannot be. We know that the LORD wants his house to be "a house of prayer for all peoples" and not just for those blessed few he chooses over and against others. He says, "them I will bring to my holy mountain and joyful in my house of prayer". He excludes no one. He wants "all the nations" to praise him, not just one, not just a few. He only ever "delivered all to disobedience" as a part of a plan "that he might have mercy upon all. " There is not one group whom he loves and blesses and another he ignores.
The Canaanite woman hopes against hope. She perceives one thing in the silence and in the apparent insults. But she holds to a deeper hope. And she is eventually vindicated. Jesus only says what he does in order to reveal her faith and to refine her hope.
Then Jesus said to her in reply,
“O woman, great is your faith!
Let it be done for you as you wish.”
And the woman’s daughter was healed from that hour.
She is not excluded. Jesus doesn't answer right away because he wants to make sure she knows what perseverance is all about. It is only he that perseveres to the end that will be saved (cf. Mat. 24:13). It is the one who keeps asking, keeps seeking, and keeps knocking will receive, find, and have the door opened. (cf. Mat. 7:7). It is the woman who is persistent with the unjust judge who has her case decided favorably (cf. Luk 18:6). Our friend will give us the bread for which we ask at midnight because of our persistence if not our friendship (cf. Luk. 11:8). But why would this be the case? We know that we don't earn anything by our works, so that can't be it. It isn't that we have to prove ourselves somehow. Why do we need to persevere? We begin to suspect that God doesn't really want to bless us. We start to think that he only reluctantly measures blessings as we bother him and force his hand.
The Father allows this playful association with the unjust judge and third friend precisely because he is so unlike them. He exaggerates the extremes imagine about him when he doesn't respond right away. He exaggerates them so much as to make them comical so we don't take them seriously.
It isn't that he is being cajoled into doing things he doesn't want to do. He is trying to teach us perseverance, and that hope that has to be there to underlie it and support it. Abraham faces this in the extreme when he is told to sacrifice Isaac. He has to cling to the promise even when his present circumstances seem to contradict it. He has to hope against hope.
Jesus may be silent to this Canaanite woman at first. But let's remember that on the cross he hears silence of the Father. He himself has to hope and hang on when all seems lost. And he wants to manifest this grace in us. It is not a grace to prove ourselves or to earn salvation. It is a grace only to hold onto him no matter what is going on in our circumstances. Death always looks like death, it is just that sometimes there is a resurrection on the far side. We are all called to run the race with endurance (cf. Heb. 12:1) but our part is simply to keep going, to not give up. He gives us all the strength we need.
The woman has a final lesson for us today. When she is discouraged, look how she responds:
But the woman came and did Jesus homage, saying, “Lord, help me.”
And even though the immediate response of Jesus is not what she wants she sees that he now speaks to her directly. Her hope is stirred and inflamed. She can now persevere until she finally receives her heart's desire.
So when our circumstances are difficult and God doesn't seem to care let us do him homage as well. Let us cry out to him. Then, let us listen. We base all this on his fidelity to his promises. He was faithful before. He is faithful. He will be faithful again. We have good reason to hope, no matter what we're hearing now. In our desolation we aren't good listeners. Our hope must go deeper.
May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you!
May God bless us,
and may all the ends of the earth fear him!
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