Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed from that moment.
Matthew 15:21-28 NRSVue
The story of the Canaanite woman and her daughter can at first offer us an image of Jesus that is cold and unrecognizable. Throughout Matthew’s gospel, Jesus frequently interacts with those with foreign or marginalized statuses (Matthew 8:5-13, Matthew 12:22-32). As a Canaanite, not only was this woman considered foreign, but her identity was scrutinized and marginalized throughout Israelite history. So, we would expect Jesus to interact with her just as he has interacted with Gentiles in the past. However, when this foreign woman calls after Jesus to declare the reality of who he is and what he can do for her daughter, Jesus’s response to her is a bit unnerving. He meets her with a cold silence at first and finally answers her with what Amy-Jill Levine describes as “an insulting joke.”
Admittedly, this passage has troubled me for some time. I could not recognize a Jesus who would act so carelessly toward a person who reached out for help. It was only this time when I came back to the story that I realized it might have been the gospel writer’s point to portray such an unrecognizable Jesus.
“Dramatic irony” is a literary device in which the reader’s knowledge of a situation surpasses the knowledge of the characters in the story. A modern example of dramatic irony would be the knowing glances at the camera in the TV series, The Office. The Office, which has been adapted internationally, is written in the style of a mocumentary, or a comedic and fictional play on the traditional documentary. In a show like this, the characters go about their daily life and are occasionally taken into interviews where they share details that other characters may not know. When scenes play out in the show that might hint at those hidden details, the original interviewee locks eyes with the camera, as if to ask, “See what I mean?” or “Did you catch that?” Yet, during these moments, the rest of the cast of characters do not acknowledge the original interviewee’s visual exchange with the camera; thus, the dramatic irony of the show presents its audience with a unique form of knowledge that is yet to be shared with the rest of the cast.
I like to think of the story of the Canaanite woman as a moment for such dramatic irony. Up to this point, Jesus has regularly transgressed social barriers to engage with those of marginalized status. The present story lands near the middle of the gospel, and by now the reader of the gospel of Matthew is familiar with the empathetic (Matthew 5:43-48), nurturing (Matthew 6:25-33), and humble (Matthew 7:1-5) character of Jesus. Yet, in this scene, he mimics the typical treatment of a woman like her from men of his status. He ignores her, and only responds to put her in her place.
When I visualize this moment, I see Jesus coming from his latest sermon and surrounded by his disciples. As he interacts with the woman, he turns to the camera and makes a subtle glance at us as if to say, “Do you know what’s going on here?” Because in the story, the disciples miss what Jesus is doing and even complain to him to send the woman away. The disciples attempt to uphold the status quo of sending away a woman of her foreign position. But here lies a moment when Jesus embodies the previous parable in the passage (Matthew 15:10-20), and offers his disciples a simulated lesson.
Prior to the encounter with the Canaanite mother, Jesus counters the idea of a holiness tradition that was popular among religious elites using a parable. He begins by declaring that what physically enters the body is not what defiles a person, but rather what comes out of the mouth. The disciples look to Jesus with concern, stating that he has upset the religious elites. And Jesus responds with: “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted” (Matthew 15:13). The disciples are confused by what Jesus means, so he finally clarifies that it is not unwashed hands that defile a person, but instead things like slander, immorality, and evil intentions. Jesus was disrupting the disciples’ expectations of what was considered impure within their culture, noting that some of their cultural expectations were not given by God.
Since the story of the Canaanite woman immediately follows his interaction with his disciples, the gospel writer is trying to exemplify that it is not Jesus’ interaction with a foreign woman that would defile or corrupt him, but his deployment of marginalizing ideology. To do this, the embodiment of this lesson comes through in a moment of dramatic irony.
Jesus’ words and actions toward the woman do not align with his character, but instead with the culture of social marginalization that his disciples exist within. For the disciples, this is familiar. For the character of Jesus that Matthew is building, this is confusing. Thus, upon reading the story of the Canaanite woman, the reader begins to feel disturbed by Jesus’ treatment of this needy mother. Yet, as I picture this story in light of the previous parable, I can’t help but imagine a Jesus that is raising his eyebrows at his disciples, waiting for the lesson to dawn on them.
The culture around Jesus rarely bat an eye toward this kind of social hierarchy. Jesus knew that, and he is relying on both the woman and the reader to operate from Jesus’ character standards rather than the world’s standards, to determine for themselves that marginalizing ideology is unacceptable.
In this way, the story of the Canaanite mother is a test of responsible decision-making. Good teachers are creative. They do not drop heavy amounts of information and expect their students to regurgitate the material word for word. Good teachers offer moments for students to make their own decisions and form their own convictions based on the information the teacher has provided. A good teacher knows that the best way for a student to embody a lesson is to provide the student with the agency to take ownership of the material. In this instance, Jesus has proven who he is, and now he waits for someone to act on that knowledge.
Unfortunately, the disciples are missing Jesus’ pedagogical invitation, and one begins to wonder if Jesus will have to clarify again as he had done in Matthew 15:10-20. Yet, lucky for us readers, there is one unexpected student who catches onto Jesus’ invitation: the mother. The mother protests the typical hierarchical structure that Jesus and his disciples were enforcing. She stands firm in her conviction of who Jesus is despite whatever hierarchy might keep her from him. The mother knew that if Jesus was who he claimed to be, he would not enforce such hierarchy. So, she protested with persistence in her request to Jesus to heal her daughter.
Jesus breaks the dramatic irony only when the Canaanite woman remains steady in her persistent protest. He praises the woman for her faith to overcome the division that typically silenced her, and in turn he utilizes the mother’s protests as a teaching for his disciples. Rather than reiterating his message of inclusion with another sermon, Jesus waits for his disciples to choose it for themselves. When they do not, he allows the mother’s protest to remind his disciples that his work is one of radical inclusion.
The invitation this story offers its readers is twofold. Firstly, it asks us to humbly reflect on our ability to recognize what is a moral response to ambiguous situations. The disciples were confused by the parable Jesus offered earlier in the passage (Matthew 15:13-16), and they do not recognize the right way to respond to the mother.
In an age where political leaders are blurring moral edges, do we listen to the protesting voices that counter such moral ambiguity? Are we like the disciples, who maintain and enforce social boundaries of exclusion, or are we like the protesting mother who doesn’t accept the limitations placed on her? Can we catch the dramatic, ironic glance of Jesus that offers moral clarity amidst the noise urging us to make the right decision?
Jesus’ proverbial glance is the second reflection this story invites its readers to ponder. Even as extremism, marginalization, and social division grow around the world, will we dig our heels in as the mother did to keep protesting for a better way? The disciples wanted her sent away, but she only persisted. Will our commitment to integrity drive us to a similar persistence?
Just earlier in this passage, Jesus clarifies that it is not the body that defiles, nor is it what goes into the body, but instead what comes out (Matthew 15:17-20). It is not a person’s social, economic, or ethnic status that discredits them. The forces of culture and power that surround a person can be violent and traumatizing, but they do not discredit. Instead, only what comes forth from a person can truly corrupt. In an age of violent rhetoric, extremist logic, harmful ideology, and realized violence, will we reproduce such barriers? Or will we catch a glimpse of Jesus inviting us to stay true to our shared humanity, and to choose the path of integrity?
It is not enough to only recognize and agree with the protests of needy mothers, though many are left unheard, like the Canaanite woman. Instead, it is now time to join with the voices who know there is a better way, and it is our responsibility to persist like the Canaanite mother until the world finally listens.
