There are times when I regret that we have no picture of Jesus, particularly pictures of Jesus’ face as he was speaking to people. How I wish that a sound cameraman had been present when some things were being said. Why? Because some of the things Jesus said have been so misunderstood. How something is said – the inflection of the voice – the expression on the face is all important. Our story today is an excellent example of what I mean, the strange encounter between Jesus and the Canaanite woman. Let me tell you the story.

One day a woman rushes up to Jesus and cries out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David, my daughter is possessed of a demon.” And just as they had a few days before with the hungry crowd, the disciples want to send her away, too. Also, remember that just the previous day the scribes and Pharisees had been criticizing Jesus for mixing with the wrong kind of people.

  So, it seems to me, possibly that Jesus deliberately and with the help of this intelligent woman (who quickly caught on, to what was happening) acted out a little parable for the sake of his disciples and the crowd: “Oh no, I can’t help you, woman: I was only sent to the good people, the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” And the woman keeps up the act, “Lord, help me.” “Oh no,” continues Jesus, “It’s not right to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” And the woman responds, “But Lord, even dogs get to eat the crumbs under the family table.” At this point, Jesus breaks the play-acting and says, “Woman, you have enormous faith. Your daughter is healed.” And so it happened.

That’s the story and it seems to have a happy ending. But I still have many questions.

• Why was Jesus so abrupt, even rude, to the woman?
• Did Jesus change his mind? Do you think Jesus could do that? (I do, by the way.)
• Most important, what does this story have to say to us today?

For me this story is a challenge to our human efforts to divide people into groups – the good and the bad, people like us and “not our kind dear,” those we love and those we could care less about. That last one certainly could remind us of what is going on at our borders. Are we acting morally and in a Christian way when we seek to exclude people who are coming here just as our ancestors did? By the way, a significant part of my ancestors were illegal aliens in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries!