|
|
|
july 2008 Bible study with Lawrence MooreJesus 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 instantly.
The Canaanite Woman’s Faith (Matthew 15: 21-28)
The encounter between Jesus and the Canaanite woman has a fascinating history of critical treatment in the commentaries. Commentator after commentator and preacher after preacher would have us believe that Jesus is here engaged in some sort of skilful teaching exercise: he quite deliberately brushes the Canaanite woman off so that she persists in her quest for healing for her daughter. If we’re to believe them, this is all an elaborate object lesson for the disciples, who are the onlookers – a lesson about how a Gentile woman exhibits the sort of faith that Jesus is looking for in Israel.
One recent writer on this passage has spent an astonishing amount of time trying to prove that Jesus is, in fact, a wandering Cynic philosophical teacher, delighted at the chance for a bit of verbal sparring with the only other Cynic for miles around (the Canaanite woman).
This article is continued in the July 08 edition of Reform.
|
LINKS:
|
