Pentecost 12A
August 16, 2026
Matthew 15:10-28
INTRODUCTION
Today’s readings urge us to question what, exactly, makes a person “good” or faithful or worthy of love and grace. More specifically, they bring up the question of whether one’s race or ethnicity, or their adherence to the law, is what wins them God’s favor. Isaiah makes a bold claim that God’s house “shall be a house of prayer for all people,” regardless of their foreign status. Paul’s letter to the Romans astutely points out that we are all disobedient, but that our disobedience is what makes God’s immense mercy such a gift.
Matthew gives us two stories that illustrate this point in different ways. Once again, we are right on the tails of the last few stories – the death of John the Baptist, the feeding of the 5000, Jesus’ desperate attempts to get a moment alone to pray, and the walking on water and stilling the storm. Now Jesus begins challenging some of the Pharisees on laws surrounding cleanliness and diet. In short, he says: it’s not what you eat that matters, but what you say that defiles.
From there, though, Jesus moves into a foreign country, Tyre and Sidon. This is a land of Gentiles, non-Jews, people outside of the children of Israel. Yet even in a foreign land, Jesus’ reputation precedes him, and a woman approaches him and asks for help for her daughter. And, well, Jesus doesn’t at first respond as mercifully as you might expect, in an interaction that has baffled commentators for generations.
Judgment of others who are different is rampant in our world, and always has been. As you listen, consider how these texts can help us to reflect on our own human condition, and what they say to our engagement with those who are different from us. Let’s listen.
[READ]
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
When I was in seminary, I remember there was a preaching series in chapel one year in which they invited the Yale Divinity School faculty to preach on some of the most difficult texts in the Bible. Great idea, right? I remember that this story of the Canaanite woman was one of the texts they preached.
Unfortunately, I don’t recall anything about the sermon, not even who preached it. But I remember that it is difficult, and every time it comes up, I remember that again. The Jesus we encounter here is… challenging. We have come to expect Jesus will be a model of mercy, compassion, and open-heartedness, even and especially to outsiders and others like this woman. But here, we watch as Jesus first ignores the Gentile, Canaanite woman who is desperately seeking help for her ailing daughter; then he says, “I’m not here for you;” then he comes right out and calls her a dog, likely a racial slur. It is cringy to say the least. What do we do with this Jesus?
Scholars have puzzled over this interaction for centuries. What’s going on here? Perhaps he is testing the woman’s faith. Perhaps he is showing us another example of how God can change God’s mind, as sometimes happens in stories from the Old Testament. Perhaps he is demonstrating what it looks like to be a learner, showing us how to learn from someone who is different from you.
Looking at the last four sermons I have preached on this text, I have always focused on trying to figure out what is going on with Jesus, and with good reason! But this time around, I’m drawn instead to focus on the woman, and what she can teach us about faith and how to approach Jesus. Because if I’m honest, this chick rocks. I love her! And while focusing on Jesus is never a bad thing, I think we miss something in this text if we don’t also take the chance to learn from this strong, courageous, persistent woman, whose faith Jesus whole-heartedly praises. It’s kind of amazing her story even made it into the Bible, but it’s there for a reason, and so it’s worth paying attention to!
So, what can we learn from her? First of all, this woman shows us to come before Jesus with courage. She had no standing to approach Jesus – women in this time and place were not supposed to talk to strange men, to be so assertive, especially with a respected teacher, which is probably why the disciples want to send her away, and why Jesus at first just ignores her. She is out of order. But she has a need, and she knows Jesus can meet it. She believes in his compassion. So she gathers up all her faith and courage, and her love for her ailing daughter, and she goes against the cultural norm, and approaches Jesus.
I sometimes hear people say, “I don’t want to bother God with my problems, which are relatively small compared to things like world hunger and war. My things don’t matter that much.” But this woman shows us that they do. That your life, and your challenges, and the things that break your heart, matter to Jesus. Now maybe it feels at first like they don’t matter to him, like he’s just ignoring you or saying no. I’ve offered my share of prayers that include some version of, “Hello?? Are you there? Are you even listening to me??” But nevertheless, she persists in asking, until she knows that she and her important concern have been heard. Great is her faith!
Second, this courageous woman shows us that sometimes challenging authority is necessary. That word, “authority,” can have a different connotation to different people. Some may hear it as oppressive, or forceful, and some may perceive authority as safety, or a guide. The sort of authority Jesus possesses is a loving authority; despite his tough words in this passage, I still believe his ultimately goal is love and life. But even loving authority can stand to be challenged. And she does, because she believes that Jesus would never reject a child, and he wouldn’t reject her. She believes in the breadth of his compassion, that God’s love is larger than what others believe is possible. And she is right! Great is her faith!
A third way this woman demonstrates faith is in how she responds to Jesus’ difficult response to her request. I notice this especially in light of the story right before this, about how what comes out of the mouth is what defiles. I’m sure we have all had experience of defiling words coming out of our mouths, especially when provoked, and also of defiling words coming at us from someone else! It’s not pretty, and it tends to escalate quickly, the more attacked, and thus defensive, people get.
This woman shows us a different way. She doesn’t say, “I’m not a dog!” or, “Is one of us supposed to be the dog in this scenario??” She doesn’t say, “Hey, that’s really rude!” Even in her distress over the daughter, she is able to receive his comment, and then with some rhetorical jujutsu, she uses his metaphor to destabilize and take down his argument. “Ok, maybe I am a dog. But even so, you should help me because even dogs get crumbs from the master’s table.” What an exceptionally sharp response! Ah, I love her! She doesn’t offend him. She’s not sarcastic. She doesn’t attack. She is not unkind, and doesn’t make it personal. She enters into a rhetorical battle with this respected teacher, talking to him on his own terms, to convince him that she and her daughter are worthy of his attention and mercy right now, not later. Great is her faith!
And this impresses Jesus mightily! This is the moment that you can practically see Jesus’ mission burst open, no longer for only the children of the house of Israel, but for all children of God. At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus will send out the disciples to baptize and proclaim the gospel to all nations, not just the house of Israel. This woman shows us, by her faith, that her life, her daughter’s life, Canaanite lives, foreigners’ lives, the lives of outsiders – that their lives matter. And Jesus thinks so, too. This woman shows us that the love of God is always greater than the boundaries we would try to draw around it. Great is her faith!
Sometimes this is good news for us, because we are the ones who would have been outside the boundaries, and now, thanks to this woman’s faith, we see that we are included. Sometimes we are on the other side of this conversation, and ours are the eyes that had to be opened, so that we could see that our willingness to love and include and show mercy and compassion has been too narrow – but now we can see the expansiveness of God’s mission, and by that revelation we are invited to be a part of it.
Either way, it is good news for a world in need. Jesus is for us, for all of us, including the foreigners, the outsiders, and those outside the fold. God’s mercy is for everyone, even those who have no business asking for it, who society tells us should just be quiet. God’s love and compassion are for all of this hurting world.
And so, let us go out with this woman’s courageous faith, willing to ask God for what we know is right, good, and loving. Let us be willing to stand up to those with power, to proclaim that God’s love and mercy are always bigger than the boundaries we draw around them. Let us go with gentle and humble hearts, not on the attack, not to offend, but to engage with the hurt and pain of this world, with the goal of finding compassion and care for those most in need. And let us go with great faith that God sees us and hears us in our need.
Let us pray… Merciful God, thank you for models such as this woman, who acted with such courage, faith, and determination, and who showed us the breadth of your mercy. Make us so faithful! In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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