During the summer of 2017 we have been taking a journey with Jesus from place to place using the gospel according to St. Matthew.  To hear the lesson for today we need to take a journey back to the Israelite conquest of Canaan.  In Deuteronomy 7:1-14 the people of Moses now the people of Joshua thought that they heard God say to them that they should slaughter all the Canaanites, not inter marry with them and not leave one of them alive.  They convinced themselves that God approved of this genocide.  Their goal was to destroy the seven nations that inhabited the Promised Land.

Now back to Matthew who includes two Canaanite women in his genealogy in the first chapter of his gospel.  Judah, one of the twelve children of Jacob was married to Tamar the Canaanite, and most of us know the story of Ruth’s daughter-in-law a Canaanite who loved the Lord so much that she would not leave her husband’s family and go back to Moab even after her husband died, instead she clung to her Mother-in Law Ruth.

A few weeks ago we had the feeding of the 5,000.  My sermon emphasis was less on the abundance of food and more on getting people obsessed with ritual purity to sit down together and eat.  It is a remembrance of God giving manna in the wilderness.  Twelve baskets symbolizing the twelve tribes of Israel were picked up as leftover.  There is also a feeding story of 4000 where 7 baskets of food are picked up as leftovers symbolizing the 7 exterminated Canaanite tribes.

Next we got the Peter walking on the water that we spoke about last week.  Peter could only follow as long as he looked only at Jesus.  As soon as he took note of his chaotic surroundings he got pulled under.  As long as he was in the kingdom of God he could walk on water.  You can’t walk on water in the kingdom of the world.

So today we get the story of Jesus and the two insults.  The disciples were extremely upset that Jesus insulted the Pharisees in the first part of our lesson, but in the second part the disciples are whole heartedly enthusiastic about piling insults upon the Canaanite woman. 

In Jesus day there were no more Canaanites.  So what is Matthew trying to say about Jesus by calling this woman by the anachronistic term Canaanite?  In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus is presented as a new Moses, remember that it is only in the Gospel of Matthew that tells us about Joseph taking Jesus to Egypt to the place of Moses for safety.  In the Old Testament Canaanites are seen as evil.  Matthew uses the term Canaanite to designate this woman and her daughter as the worst of outsiders.  Canaanites are the Quintessential enemies of Israel, the ones that they thought that God commanded them to exterminate because their sins were so extreme. 

This whole section can be usefully seen as Jesus leading a re-conquest of Canaan.  This lesson is right in the middle of the two feeding in the wilderness stories.  Just as God fed the recently emancipated Israelite slaves with Manna in the wilderness so Jesus feeds them.  Next after this lesson is the feeding of the 4,000 in which the twelve baskets of leftover food are reduced to seven baskets.  Twelve tribes of Israel compared to the seven Canaanite nations that the Israelite’s thought God wanted them to exterminate.  Instead of exterminating them, Jesus feeds them.  The feeding of the 4,000 is a gentile feeding.  The location of this feeding is in Galilee of the Gentiles.

These two feeding stories also connect on the subject of bread.  We know that Jesus can produce endless supplies of bread, as his Father could provide manna.  The Canaanite woman in our story is not asking for the return of her ancestral lands and rights, no, she just want crumbs from her conquers’ table.  The disinherited Canaanite woman seeks healing from the Son of David, and she begs for a crumb, the casting out of a demon from her daughter.

The feeding of the 4,000 is a message that the same abundance that is now available to Israel will be available to all.  Jesus is teaching that the gentiles are not to be exterminated but fed.  This is a critique of the Old Testament’s call for extermination.

So the disciples are really upset that Jesus might offend the Pharisees.  But when Jesus calls this woman a dog the disciples are enthusiastic in their approval.  Here Jesus was teaching his disciples another lesson about faith yet again Jesus stands on the side of the victim and against the dominator.  The Pharisees are offended and they begin to plot Jesus’ death.  The Canaanite woman when she is called a dog persists in faith to Jesus.  She is a child of God and will receive mercy and love.  She approaches God with mercy and love and receives it back seven fold.

Insulting the Pharisees and loving the Canaanite woman were both scandals for the disciples.  Remember when Jesus announced his ministry he said “the sick are healed the hungry fed, the lame walk and good news is preached to the poor.”  Then he strangely adds, “Blessed are those who take no offence at me.”  Or more accurately translated, blessed are those who are not scandalized by me.

Faith is learning not to be scandalized, but instead to forgive and to cast our lot with the world’s victims and to expose the victimizers for their evil.  Jesus comes to feed us today with faith and forgiveness.  Our not being scandalized by God’s free gift is the first step in realizing that everything God has given to us we have no right to claim and that it is all a pure gift. 

Jesus re-conquers Canaan this time with his Father’s peace and love again re interpreting and turning the old stories inside out. 

1. How is Jesus as a new Moses undoing the Israelite conquest of Canaanite territories?

2. From where do we learn when to become scandalized about the things we see and experience?

3. What happens when we become scandalized instead of forgiving?