I first met today\u2019s Gospel a long time ago in a children\u2019s story by C. S. Lewis, part of his famous Chronicles of Narnia. Reepicheep, the bravest mouse of all Narnia, loses his tail in battle. As he bows to Aslan, the Great Lion, the King of Narnia, he realizes the terrifying absence of something important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am confounded,\u201d said Reepicheep to Aslan. \u201cI am completely out of countenance. I must crave your indulgence for appearing in this unseemly fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c\u00e2\u0080\u00a6What do you want with a tail?\u201d asked Aslan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSir,\u201d said the Mouse, \u201cI can eat and sleep and die for my King without one. But a tail is the honour and glory of a Mouse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have sometimes wondered, friend,\u201d said Aslan, \u201cWhether you do not think too much about your honour.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHighest of all High Kings,\u201d said Reepicheep, \u201cpermit me to remind you that a very small size has been bestowed on us Mice, and if we did not guard our dignity, some (who weigh worth by inches) would allow themselves very unsuitable pleasantries at our expense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhy have all your followers drawn their swords, may I ask?\u201d said Aslan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMay it please your High Majesty, \u201d said the second Mouse, whose name was Peepiceek, \u201cwe are all waiting to cut off our own tails if our Chief must go without his. We will not bear the shame of wearing an honour which is denied to the High Mouse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAh!\u201d roared Aslan, \u201cyou have conquered me. Reepicheep, for the love that is between you and your people, you shall have your tail again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* * *<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus is distressingly unkind in today\u2019s reading from Matthew. Our informed, tolerant, accepting selves curl up at the edges when Jesus puts the Canaanite woman in her place. Matthew doesn\u2019t even give her the dignity of having a name. Jesus refers to her as a dog, making her the most unclean, unworthy individual imaginable. Every ounce of wrath in the Hebrew Scriptures has come to bear on her people. Moreover, she\u2019s a woman. She has no authority, no social standing, no property, no status at all. Even Reepicheep the mouse has much greater standing in Narnia than the Canaanite woman has in ancient Palestine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She should count herself lucky Jesus pays any attention at all. The Pharisees would have had absolutely no time for such a bold woman. Any sensible teacher would have taken great offense at her audacity. The disciples find her cries irritating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, Jesus is forced to turn to her and draw the line. We\u2019ve all done it. Sometimes we need to do it. We don\u2019t have the time. There is too much at stake, too much to do. Our lives are crazy enough. We can\u2019t get involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In here is a hidden gem of Good News. For a fast-paced, over-worked, high-tech society like we are, perhaps we need a Savior who can draw the line, who can say no. Jesus isn\u2019t trying to be a superhero. Why should we? But what happens next in this Gospel is perhaps one of the most remarkable dialogues in all of Jesus\u2019 public ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matthew has devoted line after line to accounts of Jesus\u2019 message being totally misunderstood. The disciples can\u2019t see for a moment into the metaphors of the parables. The Pharisees are confounded and annoyed at Jesus for shaking their cage of rules and regulations. The people swarm around hoping for something wonderful to happen. They\u2019re like a crowd at a three-ring circus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then comes along a woman, a Canaanite woman no less, who seems somehow to understand completely; because, in her pithy little statement about dogs and tables and crumbs, she makes her refreshing claim to grace. She even embraces Jesus\u2019 metaphorical language: something the apostles can never quite seem to manage. It\u2019s all so bold, so insightful, and, to Jesus\u2019 ears, so terribly beautiful. Immediately, this Canaanite woman, this outsider, stands head-and-shoulders above the crowd, and even the disciples must cower in her shadow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her faithful assumptions are strikingly simple. She knows Jesus can heal her daughter. She has, in one sense, rejected her role as submissive and boldly struck out for justice. On the other hand, this Canaanite woman comes before the Savior and asks in all the humility of her station for her place in the Kingdom of God, however little a portion that may be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus is thunderstruck. She gets it. No matter how tiny she is from the Jewish point-of-view, she is willing to struggle faithfully \u2014 even with God himself \u2014 to obtain healing for her daughter. She has assumed her rightful position in the Kingdom. She is among the first drops from the waterfall of Gentiles who are to be welcomed into Christ\u2019s loving arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today\u2019s Gospel is not about faith in what we deserve. It is about faith in the grace we need. It is about our struggles for justice, righteousness, and dignity right in God\u2019s face. It is about an insistent, almost obnoxious faith that will continue to pursue truth even at the expense of all cultural and societal boundaries. It is about our wrestling directly with a God \u201cin whom we move and have our being\u201d for our healing. And, brothers and sisters, it is about a God whose heart we can change, whose head we can turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019re a people constantly uttering, \u201cThy will be done,\u201d to a lofty Lord enthroned above. Our theology wonders about how our prayer can change the mind of a God who knows everything, \u201cto whom our needs are known before we ask.\u201d We know we\u2019re dealing with a God who says, \u201cMy ways are not your ways.\u201d And we know we\u2019re reckoning with a God who, all-too-frequently, allows suffering to run its course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But let us take seriously the faith of the Canaanite woman: a faith that stands head-and-shoulders above our own. Let us indeed put our faith in a Creator who made the stars and the galaxies, a Spirit who is active in the deepest fibers of our being, a Savior who spans our beginnings and our ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But let us also remember a God who, in a miraculous event quite beyond our comprehension, made creatures capable of surprising the divine consciousness. Then let us fervently pray that our Savior might satisfy our thirst for justice, righteousness, and healing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Listen! We just might hear a voice saying, \u201cAh! You have conquered me!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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