September 8, 2024 Pentecost XVI
September 8, 2024 Pentecost XVI
Jesus needed a break from his work, he had left his homeland, and had sought refuge in a home in Tyre, what we now call Lebanon. Despite his cloister, a Gentile woman finds Jesus and grovels at his feet like a dog begging for food under his holy table. Social and religious norms were designed to impede gentile and Jew interaction from happening. Custom and prejudice dictated that Jesus should not even speak with this woman, nor any foreigner. The Syrophoenician woman wished for the Healer to free her daughter from an unclean spirit, but Jesus, seemingly supporting such habits, tells the desperate outsider, that she needs to wait for her serving, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” The clever woman reminds the Teacher that even dogs get the crumbs under the children’s table.
In modern times, dogs are often seen as loving members of the household. In antiquity dogs were not much more than pests, not creatures lovingly invited into homes. To first century Jews, gentiles were considered on the same level as dogs, yet Jesus did not withhold his gifts. Jesus had his loving embrace fully open, then opened those calming arms even wider. He bids the woman to rise, and return to her home. Her faith had healed her daughter. Jesus remained the faithful, predictable, servant of the Father, destined to embrace the whole Creation.
In antiquity, and throughout history, power, strength, and wealth are viewed as signs of Divine favor, while weakness, illness, disability, poverty, and any affliction that befalls a person, are seen as evidence of withdrawal of Holy providence. Do we not still ask, if one way or another, the fault may rest with the anguished? Jesus responds with compassion to the foreigner, the sick, the suffering, the sinner. Compassion for those regarded as having no inherent worth. Through one born in a manger, G_d gives justice to the oppressed, food to the hungry, freedom to the prisoner, sight to the blind, lifts the lowly, cares for the stranger, and sustains the orphan and widow. In the words of Psalm 146, “the maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them” brings compassion to the forgotten of the world.
Pax,
jbt
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