I am preparing to preach tomorrow and am pondering the Gospel passage for the nth time this week, again and again I come back to the same question; did Jesus change his mind? Let's face it he was rude to the Syrophonecian Woman, she'd come, falling at his feet, pleading for healing for her daughter and he called her a dog! There is no real way to sugar coat that is there?
Now I am sure some folk will put me right, saying things like; "of course he wasn't rude, it was said in jest...." Or maybe; "he was just trying to draw faith from her..." Or,; "well the word he used might have been translated puppy so that makes it OK.."
Well I've been pondering responses like that, and others too, things I myself have preached because I could not get my head around preaching an imperfect Jesus, but now I am wondering, and that wondering has got me thinking about the nature of God. I have pondered some Old Testament accounts such as Moses pleading for the Israelites after the "Golden Calf Incident" , although God's judgement came upon them he did not leave them, somehow Moses pleading brought about a change in the Almighty.
So I ponder, did the Syrophonecian Woman challenge and change Jesus, and the only answer I can come up with is yes. He had gone to get away, but his fame had spread, and the woman hearing that the miracle worker was nearby came to plead for healing for her daughter, Jesus response was to turn her away, not only that but he called her a dog (dogs were unclean according to the Jews, so even calling her a puppy would have been an insult|), but she was undeterred and pressed in, willing to accept crumbs if crumbs from his table were all that was on offer. He acknowledged her faith and answered her prayer, but was he changed?
I believe Jesus was changed, perhaps he had not fully recognised the scope of his calling ( we must remember the human/ divine tension here), he had come for the Jew yes, but for the Gentiles too maybe for a good Jewish boy, even the one born of a promise, God in flesh, maybe that seemed a bridge too far, until he caught a glimpse of his own likeness in the plea of the woman for her daughter. What if she reflected to him his own plea for the world. For her daughter she was willing to humble herself, to accept the insult, to beg, and to be satisfied with crumbs. What she received was more, not only the healing she sought, but a commendation of her faith. So her story is told, it could have been left out but it wasn't.
But what challenge does this story bring to us today? Jesus "grew into" the fullness of his stature, he grappled with his own identity, perhaps supremely so as he sweated blood in Gethsemane, his reward the resurrection, death defeated, evil overcome, but first there was the humiliating excruciating experience of the cross...
If the church is the body of Christ on earth, maybe we are left with questions about our own condition, how are we to grow and change and who are the ones who challenge us to listen. Who are the ones we might call unworthy; those whose lives and customs are different to our own, those with needs that seem insurmountable, those who frankly we might rather we had nothing to do with! Are we willing to hear, can we afford to block our ears and turn away, or will we dare to follow Jesus example, to turn, to receive, to respond...
