A Table With Room for Everyone: The Bravery of the Canaanite Woman Overcoming Prejudice

A Homily I gave today in deep respect for the Canaanite nameless woman

The Canaanite Woman asks for healing for her daughter by Ilyas Basim Khuri Bazzi Rahib, a Coptic monk from 1684 in Egypt, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. Credit also goes to the website textweek.com.

This is the homily I gave today at the Anglican Hamilton Cathedral for those who are homeless or disadvantaged.

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Today’s Gospel is not an easy story. A mother comes to Jesus because her daughter is suffering terribly. She is desperate. She cries out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me.”

I know many of us gathered here today know what it means to feel desperate: to need help, to be worried for someone we love, to feel totally isolated and fearful, to feel that nobody is listening. This woman in the gospel story is not asking for something extra. She is asking for mercy.

At first, Jesus does not answer her. The disciples want to send her away. It seems to me they often want to send them away if you remember Sunday’s Gospel of the feeding of the 5 thousand. But Then Jesus speaks words that sound really harsh and disrespectful: he says that the children’s bread should not be thrown to the dogs. You don’t get more shaming or exclusionary than that. These words have always shocked me.

We should not pretend those words are easy to hear. The woman was a foreigner, someone from outside the community. In her world, as in ours, people were often divided into “us” and “them”: those who belong and those who are pushed aside; those treated as important and those treated as if they do not matter.

What is remarkable, is that this woman who Jesus has just likened to being a dog, will not accept being pushed away. She will not be denigrated, She will not be talked down to. And with incredible calm She says, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

It is a remarkable answer. She does not give up. She does not collude with misogyny, racism, and classism, and instead talks to Jesus adult to adult. How incredibly remarkable, as I would be angry and cross. Instead, a woman where we do not even know her name, chooses to trust that there is enough mercy in Jesus, even for her. And Jesus sees her faith, and I think he must realise that he has just colluded with the dualism and has said something hard, and in response to her refusal to be treated bady, He says, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And Her daughter is healed.

This story tells us something important about God. God’s mercy is bigger than the boundaries people make, even Jesus. Jesus’ table however is wider than we imagine. No one is beneath God’s notice. No one is outside God’s compassion.

Sometimes life can make us feel like we only deserve crumbs: a little kindness, a little dignity, a little hope. We may have been ignored, judged, or made to feel unwelcome. But the good news is that, in God’s eyes, we are not crumbs. We are beloved children. We are all loved by God, none of us are not good enough to be able to receive the love of God. Even when Jesus has said something harsh!

And this story also asks something of us. Who do we overlook? Who do we try to send away because their need makes us uncomfortable? Who is waiting outside the circle, hoping simply to be heard?

Jesus listened to this woman. He responded to her courage and faith. May we also individually and collectively choose to do the same: a place where people are welcomed, where nobody has to prove they deserve care, and where there is room at the table for everyone.

When we come to God, we do not come because we have earned a place. We come because God is merciful. We come hungry—for food, for peace, for healing, for hope—and God meets us with love.

So what are the application points of this text? Well I think there are three

God hears people who feel overlooked.
The woman is ignored and treated as an outsider, yet Jesus finally hears her. No one is invisible to God.

Faith can be honest and persistent.
She does not give up when the answer is not immediate. Faith is sometimes simply continuing to pray: “Lord, have mercy.”

God’s welcome is wider than human boundaries.
Jesus’ compassion reaches beyond the divisions between insiders and outsiders. We are called to make room for everyone.

So today, let us remember the woman who would not be silent. Let us remember that faith can be as simple as saying, “Lord, have mercy.” And let us trust that Jesus hears that prayer.

Amen