Dig A Hole To Bury Head! □ Matt 15:21-28
The woman was a foreigner to the Jews.
Something that she did not choose, i.e., to be born a
Canaanite person.
It just happened at the moment a man and a woman through
a marriage bond knew each other in a very intimate manner, she was then brought
(or pushed) to life. This man and this woman (called the parents by social
norm) were Canaanite; as a result, she (the daughter) was branded with this
following stamp,
Nationality: Canaan,
Sex: Female.
Above all, because of the Canaanite blood she inherited,
the woman became an enemy to the Jews.
Because of her Canaanite flesh, she was considered
inferior to the Jews, whose ancestors invaded and then possessed the land of
her ancestors. Well, the Jews said Canaan is our land as Adonai Elohim promised
to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, our ancestors. Read the Bible, the Book of
Genesis…
Well, she certainly believed the opposite, “Canaan is
indeed our land as Ba’al and many other gods revealed to our ancestors from the
first day of creation.”
The argument would never end, but the reality is that
Israel inherited the majority of the land once was possessed by the Canaanites.
The nation was erased. It was gone with the wind, but the
people fortunately remained; Tyre and Sidon were two one many places where the
remnants of the lost nation resettled.
For whatever reason that was not explained, Jesus, a Jew
in his thirties and his Jewish company traveled to the lands of the Gentiles,
whom they culturally considered inferior, they even called them dogs…
And they encountered the Canaanite woman.
In spite of cultural conflict, she raised her voice to
the Jewish man.
She even addressed him, “Son of David,” the king who
finished the nation Canaan.
She overcame the cultural barrier between her and Jesus
because of her love for her daughter, who was tormented by a devil.
But, surprisingly, the loving Jesus ignored her pleas.
The woman must have feel hurt.
Because Jesus shut his ears to hers.
But she did not allow her feeling to control her mind,
rather she kept raising her voice so loud that Jesus’ disciples jumped into the
scene,
“Oh! Please, master, give her whatever she wants,
otherwise, she continues to shout after us…”
Jesus explained his strange behavior, “I’m sent only to
the lost sheep of Israel.”
Ouch! The heart of the woman was again pierced with such
a comment.
She might have beaten herself, “Because of my Canaanite
background, my plea is ignored, my voice is insignificant to the ears of this
famous Jewish healer… Oh! How much my feelings are hurt...”
But, despite feeling hurt, the woman did not quit. She
moved to the next step, this time she knelt in front of Jesus, “Oh! Please.”
Well, the woman really put herself at the feet of the
Jewish man… She expected this posture might move the “obstinate heart” of the
man…
But she was wrong! Totally wrong!
Jesus said a statement that surely shocked the readers of
the Bible, “No one takes the food of the children and throw it to the dogs…”
Bingo! Yahtzee! Perfect!
Calling someone dogs in Middle Eastern culture is
culturally an insult.
The woman must feel deeply hurt again,
Jesus ignored her, and now in a very critical way
“challenged her faith” (someone might prefer this phrase as an attempt to
understand why the word dogs find a place in this episode!).
The woman might have said to herself, “That’s it. No
more! Too much for me to handle. I Q…QUIT.”
She would then go away to look for a place to dig a hole
to bury her head into it and to nurse her hurt feeling and her resentment…
Why not!
That is one of the common ways human beings react when
feeling hurt…
Oh! Hurt feelings!
But, surprisingly, the woman neither gave up nor quit,
but rather “stick to the subject.” Amazingly, she responded to Jesus’ statement
by an unexpected response,
“Yes, sir. You are right, but even the dogs can eat the
scraps that fall from the master’s table.”
Well! Well! Well!
How good the woman is in communication!
At this moment, Jesus changed his mind. He praised the
woman in public, “Woman, you have a great faith…”
Dear friend,
At the moment we pray,
Sometimes it seems like God does heed our prayer.
It seems like God shuts both His ears to our pleas.
If you have ever been in such difficult circumstances,
let us turn to our “patron saint,” the Canaanite woman.
Learning from her, we will not quit, we will not dig a
hole to bury our heads, but keep asking, keep knocking, and patiently wait for
the moment,
The moment the door opens…
What we ask is eventually granted…
Please, don’t quit!
Please, don’t dig a hole!
Please!
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