“New Perspectives” Orange Congregational Church UCC, August 16, 2026,(Matthew 15:10-28) Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Our Gospel story today is ultimately about two people coming together across differences.  This is a story that would be great to send to Congress or something as the language that is too often used to speak about people who may be different than we happen to be is deeply troubling.  Not to mention laws and policies that fail to see the humanity in every person—for we are all created in the image and likeness of God.  To understand this Gospel story it helps to know some of the history behind these particular differences.  Because this woman is a Canaanite and that is what makes this encounter with Jesus so uncomfortable at first and remarkable by the end. 

So let’s briefly go back to the story of Joshua conquering the Promised Land.  Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, and the walls came a-tumbling down.  Does anyone remember that song from Sunday School days?  The Book of Joshua tells the story of the Israelites who under Joshua’s military leadership, cross the Jordan River to take control of the land of . . . Canaan.  Canaan is known to the Jewish people as the Promised Land, as God’s gift to the people since God had promised the land to their ancestors.  The book of Joshua is divided into two parts: the conquest of the land and the settlement and redistribution to the twelve tribes of Israel.[1] 

Now that is an inspiring story if you were part of Jesus’ and Joshua’s tribe.  Not a great story if you were a Canaanite like the woman we meet whose daughter is suffering.  Obviously not all the Canaanites got wiped out after that military conquest.  Though New Testament Professor Jae Won Lee reminds us that, “One could assume distance between Judeans and Canaanites.  Differences of ethnicity, heritage, religion, and gender separate her from Judean social norms.  Further, the demon possession marginalizes her daughter.”[2] 

Thus we have this Canaanite woman who is an outsider (a foreigner) asking Jesus to heal her demon-possessed daughter.  At first Jesus responds as many other First Century Jewish men might—by rejecting her.  Jesus says to his disciples (who are getting super annoyed by this Canaanite woman shouting after them), “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  Jesus doesn’t want anything to do with this Gentile woman at first.  Some would say that this is the most explicit statement of ethnocentrism in the Gospel of Matthew.  Maybe Jesus was tired after a long day of travel to the district of Tyre and Sidon.  Maybe at this point in his ministry he felt that his focus needed to be exclusively on his fellow Jews and that this woman was distracting him from what God was asking him to do.  Maybe he harbored some prejudices against Canaanites since as a good Jewish boy he would have grown up with the story of Joshua’s conquest of Canaan.  Jesus would have known about the Curse of Canaan going back to Genesis.

It is hard to know exactly how to reconcile this perplexing, uncomfortable story.  I hesitate to explain it away, but rather to allow ourselves to be uncomfortable because that is how we sometimes grow.  We can read Jesus’ first response as rather rude—he just ignores this woman.  The second response seems ethnocentric “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  Yet this woman persisted.  Kneeling before Jesus she says, “Lord, help me.”[3]  It is Jesus’ third response that is hard to hear.  Because Jesus responds, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”[4]  This response is harsh and feels racially charged given the cultural context.  Because Jesus just called this woman (as she’s begging for his help to heal her daughter) a dog.  Checking footnotes in my handy Harper Collins Study Bible (the specific Bible that got me through college and seminary) one can read that the translation of that Greek word used here is “little dog” meaning either puppies or house dogs.  But this is still an uncomplimentary term for Gentiles.  Dogs were not adored in ancient times as dog owners adore and love our dogs today, often viewing our dogs as part of our family.

Jesus does not rush to help the Canaanite woman’s daughter.  Not only that—he insults her.  Yet she does not back down, “Yes, Lord.  But even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall off their masters’ table.”  Translation: I’ve knelt before you—a Jewish man whose ancestors conquered my people—and you’re going to call me a puppy?  Fine.  Throw me a bone.  Nevertheless, she persisted!  And Jesus is the one who has a change of heart.  It’s Jesus who gains a new perspective.  “Woman, great is your faith!  Let it be done for you as you wish.”  Her daughter is healed instantly Matthew tells us.[5]

Now a commonly-held belief among Christians is that Jesus is fully human and fully divine.  This theological concept is the Incarnation.  It matters that Jesus was God incarnate.  Because God has experienced humanity (with all its complexity) though the life of Jesus.  For we know that Jesus had friends and ate, slept, walked, talked, breathed, and lived among us.  Jesus suffered, got angry, and wept when a friend died.  Jesus was rejected by some of the people he loved the most.  Our God is not distant and remote and so mysterious that we can’t even begin to fathom God.  Our God took on the mantle of humanity in the person of Jesus of Nazareth—a First Century Jewish man.  All of that is amazing and what makes Christianity unique among the religions of the world.

And sometimes in the Christian Church we do not want to think about the implications of Jesus’ humanity.  For instance, we do not want to think that Jesus may have begun his ministry with prejudice in his heart.  Because this is Jesus who we are talking about after all!  This Gospel story shows that Jesus may have had some stereotypes as a man who was living in the land Jesus’ ancestors like Joshua fought for his people to possess.  Jesus began his ministry among his own people and that was his focus—the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  Yet that’s not where Jesus’ ministry ends.  Because Matthew ends the Gospel with the Great Commission.  Jesus proclaims, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.  And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”[6]

Would it be such a terrible thought to consider Jesus having stereotypes and then an incredible change of heart?  Would it be so terrible to think that people can change and that we can have new perspectives?  And that sometimes we will meet people who challenge us and force us to change?  Maybe the inspiration here is that if Jesus can gain a new perspective, then we can too.  Because at the heart of this story is this woman and her great faith.  It’s that Canaanite woman who loves her daughter so much that she will do just about anything to have her healed and made whole again.  Jesus sees that great faith and deep love even if it takes him a little time. 

At the end of the day, when this encounter happened in the Gospel, Jesus isn’t in Galilee or Jerusalem.  He’s in the district of Tyre and Sidon—Gentile cities.  Jesus is already outside his comfort zone when he meets this woman.  This whole story is reminiscent of that famous quote from Mark Twain who once said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.  Broad, wholesome, charitable views of [people] and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”  It matters that this encounter with the Canaanite woman happened when Jesus was in her little corner of the earth.  That journey ended up being fatal to Jesus’ own narrow-mindedness.  One could argue that the world has never been the same if we take this lesson to heart. 

The good news is that transformation can happen when we travel outside our comfort zones and encounter people who may be different than us somehow.  We too can gain new perspectives.  The question becomes: how might this look in our lives?  For God can change our hearts and change our lives and we can change the world.  May it truly be so.  Thanks be to God, Amen. 

[1] Robert G. Boling, Joshua: Introduction, Harper Collins Study Bible, 326.
[2] Jae Won Lee, Exegetical Perspective of Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28, Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year A, Volume 3, 359.
[3] Matthew 15:24-25, NRSVUE.
[4] Matthew 15:26.
[5] Matthew 15:26-28.
[6] Matthew 28:19-20.

Photo by Rev. Lauren Ostrout.