Matthew 15:21-28
Lead in #1: Isaiah 56 speaks of salvation being offered to all, regardless of ethnic origins or social condition. This message is in anticipation of the message Jesus would preach. The spirit of that message is heard in the story of the Canaanite woman. Jesus and his disciples find themselves in a district where they would encounter some of Israel’s most despised enemies. The Canaanite woman is from one of those tribes.
Prompt #1: Who are the people you hear about in the news who are hardest for you to love? What have you been taught that has conditioned your thinking to see them that way?
Lead in #2: God’s universal care for humanity has always been easy to forget, especially when it serves one’s interest to separate those who merit God’s love and those who do not. The disciples were turned off by the lowly Canaanite woman whom they thought of as “less than” those of their own faith.
Prompt #2: What group of people are you most inclined to stereotype? What would it take to move beyond that stereotyping to see them for who they are, a child of God?
Lead in #3: God sent Jesus to save all humanity, a fact which the story of the Canaanite woman reminds us. It’s something the disciples of Jesus had a difficult time learning. The disciples are bothered by the persistence of the Canaanite woman, so they ask Jesus to send her away.
Prompt #3: Think of a person in your life who is a “bother”, meaning you find that it is a lot of work to love and accept them the way they are. How does Jesus want you to respond to this person?
Lead in #4: The persistence of the Canaanite woman is amazing. It seems nothing prevents the obstinate, defiant defense of a mother’s child. It’s as if the Canaanite woman was saying to Jesus, “Ignore and tease me all you want, I’m not leaving here until you listen to my plea.”
Prompt #4: In the face of intimidation and ridicule, what if you were to say, “Tease and bully me all you want, but I’m not intimidated by your threats. So, I’m not going away!” What would it take for you to show that kind of courage?
Lead in #5: How do we explain Jesus’ seeming lack of sympathy for the Canaanite woman? Jesus is fiercely loyal to his Hebrew tradition, and the Canaanite woman belonged to a tribe that disregards all that he held sacred. But as Jesus looked into the eyes of the woman and saw her exhaustion, maybe something in him told him attending to her suffering was more important than the expectations of his religious traditions.
Prompt #5: Can you think of a time when the human need you saw before you took precedence over what religious tradition ordinarily expected of you?