We meet the Canaanite woman in the Gospel today. Even though most of us are familiar with her story, perhaps this Gospel still remains confusing and complex to understand. When I think of Jesus and his proclamation of God’s kingdom, I think of how Jesus usually meets people in compassion and mercy, especially those who cry out to him in the midst of their reality, those who need healing or a miracle in their lives. The daughter of the Canaanite woman is possessed by a demon. She asks Jesus to heal her beloved daughter. That sound like a very serious need, doesn’t it? However, Jesus first meets her requests for help with silence. Then, when the woman kneels down and pleads her case before him, his response seems harsh, cold, and unsympathetic.
In order to begin to understand this story of the Canaanite woman, we might look at its place in the trajectory of the Gospel. The Gospel reading last Sunday comes before what we hear today from Matthew’s Gospel, when the disciples were caught in a storm and cried out to Jesus for help. Peter gets out of the boat and walks toward Jesus, but he starts to sink when he thinks about the impossibility in what he is doing. Jesus scolds Peter and the other disciples for their little faith. The disciples have seen countless healings and miracles that Jesus has performed to proclaim God’s kingdom. Where is their faith in him? Don’t they have faith in his power to heal and to perform miracles? By contrast, we can see the Gospel story of the Canaanite woman not only as a miracle of healing, but also as a story of faith. Perhaps Jesus’ actions with the Canaanite woman were designed to test her faith. Perhaps that is why Jesus acted the way he did. The Canaanite woman never gave up. She persevered in faith. Perhaps Jesus’ actions help her to deepen her faith and to stand firm in her faith. In fact, what is faith unless it is put to the test?
I read a story about a fountain in Dresden, German called the cholera fountain. Back in 1845, this fountain was constructed in the large German city of Dresden to give thanksgiving and gratitude for having survived a cholera outbreak that killed many people in that city. Go forward about 100 years to 1945. It was near the end of WWII. Dresden was an important city in the German transportation network. The Allied Troops had just suffered terrible losses in the Battle of Bulge. The atrocities of the Auschwitz concentration camp had just been discovered. The Allies knew that they had to make a statement and strike a large blow to Germany, so over a three-day period in February 1945, more than 2,700 tons of explosives were dropped on Dresden. Many refugees and civilians were killed. Almost all the buildings and infrastructure of the city was destroyed. But the one thing that survived was the cholera fountain, which still stands today. The message of the cholera fountain is not that bad things will not happens, because challenges, struggles, and tragedies are a part of life here on earth. Sometimes, even the things we fear the most will indeed happen. But, maybe the cholera fountain tells us something about faith. Like the water that still flows out of that fountain, the faith that is a God-given gift can still flow within us, no matter what struggles, challenges, and obstacles we face. Just as Jesus called forth the faith of the Canaanite woman, Jesus will call forth the faith in us as well.
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