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Reflections around a distressed mum. (Matthew 15:21-28)
Historically women held a very poor place in society during the time of Jesus. This is actually a great 'place' to be in if Jesus is around!
Women had a significant influence on Jesus and His mission. But from this passage the impression is that He did not always receive them graciously. If this text was my only contact with the Rabbi of Nazareth I would not like Him. I would consider him insensitive and rude. I'd be looking about for another Messiah.
A woman was in great distress because of her troubled daughter.
Far out in the country one cold December day an elderly black woman wearing a red bandana and a long dark dress was walking along a path through the pinewoods. Her name was Phoenix Jackson. She had a little cane and as she made her way through the wintry Mississippi landscape she would say: 'Out of my way all you foxes, owls, jack rabbits and wild beasts. I got a long way to go'. On she went, up steep hills and through thorn bushes and over a log thrown across a creek. 'I wasn't as old as I thought' she said having managed that. Then she passed through a barbed wire fence and across a misty field of tall, dead
cornstalks until she reached the road that led into the town of Natchez.
In the doctor's office the nurse asked her:
'Aunt Phoenix is your grandson's throat any better since the last time you came for medicine?'
The boy had swallowed lye some years earlier and his throat would not heal.
'The little one, he sit up therein the house all wrapped up, waiting by himself. We is the only two left in the world. He suffer but it don't seem to put him back. He got a sweet look. He is going to last … I not going to forget him, no the whole enduring time'.
The nurse gave Phoenix some medicine and a nickel as a Christmas gift. Phoenix bought her grandson a paper windmill on a stick. 'I'll march myself back where he is waiting, holding it straight up in this hand'.
Here the story ends, Eudora Welty called it 'The Worn Path'. It is a tale about a love that survives in life and death. Readers have since asked her 'Was Phoenix Jackson's grandson dead?' Each time she has replied: 'What if he is? Old Phoenix would still make the same long journey again and again, if only to keep his memory alive, and allow her a means by which she could go on loving him.
_______________________________________________________________________________
One gets the impression that the Canaanite woman in this Gospel passage had long been treading 'The Worn Path' of love in seeking help for her demonised child.
This woman is one of the unnamed heroines of the Gospel.
Her desperation, courage, grace, wit and faith won Him over and her child was healed. But she achieved something more, His goodness was now received outside national boundaries, There was no limit to whom Jesus could save. His mission was to the Jews, for a Jew He was. (Mt 10:5-6, 15:24) Yet, it was this anonymous non-Jew female that was arguably the first conduit of Jesus grace and gifts beyond Judaism. She 'silently and persistently screams' that this Jesus is to save THE WORLD.
Reflections around a directive mum. (John 2:1-11)
Of course, this Canaanite is not the only woman to have influenced the young preacher from Nazareth. There were the women who traveled around with Him. They would have had opinions - and expressed them. But the by far the most influential must have been His mother. He had received His physical appearance and personality from her; lived with her from childhood to manhood.
Jewish mothers have a particular sway over their sons. Jewish sons do not meddle with their mothers.
We are given a glimpse of this at the marriage feast in Cana.(John 2:1-11) Jesus was a guest. His public ministry had not begun. The wine had ran out- but so what? Was He an 'after-hours' wine merchant? What has filling up empty wine goblets to do with saving the world? What is more, His 'hour had not yet come'. None of this made sense to His mother. One hour was as good as another. The need was now, not next week. A wedding was as good an occasion as any other. She lent on Him and He gave way. She was, after all, His mother. So He launched His saving mission prematurely but magnificently. Because of her it all began with 'a happy hour'!
Conclusion
Does Jesus encounter a rare persistence and boldness in women that was not found in the impulsive, mis-understanding men and even shallow (at times) men He had gathered around Him?
In a 'purple passage' on prayer, Jesus teaches in Luke 18:1-8 illustratively about a widow He honours for both boldness and persistence. Were such characteristics part of the women who gathered around Him?
On 2 separate occasions brave women wash His feet.(Luke 7:36-50, John 12:1-8) He honours the widow who gives from poverty (Luke 21:1-4) and it is the persistence and bold care of women that will lovingly nurture Jesus in death.(Luke 24:1)
Peace (Luke 7:50) will come to the bold and persistent women of faith. The Canaanite woman receives a daughter restored, Jesus mother receives a wedding rescued and a humble foot washing sinner receives approval straight from God's mouth.
He still listens, still responds and still is pleased with a woman of persistence and boldness, for to them belongs the attention of God Himself.
(A most special thanks again to Father Ronan Kilgannon for this text and his gracious permission to edit.)
Women who changed Jesus
Reflections around a distressed mum. (Matthew 15:21-28)
Historically women held a very poor place in society during the time of Jesus. This is actually a great 'place' to be in if Jesus is around!Women had a significant influence on Jesus and His mission. But from this passage the impression is that He did not always receive them graciously. If this text was my only contact with the Rabbi of Nazareth I would not like Him. I would consider him insensitive and rude. I'd be looking about for another Messiah.
A woman was in great distress because of her troubled daughter.
- At first He coldly ignored her.
- Then when pressured to confront her He was dismissive, condescending and uncouth.
- It was a great insult to call someone a'dog'. I lay claim to an anonymous poet's words:
'Had Christ rebuffed me as He did this mother,
I had been mortified so bitterly,
My smarting pride, all further speech to smother,
Had filled my heart with such black ecstasy
The miracle had ended differently -
The fiend had left my child, but entered me'.
In short, I would have been angry to the point of a well aimed punch. But not this infidel woman. Not this desperate Gentile mother. Not this foreigner who could take a rebuff. Her concern was for her daughter not herself. I had been mortified so bitterly,
My smarting pride, all further speech to smother,
Had filled my heart with such black ecstasy
The miracle had ended differently -
The fiend had left my child, but entered me'.
'Love', St Paul reminds us, 'bears all things, ... hopes all things, endures all things' (1 Cor 13:7).
_________________________________________________________________________________Far out in the country one cold December day an elderly black woman wearing a red bandana and a long dark dress was walking along a path through the pinewoods. Her name was Phoenix Jackson. She had a little cane and as she made her way through the wintry Mississippi landscape she would say: 'Out of my way all you foxes, owls, jack rabbits and wild beasts. I got a long way to go'. On she went, up steep hills and through thorn bushes and over a log thrown across a creek. 'I wasn't as old as I thought' she said having managed that. Then she passed through a barbed wire fence and across a misty field of tall, dead
cornstalks until she reached the road that led into the town of Natchez.
In the doctor's office the nurse asked her:
'Aunt Phoenix is your grandson's throat any better since the last time you came for medicine?'
The boy had swallowed lye some years earlier and his throat would not heal.
'The little one, he sit up therein the house all wrapped up, waiting by himself. We is the only two left in the world. He suffer but it don't seem to put him back. He got a sweet look. He is going to last … I not going to forget him, no the whole enduring time'.
The nurse gave Phoenix some medicine and a nickel as a Christmas gift. Phoenix bought her grandson a paper windmill on a stick. 'I'll march myself back where he is waiting, holding it straight up in this hand'.
Here the story ends, Eudora Welty called it 'The Worn Path'. It is a tale about a love that survives in life and death. Readers have since asked her 'Was Phoenix Jackson's grandson dead?' Each time she has replied: 'What if he is? Old Phoenix would still make the same long journey again and again, if only to keep his memory alive, and allow her a means by which she could go on loving him.
_______________________________________________________________________________
One gets the impression that the Canaanite woman in this Gospel passage had long been treading 'The Worn Path' of love in seeking help for her demonised child.
- She was desperate;
- desperate enough to plead with the enemy for mercy;
- desperate enough to bear His scorn;
- desperate enough to use all her wits for her daughter's sake.
This woman is one of the unnamed heroines of the Gospel.
- She is the first woman to speak in St Matthew's Gospel
- the only outsider to use the messianic title 'Son of David';
- the only person to address Jesus as 'Lord' prior to His resurrection;
- the only one whose faith He described as 'great'.
Her desperation, courage, grace, wit and faith won Him over and her child was healed. But she achieved something more, His goodness was now received outside national boundaries, There was no limit to whom Jesus could save. His mission was to the Jews, for a Jew He was. (Mt 10:5-6, 15:24) Yet, it was this anonymous non-Jew female that was arguably the first conduit of Jesus grace and gifts beyond Judaism. She 'silently and persistently screams' that this Jesus is to save THE WORLD.
Reflections around a directive mum. (John 2:1-11)
Of course, this Canaanite is not the only woman to have influenced the young preacher from Nazareth. There were the women who traveled around with Him. They would have had opinions - and expressed them. But the by far the most influential must have been His mother. He had received His physical appearance and personality from her; lived with her from childhood to manhood.Jewish mothers have a particular sway over their sons. Jewish sons do not meddle with their mothers.
We are given a glimpse of this at the marriage feast in Cana.(John 2:1-11) Jesus was a guest. His public ministry had not begun. The wine had ran out- but so what? Was He an 'after-hours' wine merchant? What has filling up empty wine goblets to do with saving the world? What is more, His 'hour had not yet come'. None of this made sense to His mother. One hour was as good as another. The need was now, not next week. A wedding was as good an occasion as any other. She lent on Him and He gave way. She was, after all, His mother. So He launched His saving mission prematurely but magnificently. Because of her it all began with 'a happy hour'!
Conclusion
Does Jesus encounter a rare persistence and boldness in women that was not found in the impulsive, mis-understanding men and even shallow (at times) men He had gathered around Him?In a 'purple passage' on prayer, Jesus teaches in Luke 18:1-8 illustratively about a widow He honours for both boldness and persistence. Were such characteristics part of the women who gathered around Him?
On 2 separate occasions brave women wash His feet.(Luke 7:36-50, John 12:1-8) He honours the widow who gives from poverty (Luke 21:1-4) and it is the persistence and bold care of women that will lovingly nurture Jesus in death.(Luke 24:1)
Peace (Luke 7:50) will come to the bold and persistent women of faith. The Canaanite woman receives a daughter restored, Jesus mother receives a wedding rescued and a humble foot washing sinner receives approval straight from God's mouth.
He still listens, still responds and still is pleased with a woman of persistence and boldness, for to them belongs the attention of God Himself.
(A most special thanks again to Father Ronan Kilgannon for this text and his gracious permission to edit.)
