2 Corinthians 6:16-7:1; Matthew 15:21-28
It is easy to
fall into the trap of looking only at the surface of the challenges that we
face in life. Instead of getting to the
heart of the matter, we often accept simplistic answers about ourselves,
others, and even God. One of those false
answers that Jesus Christ corrected was that only people of a certain ethnic
and religious heritage were called to holiness and capable of finding
salvation. That is another way of
saying that He came to bring all peoples and nations into eternal life, for His
Kingdom is radically different from the ways of the kingdoms of this world.
Today’s
epistle reading is from St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. As I hope you remember, that church was made
up primarily of Gentile converts who had recently converted from paganism, and
they faced great problems in turning away from their old habits to embrace a
life pleasing to God. St. Paul, the
former Pharisee, does something really shocking in today’s reading. He
addresses the Corinthians as “the temple of the living God.” He tells them that, because they are in Christ,
they have become God’s people, His sons and daughters, and are to reject all
corruption of body and spirit so that they will “make holiness perfect in the
fear of God.”
What
is so surprising is that St. Paul sends them that message by quoting Old
Testament passages that called the Jews to become holy by having nothing to do
with the Gentiles, to be separate from them and their ways. And the Corinthian Christians were Gentiles. But
because our Lord has fulfilled and extended the promises to Abraham to all who
have faith in Him, those instructions now apply even to the very confused
Gentile Christians of Corinth. The
holiness to which St. Paul called them was not a matter of having nothing to do
with people of different ethnic or national heritages. Instead, it is a calling
to acquire the fruits of the Holy Spirit: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…And those who are
Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in
the Spirit.” (Gal. 5: 22-25)
In first-century
Palestine, the Jews did not think such holiness was even a possibility for Gentiles,
such as the Canaanite woman who called out “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David;
my daughter is severely possessed by a demon.” No one was surprised when Christ
did not answer her at first, for who would have expected the Jewish Messiah to
help a Gentile, especially a woman with a demon-possessed child? But the Lord was actually doing something
quite surprising, for He challenged her to respond to the conventional wisdom
of the Jews when He said “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel.” She knelt before him and cried
“Lord, help me!” He then pressed her
even harder by saying “It is not fair to take the children’s bread and throw it
to the dogs.” Christ was stating clearly the common Jewish understanding of
that time that Gentiles had no claim to the promises to Abraham.
Our Savior is
obviously an excellent teacher, however, for these sharp words inspired her to
utter a profound theological insight that had been forgotten by the Jews and
was not known by the disciples. For she
responded, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their
master’s table.” In other words, she saw the deep truth that God’s promises to
the Jews were always intended to bless the entire world, and now they are fulfilled
in all who have faith in the Messiah. That
is why the Lord then said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for
you as you desire.” And then the demon left her daughter.
Think about it
for a moment. The Messiah of Israel praised the faith of a Gentile woman whose
daughter was possessed by a demon. Could there be a more powerful sign that all
people, including the hated foreigners, are also God’s people? Could there be a more brilliant icon of how
all nations are called to holiness than how the demon immediately left the girl
when her mother showed such great faith?
This is a sign of all humanity being delivered from corruption by the
Savior Who came to heal, bless, and sanctify all who bear His image and
likeness. Yes, that means even the
Canaanites, the Corinthians, and people like you and me who probably are not of
Hebrew descent. Race, ethnicity,
nationality, and other merely human characteristics have nothing to do with
whether someone shares by grace in the holiness of God. The healing of our souls is equally open to
all through the God-Man Who has sanctified every dimension of our common humanity.
We must,
however, do our part by actually living as God’s holy temple, as His sons and
daughters who “cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and
spirit.” St. Paul’s message to the
Corinthians was not to congratulate them on having already achieved something,
but instead to challenge them to live faithfully to their high calling. He does the same with us. Our identity as
members of Christ’s Body is nothing that we have earned, but purely a gift of grace
which we must continue to receive with humility. If it were our achievement or possession,
then perhaps we could look down upon others as though God’s blessings were for
us and not them. Instead, we are exactly like the Canaanite
woman with no claim to anything before the Lord. We are as dependent upon His mercy as a
foreign woman with a demon-possessed daughter begging on her knees and weeping
as she cried out for help that no one else thought that she could possibly
receive.
As we struggle
to find healing for our souls and to grow in holiness, we must cultivate the
bold persistence of that Canaanite woman.
She refused to be denied, even though she knew that she was totally dependent
upon the mercy of a Lord Who owed her nothing at all. We must also persist in humbling
ourselves before Him as we separate ourselves from all that hinders us from
sharing more fully in the life of Christ. We must refuse to be denied in our
repentance, and that means taking steps that hit us where we live. If we watch shows or play video games that
inflame our passions and put images, worries, and fears in our minds and then distract
us when we pray, we should stop indulging in them. If the news or social media
does something similar to us, we must carefully regulate our consumption of it
or turn it off. If we put ourselves in
social situations that tempt us to act, speak, or think in ways that we know
are not pleasing to God, we should stay away from them. If we find our greatest joy in food, drink,
or any bodily pleasure, we should fast and reorient our lives from
self-centered desire to growing in love for our Lord and our families and
neighbors.
If we have
harbored hatred and self-righteous judgment toward anyone or any group of
people, and especially if we gossip about them, we must soften our hearts
through the Jesus Prayer and keep our mouths shut when we are tempted to spew
venom. If our daily routine does not
include falling on our knees in prayer before the Lord with the humble
persistence of the Canaanite woman, that must become our very first priority in
life. For God’s holy temple must be a
place of prayer, and as hard as it is to believe, by His grace we have become
that temple. Now we must fulfill our
calling “to perfect holiness in the fear of God” by cleansing ourselves from
every form of corruption. That is how we
will take our place with Canaanites, Corinthians, and other strangers and
foreigners in a Kingdom not of this world.
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