Matthew 15:21-28, consider the disciples in this story, they are often treated as secondary characters, bystanders who wanted her dismissed and got shown up, but consider their reaction carefully, something more interesting is happening. These are men who have been with Jesus for a substantial portion of his ministry at this point in Matthew’s gospel, they have watched him heal a Roman centurion servant, they have seen him calm a storm, they have been sent out in pairs with authority to heal diseases and cast out demons, they have just fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish, they have, by any reasonable measure, more evidence about who Jesus is than virtually any other human beings alive.
These men instinct when this woman shows up is to protect their boundaries, to maintain order to define who is in and who is out and to enforce that definition by getting Jesus to dismiss her. They are doing what people with insider status always do, they are managing the access, she does not have access, she does not have status, she has nothing except an argument and a need and she uses both of them better than the people who have everything. The first will be last and the last will be first, Jesus says that in Matthew 19:30, it is not a coincidence that Matthew places it there, he has just shown you the most vivid possible illustration of it.
There is one more layer here, one that the disciples failure makes visible, and it is the one that has hunted the church for its entire history. The disciples wanted to dismiss her, the church across 2,000 years has repeated that instinct in ways large and small, toward women, toward foreigners, toward people whose faith looked and sounded different from what was expected. This story is not just a historical record, it is a mirror, every time the church has said to someone, this is not for you, this is only for us. You do not have the right credentials, you are not the right kind of person, it has been in the position of the disciples and every time someone has argued back, found the crack in the exclusion, refused to accept the dismissal and pressed through on the basis of nothing except need and faith, they have been in the position of this woman.
These men instinct when this woman shows up is to protect their boundaries, to maintain order to define who is in and who is out and to enforce that definition by getting Jesus to dismiss her. They are doing what people with insider status always do, they are managing the access, she does not have access, she does not have status, she has nothing except an argument and a need and she uses both of them better than the people who have everything. The first will be last and the last will be first, Jesus says that in Matthew 19:30, it is not a coincidence that Matthew places it there, he has just shown you the most vivid possible illustration of it.
There is one more layer here, one that the disciples failure makes visible, and it is the one that has hunted the church for its entire history. The disciples wanted to dismiss her, the church across 2,000 years has repeated that instinct in ways large and small, toward women, toward foreigners, toward people whose faith looked and sounded different from what was expected. This story is not just a historical record, it is a mirror, every time the church has said to someone, this is not for you, this is only for us. You do not have the right credentials, you are not the right kind of person, it has been in the position of the disciples and every time someone has argued back, found the crack in the exclusion, refused to accept the dismissal and pressed through on the basis of nothing except need and faith, they have been in the position of this woman.