Mercy is God’s gift. Legend has it that a certain mother approached the great military conqueror, Napoleon, seeking a pardon for her son who had committed a crime. Napoleon replied that the young man had committed this particular offense twice and that justice demanded his death. “But I do not ask for justice,” the mother explained. “I plead for mercy.” “Your son does not deserve mercy,” Napoleon replied. “Sir,” the woman cried, “It would not be mercy if he deserved it. And mercy is all I ask for.” “Well, then,” the emperor said, “I will have mercy.” And he spared the woman’s son.
Mercy is God’s gift. It is based on who God is, and what God has done (and is doing) for us.
In this weekend’s Gospel (Matthew 15,21-28), we have another mother who is desperate for mercy. The first mother (in the legend above) spoke the right words and changed Napoleon’s mind. Napoleon, listening to her, learned the difference between justice and mercy and decided to choose mercy. In our Gospel story, at first sight Jesus was not so easy to convince. He did not even answer the woman. In fact, He ignored her completely. He was apparently deaf to her cry for help. And when He spoke, it was to exclude any possibility of healing: “It is not right to take the bread out of the children’s mouth and throw it to the dogs.” At this point in the Gospel episode, we are probably asking, is this the same Jesus we know from the rest of the Bible? This doesn’t appear to be the Jesus we believe in and preach about Sunday after Sunday. How is this the same Jesus who hangs out with sinners and outcasts?
The hurt in this passage is in the word “dogs.” There is no need to modify the language, to make it seem less harsh. Yet, Jesus was a person of His time, He was a first century Jew born into a world of boundaries. He was speaking as an Israelite spoke of Gentiles at the time. Let’s remember that Jesus is God, but He is also one hundred per cent human. The key here is that, in spite of Jesus’ harsh words and the dirty looks this woman got from His disciples, those zealous “bouncers,” who said, “Send her away for she keeps crying out after us,” she persisted and insisted – until she apparently broke through and introduced Jesus to something new about the Kingdom of God. We do a disservice to this moment in Jesus’ ministry if we get stuck on what “throwing it to the dogs” means. If we are to dwell on anything, let it be: “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” Who among us wouldn’t love to hear the same merciful reassurance from the Lord each and every day?
