Sermon for Sunday, August 16, 2026

August 16, 2026
By Kristin Berkey-Abbott




Matthew 15:[10-20] 21-28



We have met the Canaanite woman before, and not just 3 years ago when we were last at this place in the lectionary cycle. In Mark, she’s called a Syrophoenician woman. Both of these descriptors—Canaanite and Syrophoenician--are markers that would have been more clear to first century ears than to our own. She is an outsider in all kinds of ways: she’s female, she’s not from Galilee, and most scholars assume she’s not Jewish. And yet, she shows us a way that outsiders can make the culture more inclusive.


Jesus goes to the region of Tyre and Sidon. He’s now left Galilee, his home base. Tyre is 20 miles away, Sidon further north, 50 miles away. His reputation as a healer has spread far and wide. Some Bible scholars seem surprised by this, but I’m not. Imagine if someone today could heal the toughest cancer and not with a rigorous regime of chemo that leaves the body exhausted, but with a touch that restores health. Ancient people were not that different from us. Humans seek healing, then and now.


But the Canaanite woman is not sick herself; she asks for healing for her daughter. Is her quest on behalf of another’s health the reason that Jesus and the disciples are so dismissive? No—Jesus has healed others who came to him hoping that he would come to heal a friend or relative or even a servant. Earlier in the Gospel of Matthew, a centurion comes to Jesus on behalf of his servant, and Jesus heals from a distance.


We might be starting to notice an inconsistency in Jesus’ approach. In parts of some Gospels, he heals only after a discussion. In other parts, like with the bleeding woman, he heals without even giving consent. He heals people who are grateful. When people don’t say thank you, he may notice, but he doesn’t reverse the miracle.


If you are hoping that I can give you secret insider information that I got at seminary, information that will lead us to a consistent theology, well . . . I’m sorry. Maybe I’ve found my life’s work for the last 1/3 of my life, but I don’t have an answer now.


Jesus doesn’t limit his powers of healing only to Jews. The centurion and the servant are Romans. But the woman in today’s Gospel is an outsider on a different level, a much more ancient level, going back to the time of the Torah.


She is a Canaanite woman, and using the word Canaanite instead of Syrophoenician makes her outsider status even more ancient. If you think way, way back in the Bible, you may remember that when the Israelites leave Egypt, led by Moses, they are headed to the promised land. Unfortunately that promised land was already occupied—by Canaanites. That vicious battle created hatred that stretched across centuries, hatred still active in the time of Jesus.


She comes to Jesus, knowing of this enmity, this bad blood between people but also knowing that her daughter is sick. She enters this male entourage and insists on being heard.


But notice how she insists. Her language is key to understanding how respectful she is. Her language also shows that she is professing Jesus to be more than just a healer or a miracle worker. She begins by using this title: “Lord, Son of David.” She recognizes him as the Messiah, the promised one foretold by prophets, and she does this throughout her interactions by using the term “Lord.” We often hear that word as one of Jesus’ other names, like Christ. But she’s using it in an ancient context, and her kneeling before Jesus reinforces that signifier.


Jesus’ response is harsh, which we’ve talked about before, and in today’s context, it’s a bit baffling. If he’s only come for the lost sheep of the house of Israel, then what’s he doing far away in Tyre and Sidon? You might bring up the parable about the shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep behind in search of the one who wandered away. The writer of the Gospel of Matthew is actually starting to expand the idea of the flock in a different way. It’s as if the shepherd in the parable decided to add a different type of animal to the herd.


Scholars now believe the Gospel of Matthew was written in the first decade or two after the destruction of the temples by the Romans. Keep in mind, it wasn’t just the destruction of the Temple—the Romans forced every Jewish survivor to leave the city of Jerusalem, and they would not return to that city again in mass numbers until the 20th century.


The Gospel of Matthew shows us a community in exile figuring out how to be a community in exile. Will they continue to be Jews who believe in the Divinity of Jesus or will they include believers who are Gentiles? The Canaanite woman argues for inclusion—she argues forcefully, yet respectfully. In this way, she changes Jesus’ mind and the approach of believers for decades to come. And if we look around, we could say that she was successful and leave it there and go home feeling happy.

But the message in today’s Gospel is that we’re never done with God’s vision for a more inclusive kingdom. Even Jesus has some growing to do. Even Jesus could dream a bigger dream, if only someone would come along and help him see what might be possible.


Today’s Gospel has reverberations for our own culture. We are a humanity in desperate need of new visions. We might hear this Gospel about ancient divisions and think of the ancient divisions plaguing our own times, divisions that come through history that is both different, yet ageless. People kicked out of homelands so that others can have a homeland—how do we solve that division? Geographical divisions that are intractable—how do we solve those disagreements? Old disagreements that fester into entrenched grievances—how do we solve that division? These are still essential questions for individual communities and larger nations.


Every person alive can tell a story of being on the painful side of exclusion and being outcast. How can we heal that wound?


The Canaanite woman shows us a way. We look to see what is healing and life giving. We look to those who are casting out demons, not the ones driving us into insensibility with evil speech. We insist on the dignity of everyone and give reverence to those who are deserving.


And yet, those actions alone may not be enough, if we don’t have the courage that it takes to be persistent.


As we work towards creating a better world, one in line with the flourishing that God wants for creation, we may not have success right away. The powers and principalities of the world will not say, “We were just waiting for someone to come and show us that a better way is possible.” We might be ignored. We might have to listen to harsh language about us and our visions. It might even be worse.


The Canaanite woman shows us the power of faith coupled with persistence. She is our ancestor in faith, and she showing us how to live in a time of cataclysmic change, showing us how to live in a world where the predominant response to cataclysmic change is to build more boundaries so that those who have a lot want can exclude those who aren’t so fortunate. The Canaanite woman changed Jesus’ mind; she changed the trajectory of his mission. Let us go and continue to live into the promise of this vision.