Well, shortly after Dr. Marvin takes Bob on as a patient, he goes on vacation. He leaves, thinking everything's taken care of, but he's never had a patient like Bob before. Bob is so needy, so desperate, that he goes to great lengths to find out where Dr. Marvin is, and travels to New Hampshire to find him. And when he arrives in Lake Winnipesaukee, he doesn't know where the doctor is, so he just wanders up and down the main part of town, calling his name.
Well, of course, Dr. Marvin tries to ignore him. But Bob will not be ignored, and the rest of the movie is basically Bob doggedly seeking help, and Dr. Marvin trying to figure out how to get rid of him.
That, of course, is where the similarity with the gospel ends – but you see what I mean, right? We have this woman, this Canaanite woman, who is desperately in need of help, and much like Bob, she knows there is only one person who can help her, and so she comes looking for him. Granted, he came into her region first, but once she finds out he's there, she comes straight to him, calling out to him, like Bob in the town square, refusing to stop until she has gotten his attention. At first, Matthew tells us, Jesus doesn't say a word. He just ignores her. Then his disciples come to him; they've had enough, the woman is making a scene - “Send her away, Jesus; she's driving us crazy, she keeps shouting after us...” But Jesus, not yet realizing the scope of his calling, says, “She's not who I came to help; I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” This Gentile woman doesn't meet the eligibility criteria.
But that doesn't stop her. She is so desperate to get the help her daughter needs that she just keeps pleading, “Lord, help me.” And here's where we tend to cringe, but Jesus says, “It's not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.” This is not what we have come to expect from Jesus, who elsewhere in the gospels is forever and always reaching past the humanly constructed boundaries of religion and gender and class to help whoever is in need, no matter who they are.
This story sets up so clearly the distinction between insiders and outsiders. Who gets to be a part of God's healing and mercy and love, and who doesn't? It seems so clear-cut sometimes. Obviously the disciples are insiders; the Canaanite woman is an outsider. Who is she to dare to ask for help from Jesus, a Jew?
We have all been in the Canaanite woman's shoes. We know how it feels to be on the outside looking in. We know what it is to be left out, ignored, dismissed. We know what it is like to need something desperately – friendship, understanding, healing, hope, and to have it denied or delayed for some reason. And yet how many of us have the strength, the courage, the determination, to put ourselves out there, again and again, like this woman did, until the people on the inside notice, until they pay attention?
But for as often as we have been the outsider, how easy it is to draw lines between ourselves and the “other”, how easy when we find ourselves on the inside to forget what it felt like to be an outsider. We've seen ourselves do it. We see the disciples do it. Here in this story for just a few moments, we even see Jesus do it.
And yet, it doesn't last. Even though Jesus starts out by pushing the Canaanite woman away and keeping her outside the people he is sent to, through their interaction, his vision is expanded. Because of his conversation with this woman, and her urgent need to have her daughter made well, this woman who will not be kept outside, Jesus comes to see that his mission isn't one of exclusivity, but of inclusiveness – that the love of God he has come to proclaim and share and live is not just for one particular people, but for all people.
It's an amazing revelation – one that changes him and changes his ministry. And it reminds me again of What About Bob?, because by the end of the movie, there's been a complete reversal. Bob, who had always been on the outside because of his mental illnesses and all of his annoying personality quirks, finds himself on the inside, welcomed, accepted as a part of Dr. Marvin's family, made whole through their acceptance of him, their willingness to bring him inside the circle. They embrace him in all of his brokenness. And Dr. Marvin, well, he finds himself in Bob's shoes – because Bob has driven him crazy.
We don't see it in just this short gospel story, but we know that this role reversal is part of Jesus' story. I'm not saying we drive him crazy, but I am saying that because of his love for us, Jesus puts himself in the place of the ultimate outsider, outcast by the leaders of his people, a criminal hung on a cross to die by the political forces of his day – the ultimate rejection and insult.
And he does it so that none of us ever has to be on the outside again. In his willingness to become an outsider, he makes it possible for us – all of us – to be brought to the inside. None of us has to beg like a dog for scraps, because Jesus makes us all God's children and welcomes us all to the table – this table where we share in the bread and the wine, his body and blood, given and shed for us – not just the crumbs, but all he has – shared with us, shared for all.
This is the call of the gospel for us this week – to remember when we were on the outside and then to know how it is to be welcomed at God's great banquet. May our ears and eyes be open to the cries of those desperate for this good news – and then let us share with them the story that at God's table, no one is an outsider. All are welcome. God's love is for everyone. No exceptions.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
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