When Jesus changed his mind

A Reflection for Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Find today’s readings here.

You probably know the feeling: You’re locked in. You are just a page away from the end of an engrossing chapter, or the sentence that has eluded you finally flows from your fingertips, and just then, the interruption comes. A colleague with a question, or a child who just wants some attention. Who among us has not snapped back with an irritated “What?” or “Not now!” It’s not that we don’t love them; we’re just doing something important.

So perhaps we can forgive Jesus for his initial response to the Syrophoenician woman when she asks him to drive a demon from her daughter. 

“Let the children be fed first.
For it is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs.”

Sounds rude, no? 

Of course, when the woman persists—“even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps”—Jesus relents, and the daughter is healed.

But what explains Jesus’ initial, brusque response?

It is not that Jesus doesn’t love the pleading woman; it’s just that he was doing something important, more important than reading that last page in your book. Yes, he was sent by his Father to reconcile the fallen human race to God, but his first mission is not universal; it is to the Jews. His primary mission is the gathering of Israel, which we learn in the first reading from 1 Kings has been scattered as punishment for King Solomon’s idolatry. 

Yet Jesus does not make even his salvific mission an idol. When the Gentile woman interrupts, he rewards her persistence. It is in saving Israel that God will convince all the nations to turn to him. So when the Syrophoenician woman shows that she is already convinced of Jesus’ saving power, he gives her something much greater than the scraps from his table.

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