Matthew 15:21-28
Have you ever known someone with whom you didn’t get along well? Maybe it was someone you had just met and you simply didn’t “click.” Or maybe you were taught by your family not to like certain people. One of the most famous family feuds in American history is the conflict between the Hatfields and McCoys. The Hatfields, led by their patriarch Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield lived on the West Virginia side of the Tug Fork River, and the McCoys, led by Randolph “Ran’l” McCoy, lived on the Kentucky side. Both families were in the lucrative timber business and the animosity went back long before the feud began. Rumor has it the Hatfields were pretty well off and prone to brag (of course this rumor probably was started by the McCoys). Even though the evidence is a little murky, the story indicates the deadly feud began when Ran’l McCoy accused Floyd Hatfield of stealing one of his hogs and took him to court. A few weeks later, on Election Day, Ellison Hatfield died of wounds received at the hands of three of Ran’l McCoy’s sons. The leader of the Hatfields, “Devil Anse,” took matters into his own hands and had the three sons killed. The feud only grew from there. More than 12 years in the late 1800s, 12 members of these two families lost their lives to the feud.
Advertisement
Israel vs. the Canaanites
In today’s passage about the faith of the Canaanite woman, we are reminded of a similar feud that took place on a much larger scale. It was a well-known fact the people of Israel did not like Canaanites – just read the first six or seven books of the Bible. The Canaanites were the pagans who lived in the Promised Land before Israel came to live there. At the time, the people of Israel nearly killed off these Canaanites, but many who survived – even in the time of Jesus, Israel was not lacking for people who believed they should have finished the job. We can see this in writings from Jesus’ day that described Canaanites as people with, “inborn wickedness,” and as “an accursed race from the beginning.”[1]
A Canaanite’s Great Faith
However, the Gospel of Matthew offers us a different take. This passage is about the faith of a Canaanite woman. As a matter of fact, it is about the “great faith” of a Canaanite woman. This would not be such a big deal if Jesus went around applying this compliment loosely, but this woman was unique in two ways. She was the only Gentile woman Jesus healed in Matthew’s gospel, and she is the only person Jesus said had “great faith.” Compare that with the five times he reminded the disciples of their “little faith,” and you can see how unique she is. For the disciples to hear about her great faith would be like a Hatfield learning about great faith through a McCoy!