“Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” Matthew 15:28
There are gaps in this world: spaces between people that define identities, that determine who is in one’s group and who is outside, boundaries and borders that predicate our obligations to others, that define our relationships. Cultural, political, socio-economic, religious, even physical walls reinforce or maintain these gaps we create.
These gaps we create.
While these gaps are the work of human hearts, it is almost certain that the same human hearts believe that the gaps are the work of God. And God is always on the right side of the gap! Which is to say that God is always on MY side of the gap. We hold this to be true even if at some deeper level it is inconsistent with what we believe about God’s universal love for the world. Nevertheless, with God on our side of the gap we justify our prejudice, our disdain, our judgment, our exclusion, our denial of even the recognition of our common humanity with those on the other side–on the margins. Surely, God, I have no obligation to those who you have forsaken beyond the borders of my faith, where we, you and I, dwell in the security of our righteousness.
“Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” -Matthew 15:22
A Canaanite woman: from the other side of the gap. An outsider despite her being from that region. No name, no standing, not worthy of compassion, not worthy of the disciples time. Not worthy even of Jesus’ attention–a dog beyond the gap.
But she would not accept that gap. Despite the walls established to define her, to separate her, to forsake her and her daughter from being seen, she would make even the Son of God see shared humanity, common human suffering and need, human desperation and love across the gap.
And when the gaps we create are bridged, we see not how our constructed identities and walls prohibit us from doing what is just and right in loving service to another, but reveals how we are obligated to each other through our common humanity and identity in God–the God who creates no gaps, only perfect unity,
Who are the Canaanite women on the other side of your gaps? How will your faith in the God of perfect unity make you a bridge of love and service?
