For Your Weekend: Lessons from an Unlikely Source

Dig Deeper into Sunday’s Gospel: Read Matthew 15:21–28

In this week’s gospel, I have no doubt that if I had been the Canaanite woman, I would have been tempted to walk away from Jesus—offended and hurt. And yet this woman, a Gentile who does not know Scripture or Jewish tradition, has more faith than many of the people Jesus came to minister to. Perhaps, even more faith than I have.

We read in this passage from Matthew that a Canaanite woman begs Jesus to have mercy on her daughter who is suffer...