Jesus leaves Jewish territory in our Gospel today and heads north to the Gentile district of Tyre and Sidon. There he encounters a Canaanite woman whose daughter is possessed by a demon. Crying out to Our Lord for help, her pleas are meant with silence and even scorn. Jesus explains that he came into the territory to preach to the diaspora Jews, not the Gentiles. Nevertheless, His heart is won over by the woman’s persistence.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Keener, Craig S. The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2009.
Mitch, Curtis, and Edward Sri. The Gospel of Matthew. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2010.
Mass Readings Explained by Dr. Brant Pitre
REFERENCES
Matthew 11:21 - "'Woe to you, Chorazin! woe to you, Beth-saida! for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.'"
Matthew 3:7-8 - "Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed; also from Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from about Tyre and Sidon a great multitude, hearing all that he did, came to him."
Wisdom 12 - Lists sins of Canaanites
Romans 1:16 - "For I am not ashamed of the gospel: it is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."
Matthew 1:3, 5 - Lists Tamar and Rahab in Jesus' geneology, two Canaanite women