Veiled in Flesh 

God on Monday
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A Canaanite woman…came and knelt before him, saying, ’Lord, help me.’ He answered, ’It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.’ She said, ’Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ (Matthew 15.22-27).  

Reflection

Christians today rarely reflect as deeply on Jesus as ‘fully God and fully human‘ as did some of our spiritual forebears. But the passage from Matthew above invites reflection on Jesus‘ humanity. 

What it means to be fully God is beyond human understanding, but what it means to be fully human is an existential question facing every person. Does being fully human mean that Jesus, although he was sinless, experienced the same kind of human sensations and emotions that are familiar to ordinary human beings?

It does appear in this passage, as elsewhere in the gospels, that Jesus experienced human limitations in dealing with difficult situations. When a Canaanite woman begs Jesus to intervene on behalf of her demon-possessed daughter, he appears dismissive, as this woman is not an Israelite. The woman’s resolve appears to convince Jesus that a person’s faith matters more than their ethnicity and social status. 

Jesus, it would seem, is willing to be challenged by someone of inferior rank; a ‘Canaanite dog’ was a common characterization used by first-century Jews to refer to Canaanites. Jesus seems momentarily to identify with a bias that was based on his own religious and ethnic identity.

The gospels demonstrate the paradoxical unity of the divine and human in the drama of salvation that comes to a climax in Jesus. We can learn from this that, to value the humanity of Jesus is to value the essential mystery at the core of the Christian faith: ‘God became flesh.‘ In Jesus, we find a God who is fully divine and yet who also knows in full what it means to be human.  

Response

What does it mean for our everyday lives this week that God is human as well as divine?

Prayer

Lord, thank you that you know and understand my limitations. Help me to bear with the limitations of those I encounter this week.

This Week's Author

God on Monday is produced in partnership with the Church of England. The reflections are based on the scriptural readings designated for the next Sunday in the Church's lectionary. You can sign up to Faith in Business here to receive each God on Monday instalment.    

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