This past week I've been thinking about former teachers who have inspired me. I actually came up with a list of those teachers whom I most admire today. One of them from grade school, one from Jr. High, one from High school, from college, etc. They all had different personalities, and taught different subjects, but one characteristic they all had in common was that they were compassionate. All the teachers I most admire and remember most fondly today were all people who had a loving concern for others and the ability to accept and respect other people wherever they were at in life.

So when I hear this story about how Jesus first treated the Canaanite woman I really wonder about what's going on here. Jesus doesn't seem to be very compassionate. As a matter of fact, he comes across as quite opposite of what I have come to expect of him. Rather than the kind, compassionate, inclusive lover of humanity he seems rigid, exclusive, dismissive and uncaring.

I am grateful that the Jesus Seminar thinks this does not go back to the historical Jesus. The majority of these scholars believe that the words put into Jesus' mouth are from the authors of Matthew and Mark, and do not originate with the historical Jesus who welcomed Gentile and Jew, rich and poor, respected members of society and social outcasts into a community that strove to put into practice the love, justice and compassion of God. Yet this story obviously does reflect something about the communities of Mark and Matthew and their understanding of Jesus and his ministry.

As Matthew tells it, Jesus and his entourage are approached by a local Canaanite woman whose daughter is severely possessed. This could have referred to any number of conditions, perhaps something like epilepsy, perhaps a mental illness, we have no way of knowing exactly what was wrong. And she asks Jesus for mercy, for help. First he doesn't respond at all. He simply ignores her. I think we all can resonate with this part of the story.

But it seems that it didn't end there. This woman is not one to give up easily. She continues to badger Jesus' disciples, so much so that they go to Jesus and ask him to do something to get rid of her, she's become such a nuisance. So she's both persistent and smart. To his disciples Jesus says something that seems to be somewhat of a theme for Matthew, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Now, except for this passage and one other in Matthew 10:6, this isn't typically the way Jesus talks. Here Matthew is presenting Jesus as someone with a narrow and limited understanding of his mission.

At this point the Gentile woman comes up to Jesus again, bows, and very politely asks him for his help once more. His response, again most likely a creation of Matthew, is to try to put her in her place by saying, "It's not right to take bread out of children's mouths and throw it to the dogs."

For most of us, this would have finished it. Having endured numerous rejections by both Jesus and his disciples this is now the proverbial adding of insult to injury that our mothers warned us about. This particular insult is concerned with drawing a distinction between the insiders and the outsiders. The insiders are deserving and the outsiders are not. But this woman knows something he does not. She knows that boundaries are not that rigid and that compassion is not a limited commodity. In almost rabbinic fashion she take his metaphor and stands it on its head by replying that, "even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from their master's table."

I have to admire a woman like that. She just won't take no for an answer. And she seems to know the finer points of rhetoric and debate. There is only one thing now that Jesus can do. He acknowledges her trust, which is to say, her faith, and grants her request. At that moment her daughter is healed.

It's difficult for me to say what the greatest miracle is here. Is it the miraculous and instantaneous cure of the daughter? Is it the sudden recognition that the faith of an outsider is worthy of praise, respect and admiration? Is it the awakening within a person or within a community of a larger vision of who they are and what their mission is? Is it the strength of a human spirit that persevered through rejections and rebuffs to finally dismantle the distinctions that kept insiders and outsiders separate and isolated from one another? These are all miracles worthy of celebration.

And I'm beginning to like this story more. I like the fact that some early Christian communities understood Jesus to have been someone who was teachable - someone who was able to grow and to learn from others; someone who could awaken to the possibility that his mission was more inclusive than he had previously believed it to be. I think a teacher like that, a teacher who is teachable, is much more trustworthy than one who already knows all the answers.

This story also expresses the community's understanding that a Gentile woman, an outsider on several levels, had the ability to teach and inspire Jesus, awakening and expanding his vision of his ministry. I like that, too.

Jack Kornfield wrote, "The greatest and simplest power of a teacher is the environment of their own freedom and joy." (Kornfield, A PATH WITH HEART, p. 242) Jesus was free enough to accept that this Gentile woman could have something to teach him, and when he realizes what it is that she is revealing to him he seems genuinely joyful and grateful at the discovery. It is a similar freedom and joy that will lead us into an awakening of the sacred within our human community today and reveal to us a wider vision of our mission and ministry.

We can't know for sure how much of this story might be about the historical Jesus. We do know that Jesus would come to embrace a mission that would welcome all people. But was there a time earlier in his life when he hadn't yet figured that out? Was there someone like this Canaanite woman who taught him to look beyond the cultural prejudices he inherited? My gut tells me that there must have been people and experiences in his life that expanded his understanding and awakened his compassion.

The details of the story as Matthew tells it are surely a reflection of Matthew and his community. It reflects the reality that some early followers of Jesus had experienced a community of faith that was inclusive of Gentiles. They undoubtedly had to grow in their understanding of their mission in much they same way as Jesus did. At least they could have looked back to Jesus and the Canaanite woman for inspiration and support of their expanded vision.

It may be human to view the world in terms of insiders and outsiders but this story reveals to me that it is also human to grow beyond these distinctions and live out of an awareness of our inherent unity with all beings and a deep sense of compassion for all life. It is this awakening of the sacred that all our great teachers have sought to inspire within us. Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tzu and a Canaanite woman, to name just a few. Ultimately it is up to us to awaken, to discover what is genuine and true for ourselves and live out of that awareness, bringing our love and light into the world. We do not have to know all the answers, we do not have to be right all the time, we only have to grow. And we have within us everything we need to do this. Thanks be to God.

So Jesus left there, and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.

And this Canaanite woman from those parts appeared and cried out, "Have mercy on me, sir, you son of David. My daughter is severely possessed."

But he did not respond at all.

And his disciples came and began to complain: "Get rid of her, because she is badgering us."

But in response he said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

She came and bowed down to him, saying, "Sir, please help me."

In response he said, "It's not right to take bread out of children's mouths and throw it to the dogs."

But she said, "Of course, sir, but even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from their master's table."

Then in response Jesus said to her, "My good woman, your trust is enormous! Your wish is as good as fulfilled." And her daughter was cured at that moment.