This article appears in “Learning Lament, Building Empathy, and Joining our Sisters at the Intersection of Race and Gender,” the Summer 2021 issue of CBE (Christians for Biblical Equality) International’s Mutuality magazine.
We carry our stories, nuestras historias, in our bodies and different bodies carry different burdens. We need to tell our stories, remember our bodies. We need to also cross the borders of historical hostilities, like the persistent Canaanite mother in Matthew 15:21–28, if we are to seek an honest and robust paradigm of reconciliation and justicia.
In this controversial gospel story, the kingdom of heaven is depicted as an immigrant mother who crosses the border seeking mercy for her demonized daughter. She is a dreamer. She dreams of a future for her daughter without demons. A faithful reader must reckon with the complex socio-political tensions between Israel and Canaan. If Jesus heals her daughter of this demon, can he heal hostilities among enemies? If Jesus heals this heir, can he heal inherited hate? Has the blood of Jesus lost its power to heal us?