The first part of Mt. 15 is omitted from the lectionary, but the parallel in Mk 7:1-23 will be read on the Twenty-Second Sunday of Year B. In that section, Jesus confronts the traditional interpretations of the law by the Pharisees. He condemns the narrowness of Pharisaic practices (vv 1-20), but in the very next incident (vv 21-28), he appears to equal their narrowness by excluding a non-Jewish woman from the benefit of his ministry.

These two sections may be taken as a follow-up to the multiplication of the loaves. Why were there twelve baskets of fragments left after Jesus had multiplied enough for all to eat their fill (14:20)? It may be significant that Jesus had intended just enough with no surplus, but that the Pharisees in the crowd refused to eat with unwashed hands (15:2), and no one would share the bread with the non-Jews present. Chapter 15 addresses both these situations: the refusal and the deprivation of the bread which symbolizes the fullness of God’s Word.

The spirited dialog between Jesus and the woman betrays something of the mentality of the time and place. More significant, however, than Jesus’ first refusal — which may have been something of a word game — is the reason why Jesus finally does share his bread (the asked-for healing) with her. Her faith was what the faith of the Jewish people ought to have been. She did not merely approach him as a wonder worker or a healer who might cure her daughter. She came to him as Messiah (v 22 "Son of David") and persisted in her belief even in the face of initial refusal. By faith she became what she could not be by ancestral heritage.

This passage begin "Third Isaiah," which was written by an anonymous author in the tradition of Isaiah after the return from the Babylonian exile (538 B.C.E.). The Jewish people never succeeded in restoring Jerusalem and the kingdom to its former glory. Their dream was to subjugate all other nations of the world under their rule, and the hoped-for Messiah would lead them to military victory to accomplish this. The vision of the prophets, however, was more realistic and it better reflected God’s destiny for all peoples. They proclaimed a moral mission for the Israelites to call all humanity into the fold of God’s worshipers rather than to dominate them. Thus the temple was not to be merely for the Israelites, but for all (v 7) — and this temple was to be the Messiah himself.

This psalm expresses the hope that, through the chosen people of God, all peoples might recognize God’s lordship and accept him. Response: "O God, let all the nations praise you!"

Paul faces the problem of God’s apparent rejection of the Jewish people, and he answers it by showing that God remains faithful — it is his people who have turned away from him (v 29). Because human free will has the last word, the conversion of Paul’s brother Jews can be no more than a hope (v 14). But it was Israel’s rejection of the apostles’ preaching that drove them to begin proclaiming the Gospel to the Gentiles. And so their sin became the doorway for the salvation of the world. Unknowingly, by their disobedience they fulfilled their prophetic destiny expressed in the Jewish Scriptures.

1. Do you find outstanding examples of faith in people who would otherwise be considered "unbelievers"?

2. How do these readings speak of God’s will to save all people?