REFLECTION

I think we can all recognise the power of words. How often have we spoken sharply and regretted it as soon as the words have left our lips? Or used ill-considered words in a discussion that have been misunderstood and needed much clarifying to really express what you meant to say? Then there's the use of abusive and discriminatory language that causes real and justifiable offence - as in the recent case of the BBC's broadcasting an interview in which the 'n-word' was used. And there's the language in social media that incites prejudice and hatred often commented upon in the news. Without a doubt, words can really hurt.
But words can also help, encourage, and affirm. What about talking therapies in mental health? Or the wisdom behind the saying 'a trouble shared is a trouble halved'? Or the power of words of praise as affirmation and appreciation or as encouragement to keep on striving? Without a doubt, words can be really positive and building up.
Jesus, in this Gospel reading, isn't so much commenting on the significance of words as criticising the religious leaders for paying lip-service to their faith. Just before these verses Matthew records the Pharisees and scribes rebuking Jesus for permitting his disciples to eat without washing their hands - not a complaint about shoddy hygiene, but a complaint about the failure to comply with religious ritual. In that dialogue, Jesus sums it up by quoting the prophet Isaiah:

'This people honours me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.'

Here, Jesus continues his criticism as he speaks to the crowd and gives them this soundbite about what comes out of the mouth as that which defiles rather than what one consumes. I'm not so sure, though, that words can defile the speaker. Of course, the words we use colour the way others will think about us. Reputations have been tarnished or even torn to shreds by statements made, words uttered. But as Jesus later explains to the disciples, the words that come out of the mouth express inner opinions: 'what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander.' (verses 18-19).
There follows a battle of words. Jesus and his disciples are regaled by the called out pleas of a Canaanite woman. As so often with the call of the Big Issue seller, or the request of the beggar on the street, her words are at first ignored, unanswered. Her repeated words get under the skin of the disciples. Irritated they ask Jesus to send her away in order to stop the calling. This begins what, if we are honest, on the face of it is an uncomfortable dialogue in which Jesus appears to be racist. To her pleas for his help in casting out a demon from her daughter Jesus replies that he was 'sent only to the lost sheep of Israel'. A brush-off remark of 'I can't respond to every good cause, I can only do so much'? Undaunted, the woman continues with her pleading - a plea for common compassion from one human being to another? To this Jesus' response seems distinctly hurtful, even racist: 'It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.' But she is not to be dismissed like this, written off as of no account, and continues in her pleading with a clever and totally appropriate retort: 'Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.' If a plea to common human compassion is not enough, she turns here to a theological argument - isn't God's intention to bless not only his people, Israel, but through them the whole earth? Finally, Jesus responds positively and the woman's daughter is healed.
Is this a case of clever, persistent argument winning out over harsh, dismissive, racist language? Is it a case of changing attitudes by force of argument? Maybe. There's certainly a case for this approach in life today. Erroneous attitudes and opinions need to be resisted by strong, logical argument, not merely yelled chants from the demonstration lines.
Or is it a case of carefully letting the truth come out, indeed carefully encouraging it to be voiced? Is the point of this episode not that Jesus could ultimately be prevailed upon to help a foreign woman, but that God's grace is for all not just those that we, whoever we are, would count in or out? In the face of Pharisees fretting over petty religious ritual, oblivious to their own greater failure to live up to what God requires, and rejecting Jesus as an inconvenient troublemaker, we have a different narrative in the Canaanite woman. Unlike the Pharisees, this foreign woman has faith in Jesus as 'Lord' and one able to cast out demons. Unlike the Pharisees who seem more intent on excluding from the family of God, this Canaanite woman recognises Israel's God as an inclusive God, ready to embrace all who turn to him. In this dialogue, was Jesus encouraging by a 'devil's advocate' approach this Canaanite woman to proclaim this truth? Is this another example of Jesus turning things upside down, enabling the voice of the outsider, of the least of the world, to teach and shame the 'wise', the powerful, the 'leaders' of the people?
Yes, words are indeed powerful, but even more so if matched by our actions. Lip-service is not good enough. As Jesus summed it up on another occasion: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." And "You shall love your neighbour as yourself." (Matthew 22:37 and 39). In the context of today's world, wrestling with a pandemic, with corruption and ineptitude again in the news, and human tragedies on a national scale as in Lebanon or on a more personal level all too evident, we need to take these words very seriously - and live by them.