however, than this very pushy Gentile woman comes out and starts to shout, “Have mercy on me,
Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.”
And, even though this woman addresses him with the language of faith, Jesus ignores her
until the disciples urge him to send her away - at which point he tells her to forget it because he
only came to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Undeterred, the woman kneels in front of Jesus and continues her petition: “Lord, help
me,” - until Jesus addresses her directly and in words that compare Gentiles to house dogs and
Jews to beloved children.
Even then, in the face of such prejudice, she is seemingly unresentful, and continues to
hold her ground and plead her case. Using the framework of Jesus’ statement, she points out to
Jesus not that dogs can eat later, but that they receive crumbs even as the children are being fed.
Jesus rewards her by immediately healing her daughter and designating such persistent struggle
as great faith.
This woman chose to hear God’s call to face not a political, but a religious structure. She
risked condemnation to address Jesus on behalf of her sick daughter. Her courage and
persistence paid off: her daughter is healed.
God called Esther and the Syrophoenician woman, and we celebrate their stories, but they
are only two of countless women who God called to act throughout biblical, historical, and
contemporary times. I want to tell two more stories about real women, one from history and one
contemporary.
The first is about a woman who was born slave named Isabella and later transformed by
faith into an itinerant Pentecostal preacher named Sojourner Truth. Her life and words have
inspired oppressed people throughout the world.
Sojourner Truth gave her famous “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech in 1851 at the Women’s
Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. As the story goes, on the second day of the convention
several male ministers voiced their opinion of man’s God-given superiority over women. One
claimed “superior intellect,” one spoke of the “manhood of Christ,” and another referred to the
“sin of our first mother.”
There were no tape-recorders, but some written accounts. The Anti-Slavery Bugle, Salem,
Ohio, June 21, 1851, reported that Sojourner Truth “came forward to the platform and said with
great simplicity: “May I say a few words?. . . I am for woman’s rights. I have as much muscle as
any man, and can do as much work as any man. . . . “As for intellect, all I can say is, if woman
have a pint and a man a quart - why can’t she have her little pint full? You need not be afraid to
give us our rights for fear we will take too much - for we won’t take more than our pint will hold.
“The poor men seem to be all in confusion and don’t know what to do. Why children, if you
have woman’s rights give it to her and you will feel better. You have your own rights, and there
won’t be too much trouble.”
Frances Gage, who was also there, said this: “Amid roars of applause, she returned to her
corner leaving more than one of us with streaming eyes, and hearts beating with gratitude. She
had taken us up in her strong arms and carried us safely over the slough of difficulty turning the
whole tide in our favor.” Somehow, I think Sojourner Truth must have heard the story of the
Syrophoenician woman who pointed out to Jesus that even the dogs can receive crumbs as the
children are being fed.
The other story is about one woman who has, like Esther, chooses to face the political
structure and do what she has the power to do, even if it means giving up her personal security.
Laurel Redden’s story was told in an article on the www.jointogether.org web site.
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