8 Oct Why do you trouble her?

8 October 2023

WHY DO YOU TROUBLE HER?

For the International Day of Girl Child on 11 October 2023

Matthew 15:21-28

This is the Question Jesus asked the disciples around him in Mark 14:6. When Jesus was at the table in Simon’s house, a woman came and anointed him with a very costly ointment. As the disciples criticized her act of anointing, Jesus warned them by posting a question, Let her be herself, Why do you trouble her? Jesus presents two crucial elements in his response to the attitude of men—religious leaders or disciples—who criticized her. They are, one, let her be herself; and two, don’t trouble her.

I would like to appropriate these two questions to the miracle story of the Canaanite woman’s daughter in Matthew 15:21-28. This miracle story is about the healing of a small girl child (v. 22; cf. 26) who was possessed by a demon which almost took her life. The Greek expression of the mother’s cry explicitly demonstrates that she was crying aloud by shouting, with a demand for the life of her girl child (v. 22). She was demanding Jesus for her child’s life with a loud cry by addressing him as Lord. Jesus, as Messiah for all, was obligated to heal her girl child though she was a Canaanite.

However, Jesus’s attitude towards her urgent cry for life seems dehumanizing. But, the textual study of the miracle story clearly demonstrates the deeper theological framework of Jesus’ healing process. The dominating spirit of the child needs to be dealt with in order to heal her. The child has to become her own self and not be overpowered by someone or something.

Jesus’ silence to the mother’s cry was to deal with the social, cultural, and religious power structures by which she was bounded. The cultural norms, faith convictions, and socio-political structures that perpetuate the subjugation and gender-based violence need to be addressed and dealt with first-hand to announce the deliverance and healing to the ill and victimized girl child(ren).

Jesus’ healings in the gospels always deal with all aspects of a person’s illness. In the process of healing a person, Jesus would also deal with what causes the person to be sick. Here in this miracle story of girl child also, Jesus dealt with all

aspects of social, cultural and religious norms in the healing process. These norms and convictions denied the liberated life of the girl children and women. Thus, it was crucial for Jesus to deal with them first-hand in order to pronounce the mother, Let it be done as you wish. And the Scripture says, “in that hour, her daughter was healed.” In today’s context, the challenges around girl children in our communities demand us to say, like Jesus, Let her be herself. In order to announce that, we need to dare to deal with structural frameworks of all kinds. If we, as a Christian community, are demanded to live as a liberated/liberating community, then we are obliged to affirm that our girl children are enjoying gender equality in all spheres of their life. They are not burdened with cultural and religious norms, which often criminalize, devalue, and neglect their rights, interests and dreams.

prayer

God the mother and father, we thank you for the girl children of our communities. Liberate us from the gender-biased understanding of life. Challenge us to journey with our girl children in their every attempt to be themselves—as your Son and our Lord said, Let her be herself. Amen.

for further thought

What are the cultural and religious norms that dominate the worldview of our girl children?

Vethakani Vedhanayagam

Master’s College of Theology, Vizag