The Wideness of God's Mercy

Homily for August 16, 2026
The Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28

In the skies over Germany on December 20, 1943, the B-17 bomber flown by Second Lieutenant Charles Brown was hit by flak and severely damaged.  With one crew member dead and three wounded, Lt. Brown’s limping plane was spotted by German ace Franz Stigler flying his Messerschmidt 109, and Stigler moved in for the kill.  Approaching from the rear Stigler saw the tail gunner hunched over and bleeding, and he couldn’t shoot.  “When you shoot at airplanes, you see the airplane that’s dropping bombs on your country, and nothing more,” he later said.  “But to see the person…” he trailed off.  Stigler escorted the plane across German-occupied territory so that no one else would attack it, and at the Channel he waggled his wings in salute and flew off.  (Lt. Brown’s plane made it back to England.)

In April, 1995, Bud Welch’s 23-year-old daughter Julie Marie was killed in the bombing of the Αlfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.  Bud was so angry he wanted to kill Timothy McVeigh, but instead took up drinking.  One day while nursing a hangover Bud realized, “I have to do something different, because what I’m doing isn’t working.”  He went to Buffalo, New York, to meet Timothy McVeigh’s father, Bill, in whose tears he could see “the love of a father for a son,” he said, and for whom he felt compassion:  “While I can speak in front of thousands and say wonderful things about Julie,” Bud said, “if Bill McVeigh meets a stranger, he probably doesn’t even say he has a son.”  Welch forgave Timothy McVeigh and began to advocate against his execution.

Casey Diaz grew up in South Central Los Angeles in the 1990’s.  His first brush with the law was at age 11, and at 16 he was arrested and sentenced to thirteen years in prison for second-degree murder and 52 counts of armed robbery.  While incarcerated, Casey Diaz became a so-called “shot caller,” a high-level gang member who decides who would live and who would die.  He scoffed at the announcements for the protestant and catholic worship services, and he scoffed,too, at the woman who one day visited his cell and said she would pray for him.  But a year or so later, Diaz experienced a vision of Christ on the cross:  “I’m doing this for you,” Jesus told him.  He saw Jesus die and began to weep.  Which led to him reading the Bible, which led to becoming a Christian, which led to becoming a prison evangelist, which led after his release to becoming a pastor at his local church.  “I did not deserve so much mercy and forgiveness,” Diaz says.

Matthew’s story of the Canaanite woman in this morning’s Gospel could be about faith – in contrast to the disciples’ “little faith” (e.g., Matt 8:26;14:31; 16:8), Jesus commends the woman for her “great faith.”  Matthew’s story could be about persevering in prayer – “Have mercy on me, Lord,” the woman says.  When rebuffed, she says again, “Lord, help me.”  And when rebuffed again, she persists, “Yes, Lord, even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”  Or today’s story could be about inclusivity – how the woman is a Canaanite, from outside Israel, not a “sheep” but rather (even) a “dog,” yet Jesus nonetheless heals her daughter.  

This morning I want to focus on how today’s Gospel is a story about mercy; specifically, how this morning’s Gospel speaks to the question, “Just how wide is God’s mercy?”  To Mark’s original story of Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman (in Mark chapter 7 (Mk 7:24-30)), Matthew adds several details that highlight God’s mercy.  First, if in Mark’s account, the woman “came and bowed at [Jesus’] feet… [and] begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter,” in Matthew, the woman specifically asks:  “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David.”  Second, if in Mark there are no disciples and the encounter is between Jesus and the woman only, Matthew includes the disciples, using them as foil to contrast their dismissal of the woman with Jesus’ mercy.  Where the woman says, “Ἐλέησόν” – “Have mercy” – the disciples say, “Ἀπόλυσον” – “Dismiss.”  The disciples wished to dismiss the woman, Jesus in his mercy heals her daughter.  Third, if Mark calls the woman a “Syrophoenician,” “Syrophoenician” being a general term for Greek-speaking Gentiles in that region, Matthew calls the woman a “Canaanite,” a term that would have held more energy for Matthew’s Jewish audience, for the Canaanites were ancient enemies of Israel.  In his mercy Jesus heals even a Canaanite.  Fourth,to Mark’s story that mentions no sheep, Matthew adds sheep:  “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” Jesus says. “Sheep” calls attention to the special relationship of Jesus to Israel – Jesus is the shepherd of the Israel and of Israel only.  Yet in his mercy, Jesus heals a “sheep” ostensibly not of his flock.

With our21^st-century ears, we might cringe at Jesus not answering the woman at all; we most likely would cringe when Jesus then calls her a dog: “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”  My hunch is that by this story with its “cringe-y” exchanges, Matthew is trying to drive home to his audience his response to the question, “Just how wide is God’s mercy?”  Matthew’s response is – First:  God’s mercy is so wide that it cannot be contained within the boundaries of a single people.  “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”  Second:  God’s mercy is so wide that it makes no sense for we humans to try to police it:  When the woman asks, “Have mercy” – “Ἐλέησόν” – the disciples’ “Dismiss!” – “Ἀπόλυσον”–  is overcome with, “Woman, great is your faith!  Let it be done for you as you wish.”  And third:  God’s mercy is so wide that it extends even to hated enemies:  “Just then, a Canaanite woman from that region came out…”  Yet when Jesus saw her faith, “her daughter was healed instantly.”  

Elsewhere in his Gospel, Matthew tells how Jesus might have approved of Franz Stigler’s decision not to shoot down Charles Brown’s plane:  “Blessed are the merciful,” Jesus said, “for they will receive mercy” (Mt 5:7). Elsewhere in Matthew Jesus suggests he might have approved of Bud Welch’s speaking out against the death penalty for his daughter’s murderer:  “Peter said, ‘Lord… how often should I forgive?  As many as seven times?’  Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times’” (18:21-22). And still elsewhere in his Gospel, Matthew tells how Jesus might have approved of Casey Diaz serving as a minister. “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” the Pharisees asked Jesus, after Jesus had called Matthew to be his disciple.  “Go and learn what this means,” Jesus said,“’I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’  I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners” (Mt 9:11-13).  

Lt Charles Brown and Franz Stigler, Bud Welch, and Casey Diaz likely would agree with Pope Francis’ words:  “Once mercy has been truly experienced,” he said, “it is impossible to turn back.  It grows constantly and changes our lives… It brings about a new heart… and it purifies our eyes to perceive hidden needs.”  (MM, 16).   On this day on which we have heard Matthew’s story of Jesus and the Canaanite woman, I pray that we may know the wideness of God’s mercy, that – again to quote Pope Francis – “nothing of what a repentant sinner places before God’s mercy can be excluded from the embrace of his forgiveness”(MM. 2).

Given his own experience of Jesus’ mercy, Matthew likely would agree with words from Frederick William Faber’s famous hymn, with which I will leave us:

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy, like the wideness of the sea;
There’s a kindness in his justice, which is more than liberty.
There is plentiful redemption in the blood that has been shed;
There is joy for all the members in the sorrows of the head.

Troubled souls, why will you scatter like a crowd of frightened sheep?
Foolish hearts, why will you wander from a love so true and deep?
There is welcome for the sinner and more graces for the good;
There is mercy with the Savior, there is healing in his blood.

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