But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she cries after us.
Read Chapter 15
Epiphanius the Latin
AD 403
Therefore this woman besought the Lord on behalf of her daughter, the church of the Gentiles. “But he did not answer her a word.” It was not that the Lord was unwilling to heal her but that he might reveal her great faith and humility. Then the disciples were moved to mercy and pleaded with the Lord, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying after us.” But he answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Now he said this to the crowd of Jews that they might have no excuse on the day of judgment, when they might pretend to say, “He wanted to come to the Gentiles rather than to us.”
He answered her not. It must not be supposed that our Saviour refused to hear the woman through any contempt, but only to show that his mission was in the first instance to the Jews; or to induce her to ask with greater earnestness, so as to deserve more ample assistance. (Denis the Carthusian)
What is this new and strange thing? The Jews in their perverseness He leads on, and blaspheming He entreats them, and tempting Him He dismisses them not; but to her, running unto Him, and entreating, and beseeching Him, to her who had been educated neither in the law, nor in the prophets, and was exhibiting so great reverence; to her He does not vouchsafe so much as an answer.
Whom would not this have offended, seeing the facts so opposite to the report? For whereas they had heard, that He went about the villages healing, her, when she had come to Him, He utterly repels. And who would not have been moved by her affliction, and by the supplication she made for her daughter in such evil case? For not as one worthy, nor as demanding a due, not so did she approach Him, but she entreated that she might find mercy, and merely gave a lamentable account of her own affliction; yet is she not counted worthy of so much as an answer.
Perhaps many of the hearers were offended, but she was not...
. Why did He not allow the disciples to go by way of the Gentiles (Mt. 10:5), while He Himself went to Tyre and Sidon, which were Gentile cities? Learn then, that He did not go there to preach, since, as Mark says, "He hid Himself" (Mk. 7:24). But rather, when He saw that the Pharisees had not accepted His words about food, He went to the Gentiles. The woman said, "Have mercy, not on my daughter, who is unconscious, but on me who am suffering and experiencing these terrible things." And she did not say, "Come and heal," but "Have mercy." He did not answer her a word, not out of contempt, but to show that He had come, in the first place, for the Jews, and to shut the mouths of those Jews who might later slanderously accuse Him of doing good to Gentiles. He also did not answer her so that He might reveal the persevering faith of the woman.
The disciples were oppressed by the cry of the woman and so begged Christ to send her away. They did this, not out of a lack of compassion, but rather with the desire to persuade the Lord to have mercy on her. But He said, "I am sent only unto to the Jews, who are lost sheep because of the wickedness of those shepherds to whom they have been entrusted." In this manner He discloses more fully the faith of the woman.
