You don’t have to look far these days for stories about borders. Whether it’s boat people rescued in the Mediterranean from leaky vessels, or lines of asylum applicants trying to pass from Mexico to the United States, borders loom large in our awareness.

            Borders are where two cultures rub against each other. Sometimes the friction generates a certain heat, as cultures clash.

Jesus at the border

            Borders played a role in the time of Jesus as well. There were no such things as checkpoints or border guards, but there was an awareness among travelers when they were passing from one country into another.

            In the border regions there were certain villages where people of one ethnicity, or one religion, predominated. Everyone knew this. Sometimes you only had to walk a few miles before suddenly finding yourself in a different world.

            This is what happens to Jesus and his disciples when they cross into a certain village in the district of Tyre and Sidon. Jesus has left behind the lands he knows best and has crossed into the country we now know as Lebanon.

            A Canaanite woman, a native of that region, calls out to him for help. “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.”

            But Jesus ignores the woman’s desperate plea.

            Moreover, his disciples say, “Send her away. She keeps shouting after us.”

            “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” Jesus says to the woman.

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