16/08/2026
The Woman Who Refused to Take No for an Answer
A Sermon by Rev. Fr. Sylverus Ulem
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A
Even the Apostles, who always told Jesus to send people away, were unable to send this woman away.
Three Sundays ago, the Apostles discovered that the people were hungry. They went to Jesus and said, “Send them away.” But Jesus said to them, “Give them something to eat.”
Many of you remember that they were hungry, and Jesus fed them. From every indication and by human logic, how is it possible that five loaves of bread and two fish could feed 5,000 people and still have twelve baskets left over?
What happened in that passage is that God worked a miracle for those who believed. The five loaves and two fish were there, and the disciples knew that they were not going to be enough. In actual theology, there is an interpretation that the people who came there also had food with them. When the five loaves and two fish were brought out, others began bringing out the food they had hidden. That was why there were leftovers.
Last Sunday, the Apostles picked up the leftovers, and they were eating them inside the boat—and they were sinking! Now, even when Jesus said something that sounded very harsh to this woman, she refused to give up.
We live in the culture of “sharp sharp”, everything must happen sharp sharp. Sharp-sharp food. That is why we eat Indomie. Our forefathers were eating akpụ, today, we eat sharp-sharp food, and that is why we die sharp-sharp. Today, Yahoo Yahoo boys buy sharp-sharp cars, and that is why some people die sharp-sharp.
The most unfortunate thing is that we have brought this sharp-sharp life into the house of God. We want sharp-sharp responses from God. We pray at night and expect God to answer us immediately.
But the Canaanite woman presents something unique. She came to Jesus and said: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter is tormented by a demon.”
Jesus wants to teach us something here. She did not mention the name of the demon, and the author decided to keep the name of the demon secret. Her daughter was suffering, but the woman did not demand an immediate response. She was patient. Jesus did not answer her.
Her daughter was before Jesus. She must have heard about Jesus and what He had done. If Jesus appears in Abakpa and you go to meet Jesus and tell Him, “My daughter is sick,” and Jesus refuses to answer you, some of you will abuse Him! But instead of this woman becoming angry, walking away and abusing Jesus, she waited patiently.
Then the Apostles came to intervene. They went to Jesus and said, “Send her away,” so that they could eat their food in peace. How many times, because of your comfort, have you sent people away?
Jesus made the matter even worse. The only response that came from Jesus was: “It is not right to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
There is a contention here that Jesus wanted to settle. Jesus had crossed over from the region of this woman, to a pagan district, while She was a Canaanite. What She said, in effect: “Jesus, Son of David, you are from the lineage of David. You and I are not from the same tribe. In fact, you are from a tribe that is my enemy. But I have heard that you are powerful. Heal my daughter.”
Many of us are like this woman in this situation, which business do you have with Jesus? You come to Jesus to heal you how? The woman told Jesus that He was from the tribe of David, yet she still asked Him to heal her daughter. That was when Jesus told her that He could not give the food meant for the children to the dogs. And that is exactly the problem of our time. We only know Jesus for the things He can do for us, and not for the things we are supposed to do for Him. We come to Jesus only when we need Him.
Dear people of God, there is a reason why these things happened. The woman persisted. She did not get the answer she wanted and walk away. Instead, she responded: “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” This disarmed Jesus. Jesus could not say anything again, and He said to her: “Go. Your faith has made you whole.” Immediately, her daughter was healed.
There are two things I want us to learn from this. First: How can you disarm Jesus in your situation so that Jesus will not turn His back on you? You can do it by forgiving that person you said you could never forgive. Let go of that wound you have carried in your heart for years, and Jesus will say, “Go.”
This woman made a sacrifice by accepting that she was like a dog so that she could get what she wanted. She was not too proud to humble herself. But you and I are very proud of ourselves. We refuse to accept the reality that stares us in the face.
If at that point Jesus had refused to listen to this woman’s appeal, what would have happened. That is another lesson for us. Many of you, people will kneel down and beg you, but you still refuse to forgive them. Wicked people everywhere! You say, “My culture and tradition will not allow me to forgive him.” But what culture? What tradition? Where is Christianity in all of this?
Finally, something happened in this encounter between Jesus and this woman. There was a level of humility and sacrifice that she was willing to accept for the sake of the miracle. If you are not ready to put aside your pride and arrogance, you may miss what God wants to do in your life. Some of you, when you need something from someone who was once nothing before you, but whom God has now elevated, you arrogantly refuse to go and meet that person.
This Canaanite woman was not ashamed to go to Jesus for help. Some of you have left your marriages because your husbands cannot provide. You run away from your husbands. Where then is the popular adage, “What a man can do, a woman can do better.
Dear people of God, I encourage you, accept everything. Humble yourself. Let go of your pride. Drop your pride, and allow God to work in your life. Some of you have built fences around yourselves. Nothing can happen to you because you are not ready to accept anything from anybody.
You are not ready to accept nonsense. Once you hear something you do not like, you build a fence. And some of you have built the fence so well that you forgot to put a gate. Now you are standing in the centre of the fence, and you cannot come out.
Dear people of God, drop your pride. Learn from the Canaanite woman. She refused to take no for an answer. She humbled herself. She persisted. And her faith opened the door to her miracle.
May God give us the grace to forgive, the humility to accept, the patience to wait, and the faith to persist.
Amen.
