The religious game of  “Hokey Cokey” - of who belongs and who doesn’t is turned upside down by Jesus’ encounter with the Canaanite woman.

The Pharisees had been concerned with the boundaries of religious purity: what could be eaten, how it should be eaten, and who was considered clean or unclean. Jesus challenges that whole way of thinking. What truly defiles us is not what comes into us from outside, but what comes from within.

Then Jesus travels into Gentile territory and encounters someone who stands firmly outside the religious circle: a Canaanite woman. She cries out to him for mercy.

The encounter is uncomfortable. Jesus does not immediately answer her, and his words about children and dogs are difficult to hear. Yet the woman persists. Her response reveals something important: she understands that God’s mercy is not diminished when it is shared. There is enough. Even the crumbs are enough.

The disciples had wanted her sent away. Jesus instead recognises her faith, and her daughter is healed.

There lies the challenge for us. We are very good at deciding who belongs and who does not. Yet Christ calls us to listen to those beyond our boundaries and often calls us to follow him across them.

The Good News does not stop at the edge of our circles. Sometimes Christ is already waiting for us beyond them.

(the image used is "Whole in the Wall" by Khaled Jarrer