In the time of Jesus, as there are now, there were faith-healers and people who claimed to have power over demons who could be hired and, for the right amount of money, would pretend to heal someone or cast out demons.  These people were charlatans, but people would pay the money in a desperate attempt to bring healing to a loved one.  These supposed “healers” took advantage of people in their suffering and what they offered was not real faith but rather magic – the illusion of healing that was not real.    

Our Lord knew of these faith-healers and how they operated.  He also saw how they took advantage of people.  The Canaanite woman also knew of these faith-healers and the promises they made.  It is possible that she had already paid faith-healers in attempts to bring healing to her daughter but all to no success. 

This context helps to explain this interaction of Jesus with the Canaanite woman. 

This woman, who has heard of the man Jesus and who initially sees him as just another faith-healer, calls out on behalf of her daughter and, more than likely, she is willing to pay the cost that Jesus will demand.  The disciples, as observant Jews could not abide faith-healers, they know that Jesus was not a faith-healer and they do not want to be associated with faith-healers so they ask Jesus to send the woman away because she, “keeps calling after us”. 

Jesus knows that he is not a charlatan and he knows that this woman is looking to hire him and that she wants a magical healing for her daughter and so he says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  Jesus has a mission from the Father and he is not for hire for magical healings. 

But then something happens.  The scripture says that the woman, “came to Jesus and did him homage”.  The word “homage” is important here.  “Homage” implies faith, it implies kneeling in wonder and need before the divine mystery.  The woman does not come to Jesus to offer what she will pay him as one would when bargaining with a faith-healer, rather she gives him not money but “homage”. 

What changed for the woman?  Was it her desperation for her daughter, was it an intuition in her soul that something was different about this man named Jesus, was it the movement of the Holy Spirit in the woman’s heart?  Something changed and Jesus sees it. 

Jesus then tests it to make certain.  “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.”  Now, in this new moment, the woman responds, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”  The woman shows her faith.    

Satisfied and probably with an abundance of joy in his divine heart, Jesus answers, “O woman, great is your faith!  Let it be done for you as you wish!”

Jesus is not a faith-healer for hire.  Jesus does not deal in the illusion of magic.  Jesus comes looking for faith in our hearts and it is in faith that our Lord meets us and brings the healing that only he can give. 

Magic is an illusion.  Faith is real and it is only in faith that Jesus encounters us.