By Cathy Hird

Borders are strange things. These lines on a map become walls that divide. Those who seek to flee unrest at home are finding these arbitrary lines to be chasms that are impossible to cross.

Politicians here and in Europe are facing public pressure on the one hand to allow people in, and on the other to stop the flow. Refugees pay the price.

Crossing a boundary is never easy. So let me offer a difficult story from Mark's gospel (7:24-30), one I have told before. Here a woman presses against the wall and healing breaks through.

In this story, Jesus crosses out of Galilee in order to take time off with his disciples. However, his reputation as a healer has spread far and wide. He cannot hide.

A Gentile woman has a daughter who is very ill. Likely, she has tried all the healers among her own people. Nothing has worked. She hears the stories about Jesus, and wonders if he could heal her daughter. She goes to ask him to help.

This is a desperate act. Her daughter is too sick to bring to Jesus, so she will have to try to convince him to come to her home. But a woman does not approach a man she does not know without an introduction. A Gentile woman cannot expect a Jewish man to go to her home or help her in any way. Still she goes.

When she comes near, she can sense hostility in the people around him. She can read the anger among his followers. But need pushes her. She calls out, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David."

The woman acknowledges that she has no claim on Jesus. He is of the line of David, and she is not. Still, she argues that the need of her daughter demands his attention.

Jesus does not answer her. She has insulted him by approaching without an introduction. She makes him unclean in the eyes of his people. She knows that she has broken the rules, but she keeps begging.

The disciples interveen. They push past her, push her out of the way, demand that Jesus get rid of her. He looks at her and names the distance between them: "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

When he names the space between them, she crosses it. She kneels at his feet. Although this is an act of humility, it is an insult to his honour both in her culture and in his. Still, need trumps everything else for her.

Given that she has insulted him, he speaks with anger. "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." This is harsh, but he is now talking to her. He has broken the social expectation and engaged her.

She continues, "Yes Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table." She insists that Jesus look at her, listen to her, notice the suffering of her daughter.

Jesus turns to her. He declares that she has strong faith. He tells her that her daughter is well. Shocking as it is to his followers, he praises this Gentile woman and heals her daughter.

This woman crossed the line, breached the barriar that kept their two peoples apart, and in response, the power of God is released and healing crosses the boundary.

Many Christians find this a difficult story. This isn't the compassionate Jesus. He is rude and angry with a woman in need. During the conversation, he changes his mind.

For me, it seems right that this is a difficult story. When there is distance between two peoples, it is not easy to resolve it. Crossing a divide is hard. When someone does cross a boundary, there is disruption and difficult emotion.

This story does not give an easy answer to today's refugee crisis. But it does suggest that it is God's intention to break down the walls, break through divisions with power to heal, build bridges and channels for healing to cross and wholeness to come. It won't be easy. There may be anger and disruption, but it is the vision we are challenged to hold.

Cathy Hird is a farmer, minister and writer living near Walters Falls.