Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Gentile woman who lived there came to him, pleading, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! For my daughter is possessed by a demon that torments her severely.” But Jesus gave her no reply, not even a word. Then his disciples urged him to send her away. “Tell her to go away,” they said. “She is bothering us with all her begging.” Then Jesus said to the woman, “I was sent only to help God’s lost sheep—the people of Israel.” But she came and worshiped him, pleading again, “Lord, help me!” Jesus responded, “It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.” She replied, “That’s true, Lord, but even dogs are allowed to eat the scraps that fall beneath their masters’ table.” “Dear woman,” Jesus said to her, “your faith is great. Your request is granted.” And her daughter was instantly healed.
Matthew 15:21-28

Dear God, this story has always been hard for me because Jesus comes off as a bit of a jerk. Is he racist? Is he elitist? Is he none of those things, but simply testing her? I’m sure it’s the latter, but it doesn’t seem that way at first.

I think I’m going to do what I did with Jairus yesterday and just make bullet points about another rich story that is told in a tight eight verses.

• This Gentile woman already lived among the Jewish people in Tyre and Sidon. Had she already started to become acclimated to Jewish traditions, or was she overcoming a lot of racism she had experienced to go to Jesus in the first place?
• She calls him “O Lord, Son of David!” Is this an admission on her part that he is the Messiah? He isn’t only a rabbi to her. Jairus’s friends called him a teacher. That’s not who she says he is. I could be wrong in how I’m reading this, but I think she’s willing to put the Messiah label on him. Now maybe this is just kissing up out of desperation. Maybe she doesn’t have a barrier to calling him that because the Messiah doesn’t mean as much to her as if she had been raised Jewish. But it’s still quite an admission.
• The labels her daughter’s illness as a demon that torments her. I don’t know how this manifests itself, but that’s the language she uses with him.
• “Jesus gave her no reply, not even a word.” That seems harsh? A test?
• “Tell her to go away. She is bothering us with all her begging.” Did Jesus set a bad example for the disciples here. Was this incident reshaping his own attitudes towards his being there for Gentiles too. I think he had already healed the Centurion’s servant at this point, so it’s probably not that. But it’s interesting that his response to her seems to encourage racism and bigotry among the disciples.
• “I was sent only to help God’s lost sheep–the people of Israel.” Again, racism or a test?
• “She came and she worshiped him.” She didn’t just plead. She acknowledged his God-ness over her as well. She asked to be considered one of his people. She worshiped him.
• They have their exchange about food and scraps from the table. This is the part of the story everyone remembers. If you try to bring this story to someone’s mind, all you have to say is, “The one where the woman just wants scraps from the table like a dog.” I was thinking about my dogs the other day and how grateful I am they can’t talk back. We definitely have a master/slave relationship with them. We tell them when to go to sleep, where to sleep, when to go to the bathroom, when to eat, to be quiet, to go away, to come here, etc. Then there is the part of the relationship where we play with them and scratch them. We feed them. We walk them. We give them shelter. We even pay a sitter to come and care for them when we leave town so they won’t have to be boarded. I’ve always kind of just read over this story, but maybe there is something more to this being a representation of my relationship with you than I’ve given it credit for.
• Jesus is impressed with her answer and heals her daughter.

Father, I don’t know that this woman would ever have been driven to worship Jesus without going through this terrible thing with her daughter. It humbled her. Her love for her daughter and desperation brought her to her knees. I’m sure she told her daughter from that time forward how this man named Jesus, a Jewish Messiah, healed her. I wonder how she felt when she heard about the crucifixion. Did she hear about the resurrection too? You made the pain she experienced count, and I’m grateful for that. I’m grateful for her, and, as a Gentile, I’m grateful for myself as well.

I pray all of this in the name of that same Jesus,

Amen