The canaanite woman: a dog?
21Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession." 23Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us." 24He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."
25The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said. 26He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."
27"Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall
from their masters' table." 28Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
~Matthew 15:21-28, NIV
a couple of acquaintances of mine were discussing this passage and were appalled that jesus would degrade her and call her a dog.
*shrugs* i dunno, but when i've read this before, i've always thought of jesus testing the woman's faith to see if she truly believed and wanted healing for her daughter, or if she would be another ungrateful one demanding an instantaneous fix for her mess. (does that make any sense??)
anyhow, enough of my babbling....i want to hear from you folks.....why would jesus use the dog analogy here? was he truly attempting to be insulting?
posted by Quirkafiably Quirkified at 1/20/2006 06:51:00 AM
1 Comments:
excellent post, solomom. one that's had me thinking a lot these past few weeks.
i know jesus....about like i know most of you. i see you on occassion and will nod or wave or say hey what's up....but that's about it. when we do make time for talk, it's small and very superficial.
i know what i've been told about
jesus....i've got all the head knowledge and could shmooze you with my mcchristian savvyness.
but i don't know jesus. well, i did at one point, and it was intensely real and powerful...but not now.
i keep wondering why....out of fear? out of doubt? out of laziness? out of procrastination? out of pride? out of selfishness?
most likely a combination of all these.
i've developed this nasty habit of putting human conditions on jesus, and somehow "know" i've crossed the line and have been deemed out of reach. i know what i've been taught about jesus contradicts this current belief, but i'm too scared to try and prove it. because if it is proven wrong and i am deemed unreachable, where's the hope for living?
or am i just being a selfish spoiled brat wanting to ride the fence and live life my way until i feel like cleaning up my act?
ugh...how ugly and disgusting is that?
*sigh* welcome to my nightmare...
Monday, February 13, 2006 6:56:00 PM
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