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?

for my political savvy friends....

didn't think anyone would find this on my blog so i thought i'd post it here, seeing as a few of you are a bit familiar with the political realm.

i was most excited to learn that my dear bay area friend (yes Solomom....THE man that rocks the bug) had finally taken the plunge into blogland. if there is anything i've learned from this man, it is never take things at face value. i have much respect for him for not towing any party line, but researching the issue at hand and drawing his own conclusions, which are fairly sound and almost always spot on...errr, except for when they're not. (lol he can both beat his chest and eat humble pie quite well....tis what makes researching and discussing current events with him so interesting)

so, my friends, if you wish to go beyond the meanderings of hannity, dobson, coulter, limbaugh, and beck, i invite you to bring an open mind to lou cypherspace.
you might be able to debunk some of his theories...then again, we might just learn something from each other.