Today’s reading in Mark, 7:24-37 contains a crazy encounter between Jesus and a woman who just needs help for her daughter.<\/p>\n
Read the passage and come back. Did Jesus just call this woman a dog? Or did Jesus tell a parable and give her a challenge and an offer. Tim Keller has great insights here:<\/p>\n
On the surface, this appears to be an insult. We are a canine- loving society, but in New Testament times most dogs were scavengers\u2014wild, dirty, uncouth in every way. Their society was not canine-loving, and to call someone a dog was a terrible insult. In Jesus\u2019s day the Jews often called the Gentiles dogs because they were \u201cunclean.\u201d Is what Jesus says to her just an insult, then? No, it\u2019s a parable. The word parable means \u201cmetaphor\u201d or \u201clike- ness,\u201d and that\u2019s what this is. One key to understanding it is the very unusual word Jesus uses for \u201cdogs\u201d here. He uses a diminu- tive form, a word that really means \u201cpuppies.\u201d Remember, the woman is a mother. Jesus is saying to her, \u201cYou know how fami- lies eat: First the children eat at the table, and afterward their pets eat too. It is not right to violate that order. The puppies must not eat food from the table before the children do.\u201d If we go to Matthew\u2019s account of this incident, he gives us a slightly longer version of Jesus\u2019s answer in which Jesus explains his meaning: \u201cI was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.\u201d Jesus concentrated his ministry on Israel, for all sorts of reasons. He was sent to show Israel that he was the fulfillment of all Scripture\u2019s promises, the fulfillment of all the prophets, priests, and kings, the fulfillment of the temple. But after he was resurrected, he immediately said to the disciples, \u201cGo to all the nations.\u201d His words, then, are not the insult they\u00a0appear to be. What he\u2019s saying to the Syrophoenician woman is, \u201cPlease understand, there\u2019s an order here. I\u2019m going to Israel first, then the Gentiles (the other nations) later.\u201d However, this mother comes back at him with an astounding reply:<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYes, Lord,\u201d she replied, \u201cbut even the dogs under the table eat the children\u2019s crumbs.\u201d Then he told her, \u201cFor such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.\u201d She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.\u00a0(Mark 7:28\u201330)<\/em><\/p>\n In other words, she says, Yes, Lord, but the puppies eat from that table too, and I\u2019m here for mine. Jesus has told her a parable in which he has given her a combination of challenge and offer, and she gets it.<\/strong> She responds to the challenge: \u201cOkay, I understand. I am not from Israel, I do not worship the God that the Israelites worship. Therefore, I don\u2019t have a place at the table. I accept that.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Isn\u2019t this amazing? She doesn\u2019t take offense; she doesn\u2019t stand on her rights<\/strong>. She says, \u201cAll right. I may not have a place at the table\u2014but there\u2019s more than enough on that table for everyone in the world, and I need mine now.\u201d She is wrestling with Jesus in the most respectful way and she will not take no for an answer. <\/strong>I love what this woman is doing.<\/em><\/p>\n In Western cultures we don\u2019t have anything like this kind of assertiveness. We only have assertion of our rights. We do not know how to contend unless we\u2019re standing up for our rights, standing on our dignity and our goodness and saying, \u201cThis is what I\u2019m owed.\u201d But this woman is not doing that at all. This is rightless assertiveness, something we know little about. She\u2019s not saying, \u201cLord, give me what I deserve on the basis of my\u00a0goodness.\u201d She\u2019s saying, \u201cGive me what I don\u2019t<\/strong> deserve on the\u00a0basis of your<\/strong> goodness\u2014and I need it now. \u00a0 –Tim Keller<\/em><\/p>\n (the entire chapter is available\u00a0online<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n