Bread for dogs?????

Who was this woman who was begging for her child?

One of those refugees who are flooding Europe to escape war?  From Syria, maybe?  Well, yes, she was of Syrian origin but she met Jesus on her home turf, in the region of Tyre.

Enough! you say.  Who wants to know about the geography?  The geography sets the whole stage for this strange encounter between a woman and Jesus when someone is called a dog.  This woman was Syro-Phoenician, in the region of Tyre, a Gentile.  That is the author's four fold way of telling us she wasn't Jewish....at all....not a little bit.  And she wants something from Jesus.

What she wants is a healing for her daughter who waits off stage.  She wants it from Jesus - a Jew. Things get a little confusing if not truly tense because Jesus rightly points out God's promise that the gifts of God are first for the chosen people of Israel, that is, the children of Israel are to be 'fed first'.  No self-respecting Jew would give away God's healing power to outsiders willy-nilly.  Or to quote Jesus "Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs."

It's that word 'dogs' that catches most of us unaware.  Did Jesus just call this woman a dog?  Some Bible interpreters say that the Greek word is better translated 'puppy.'  But would you rather be called a 'puppy'?  Or was Jesus just talking about her tribe in general and not her in particular?  Would that make any difference?  Some say Jesus was just testing her faith.  By calling her a dog?  Is that the Jesus we think we know?

The woman who will not be put off.  "Even the dogs under the table's eat the childrens' crumbs".  Wow!  That's humility for you.  Don't know if I could have swallowed my pride to utter that statement, although many of us begging for the life of our child might have done the same.  She gets what she wants; Jesus grants the healing of her daughter.

In that action, Jesus opens the Kingdom of God to those beyond the nation of Israel.  In this strange little story Jesus sets the Gospel Agenda:  all God's people have a place in the kingdom:  those born of Israel and all the others too.  It's this agenda that we know so well; the story we aren't so familiar with.

Jesus is, at best, inscrutable.  The woman is determined yet humble.  The girl waits unaware.  Very strange story.  Just the other day I wondered if Jesus could have been testing....not the woman....but the disciples who were nearby listening.  Did Jesus pronounce the 'dog' thing while looking sideways to gauge the disciples' reaction?  To see if they could reach out to someone so utterly 'other'?

No matter what, Jesus crosses national borders so to cross longstanding traditional boundaries so that it could be perfectly clear that the kingdom of God, the healing and life offered through Jesus, were gifts for the whole human race. That, my friends, is Good News.

It's just that dog comment.  Gets me every time.