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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion Monday, August 25, 2003 A WOMAN TEACHES JESUS A LESSON |
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Frontline Devotion for Monday, August 25, 2003 by Fritz Foltz
A Woman Teaches Jesus a Lesson
Early in my ministry I preached a sermon with this title. A few people took offense claiming, “Nobody teaches Jesus. Jesus knows absolutely everything. He does all the teaching.” But isn’t the story about Jesus learning a lesson and expanding his entire ministry? And isn’t it especially significant that the teacher is a woman, and a foreign woman at that? Matthew says she was a Canaanite and Mark a Greek, Syrophoenician by birth.
She asks Jesus for a favor. Her daughter needs help, big time help. She is possessed by a demon.
The disciples want Jesus to ignore her, because her whining is bothering them. Jesus agrees to send her away for another reason. He believes God wants him to minister only to the chosen people, his own people, Jews. That sounds reasonable. He only had so much time and energy. You have to start somewhere. And it makes sense to start with the people who are prepared.
But the woman refuses to back off. It is her daughter. “Lord, help me.” Jesus seems angry. He uses a harsh statement to make his point. “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
Now the woman is angry. She puts Jesus in his place. “Look if you insist on calling my daughter a dog, then at least acknowledge that even selfish rich people allow dogs to eat the crumbs that fall from their dinner tables. Throw a few crumbs to my daughter, the dog.”
Jesus hears her loud and clear. He heals her daughter and begins to regard all humans as God’s children. You can’t read the Gospels without noticing a special effort to explain why Jesus ministered to Gentiles.
The way you read this passage is important for seeing how you interpret scripture and understand Jesus. You can refuse to make a simple reading of the text, supposing Jesus is actually testing the woman. I think that is really forcing it. It is much more honest, profound, and helpful to see Jesus as God who can save us only because he is a real person. Real people don’t know everything. We all know good teachers listen to us and learns from us.
This passage becomes especially critical in our time when we must face the reality of other religions in our global village. Too many of us are still arguing about other Christian denominations. We seem resigned to pushing off the discussion of other world religions on our children.
At least we can help them by teaching them the willingness of Jesus to learn new and demanding truths. None of us have everything figured out. None of us have a corner on the truth. All of us need to listen to what others have to say. Constructive criticism is not an attack but a gift for the healthy life. We are not the only children of God.
Let us pray: Open our hearts and minds, Father, that we might always be open to the truth you would have us hear. And especially this day help us to hear the words of truth spoken by those who seem to live in another world. Let our love grow. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen
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