Fish On

Friday September 15th, Mark 7: a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. 27 "First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." 28 "Yes, Lord," she replied, "but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." 29 Then he told her, "For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter." First time I read this story, I thought, “what a snot.” O come on, you thought something like that yourself; that is the point of the story. We are to be shocked, and also a bit drawn in. I can see it now, the disciples have heard all this love you neighbor stuff, and it is good and all, but deep down inside we all know Jesus doesn’t really mean "everybody." Now with this Phoenician woman we at last have some frame of reference as to where to draw the line, she was after all a real outsider and we feel Jesus is right in verbally slapping her down and putting her in her place. Then, before we know it, we, along with the disciples feel the tug of the hook and hear Jesus yell, “fish on.” We too have been caught by our own greed and need to draw lines. This woman on the other side of the line is the one Jesus uses as an example of faith, and we have learned once again how large is the family of God.