fish on

Thursday September 10^th, Mark 7: ²⁵In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. ²⁶The 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."  ²⁹Then he told her, "For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter."   This woman was an outsider to the people of Israel and to the disciples, and therefore in their minds she was to be ignored.  I view this as verbal fishing.  The disciples often hear the words of Jesus, but don’t often get them as they should.  Now they are in foreign country and the exchange between Jesus and this foreign woman is curt and cranky.  As the disciples, and you and I often hear the exchange and start feeling better that Jesus is finally beginning to set some limits.  In the back of our minds we are thinking, “you tell her Jesus, you tell that ‘dog’ that she is not one of us, we are the children of God and she is only a woman, and a woman from this foreign faraway place at that.”  The disciples, as do we, take the bait and swallow the hook, Jesus yanks on the pole and the disciples and we feel the sting of being caught in our own prejudice.  Instead of one of “them” Jesus points out this foreigner, this woman, as an example of faith to all of us.