fish on
Thursday September 10th, 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.
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