Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“But she answered him, ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, February 14, 2020
by R. Fergus Moir, Clergy Stuff
This is a tough passage. No one is quite sure why Jesus initially reacts with such hostility to the Syrophoenician woman. Some people have attempted to spin the story, saying Jesus was just trying to teach his disciples a lesson by acting out their own prejudices. But there’s nothing in the text that actually says or even suggests this interpretation. The fact of the matter is that Jesus himself initially denies a foreign woman God’s love, even insulting her in the process—he calls her a dog, which was a pretty serious thing in Jesus’ time.
Yet that woman, in a supremely Jesus-like move, turns the tables on him. “Sure,” she says, “I’m a dog. Whatever. But dogs sit under the table during dinner and the children—who are sloppy and wasteful—drop crumbs, which the dogs get to eat. I’ll take my crumbs now, please.”
I imagine Jesus was impressed by this. We can’t know what was going on in his head, but the woman essentially came out and said, “You and I both know that the Jews you came to save don’t all get it. They’re sloppy and wasteful with the favor God has given them, and it lands among the gentiles—God’s love is for them, too.” And whatever he was thinking, Jesus took decisive action. He healed the woman’s daughter as requested.
So many Christians behave as if God’s love is exclusively for them, that no one else is deserving of God’s grace and mercy. They condemn anyone who disagrees with them, often treating them as though they were the dogs alluded to in this story. It is on us to change the narrative on behalf of the Other. To call out those classifying others as “unworthy.” Rather than taking for granted that God somehow favors us, we must reach out and include all people in God’s favor.
Do I hold myself above others based on belief systems?
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