Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, February 6, 2024
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
What a woman! As a mother of special needs adult children, I can relate to her persistence. In my long history of navigating systems and advocating for services, I have not ever been called a dog, as Jesus does to this woman. But I have endured indifference, incompetence, uncooperativeness, bureaucracy, and reams and reams of paperwork. I put up with it because I have no other choice. So it was with this Canaanite woman. She had no other choice. She knew that Jesus could cure her daughter, and she would do whatever it took to make it happen.
But she didn’t just accept Jesus’ insult. In her cleverness and wisdom, she turned it around on him—calling him out as a bit of a hypocrite, actually. Talk about courageous! He could just as well have turned and walked away, and she would’ve had to watch her daughter suffer. But instead, he acknowledged her faith in calling him out. He saw her, finally. Not as a gentile, but as a woman of such love for her child and faith in God that she would go toe to toe with him. I imagine he was a little chagrined at his own behavior. (I’ve generally forgiven him, acknowledging his humanness and putting myself in his place—overwhelmed by people needing him all the time, and probably tired from his journey and maybe even hangry, but I don’t pretend he didn’t mean what he said in the moment, as some have proposed.) Regardless, she got his attention, and he responded by giving her what she wanted.
I, too, have had moments where I’ve had to be extra firm—even sassy, as she was—in my advocacy for my children. And I’ve been largely successful in getting what I want, which is what my kids need. The Canaanite woman is a role model for me. And she keeps me grateful to all the people in my life who have responded, even going the extra mile to help. I see Jesus in them (as I do in everyone) and I thank God for them and the often thankless and stressful work they do.
When have I had to advocate for someone in my life? What was the outcome?
