Table scraps

Sometimes we find it hard to believe that Jesus would have called people dogs.  Of course, His Jewish contemporaries would have known what He meant when the woman came to Him bringing her daughter who had an unclean spirit.

And what is more intriguing is what transpired next.

“For a [certain] woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet: The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast [it] unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs. And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.” Mark 7:25-29

Jews and Greeks didn’t get along all that well.  And forget about a Jew and a Syrophenician.  They had history. 

And the woman knew it.  And she didn’t care.  There was something more important to her than what someone called her, or what anyone thought of her.

Her daughter.

Any parent can understand this. 

This woman heard that Jesus was in town and believed He could help.  More importantly, she believed that He would. 

When she saw Him she fell and His feet.

She was open, honest, and had a contrite heart.  So she was not despised.

She knew that healing her daughter was but table scraps to the Messiah.  Even if Israel didn’t recognize Him, she did.  And she was rewarded for it.

We have no indication that she became a Christian.  We have no indication that she even believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  We just know this…

She was desperate, and in her desperation she asked for help from Jesus.

And He gave it.

Yes… the Lord answers the prayers of even those who don’t confess Him.

Because He loves them,

SDG