Mark 7.24-30,
Matthew 15.21-28.
Title get your attention? Well this story gets a lot of people’s attention—when they’re not skipping it, or trying to explain away what Jesus did, ’cause it makes ’em uncomfortable. ’Cause Jesus absolutely acted racist.
Lemme state this first, so you catch its full impact when you read the text: Dogs are pets in our culture, but not at all in Jesus’s. They were considered vermin. Scavenger animals, like raccoons, opossums, wolves, wildcats, rats, buzzards. Wild, untrustworthy, sometimes dangerous. Pack animals which hassled livestock and endangered children. Dogs would eat anything—dead things, feces, their own vomit.
This is why whenever we see the words for “dog” in the bible—every single time!—they’re a synonym for the filthiest of animals. It’s why John wrote this in Revelation about New Jerusalem:
Revelation 22.15 ESV - Outside are the dogs gand sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
This mindset about dogs is what makes Jesus’s first statement in this story, really offensive.
Mark 7.24-27 KWL 24 Jesus gets up from there- to leave for the Tyrian/Sidonian border.
- No one should know him when he enters a house there.
- But he couldn’t hide.
25 Instead a woman, soon hearing of Jesus,- falls at his feet as she comes to him.
- Her daughter has an unclean spirit.
26 The woman is Greek;- her race is Syrian and Phoenician.
- She begs Jesus
- so he might throw the demon out of her daughter.
27 Jesus tells her, “First,- allow the children to eat!
- It’s not right to take the children’s bread
- and throw it to the dogs.”
Matthew 15.21-26 KWL 21 Jesus comes out of there.- He goes to a part of Tyre and Sidon.
22 Look, a Canaanite woman from that coast,- coming to him, calls out,
- saying “Have mercy on me sir—son of David!
- My daughter is badly demonized.”
23 Jesus doesn’t say a word to her.- His students are asking him questions.
- They begin to say, “Make her go away;
- she’s making noise in the back.”
24 In reply Jesus says, “I’m not sent to any- but the lost sheep of Israel’s house.”
25 She falls at his feet as she comes to him,- saying, “Sir, help me!”
26 In reply Jesus says, “It’s not right- to take the children’s bread
- and throw it to the dogs.”
Yikes.
So how do we reconcile this behavior with the fact Jesus
The key word is “acting.”
You’ll notice this a few different times in the scriptures: Every so often, God acts out of character.
Not because the writer of that book got the story wrong. Nor because God slipped up, or decided, “Y’know what? Today I’m just gonna be wrathful.” God isn’t inconsistent like that. His character is unchanging—and
It’s a test. One he expects us to pass; he’s not gonna drop such tests on people who don’t actually know who God is. We’re meant to respond, “Wait, God! This isn’t like you.” Like Abraham did.
Genesis 18.23-26 ESV 23 Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it?25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”
Well of course the judge of the earth is gonna be fair.
Moses passed this test too:
Exodus 32.9-14 ESV 9 And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”11 But Moses implored the LORD his God and said, “O LORD , why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ”14 And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
Moses knew the L
It’s to challenge his people. To make sure we’re alert, and recognize there’s something amiss. To see whether we really know him. Like Jesus did
This is actually an advanced test. One, sad to say, a lot of Christians don’t pass. So it says a lot about this woman that Jesus was willing to spring it on her… and she did pass.
Unclean gods. Unclean people?
Though the gospels never mention the mother nor daughter’s names, Christian tradition has named ’em Justa and Bernice. Probably this guess isn’t even close, but I’ll use these names anyway.
Mark identifies them as Syrian Greek, born in Phœnicia (present-day Lebanon). Matthew just calls ’em Canaanite. Syrian Greeks were the ethnic group which lived all over northern Israel, mainly in the Dekapolis, the 10 Greek-speaking cities founded by Alexander the Great and the Seleucids after him.
Pagan Greeks treated demónia like we Christians treat guardian angels: They wanted ’em around, to fight their smaller spiritual battles. And some of ’em actually invited these demons to get inside them—to possess them, and grant them supernatural power. If you’ve ever wondered why Jesus was throwing out demons right and left in the gospels, this is why. This was just how widespread the practice was in ancient times. Even Jews dabbled in it.
And it’s still around today. Even Christians who know these Jesus stories, who should know better, still fool around with “helpful” spirits whom they think are beneficial, good angels. But really these creatures are just messing with them, and wanna own them—and given the chance, they do. They take over, and life becomes a waking nightmare for the demonized person. Even the ancient Greeks realized if you had a demon in you, sometimes you just weren’t right anymore.
Justa could’ve tried her local “physician” for help. In that pre-scientific culture, physicians weren’t doctors; they were witch-doctors. They used folk remedies, narcotics, or they’d even throw in a few more demons to root out the first demons. (As if they’re not all on the same evil side.) For all we know, the physician may have put the first demon into poor Bernice.
Justa heard Jesus had a really high success rate in exorcisms. Maybe she even heard the testimony of
Thing is, pagans don’t understand how exorcism works. Neither do many Christians. Typically they think it involves a special ritual: Say the magic prayers, pray the blood of Jesus, pray
Quite a lot of Christians buy into this ridiculous thinking. Which works out great for devils, ’cause once you go through your favorite rituals, they can pretend to leave. After you’ve gone home, they can go right back to tormenting the poor human. They do this all the time with spiritualists, witch doctors, and even psychologists. And of course naïve Christians.
So no doubt Justa expected Jesus to do as Pharisee or pagan exorcists: Perform some ceremonial acts and wham, her daughter’d be free. But Jesus’s response…
Matthew makes it even plainer: “I’m not sent to any but the lost sheep of Israel’s house.”
So Christians get all hot ’n bothered. Jesus is kind, loving, sympathetic, and patient; we know he is. So why’s he calling a needy woman and her suffering daughter “dogs”? This is not the act of a kind person. Maybe a bigot who’d rather send masked agents to round up all the brown people, and keep the rest out of the country with a wall. Certainly they imagine Jesus is their kind of guy. But still: Infinite divine patience doesn’t do what Jesus just did.
Some commentators note Jesus uses the word
Even if Jesus did benignly mean a house pet: You’re in need, you go to a guy for help, and he tells you no, and compares you with a house pet? What the heck? No matter how thin you slice the baloney, Jesus’s statement invariably comes across as an insult. And racist.
Racism in the scriptures.
For those who claim Jesus wasn’t being racist, that I’m just reading racism into this story: Jesus just told Justa no, and his reason is she’s gentile. Wasn’t based on her character. Wasn’t based on any supernatural knowledge that this wasn’t that important. Wasn’t based on this being a bad time (though that’d probably be the students’ excuse). Wasn’t based on her charcter. It was entirely about her ethnicity. Jesus stated he’s only here to help Israelis. It’s exactly the same as a shopkeeper who won’t serve you because you’re black, a lady who crosses the street to keep away from you because you’re brown, or a neighbor who won’t give you the time of day because he’s sick and tired of whitey.
Certain Christians try to claim the whole Jew/gentile divide wasn’t about race but religion; that if you converted to Judaism you’re no longer gentile. Pharisees traveled to other countries to convert pagans,
But Pharisee thinking isn’t exactly like Christian thinking. Regardless of Ruth’s devotion to Naomi, the L
Deuteronomy 23.3-6 ESV 3 “No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the LORD . Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the LORD forever,4 because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.5 But the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam; instead the LORD your God turned othe curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loved you.6 You shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever.”
And regardless of Christians’ devotion to Jesus and the L
But the distinction between Jew and gentile is entirely racial. Has nothing to do with religion.
Tangent over; back to the story.
The good news of God’s kingdom—including the good news that Jesus includes everyone!—wasn’t yet widely known. It was barely known outside Israel. Likely Justa never heard it. She was probably used to all the usual, casual racism she’d encounter back then: Jew against gentile, Greek against Syrian Greeks and Arabs and Persians, Roman against non-Romans. What Jesus said was, sadly, nothing new to her. She probably expected a Jew to be unsympathetic towards her.
Still didn’t make it right for Jesus to say it. So why’d he say it? Like I said: It’s a test.
Justa’s response was, correctly, faith:
Mark 7.28 KWL - In reply she tells Jesus, “Yes sir;
- and the dogs under the table are eating the children’s crumbs.”
Matthew 15.27 KWL - She says, “Yes sir,
- for the dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”
Even if Jesus considered her, and her fellow Syrian Greeks, to be dogs: He’s Lord of all, and that includes dogs. If he’s only there to minister to Jews, she’ll happily take whatever he has left over.
Many Christians speculate the reason Jesus challenged Justa with his “dogs” crack, is because she may have had a hangup with authority or racism, and this was meant to snap her out of it. They imagine Justa had refused to help her Jewish neighbors, and now the shoe was on the other foot, and Jesus was pointing this out. Or she came to Jesus with the attitude, “If he picks on me for being gentile,
But in real life (unlike the movies) you don’t cure racism with irony. You don’t cure pride by humiliating people. Sympathy cures people of pride and racism. Kindness smacks ’em square in the conscience.
I don’t claim I do know why Jesus picked this particular challenge. ’Cause often the scriptures just don’t tell us. We aren’t told what people were thinking, or their real motives and issues. These were secrets then, and they’re secrets now. All we know is Jesus knows what people are thinking,
Mark 7.29-30 KWL 29 Jesus tells her, “For this saying, go home:- The demon came out of your daughter.”
30 She leaves for her house,- and finds her child thrown on the couch—
- and the demon had come out.
Matthew 15.28 KWL - In reply Jesus tells hier, “Oh woman, your great faith!
- It will be as you want.”
- Her daughter is cured that very hour.
It was a good answer, so Jesus answered her request.
What’s our takeaway? Sometimes God’ll challenge us. Be prepared for it.
Don’t figure your knee-jerk reaction—“God is kind; he’d never say anything so offensive!”—is correct. It’s not. God is kind, and that’s why sometimes he’s gotta startle us out of our prejudices, ruts, or other false ideas. Sometimes his treatment will sting. But it’s always for our good, and for the best… no matter how it initially looks. Got it?
