24 And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. 25 But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.” 29 And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.
Today's Daily Lesson is a story from Jesus' day and time which mirrors our own.
There is a woman from Syrophoenicia -- modern day Syria -- who is desperate for the well-being of her child. She begs for help.
And there is in Jesus a response about the needs of his own people being a priority. "Let the children be fed first." This response has always bothered me coming out of Jesus' mouth. But today I am glad for it; it shows the honest concern Jesus had for his own people and gives us permission to be honest about our own.
And yet, the woman does not give up. She continues to beg and to plead on her child's behalf. The desperation in her voice and the tears in her eyes cannot be unheard or unseen. And seeing and hearing, Jesus is moved to an act of compassion.
Something about this woman moved Jesus in such a way that changed him not only in that moment but in fact changed his whole life and ministry. Before this encounter all his work was in Jewish territory, in and around the Galilean countryside. But after this encounter he would expand his mission field, he would move out beyond Galilee into the Decapolis in Gentile territory. As the writer Mark puts it Jesus would now cross over "to the other side".
This means I and the rest of the Gentile world have much to be thankful for in this woman. For in asking on behalf of her own son she also asked on behalf of ours and our children. And moved with compassion, Jesus grew in wisdom and in the knowledge that He had come not only for deliverance of His own people but for the healing of the whole world.
Thanks be to God!
And thanks be to this Syrophoenician woman!
Artwork:
Limbourg, Herman de, approximately 1385-approximately 1416; Limbourg, Jean de, approximately 1385-approximately 1416; Limbourg, Pol de, approximately 1385-approximately 1416. The Canaanite Woman asks for healing for her daughter, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55920 [retrieved January 31, 2017]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Folio_164r_-_The_Canaanite_Woman.jpg.
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