Daily Lesson for October 16, 2020

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 7 verses 24 through 30:

24 From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, 25 but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29 Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” 30 So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Today's Daily Lesson is the keyhole through which the Gospel door is unlocked and the door opened to all the world.

Before this moment the ministry of Jesus was only for the Jews, and there was the first feeding of the multitudes on the Jewish side of the lake. Afterward, however, there is the feeding of the Gentiles also.

Before this encounter, Jesus was certain that his mission was first and foremost for his own people. In fact, he even equates the Gentile people to "dogs" in his aphorism -- revealing his own prejudice.

But this foreign woman will not take no for an answer. If the woman must be a dog for the sake of her child then so be it. And seeing the woman's compassion and love, Jesus' heart breaks. He is changed. He understands now he is not only to be messiah of the Jews, but savior of the world.

I have no problem with the idea that Jesus had to overcome the parochial prejudice of his own time, and place, and culture. We all do. And the Scripture even says it itself --"He grew in wisdom and stature."

And, think about it, who wants a savior who couldn't grow? Who needs a savior who hasn't had to overcome prejudice?

None of this would have happened had Jesus not been on the border. I don't know what he was doing there -- vacationing? Who knows.

But it's a good reminder, experiences with the Other can change us -- especially encounters with the suffering of Others. For in the end, we humans are all the same. And what mother would not be willing to become a dog if it meant life or death for her child?

In this case it meant life for her biological daughter, and all the rest of her spiritual children, who were not born Jews but have been blessed and saved by the Jew Jesus anyhow.

"Salvation is from the Jews," Jesus said. But thanks to this bold foreign woman we can thank God Jesus came to see it wasn't for the Jews only, but also for the rest of us also.

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year. Tomorrow's Lesson comes from Matthew 16 and Mark 8.