The Scribes and Pharisees - read that the religious people of the day - try to attack Jesus' wildly effective ministry by pointing out that he does not observe the finer points of their tradition. In their minds, this disqualifies all that he is and does.
Jesus addresses them briefly, and then turns to the crowds and to his disciples and points out that they just don't get it.
A Canaanite woman comes and begs Jesus to heal her daughter. The harshness of Jesus response to her was troublesome to me. As I looked for helpful answers I came across a blog post written by a student at Dallas Theological Seminary. He traces the exchange to the art of haggling for what one needed in this culture. Her is an exert from his thesis, "The woman was the sort that's common in that part of the world. Sharp-tongued and persistent, she liked to haggle and 'one-up' the other person. She'd have been unhappy if Jesus had listened her immediately, nicely, and with interest, and then granted her request. Instead he played the haggler's game with her. First he wouldn't talk (i.e. sell at any price). Then he said, in essence, "Well, I certainly won't sell to someone like you." When she gave him the snappy reply, "even dogs get crumbs" (in that part of the world dogs aren't treated well), the game had been played to the last card and it was time for him to concede. She could then leave, happy that she'd haggled him to her point of view, that she'd gotten the best possible price. Incidentally, I think she is the only person in the Gospels who gets the better in an argument with Jesus. The pious Pharisees, the rich Sadducee's, and the clever lawyers all got 'skunked' when they tried to take him on. Only she won. That's Jesus compliment to her, and I'm sure she took it as such." Rev. Mike Perry.
This chapter ends with Jesus feeding the crowds again, this time with more initial food, less people (4,00 instead of 5,000 men) and fewer leftovers! Still, a wonderful sign and a full belly all around!
About Me
- Pastor Bill
- I am a committed follower of Jesus Christ, a happy husband, father and grandfather!
2 comments:
"I'm sorry friends, but they just don't get it!" Oh, My Jesus! We do so often get caught up in tradition and what-not that we can forget about what's going on with the Faith. I wonder if Jesus would make it a requirement to celebrate Christmas and Easter - It seems that life would be a little different if we were under Jesus' rule. Washing your hands?! C'mon.
That's a really interesting take on that chapter ending. How crazy it is that the woman was haggling my God!? I don't know if I'd ever be able to do something like that. It seems like you'd get a certain aura when you were around Jesus, and you would just no not to speak out/retaliate against him. He's God! I'm glad you found that explanation of what happened, because his initial response certainly did not sound like something Christ would say, based on how he has responded to people in the past.
I'm glad he feeds people again. It continues to show me how much Jesus will provide for our needs as we continue to give up everything else and follow him. Sometimes, we really need to know that. He's been doing that so far with Sara and me, and it's been incredible.
Why do we ever doubt? I wish he could come along and do that to some food panties around here. Can you imagine?
Thanks Bill
Marsh
"For the sake of tradition, you make void the word of God." Jesus doesn't beat around the bush with that one!!
That's an interesting commentary on the interaction with the Canaanite woman. Never thought of that way. Still not entirely satisfied, but what fun would that be?!
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