July 24
Shaming Jesus
By Richard BeckPage:
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One of the more difficult passages in the gospels is Jesus’ exchange with the Syro-Phoenician woman. Specifically, many have puzzled over Jesus’ calling the Gentiles “dogs.” The story from Mark 7:24-30:
Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
“Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”
She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
There is little doubt that Jesus privileges his mission to Israel. Jesus is, after all, the Messiah of Israel, the culmination of the story of Israel for the sake of the world. However, throughout Jesus’ ministry we see him bring the “kingdom” into the lives of Gentiles, a sign of Jesus’ vision of the universal vocation of the Messiah.
What grates in the story of the Syro-Phoenician woman isn’t any of this but the racial epithet “dogs.” Did Jesus really consider the Gentiles “dogs”?
There have been a variety of responses to this query. Some point to Jesus’ use of the diminutive for dogs: “little dogs” or “puppies.” That softens things a bit. Which leads to perhaps the most common interpretation, that Jesus was being ironic or playful with the woman to test her and the assumptions of the onlooking disciples.
I’m OK with that interpretation, but I was struck the other day reading a different interpretation in Ched Myers’s commentary on Mark, Binding the Strong Man.
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Comments
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Very interesting article. I love love love this story in scripture. It has long made my mind wonder, how could Jesus lose this argument? The greatest movement leader in the history of mankind, who shamed the brightest minds of the religious movement of Israel...lose an argument to a Gentile woman? I have to think like everything else Jesus did, this was calculated. One thing I do wonder is, did this woman's argument flow out of her faith? I was always of the understanding that it was still the woman's faith that merited Jesus response. Not so?
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First, it would be good if the author would rewrite his last sentence so that it means something. What sort of “shaming” is he advocating, and in what way will this expand “the kingdom?” And who does he have in mind to do the shaming? Disgruntled church members? Occupy Wall Street? Gays? Convicts? Mormons? Who? I don’t think that anyone has any idea.
Second, it is very unattractive when a writer appropriates a word from another religion in order to boast or show off. The author is most definitely NOT in “midrash mode,” and in no way can his own cluttered ideas be compared to the rigorous reasoning used for Midrash hermenutics. The bio says that the author is interested in “why Christian bookstore art is so bad.” Yes, tell us about it. Meanwhile, what’s that verse about specks of dust and planks?
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In this response, I will address the following issues.
You tell MWR online readers that Jesus was a darn good debater. Profanity is an attempt by a feeble mind to express itself forcefully.
At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. Despite all Satan’s efforts, Jesus came out of that victorious. Satan could not shame Jesus.
Jesus was led to this woman by the Holy Spirit. It was not a meeting by chance. Jesus was there on a Holy Spirit led teaching and healing assignment that has been recorded in the Bible for all generations to come to be blessed by truth. This mother’s faith came out of this conversation and was rewarded. Jesus simply speaks the word and the demon spirit departs from the body of the young daughter.
It is obvious that this article is presenting false teaching. No human or angelic being has ever out smarted or shamed Jesus, the divine Son of God full of the Holy Spirit of God the Father. This was not a debate or an argument as the article writer would have MWR online readers believe.
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