Dogs and Crumbs

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today's Gospel lesson is not a popular one. It is not one of those accounts of Jesus being all nice and sweet. He does not multiply bread and fish and feed a zillion people. He does not have compassion and heal crowds of sick people. He does not do anything neat and cute and altruistic. He does not even say anything nice that we can file away in a Hallmark card and save to spout later when it sounds cute. In fact, today's Gospel lesson makes Jesus sound like a jerk.

Here is this poor woman, and she comes to Jesus, asking Him to heal her daughter who has been severely oppressed by a demon. And what does Jesus do? Nothing. Not one thing. He keeps on walking. He ignores her. Gentiles do not approach Jews, and women do not approach rabbis. It is as if she does not exist.

Then, after she has pestered His entourage enough that the disciples entreat Jesus to make her go away, He tells her that He was not sent to her, and calls her a dog, one of the more offensive terms one could hurl at another human being in that day. Dogs were scum, scavengers and nuisances, a cause for concern and disdain, dirty and impure. And Jesus called this woman a dog, simply for coming to ask Him to heal her daughter. What a jerk, right?

The Outcasts of Israel

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

We are conditioned not to like outsiders or strangers. It is instinctually uncomfortable to encounter someone you don't know, and even more so to actually interact and get to know the person. Each of us has his circle of friends and acquaintances, and we don't like that bubble being invaded. We train children to avoid unknown people, using phrases like “stranger danger!” to ward off the wayward inclination to talk to someone new. For vulnerable children, this may be good advice, but when do we outgrow such a maxim?

Acceptance of outsiders is the basic theme of the movie from a few years ago “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”. In the film, a girl from a large, very traditional Greek family falls in love with a non-Greek man, and many comic episodes ensue in the quest to mesh their worlds. At one point in the movie, the girl's father goes on a rant about his daughter's intended: Is he a good boy? Is he from a good family? Does he have a good job? Does he love his mother? I don't know! He's not Greek! Why couldn't she find a nice Greek boy?!