A Canaanite woman once came to Jesus and started shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’
But he did not answer her at all, we are told in the Gospel according to Matthew.
When he does answer her, his words seem harsh: ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’
There is a lesson here about how we are to come to Jesus on which I have heard sermons and maybe preached myself. But I only noticed yesterday something about what intervened.
The disciples were rather bothered about the woman's shouting and urge Jesus to send her away to which he responds ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’
What sort of answer is this? ‘You're quite right. This pagan dog is a real nuisance. Let's send her on her way so that we can keep our focus on the lost sheep of Israel.’ No, that's not what Jesus said.
It seems that the disciples and Jesus knew of only one possibility of sending the woman away - by dealing with her request. Jesus does not even contemplate the possibility of shooing off the woman empty-handed. This is why he speaks of his mission.
There is an amazing gracious truth hiding in these harsh words. We cannot approach Jesus as if we had any right to have our wishes and desires fulfilled by him but neither need we fear that he will send us away entirely empty-handed.
