Jesus’ Other Mother

September 9, 2018

In foreign territory, Jesus is confronted by a Gentile woman who asks him to cure her daughter.  In this conversation with an exceedingly polite, deferential, distressed mother, Jesus seems to be a pitiful caricature of his compassionate self.  Besides changing his position on clean and unclean, i.e., this woman is a Gentile and therefore unclean, he uses language that’s at least politically incorrect, and at worse, profane.

What occurs next is not an act of desperation.  It’s a posture of determination.  The woman accepts Jesus’ dining room metaphor.  She even adopts his demeaning depiction.  Then she reasons, theologizes, right back at him.  “Dude, I ain’t askin’ for a seat at the table.  I’m just sayin’, if the banquet is so rich, the table so full, can a canine get a crumb?”

At our 9:30 A.M., Sunday worship, in prayer, Word, song, sermon and Meal, we experience, again, the life of God reintroduced to us in Jesus.  The God who is free, thinks, makes decisions, feels emotions, is loving and loveable, capable of changing “his” mind, and accountable.  The One in whose image we are made!

Pastor Jeff