I remember how shocked I was when I first heard the story of the Canaanite woman in the Bible with a demon possessed daughter, and how she came to Jesus, heart in hand, but was initially rejected. See, there’s a warped view of our Lord that’s circulating around the world, one where no punitive measures or harshness is ever noticed as being tied to him - harsh according to most contemporary customs of the world, of course. If looked at wrongly, one might not understand why Jesus had to whip the money peddlers that hovered around the house of God, a sacred place of worship. As such, as a youth, first hearing how Jesus rebuked this Canaanite mother, who’d only sought what was best for her daughter, willing to leave no stone unturned, I was disheartened to read the Lord telling this poor Canaanite woman that he “was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel”. The woman, kneeling, begged him, “Lord, help me!”

In today’s world, though, most people might label Jesus a racist, without understanding God’s plan of salvation, and how the Jews needed to reject their Messiah in order to have salvation turn towards the nations. Still more, at the time, as a toddler, nothing shocked me more than our Lord’s next words to this already downtrodden woman. Jesus answered and said to her, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” All I could think was, He just called her a dog, yet she did nothing more than beg for his mercy the same way that most Israelites did. Be honest with yourself, what would you have done were you to get such a response? After all, I’m not quite sure how much revelation this woman had that the man that she spoke to was God that she might and could bear any sort of insults.

What I am sure of is that this Canaanite mother had crazy amounts of faith and love. Faith that this man who’d healed many an infirmed person would do likewise for her daughter, and immense love for her daughter, enough to support making the trek to the Lord in the first place. Rather than doubt, the mother’s response was instead beautiful, humbling, and eye-opening, even for our Lord, as it embodied a faith so robust as to emotively move God to act on her behalf. She countered Jesus’ argument about it not being right to take the children’s bread and give to the dogs by pointing out that “Yes it is, Lord. Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

Wow.... “Woman,” began The Son of Man, “you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And, indeed, as the scriptures go on to detail, the woman’s daughter was healed, that very moment.