The Bible is a book with a wealth of things to offer. But
there are in it “some things that are hard to understand.” 2 Peter 3:15-16
One of these is in Mark chapter 7 where a woman who is not a
Jew asks Jesus to heal her daughter. Jesus replies to her, verse 27: “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.”
This sounds harsh, maybe even cruel to us. That’s why we
cannot stop at that passage. We need to search the Scriptures to find out what
else they have to say about this subject.
Jesus knew he had come to save people from all nations. In
Matthew 8:5-13, he praises the Roman Centurion for his great faith. Jesus says
that many will come from other lands to sit with Abraham in Heaven
From early in the Old Testament, God promised that the whole
world would be blessed by Abraham’s descendant.
Genesis 12:3
Genesis 22: 18: and through your offspring all nations
on earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me.”
Maybe Jesus used this incident in Mark 7 as a lesson for his
disciples and other Jews. Maybe it’s a parable, with a strong, shocking
picture, to teach us … so many things.
My opinion? Truly, you can’t buy a Snickers bar with the
amount of money you can get for my opinion. But I wonder if, first of all, this
wasn’t simply for that lady, the mother.
She was a Greek, so she knew the Jews wouldn’t want her
around. But she wanted her daughter healed, so she behaved with desperation,
with bravery, with hope that this man Jesus she’d heard about could help her.
First of all, Jesus would have wanted her to accept him as
her Savior. Maybe he knew he had to push her even further than she was willing
to go, to make her think even more deeply about who he was.
The Bible is sometimes hard to understand. But God, with
grace, has promised us the Holy Spirit to help us find the meaning.
John 16: 13: But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes,
he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will
speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
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