PrintToday's "Moment with Mark" (52) - Jesus, a racist?
12 January, 2013
"First I should help my own family, the Jews. It isn't right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs." Mark 7:27 NLT)
A mother, a non - Jew, discovered that her daughter was demonized. She, like the woman with the "blood issue" (chap.5) came to Jesus because "she had heard about Jesus". Who might be the carrier of God news.
It was at this point Jesus seemed to be saying something to the effect,"God sent me to be the Messiah of the Jews, not to the Gentiles. We are God's special people therefore we have, if not exclusive rights and privileges, then at least we have priority over you. We have first claim as God's children. To give to you this wonderful provision of new life would be like taking the food out of the child's mouth and feeding it to the family dogs".
We might as well ask this pretender what is his real identity and what has he done with the real Jesus!! I mean, do you really think the True Jesus would refuse the heart-felt request of a mother for her daughter and turn her away? There is something wrong with this person because He doesn't act and speak like the Jesus we know, Right?!
Sometimes, in our frantic efforts to defend some action or saying that came from Jesus' mouth (as though we were His minder), we would do better to stop, listen and ponder what he said or what action He initiated. This encounter is just such a case in point. If I was a disciple in the crowd that day and heard Him use the example of the dogs under the table, I would be saying, "Of course, Jesus didn't mean that! He was taken out of context!
I wonder if Jesus was deliberately creating a situation - even a false impression - by appearing to be reluctant (even resistant) to grant this mother's request in order to provide a backdrop so that her persistent, tenacious faith could be seen?In the end, the fact that she was a Gentile (non-Jew) was not an issue. What counted was faith in Jesus, not ethnicity.Then again, maybe I am trying to put a spin on the words of Jesus so that He doesn't appear to be a racist??
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