I recently listened to a sermon about a particular story where Jesus essentially calls a woman a dog.
"From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden. For a woman whose young daughter had an unlcean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. But Jesus said, 'Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs.' And she answered and said to Him, 'Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs.' Then He said to her, 'For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.' And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed."(Mark 7:24-30)
Jesus sounds kind of harsh. Here this woman, a Gentile, is begging for her daughter to be healed by Jesus. He responds by calling her a dog and that she isn't even worthy of eating the childrens' scraps of food. (The children here are meaning Jews). If you would call a woman a dog in today's age, just think of the consequences! But back in those days there definitely was a prejudice in regards to women and people who weren't Jews.
I think that it is also important to note that she approached Jesus begging being a woman AND a Gentile. She broke a lot of social and cultural rules to do this. That took a lot of courage. Notice something though. Jesus was being harsh and rude, yes, but not in a mean spirited way (He was perfect, so he must have known what he was saying). He was testing her. I think that Jesus' "rudeness" was His way of testing her faith because He could see her fear. And she knew who she was and how scandalous it was for her to be even talking to Jesus. So He said, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs." But instead of protesting Jesus, she humbled herself enough by agreeing with Jesus. She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs." Wow. To have her courage! She responded by saying that she would take whatever Jesus would be willing to give her, even if it's the scraps. She saw herself as someone in need of a savior and saw Christ as that savior. He was her only refuge and she also knew she was unworthy so she humbled herself before Him as we try (and often fail) to do every day.
I think that the reason I relate to this story so much, is that she finds her identity in Jesus. She was so enamored by who Jesus was that she broke her social and cultural barriers because she identified in Him. And not only that, but she identified herself as one of the dogs. And Jesus, so surprised by her faith, heals her daughter of the demon. The sacrifice that she gave to be near and talk to Jesus speaks to me so plainly. There is so much of a social stigma towards the choice I've made. A lot of people still don't understand that I'm not a homosexual anymore. And to be honest, I still struggle with it when people keep assuming that I'm just hiding behind some facade. I've chosen Jesus and not my sinful flesh or who I was before choosing Him. She chose Jesus and not who she was before choosing Him. She accepted who she was and gave herself to Jesus. I am doing the same thing. I accepted that I was a homosexual sinner and gave it to Jesus. He is continually changing me day by day and I can't give Him enough of the honor and praise that He truly deserves. Thank you, Jesus.
We're all dogs looking for scraps. Jesus offers us a never-ending bowl of Purina Dog Chow if we choose to accept it.
