Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters' table

 

Armenian Illuminated Manuscript:  text reads "The coming of the Holy Spirit in the upper room and distributing the fiery tongues to the Apostles" (with thanks to Deacon Shant Kazanjian of the Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church)

 Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon.  And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David!  My daughter is severely demon-possessed."  But He answered her not a word.  And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, "Send her away, for she cries out after us."  But He answered and said, "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."  Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, help me!"  But He answered and said, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs."  And she said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters' table."  Then Jesus answered and said to her, "O woman, great is your faith!  Let it be to you as you desire."  And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

 

- Matthew 15:21-28 

 

On Saturday, we read that, while in His "headquarters" city of Capernaum, a ruler came and knelt down before Jesus, saying, "My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her and she will live."  So Jesus arose and followed him, and so did His disciples.  And suddenly, a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of His garment.  For she said to herself, "If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well."  But Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, "Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well."  And the woman was made well from that hour.  When Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd wailing, He said to them, "Make room, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping."  And they ridiculed Him.  But when the crowd was put outside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose.  And the report of this went out into all that land.   

 

 Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon.  And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David!  My daughter is severely demon-possessed."  But He answered her not a word.  And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, "Send her away, for she cries out after us."  But He answered and said, "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."  Jesus is now in a Gentile region, north of Galilee, where He has come not to preach but to withdraw from conflict coming both from the Pharisees and now the suspicions of Herod.  Our previous reading (above) was from chapter 9, but today the lectionary skips forward to chapter 15.  By this time Jesus has sent out the Twelve on their first apostolic mission (see chapter 10), and because of His great healings and growing fame and authority among the people, and His various conflicts with them, the Pharisees have begun to demand a sign (see chapter 12).  In chapter 14, we read that Herod has also begun to suspect that Jesus is John the Baptist risen from the dead, because Herod beheaded John.  Jesus then sought to withdraw to a deserted place, but there fed a multitude of 5,000 men (and more women and children).  So by now -- due to both the Pharisees (the religious establishment) and the suspicion of Herod (who rules Galilee for Rome) -- He withdraws to this Gentile territory.  In Mark's Gospel, we read that Christ "wanted no one to know" He was there (Mark 7:24).  My study Bible notes that this story in today's reading illustrates the Jewish orientation of Matthew's Gospel.  There are two major differences between the story in this text and the one in Mark 7:24-30.  First, Matthew records Christ's words concerning the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and Mark does not.  Secondly, Matthew includes the detail that this woman uses the title Son of David, which is a Jewish term for the Messiah, and Mark does not.   My study Bible also comments that this woman shows immeasurable love in her plea to Jesus.  She so identifies with the sufferings of her daughter that she cries, "Have mercy on me," for she sees her daughter's well-being as her own and her daughter's sufferings as her own.  Jesus refuses to answer her, not only because she is a Gentile and His ministry before His Passion is first to the Jews, but also in order to reveal her profound faith and love.  Many patristic commentaries view the disciples request to send her away as an attempt to persuade Jesus to heal the daughter, as if to say, "Give her what she wants so that she will leave."  Jesus' response indicates that this interpretation is correct, my study Bible says, because He again refuses to heal the daughter.  

Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, help me!"  But He answered and said, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs."  And she said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters' table."  Then Jesus answered and said to her, "O woman, great is your faith!  Let it be to you as you desire."  And her daughter was healed from that very hour.   My study Bible comments that Jesus, having evoked this woman's love and persistent faith, Christ now reveals her humility.  She accepts her place beneath the Jews, who were the chosen people of God, yet she still desires a share in God's grace.  Christ's hesitancy was not a lack of compassion, my study Bible says, but rather it was a conscious means whereby the virtues of this woman were revealed -- both to the disciples and also for her own sake.  Her ultimate acceptance by Christ, my study Bible adds, points to the gathering of the Gentiles into the Church after Pentecost, no longer as dogs but as children who are invited to eat the bread of eternal life.  

It is very fitting in that this week of the celebration of Pentecost, our first weekday reading is this one.  To modern sensibilities, it may be offensive and strange to hear Christ speak to someone and use the term "dog" to them.  Actually in the Greek, this word is "puppy" -- meant to indicate a house dog, as one who begs under the table.  But for Christ's time and place, even still to this day across much of the Middle East cultures, dogs are animals that belong outside.  Indoor dogs as pampered pets are rather a new thing for common people, encouraged by commerce and the export of culture, and of course the kind of prosperity that belongs to a modern world and its developments.   It is also strange to us that Jesus would provoke this woman in order to encourage her faith.  But if we think about our own prayers to God, and how they may seem to go unanswered, or often are answered in the negative, we will find that God often works this way in our lives.  We are encouraged to persist in our faith and to endure and accept -- and often that negative answer turns out to be better for us (with the perception of time) than had our prayer been answered in the affirmative.  Something better or different comes along, and we find that we have changed and grown with the times, our lives have taken on a new course.  But, as the commentary indicates, often God has a way of provoking some response from us that we didn't know we had in us, a greater endurance, a new creativity, a willingness to think outside of the box of our own old expectations and certainties, or our perceived limitations.  In terms of this woman, there is yet another phenomenon modern minds may find very strange and curious that developed in the Church, and that is the tradition of the "dog-headed saint."   Quite possibly this tradition comes from the story in today's reading, but this is meant to illustrate the commentary in my study Bible, that because of Pentecost, the Gentiles are gathered into the Church, "no longer as dogs but as children who are invited to eat the bread of eternal life."  The illuminated manuscript (above) which comes from the Armenian tradition, shows a strangely "dog-headed" person (under what looks like a door at the bottom of the illumination), who preaches the gospel to persons gathered of many nations and costumes.  This has a direct bearing on today's reading, as they are those outsiders who now even preach the gospel to the world.   While we may love dogs as pets today, we can think of a "dog-faced" person as being one not only strange to a common perspective among a group of people, but also one who is unattractive, as the expression has indicated.  But nevertheless, what is "strange" (as in "stranger" and also that which is unknown or different) is gathered into the Church, and we are all called Christian; we are all under the name of Christ.  It remains always essential to our faith to consider that it is the power of Christ -- and God's work in the world in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to all -- that gathers the outsiders and makes them insiders, even making them those who preach the gospel to the world.  In all circumstances, this we must never forget as each bears an image of Christ, and even a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple bears a reward (Matthew 10:42).  The most famous name of a dog-headed saint in the Byzantine tradition is St. Christopher.  His name means "Bearer of Christ."