A Crumb of His Greatness

So lately I have been doing a lot of homework, which requires me to really dig in a figure out what a text is really saying. The process is called exegesis and it is simply the process by which one interprets the Bible. So I was reading Matthew 15:22-28 which says:

And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon." But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, "Send her away, for she is crying out after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." And he answered, "It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table." Then Jesus answered her, "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed instantly.

So as I first read that passage I began to wonder why in the world Jesus would be such a jerk because at first glance it seems as though Jesus is calling this woman a dog. However, there is an important theological principle that struck me right between the eyes as I really began to search. The fact of the matter is that this was a woman and a gentile. In Jesus's time men did not socialize much with women in public and it was even more crazy for a Jew to speak to a Gentile. This woman was a gentile but yet she displayed more faith than many of the Jews that surrounded Jesus. In chapter 14 of Matthew we see Jesus healing people and this woman, having heard of this great man came and asked for a crumb of his greatness. This woman realized that Jesus was so powerful that if she could glean a crumb of his power her daughter would be healed. However, Jesus knew the faith of this woman and once she displayed just how great her faith was, he told this Gentile woman, who he had every right to have sent from his sight, that because of her great faith, her daughter would be healed.

The word pistis in the original Greek is the word that is used for faith in this passage and it simply means conviction of truth. However, as I began to look it became more and more apparent that a lot of the times that this word is referenced is in times when people had to stop looking to other things and focus on God first. Many times we get caught up in the little things that are all around us but it is not about all the stuff that we have going on but rather about having faith that God will see us through it all. This woman stepped out of a cultural norm or cultural comfort zone and trusted that Jesus would honor her trust, and he did.