A Jesus Story: Jesus and the Gentile Woman

Back in March, I had an assignment to write a small-group teaching on something from the life of Jesus. I wanted to do something a bit out of the box for a regular "teaching." At the time, I was a part of the cast of the musical Godspell which brings the life of Jesus into a modern setting. I was daily being presented with the story of Jesus- translating the sometimes seemingly "lifeless words on a page" of the Gospels into encounters with a living, breathing person that could have happened just moments ago they are so real. So, I decided to take a story that I have a hard time understanding, study it, read some Bible commentaries on it, look up a few key words in their original Greek (as I've been taught as a "responsible" Bible student) and rewrote it. 

Taken from Matthew 15:1-28 (ref. Genesis 12:1-3; 22:15-18) NLT: 

Jesus is out in Genesaret, doing his thing, healing people, casting out demons, and the religious teachers decide his is a prime time to ask him a question. (v. 1)

“Excuse me, Jesus. Why don’t you make your disciples follow all the ceremonial rules? They are very important traditions. Our great-grandfathers made them up themselves.” (v. 2)

“Why do you obey your grandfathers instead of God? Those rules they made up to “help” people “obey” the commands of God really just reinforce disobedience. Hypocrites! The traditions you follow help you serve yourselves while the commands of God are meant to show you how to love people the way God does.” (vv. 3-9)

Well, the disciples can’t handle this.

“Jesus! You just offended the religious teachers! They are, like, the chosen ones of God’s chosen people!” (v. 12)

“Guys, look, anyone that wasn’t planted by my father will be rooted out. Sure, they seem like the top dogs. Really, though, all they are is blind mice who decided they could see better than the rest of the blind mice, and are leading everyone into a hole.” (v. 13-14)

And the disciples are just like, “Whoa. Sweet… We still don’t get it.” (v. 15)

So Jesus takes them on a little trip, up north. (v. 21) Now they are in an area with a much lower concentration of “the chosen people” and far more Gentiles (the ‘un-chosen”). Well, one of those Gentiles – a woman, so pretty much the most un-chosen of all the un-chosen – hears that Jesus is there. Like the religious teachers in Genesaret, she also finds this to be the perfect opportunity to ask Jesus something. But this woman is on a totally different page. She is desperate. She comes to Jesus crying and begging.

“Jesus! Lord! Son of David! Please help me! My daughter is in torment! She is constantly tortured by an evil spirit! Would you heal her? Please?” (v. 22)

But he totally ignores her. This is out of character for Jesus. He acts like she doesn’t even exist. She goes on, pleading, begging, “Jesus, please! My daughter!”

You know who does notice? The disciples. She is driving them crazy! They are annoyed. The are offended. Who does this woman think she is, clearly she is not good enough for Jesus. But oh my goodness she is annoying! So they go to Jesus.

“Seriously? Do you not notice this woman? She is driving us nuts! Make her go away!” (v. 23)

So Jesus finally turns to her and he says, “Look, don’t you know I’m here to help the chosen people of God?” (v. 24)

Finally! He is acknowledging her! She runs through the crowd, falls at Jesus’ feet, and begs “Please Lord! Help!” (v. 25)

But he seems unmoved, “would it be right for me to take food from the children to throw to dogs?” (v. 26)

Talk about offensive. But do the disciples care now? No! She’s not a chosen one. Good for Jesus!

But this desperate woman doesn’t give two pennies about being offended. She knows what power Jesus has. She believes that he can do anything. The smallest bit of power from him can end the torment her daughter faces day after day.

“I know, you’re right. But dogs are allowed under the table to pick up the scraps that would fall from the children.” (v. 27)

“Dear woman,” Jesus has made his point to his disciples. He now pours compassion on the woman, “you have such great faith. Your request is granted.” And immediately her daughter was healed. (v. 28)

This woman had gone through life knowing what it was like to be a dog under the table. She knew she wasn’t one of the “chosen”. But she loved her daughter. She loved her daughter and she understood something about God that the religious teachers, and even the disciples, had missed. When God chose Abraham and his descendants, the people of Israel, he had a special purpose for them. He wanted to bless the whole world through them, and use this chosen people to shower his love onto all people. (ref. Genesis 12:1-3; 22:15-18)