This is the episode is part 33 in a study on the gospel of Matthew. This chapter has some challenging words as Jesus comes into contact with a Canaanite woman and at first says that what he is bringing is not for her.
click here to download (mp3)
by Chris Christensen
This is the episode is part 33 in a study on the gospel of Matthew. This chapter has some challenging words as Jesus comes into contact with a Canaanite woman and at first says that what he is bringing is not for her.
click here to download (mp3)
This story in Matthew 15 is very troubling. A Canaanite woman cries out to Jesus to heal her daughter. By the end of the story, her daughter has been healed — but between the crying and the healing, Jesus says some terrible things. He’s arrogant, racist and just plain mean.
I agree that that is a very difficult passage. I wonder if Jesus was saying what the disciples (who wanted to send her away) were thinking. Also, remember the context that the Jewish teaches would condemn Jesus just for seeing him talk to a woman, let alone a Gentile one. Before you jump to conclusions, remember that Jesus hung on the cross for the Canaanite woman also. That does not seem arrogant to me, so maybe there is something else going on here.
It seems to me to be a test of faith. I wonder what is the difference between test and tempt? We think of test as someone encouraging us to say what we’ve learned. Where as tempt is a way to get someone to say or do what they know is wrong. Jesus is not a tempter.