The faith. (Part II)

That is not all! He did not mean that gentiles are stray dogs but domesticated dogs. In other words pets!

Now consider this situation, you are the owner of the house and you have children and you have pet dogs in your house.

The Children would always eat first before the dogs get food.

²⁴ He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
²⁷ “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

The food was meant for the lost sheep of Israel. Now in this perspective, Jesus is the owner of the house, the Jews are his children and the pet dogs are represented by gentiles. 

Jesus came to bring the good news first to the Jews then through the Jews they were to make disciples of all nations. Jesus' ministry was the Jews and not the gentiles and the ministry of gentiles belonged to the Jews! In a way Jesus was letting His disciples take the charge, decide and He wanted to see how they reacted.

In the end they responded by saying 


“Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

and even opened the door for the woman to come in to meet Jesus. 

That was probably a satisfactory response as His disciples stepped up, as He kept quiet.

²⁷ “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
²⁸ “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

Then when the woman came in, her response really impacted me. She humbled herself and mentioned that she was equivalent to this pet dog in this parable.  Really! Such humility!!

I really do not understand how much faith and conviction that this woman possess for her to answer this way to Jesus. 

Firstly similar to the Army commander who came to Jesus, she understood the nature of Jesus' power and had great faith. 

Secondly, she had insight to Jesus' parable and Jewish faith.

Thirdly, she humbled herself before Jesus. 

Through the whole process, Jesus did not deny her, only telling her it is not time. 

The disciples understood through the parable that their mission was to: 

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

Lastly, the woman was healed and was not insulted through the process.