They say that as you get older it becomes easier to remember things from by-gone days.
So, the other night, I am lying in bed and what pops into my mind in the middle of the night but:
“Resolved that the Federal Government should adopt a program of compulsory arbitration in labor management disputes in the basic industries…”
It was a debate topic from around the year 1964.
From there – my mind went to the “Great Debate” in Matthew 15. Reportedly, it is the only debate/argument that Jesus ever lost – and he lost it to a woman, who happened to be an outsider, a foreigner, a long-withstanding-enemy of his people and a gentile!
The topic of debate was something like:
“Resolved that the grace and the love of God is extended to everyone, regardless of their cultural background and heritage.”
Now take your individual sides and discuss.
Pros and cons…
Do the research…and come back and we will see who wins this particular debate.
Google, if you wish! Jesus takes the con side!
Jesus states that he was sent…only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel…he came to save and set them free…
So what I hear you saying is that: the savior of the world, was sent only to a specific ethnic people, without care or concern for the rest of the world’s population! Is that what you are saying, she asked him point blankly?
In the background we can hear the disciples yelling and screaming, “Send her away…” “Send her away!” “Send her packing, come on, you can do it!”
But this persistent woman would not stand for it…No one was going to tell her to “bug off” where her child was concerned. So she held her ground.
What she did next was unbelievable in the midst of a debate.
She came and she actually bowed down and knelt before him.
People bowed down before kings and emperors. You did not bow down before honored teachers, especially foreigners…
I wonder if Jesus recalled the stories he had been told as a child growing up – about “others” who had come and knelt before him – even in his infancy…
Surely there had been “others” as well.
What do you say, what do you do when some is humbly kneeling before you?
So, Jesus said, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
The woman continued to hold her ground. She was passionately persistent. She was not intending on taking “No” for an answer.
To her it seemed like Jesus and his disciples were not compassionate, nor receptive to her and to her persistence.
Still, she had no intention of giving up.
“Yes Lord” (she called him Lord) – yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
Now that was a good argument. It was a true statement. People could actually envision that happening. She must have won points for that statement!
The Greek word used here is kunaria. Kunaria were not street dogs, but little household pets. Household pets were very different from the pariah dogs who roamed and scavenged from the streets and alleyways…
Jesus was impressed. Two points for her. Not only is she persistent, but she knows how to verbally hold her own.
Jesus actually went so far as to concede the debate to her…so he answered her, “Woman, great is your faith!”
Jesus did not say these words lightly!
She was after all a woman. A Canaanite. A foreigner. An enemy of his people. A Gentile. But she could definitely handle herself.
Not even in Israel. Not even in the Temple in Jerusalem. Not even among the Pharisees or the Sadducees had he seen such faith. Heck, not even among the scribes or his own group of twelve for that matter. The “other rabbi’s” never displayed such faith.
It was insane. It was amazing. Here, of all places…in Gentile lands…it was here that he found such faith…and it came from the simple heart of a woman.
Jesus said to her, “For saying that, you may go-the demon has left your daughter!”
And according to Mark’s gospel, she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
Not just faith – but “GREAT FAITH,” he said.
Woman – One, Jesus Zero! It was a pretty good day debating, especially for the woman!
Amen.