April 28th, 21

A group of Pharisees and a solitary Gentile woman, come to Jesus. And Jesus seems to offend them both are so it seems at first, the Pharisees are offended for sure. Peter says to Jesus, "don't you realize you offended the Pharisees, by what you just said", Jesus has criticized their traditions. He's called them hypocrites, blind guides, and they're offended. And as for the Gentile woman, on the face of things, it seems that she would be offended too. But though the Pharisees take offense, the woman does not. The Pharisees come to Jesus in unbelief, in their own righteousness. They don't come with any sense of need other than their need to justify themselves. They come to him, in fact, to point out that he is somehow in the wrong. He's not insisting on the tradition of hand washing, on their standards of holiness, and on their interpretation of the Scriptures. In contrast, the Gentile woman seemingly has plenty to take offense at. He has just compared her with a dog. Any comparison with a woman and a dog doesn't seem like it's gonna go well. yet. Jesus also calls her "dear woman," and I don't think he's being snide here. I read this as sincere, she is dear to him. And by the time this story is told, we'll see just how dear she proves to be. Jesus is teaching here. He's contrasting the Pharisees, and this dear woman. The woman doesn't come in her righteousness like the Pharisees. She doesn't come trying to justify herself. No, she comes in humility, in desperate need, in faith, for the love of her daughter she comes, she comes ready to worship Him. The Pharisees, they left the way they came, still thinking Jesus wasn't living up to their standard of holiness, still not saying and doing the right things. Still not washing his hands, the way their tradition and their reading of the Bible said was the only way. They left offended. They left blind and empty. The Gentile woman, she leaves completely different from the way that she came. She leaves knowing that she is dear to God. She wasn't adhering to any of the so called right ways of living, that the Pharisees had. And yet she leaves with a heart that is full, and a daughter that is delivered. This woman had faith. Jesus commends her for it. She has faith that she and her daughter are dear to God, out of her faith in God's love, comes healing, deliverance, and life.

Today, let's join this dear woman in faith, trusting that we too, are dear to God. were loved by him. And from His love will come the healing, the deliverance and the life that are yours in Christ. That's a prayer that I have for my own soul. That's the prayer that I have for my family for my wife, my daughters, my son. And that's a prayer that I have for you. May it be so.

You are loved!