Woman of Canaan
211
rebuke to the disciples, which they afterward understood as reminding
[303]
them of what he had often told them: That he came to the world to
save all who would accept him. Whoever sought the Saviour, ready
to believe on him when he should be manifested to them, were of the
lost sheep whom he had come to gather in his fold.
The woman was encouraged that Jesus had noticed her case suf-
ficiently to remark upon it, although his words conveyed no definite
hope to her mind, and she now urged her case with increased earnest-
ness, bowing at his feet and crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou
Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.” Jesus,
still apparently rejecting her entreaties, according to the unfeeling
prejudice of the Jews, answered, “It is not meet to take the children’s
bread, and to cast it to dogs.” This was virtually asserting that it was
not just to lavish the blessings brought to the favored people of God
upon strangers and aliens from Israel. This answer would have utterly
discouraged a less earnest seeker. Many would have given up all fur-
ther effort upon receiving such a repulse, and would have gone away
feeling humiliated and abused, beyond all patience; but the woman
meekly answered, “Truth, Lord; yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which
fall from their masters’ table.”
From the abundance upon which the rightful family feasts, the
crumbs fall to the floor and are devoured by the dogs that watch for
them under the table. She acknowledged that she occupied a like
position to that of the brutes that accept thankfully whatever falls
from their master’s hand. While favoring God’s people with rich and
[304]
bountiful gifts, would not Jesus bestow upon her one of the many
blessings he gave so freely to others? While confessing that she had no
claim upon his favor, she still plead for a crumb from his bounty. Such
faith and perseverance were unexampled. Few of the favored people
of God had so high an appreciation of the Redeemer’s benevolence
and power.
Jesus had just departed from Jerusalem because the scribes and
Pharisees were seeking to take his life; but here he meets one of an
unfortunate and despised race, that had not been favored with the light
of God’s word; yet she yields at once to the divine influence of Christ,
and has implicit faith in his ability to grant her the favor she asks.
She has no national nor religious prejudice or pride to influence her
course of action, and she unconditionally acknowledges Jesus as the