Barriers Broken Down
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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. But the woman saw that her opportunity had come.
Beneath the apparent refusal of Jesus, she saw a compassion that He
could not hide. “Truth, Lord,” she answered, “yet the dogs eat of the
crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” While the children of the
household eat at the father’s table, even the dogs are not left unfed.
They have a right to the crumbs that fall from the table abundantly
supplied. So while there were many blessings given to Israel, was
there not also a blessing for her? She was looked upon as a dog, and
had she not then a dog’s claim to a crumb from His bounty?
Jesus had just departed from His field of labor because the scribes
and Pharisees were seeking to take His life. They murmured and
complained. They manifested unbelief and bitterness, and refused
the salvation so freely offered them. Here Christ meets one of an
unfortunate and despised race, that has 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 the favor she asks. She
begs for the crumbs that fall from the Master’s table. If she may have
the privilege of a dog, she is willing to be regarded as a dog. She has
no national or religious prejudice or pride to influence her course, and
she immediately acknowledges Jesus as the Redeemer, and as being
able to do all that she asks of Him.
The Saviour is satisfied. He has tested her faith in Him. By His
dealings with her, He has shown that she who has been regarded as an
outcast from Israel is no longer an alien, but a child in God’s household.
As a child it is her privilege to share in the Father’s gifts. Christ now
grants her request, and finishes the lesson to the disciples. Turning to
her with a look of pity and love, He says, “O woman, great is thy faith:
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be it unto thee even as thou wilt.” From that hour her daughter became
whole. The demon troubled her no more. The woman departed,
acknowledging her Saviour, and happy in the granting of her prayer.
This was the only miracle that Jesus wrought while on this journey.
It was for the performance of this act that He went to the borders of
Tyre and Sidon. He wished to relieve the afflicted woman, and at the
same time to leave an example in His work of mercy toward one of
a despised people for the benefit of His disciples when He should
no longer be with them. He wished to lead them from their Jewish