Caught
Lections: The Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost ( Lectionary 20 ), AD 2026 A Homily: Lord, we pray for the preacher, for you know his sins are great. Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. So—is Jesus a jerk? That’s the uncomfortable question in everyone’s mind once we read this passage. A woman comes to Jesus, begging His help, not for herself but for her daughter; who suffers, mind you, not from any earthly ailment but from the spiritual predations of a demon. First Jesus ignores her pleas. Then He says that it’s not His job, that she isn’t within His purview, and therefore not His problem. Finally, He calls the woman a dog—she a mother who wants nothing other than for Him to save her child. That’s pretty rough, no matter how you slice it. The whole thing’s hard to spin in a positive light. Many will say, from their various pulpits this morning, that the woman in this story taught Jesus a lesson; that her cleverness and persis...
