Who Speaks For Those Who Can't?
By providing cures for a deaf-mute and the daughter of a foreign woman, Jesus does much more in this week’s lectionary gospel passage than mere healing -- he makes a powerful point about people who were routinely ignored in his culture. Jesus even gives us glimpses of his society’s attitude with his initial response to the Gentile woman’s begging (“it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs”). Her rejoinder (“even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs”), however, reminds Jesus (and us) that despite prevailing prejudices we are all God’s children...