What Would You Do If Jesus Called You A Dog?

Matthew 15:22-28: A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

What would you do if Jesus called you a dog?

I am not asking you to answer that out loud. But I am asking it seriously. It is not a rhetorical question, and I am not being flippant or ironic. What would you do if Jesus called you a dog – or more precisely, if he implied that you, like this Syrophoenician woman, belonged in the category of dogs?

I can imagine how some modern evangelicals might bat that question away. Someone might say, “Oh, Jesus would never call me a dog. He loves me unconditionally. Nothing I can do can make him love me more, nothing I can do can make him love me less. He rejoices over me with joy. He cradles me in the arms of love and calls me his friend. He’s never mad at me. He’s just madly in love with me. So he would never call me a dog. I don’t even have to think about that.”

Well. The real Jesus – not the Jesus of sappy, inane, biblically under-informed evangelical rhetoric, but the Jesus who actually exists - called some people terms much worse than “dog.” For example, he called Herod Antipas a “fox.” In Luke 13:32. He said to Pharisees, “Go tell that fox [Herod], ‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’

In their culture “fox” did not mean someone who was crafty and wise. That image comes from Aesop’s fables hundreds of years later. For the Jews, a fox was a worthless, insignificant, good-for-nothing pest. We might say a rat or a cockroach or a mosquito. It was definitely an insult.

It gets worse. Jesus called the Pharisees and teachers of the law “sons of hell” in Matthew 23:15. He called them “sons of the devil” in John 8:44. In John 6:70 he called Judas a devil. He even called Peter “Satan” one time. He said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men.” I would be lying if I said that I have never set my mind on the things of men, but only on the things of God. Jesus’ term for people who value the things of men over the things of God is “Satan.” In my opinion, that’s a lot worse than calling someone a dog.

Therefore I do not shrink back from putting myself and the members of this congregation into the sandals of the Syrophoenician woman this morning and asking the question, “What would you do if Jesus called you a dog?”

I have 4 observations that may help guide toward something of an answer.

1. It’s “puppies” actually.

The usual Greek word for “dog” is kuon. When used metaphorically of human beings in the New Testament, it is always negative. Very negative. For example, Jesus said, “Do not give what is holy to dogs, or cast your pearls before swine.” (Matthew 7:6) The apostle Paul said “Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh.” (Philippians 3:2). St. Peter said, referring to people who turn their backs on the way of righteousness, “The dog returns to its own vomit.” (2 Peter 2:22). And St. John said concerning the holy city, “Outside are the dogs, the occultists, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.” (Revelation 22:15). Those were all dogs, kuons in Greek. Metaphorically they always refer to bad people.

But the word used here with the Syrophoenician woman is the diminutive form of that word, kunarion. Not “dogs” but “little doggies.” Puppies. These would not be stray dogs in the street that might have rabies. They’re household doggies, pets. They are even at the kitchen table where they might pick up a scraps dropped by the children. In the New Testament it is only in this conversation with the Syrophoenician woman that this term “little doggie” is used.

I lived for a time in 3 different countries of Latin America. And I learned that the term “gringo” – depending on the region – could have an insulting, derogatory edge to it. But you could take that edge off or even make it affectionate by using the diminutive form “gringito.” “Some of my best friends are gringitos.” I suspect there is some flavor of that in this text. Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman did not use the derogatory term for a mongrel stray dog but rather a household puppy.

That said, they are still distinct from children. Puppies do not have the same status or the same privileges as children of the house. And that leads to my second observation, which is, Jews first.

2. Jews first.

The Bible makes clear repeatedly that Jews have priority in the unfolding of God’s plan for humanity. It’s Jews first, Gentiles like me second. In Matthew’s account of the Syro-phoenician woman, Jesus rebuffs her at first by saying, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” That echoes what Jesus said when he first sent out his 12 disciples during the course of his earthly ministry. He said to them in Matthew 10:5-6, “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.” The Gentiles would have to wait their turn.

And that is how the apostles and early Jewish Christians carried out their ministry. Acts 11:19 says this: Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. (Then after that some spoke to Gentiles.)

When Paul embarked on his missionary journeys, he always went to his fellow Jews first. In Acts 13:46, he and Barnabas said this to a hostile Jewish audience in Pisidian Antioch, We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.

Paul did the same thing in Acts 18 when he took the gospel to Corinth. Verses 5 and 6 there say, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. But when they opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

So Gentiles like me – and I think like most or all of you – we do get to share in the blessings of God’s work. That too is part of God’s plan. But the Jews are first in line. As Paul wrote in Romans 1:16: I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes – to the Jew first, then to the Gentile.

Now this should not be understood to mean that all Gentiles are damned to hell until Jews reject the gospel and then that leaves the door open a crack for Gentiles too. No, the Bible is full of examples of righteous saved Gentiles even in the Old Testament, like the Ruth the Moabitess or the widow of Zarephath in Elijah’s day. Then at the birth of Jesus you have Gentile wise men worshiping him. So when I say “It’s Jews first,” that does not mean that Gentiles were damned. What it does mean however is that there were certain advantages or privileges given to the Jews over the Gentiles. Paul lists some of those in Romans 9:4-5 when he writes, to them (the Jews) belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

So there was great privilege granted to Jews. And that privilege was reflected in the ministry of Jesus and the early apostles. So, for example, Jews might get some healings that Gentiles did not. Does that seem unfair to you? If that seems unfair to anybody, please remember this: With great privilege comes great responsibility. Jesus said in Luke 12:48: To whom much is given much will be required. Privilege implies accountability. I know people who experienced the miraculous and yet later turned away from God. It would have been better for them not to have experienced the miraculous in the first place. Privilege is a two-edged sword.

And if I may be vulnerable with you, it is the sobering truth that privilege carries responsibility that gives me pause when contemplating my death or the return of Christ, and the moment arrives when I stand before Jesus and render an account of deeds done in the body, good or bad. I will give an account of my stewardship of the resources entrusted to me. The reason that troubles me is that I personally have been privileged beyond measure. I was raised by godly parents in a Christian home in a peaceful suburb in the most prosperous nation that planet earth has ever known. I have the Bible in my language and have received instruction from the finest teachers the Church has to offer. No man in the world has fewer excuses for sinful thought or behavior than I. May God have mercy on my soul.

But let us circle back to the Syrophoenician woman. She was an unprivileged, second-in-line distraught Gentile at a time when Gospel truth and miraculous healings were being granted to a few privileged Jews. Imagine she has heard how others received miracles from Jesus, and maybe she would want to say to him, “You healed that woman’s demonized daughter – why won’t you heal mine?” And Jesus says, in effect, “Because that woman is a Jew. You’re a Gentile. She’s a child; you’re a puppy. Jewish children have privileges now that Gentile puppies don’t.”

How is the Syrophoenician woman to respond to that? One way would be to draw back and say, “Well I never! How dare you treat me with such disrespect just because I’m a Gentile! I will be treated as an equal with dignity or else I’m done with you. How do you like that?”

It puts me in mind of that account in the Old Testament when Naaman the leper approached Elisha the prophet to be healed. It is in 2 Kings 5. Elisha sent a servant to Naaman with the message, “Go wash yourself 7 times in the Jordan, and you will be cleansed.” And Naaman was offended by that. He thought that Elisha himself should do him the honor of coming out to greet him personally. The text says that Naaman went away and said, “’I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?’ So he turned and went off in a rage.”

Fortunately for him his servants intervened and talked some sense into him. They pleaded with him that it was a very simple thing that Elisha was asking of him. Just do it, just wash in the Jordan – what have you got to lose? So Naaman swallowed his pride, bathed 7 times in the Jordan and was healed of leprosy.

Here in the New Testament I believe that Jesus, among other things, was giving to this woman a test of humility. (That is my third point, (3) A test of humility). Jesus did test people sometimes. The Bible says in John 6 that he tested Philip by asking him how they were going to feed a multitude that had gathered. That was a test because it says that Jesus already knew what he was going to do. The Bible also says that he knew what was in people’s hearts. It says that in John 2:25. I believe he knew what was in this woman’s heart. And he was giving her a test that he knew she would pass with flying colors. It was a test that would stand as a rebuke to the privileged Jews all around her. Would she now walk away angry and offended, or would she humbly accept his designation of her as a “second-class citizen,” a back-of-the-line Gentile, a mere puppy?

Listen. If you would come to Jesus Christ, you must do so humbly. You do not square up your shoulders and stand tall and proud. You bow. You accept his designation of you as a sinner 100% in need of his grace. You do not come to Jesus with a list of demands - and if he fulfills them then you’ll do him the favor of stooping to be his follower. You come to Jesus as a beggar with no options, no bargaining chips, no leverage that you can use against him. You speak to Jesus as this Syrophoenician woman did. “Lord, son of David, have mercy on me.” “Lord help me. I’m not saying I deserve it. But please, help me.”

Many years ago when I was young in my Sunday School class we would sing a unity song that had the line, “We will work with each other, we will work side by side. And we’ll guard each man’s dignity and save each man’s pride.” Thankfully, even as a child I had received enough sound teaching to know that that was dead wrong. We will not guard each man’s dignity and we will not save each man’s pride. Not if we love them. Satan guards his dignity. Satan saves his pride. And he longs to do the same for us, because he knows there is no greater barrier to blessed union with God than creaturely pride.

The Bible says in James 4:6 and elsewhere, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. So, if you come to church to have your dignity upheld then boy have you come to the wrong place. We come here to be humbled. We come here to be convicted of sin. We come here not to celebrate our greatness but the greatness of God, to revel in his glory and not our own. We kneel at the foot of the cross of his Son Jesus Christ. As it says it Psalm 115:1: Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory.

Jesus tested this woman to see if her sense of dignity and self-worth would be an obstacle to receiving his blessing. She passed the test. She passed that test through the gates of humility, as must we all.

4, I believe that Jesus was also testing the woman’s persistence and perseverance.

The woman came to Jesus because she was troubled. Her daughter had a demon. She wanted deliverance for her daughter, and only Jesus could help. But how badly did she want that deliverance? How much did it really matter to her?

I have already suggested one scenario where a prideful woman might take offense, stamp her foot and say “Well I didn’t come here to be insulted!” and walk away with her pride intact but with a daughter still held captive by a malicious demon. Which raises the question, “Did you really want Jesus’s help?”

Recently I heard a host on Christian radio talking about how easy it was to be born again. It was the typical rhetoric I hear all the time of “Jesus did it everything, all we have to do is believe.” And she wanted her guest to answer a challenge that she thought might come from unbelievers. “How can it be so easy? There’s got to more to it. It can’t be that simple, right?” I did not get to hear his answer because I was on my break from work and I had to go clock back in.

But I know how much we want our rescue to be easy, simple, effortless, demand nothing of us, present to us no obstacles or challenges. The problem is I’ve read the Bible. Lots of times. And for the life of me I can’t see how Jesus made it simple or easy for people to be his disciples. He regularly put obstacles before people who wanted to get saved the easy way. He said “Count the cost”. He said “Whoever does not give up claim to everything he has cannot be my disciple.” He said “If you do not value me over your own family members you are not worthy of me.” He said if you would come after me, deny yourself and take up your cross daily and follow me. And when he had too many followers in John 6, he got rid of almost all of them by giving them a tough message about how he had to be their lifeblood, their food and drink, spiritually speaking. That was a bridge too far for thousands of people, and they walked away.

For those who are half-hearted and insincere, there are off-ramps. There are plenty of them. And over the past 30 years I have seen many people take those off-ramps and abandon the Lord Jesus Christ for one reason or another. For the Syrophoenician woman in this account, an off-ramp has opened up before her in the form of an insult to her dignity. She has been told, “Ma’am, you are a second-class citizen, you are a puppy not a child. The children get served first.”

But thanks be to God. Along with those off-ramps by the path for those who are half-hearted and insincere, there is also the theme of pushing forward on the narrow path, and of God rewarding those who persevere in seeking him. God rewards perseverance of that sort. Think of Jacob, who wrestled with the pre-incarnate Christ in Genesis 32 and said, “I won’t let you go unless you bless me.” Think of blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10 crying out, “Jesus son of David have mercy on me!” People told him to shut up, but he would not shut up. He just shouted all the more, “Jesus, Son of David have mercy on me!” Think of Mary Magdalene grasping the feet of the resurrected Jesus in John 20 until he says, in effect, “You can let go now Mary. I have not yet ascended to the Father. I’ll still be around.”

God rewards those who pursue him earnestly. He says in Jeremiah 29:13: You will seek me and find me when you seek with all your heart. Isaiah 55:6 says, “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near.” Jesus said, “Seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened, ask and it will be given.” And Hebrews 11:6 says “Anyone who comes to God must believe he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

I told you a minute ago that there two words in Greek for dog – kuon and kunarion, dog and doggie. In the same way there are two words for “seek”: zete’o and ekzete’o. Scholars seem to think that that second word is more intense – seek earnestly, seek diligently. That is the word used in Hebrews 11:6. God rewards those who seek him earnestly. Do you really want God’s help? How badly do you want it? Are you sure that you want him to remake you into the image of his Son Jesus no matter what that costs you? Or are you kind of hoping to be deterred from that transformation? Would you welcome an off-ramp?

The Syrophoenician woman in this story has tunnel vision for the deliverance that only Jesus can give, and she will not be deterred. She will take, in full humility, whatever scrap he is willing to give her. She says, in effect, “Ok, I’m a puppy. Fine. But please, even the puppies get to eat the children’s leftovers.” You know how the story ends. Jesus commends her faith and grants her request. As I said before, I think he knew what was in her heart all along.

A former coworker of mine was an atheist until I think about 6 years ago. He didn’t believe in God, and he acted in accordance with that unbelief. Then God did a work of grace in his life by filling him with terror and severe distress. It was really bad. He ran to back to God, and God rescued him from the pit.

Then in October of the year before last he and his wife had their first child. There were life-threatening complications in the delivery. There was the real possibility that he would be left a childless widower. He cried out to God in desperation. He told me how he prayed. I talked to him the other night to confirm the details. I can’t repeat to you his actual prayer because he used some colorful words that I don’t say. (We’re still waiting for God to redeem his tongue.) But it was an honest prayer. He said, in his own way, “God, I’m a freaking piece of foul refuse. I don’t deserve anything, I know I’m a bleeping expletive bleep bleep bleep. But please. Save my wife. Save my son.”

That was not a proud man’s demand for justice but a beggar’s plea for grace, and God in his mercy granted that request. When I talked to him the other night on the phone I could hear his son in the background. He said he was chasing his son as he ran around the house. And his wife is fine too.

Now at last I am in a position to answer the question that I started with. What would you do if Jesus called you a dog? I can’t answer for you, I can only answer for myself. “Paul, what would you do if Jesus called you a dog?”

I would sit up and beg.

Let us pray.

Father, we come to you now not as colleagues demanding an explanation but as beggars pleading for grace. We’ll take whatever you are willing to give us. You have given us so much already, and we thank you for that. I’ve already testified that I am privileged beyond measure. But we are bold to ask for further grace to be conformed fully to the image of your Son Jesus Christ so that when we see him it will not be a day of sorrow and regret but joy unspeakable and full of glory. In his name, amen.