Did Jesus Call a Woman a “Dog”?!

Transcript: Did Jesus Call a Woman a “Dog”?! (Auto-Generated from MS Slack)

0:01Hey, everyone want to address something that I mean, it’s already been addressed by others.

0:06I I don’t know.

0:07Hopefully this would add something to it.

0:09I pray it’s something that people have gotten kind of offended by or think that Jesus may have been wrong about which already should be a red flag like what this is the Lord like we’re the ones wrong in our assessment and I think you’ll find it here too.

0:24But here’s where people are concerned of Jesus language.

0:27I’m gonna read the story.

0:28It’s about the healing of a Sian woman.

0:31It’s a gentile woman and here’s what happens.

0:34I’ll read it from Matthew 15.

0:36It also is found in Mark seven.

0:38We’ll look at that in a moment.

0:39Matthew 15 verse starting with the verse 21.

0:42And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tea and Sadan and behold a canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying have mercy on me.

0:52O Lord Son of David, my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon, but he did not answer her word and his disciples came and begged him saying, send her away for.

1:03She is crying out after us.

1:06He answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

1:11But she came and knelt before him saying, Lord, help me.

1:15And he answered it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.

1:20She said, yes, Lord.

1:22Yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.

1:27Then Jesus answered her oh woman.

1:29great.

1:29Is your faith?

1:30Be it done for you as you desire?

1:32And her daughter was healed instantly.

1:37OK, so people flag this and say, whoa, he’s calling a woman a dog.

1:43What’s up with that?

1:46I think I, I don’t wanna laugh because I know it’s a serious question.

1:51It really is because it sounds degrading to women.

1:54When you read it and kind of with, I think it’s, I think what’s happening is it’s reading it with a modern lens of the way we use words and not the way Jesus in the Bible uses words.

2:05I, so I just laugh a little because I’m like, I think it’s missing the whole thinking point.

2:12When I read this, I honestly am greatly blessed and challenged because I’m like, huh, the Lord didn’t just, you know, I i it offends our concept of, well, he just, he just bends over backwards for everyone and that’s kind of how the Lord is because it’s all about us, right?

2:26That’s how we think.

2:27No, the Lord is saying he is willing to die on the cross.

2:31Yes.

2:32Even for gentiles, which is the point of what he’s getting at with her talk, the reference of the dog.

2:39A dog is an unclean animal.

2:41Ok.

2:42It’s, it’s a reference in Leviticus that the dog would be unclean.

2:46So gentiles were called, dogs.

2:48Philippians three.

2:50It’s even a stronger starker way.

2:52Paul Paul says that.

2:54so that’s what he’s saying.

2:57But you know what Jesus died for the unclean and guess what?

3:01That’s you and me like it or not.

3:04We are in ourselves unclean.

3:06We truly are dogs and honestly worse.

3:09And so, I read the story and I think, yeah, we kind of have got it twisted.

3:14We think Jesus should bend over backwards for us.

3:15If we just kind of even kind of whisper, even whisper a little prayer.

3:18He, you know, he’s just ready to just, it’s all about us.

3:21I think the Lord is trying to say, hold on, hold on.

3:23Who are you?

3:24I wanna see a little staying power.

3:27Are you willing to actually fight things through with me or are you willing to ask and seek and knock and keep asking and keep seeking, keep knocking.

3:34This story strikes that to me.

3:37OK, let me read it also from Mark’s version because I think it might be helpful.

3:44Mark 7 24 through 33 30.

3:48And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tir and Sadan and he entered a house and did not want anyone to know yet.

3:53He could not be hidden.

3:55I love it, by the way, one thing Jesus could not do be hidden.

3:58So anyone who says they have Jesus in their heart, he’s not gonna be hidden anyway.

4:03verse 25 but immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet.

4:10Now, the woman was a gentile, a s Phoenician by birth.

4:13And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

4:16And he said to her, let the Children be fed first for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.

4:22She answered him.

4:23Yes lord.

4:24Yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.

4:27And he said to her for this statement, you may go your way.

4:30The demon has left your daughter and she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

4:34OK.

4:35Amen.

4:35First, I just wanna say this frustrates me that people are looking at this story as Jesus degrading the woman.

4:41He he healed the woman’s daughter.

4:45He healed the woman’s, he commends the woman for her great words.

4:50He he leaves her as a stark example against the, against the the disciples.

4:55And look at what she’s done.

4:56She’s, she’s, she’s willing to fight this through.

4:58This is wonderful.

5:00He does so much for this woman.

5:02It just, it just makes, brings tears to my eyes the way people are insulting Jesus.

5:05But I think it’s worldly eyes thinking of Jesus in a worldly way.

5:09So instead, first off, so let, let’s, let’s just take a step back.

5:13OK?

5:14Why?

5:15Oh no.

5:15Another thing I should actually say.

5:17And here,, it, it brings us out.

5:20Mark, seven verse 27 he says, let the Children be fed first notice that he’s, I think there’s a little tip of the hat saying I, yes, I’m, I’m here for the Jews right now, but there’s gonna be a time coming where the gentiles are brought in and that’s what he does on the cross again.

5:38He dies for this woman.

5:41He dies for the gentiles.

5:42Please.

5:43Please do not offend the Lord by saying, oh, he was so derogatory to call her a dog.

5:49Ok.

5:50So now with all that background, I just want to just take a quick moment.

5:54this won’t, I hope this doesn’t take long.

5:56I don’t think it needs to.

5:57, why are people offended in the first place?

6:00Well, I, I, let’s just really sit and pause here.

6:04Is it because he’s, I’ve kind of heard it this way or thought this way.

6:07Ok.

6:08Oh, he’s calling a woman by an animal.

6:10He’s calling a, he’s comparing a woman to an animal.

6:13and, and a dog at that.

6:15Well, before we even get to the dog part, just think about that.

6:17He’s comparing a woman to an animal.

6:20Did you read the whole section here?

6:21Did what I just read, I think about that.

6:25he said, actually we’re gonna go to Matthew’s version here, Matthew 15 and it says, excuse me, verse 24 Jesus answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

6:42Huh?

6:43That sounds like an animal, doesn’t it?

6:45So here he calls the, is he calls the Israelite sheep and then he calls the gentiles dogs.

6:52This is ok.

6:54So first off, take all offense off.

6:55He calls everyone an animal.

6:57You’re either a Joe or a gentile, you’re either a sheep or you’re an animal.

7:00So clearly he’s not trying to insult people by calling them animals.

7:04so then what is a sheep?

7:05A sheep is one that follows the shepherd?

7:08I mean, they don’t do it that great.

7:09Look at, John 10.

7:11Jesus draws it out.

7:12Actually, he’s talking about the Israelites and the sheep hearing the shepherd’s voice and saying there’s a lot of sheep who aren’t hearing my voice.

7:17They’re really not my sheep.

7:19so just because you’re calling yourself a Jew.

7:22Yeah.

7:22Hold on.

7:23I don’t know that you really are one if you, you, because you’re not following me but, but my point is he calls he, he, he points out here that Israelites can also be called animal names.

7:32Oh, man, everyone should be offended.

7:34Right.

7:35Well, I, let’s look at another place in Matthew.

7:37I think this is, if, if you’re offended at that, let’s let’s go even further.

7:41Right?

7:41Why, you know why stop there?

7:44excuse me, look at Matthew 10 and it says Matthew 10 verse 16.

7:52He’s speaking to his disciples here.

7:55Anyway, behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.

8:01So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

8:04There’s four animals mentioned here, three of them are gonna be are, are, are what he wants his followers to be.

8:11He said, you’re a sheep.

8:12I also want you to be wise as a serpent.

8:14That serpent is an unclean as satanic animal.

8:19But he’s using it in a descriptive way.

8:21He’s saying, think like the world a little bit, you know, think like, you know, be shrewd, understand, don’t be ignorant of Satan’s ways is another way I I see that why is the serpents innocent as doves?

8:32So he’s also saying, but, but think about the innocence of doves.

8:35So he’s using animals to draw out who you know, different attributes, different traits.

8:41And of course, he says, go in, you’re going in the midst of wolves.

8:45So the wolves are ready to devour you, right?

8:48So he’s using animals just as a word picture.

8:51He Jesus is brilliant in every way and he uses animals to give a quick sense of what he’s really getting at.

8:58let’s do one more.

9:00If you go to Matthew, this is all of Matthew as well.

9:02Matthew seven.

9:03if anything, this would be the most, the Starkes, if you will of the animal, attributes, he gives to people Matthew seven and he says, verse one judge not that you be not judged.

9:19and he goes on and, and, and talks about moving the, get the plan because some people will say, oh, see, we don’t judge.

9:25Well, it’s not quite what he’s saying.

9:27He means, don’t judge by your own faulty standard.

9:31Take the plank out of your eye and then you’ll see a speck in someone else’s eye so you can grab that and you know, correctly.

9:37So first deal with your own issues.

9:38So don’t be crit is the main point.

9:41, that I, that I, that I think he’s getting at here.

9:44And then in Matthew seven, verse six, do not give dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before pigs unless they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

9:54Now, that’s a very strong and stark word picture here.

9:56Again, two animals mentioned.

9:59I think, and I’ve heard others say this, I, I’m, this isn’t, you know, original with me.

10:06This take But what is he getting at?

10:09Well, in the Jewish law, dogs would be unclean, but pigs were also unclean, but they’re unclean in a, in a slightly different way.

10:16Dogs were, you’re unclean.

10:19If you’re a land animal, you’re unclean in two ways.

10:21One was that you had a cloven hoof.

10:23I’m sorry, if you didn’t have a cloven hoof.

10:25So dogs have paws.

10:26So they’re unclean, but a pig does.

10:29So they’re actually clean on that count.

10:31But the other way you could become unclean is if you’re not, if the animal isn’t chewing the cud, they need to be excuse me, willing to chew or they, they have an ability to chew the cud.

10:45And so in that sense, then the pig becomes unclean.

10:48So outwardly, the pig is actually clean because it has the cloven hoof.

10:52But inwardly it’s unclean.

10:54A dog is outwardly and inwardly unclean.

10:58And so I think there might be a reference here.

11:01The pig being like one like a hypocrite really.

11:05one who is outwardly looks clean but inwardly is, is not, which is exactly how he describes Jesus and elsewhere describes the Pharisees.

11:12He says outwardly, you know, your weight washed tombs, you’re out, your, your outside looks clean, but inside you’re really, there’s no chain, there’s no holiness, there’s no actually following after in your heart.

11:23, dogs as, as opposed to dogs who are all just all clean.

11:28Unclean.

11:29Ok.

11:30So, and I think the, it’s, of course, it’s, it’s so amazingly wise here.

11:36He’s saying you might have these great precious things the Lord has given you, but don’t waste your time with the unclean.

11:44whether they’re outwardly unclean or, or maybe they’re outwardly seeming clean, but inwardly, they don’t want anything to do with the pearl and ultimately the pearl of Christ, the pearl of the Gospel, they just don’t want it.

11:56And he says, don’t waste your time with them.

11:57Because if you keep around the, around those people who clearly have nothing to do with Christ, it’s gonna actually destroy you and it’s gonna destroy them.

12:05Excuse me, they, they don’t know what to do with this precious thing that you have because they don’t want it.

12:10They’re, they’re not, they’re not willing to be changed.

12:14OK, so I hope you can see now we have pigs, we have dogs, we have sheep, we have wolves, we have serpents and we have doves.

12:24That’s before we even get to the serra pho woman, which is what we started this ad.

12:27OK.

12:27So then you go to Matthew 15 back where we started.

12:30We’re gonna end here is now we’re back to the story of the woman.

12:34and the quote unquote insult, at least that’s what a modern, you know, eyes and ears are hearing and saying this is so insulting.

12:42Oh man, he’s calling a woman a dog.

12:43Well, like we we saw already he’s calling, he’s calling all people.

12:47He’s calling people every, all sorts of animal names, including in his own passage.

12:50He calls this the Israelite sheep.

12:53So, and that’s not a fair thing to say.

12:55Well, it’s a derogatory because he calls a woman, a dog.

12:58You know, he call, or because he calls a woman an animal.

13:01, like we saw, he calls everyone an animal even in this passage.

13:06So the next part, yeah, but it’s not just an animal, it’s a dog.

13:11Ok.

13:11But did you hear what I just said?

13:14And what, how that would have, why, why that was used?

13:17It’s because it’s outwardly unclean and it, it mentions that in the passage and Matthew 15 to mark seven, she’s a gentile.

13:24I mean, that’s a fact and that would have been, it, it, it might, I mean, it was kind of a sharp thing and I think Jesus is trying to say it sharply.

13:33We are unclean.

13:35We are unworthy of him.

13:36I, I think that’s part of it.

13:38Like, I think people have this weird concept.

13:40I mean, it’s a very, it’s a, it’s a very sad concept.

13:43It’s a very unbiblical concept that somehow we are worthy of Jesus and he, I mean, he should be coming us because we’re so wonderful and great and, and, and it’s Jesus fault.

13:52If he, if he thinks we’re unclean or if he would call us a dog, we’re all dogs stop this.

13:59We are all unclean.

14:00We are all gentiles.

14:02Yet by the grace of God, we are all.

14:06now you might say, well, ok, only the gentiles are gentiles.

14:08Jews are Jews.

14:09Ok.

14:10Maybe even that even the Jews are called.

14:12Ok.

14:12So maybe they’re pigs if they’re not following Christ by the grace of God.

14:15The fact that all our only if we’re willing to repent and come to Christ are we considered clean?

14:21And that’s all the work of Him.

14:23And how does it happen?

14:24It’s by his blood that he shed.

14:25Not yours, not mine.

14:27It’s not that anything we’ve done.

14:28It’s he took all of it for us.

14:30We, he took it all and now he lives in us.

14:33Not because we’re so clean on the inside.

14:34He had to clean us.

14:37Read Ezekiel 16 is a powerful passage about how all of Israel is just unclean, unclean, unclean and he came and cleaned us and came and lived with us and we still just tramp our tramps around him.

14:46We’re spiritual horrors.

14:48It’s very sad.

14:49And so I say that because back to the passage, I think this is sad when people get offended and, and get up in arms about Jesus words here.

15:00I think when I hope just even the few things I’ve shown here can help give a little more perspective here that this is not Jesus outing the woman.

15:09I think it’s hurt him.

15:10Saying you are a gentile.

15:12But even if there’s hints here that he said I’m coming for you.

15:15I’m coming for you.

15:16You are unclean.

15:17I’m coming for you.

15:19I’m coming for you.

15:20And, she kind of, I, I, I always get this picture she broke through before even the full, you know, bringing all the gentiles in, of course, by the cross, the rejection of the Jews brought the triumph for the gentiles, Read Romans nine through 11.

15:31It talks about this.

15:33that’s good news for all of us.

15:35And, and it’s, it reminds me of the story of Joseph actually where his brothers who were the tribes of Israel really rejected him.

15:43But then the gentiles brought him in and he became one who was able to save all the world and including his own kinsman later, their rejection so that he could come into the gentile world and save them.

15:55That was a beautiful thing.

15:55Well, that’s the same way that Christ died.

15:59It was a rejection of the Jews, but he brought in the Gentiles.

16:01But he, I mean, the Jews who can now get, receive forgiveness through Christ, get blessed.

16:07Sorry.

16:08I didn’t mean to.

16:08Well, I won’t say sorry, but that was a little to her, but hopefully it’s a blessing.

16:12But my, my point is I think he’s really, we’re missing it when we don’t see that he is calling out people to calling out this woman to say, yeah, you’re, you’re a gentile.

16:24You’re a dog.

16:25Unclean again.

16:27Not in a like it’s, it’s not like saying the N word or something like that.

16:31Like people would say like it was just, you’re unclean, you’re unclean.

16:35What are you gonna do?

16:36What are you gonna do?

16:38And she presses in and he says, yeah, and he even says, remember he said first I will feed the Children.

16:46So he’s given a little hint.

16:47Don’t worry, I’m coming for you.

16:48And she’s like, well, I want her right now though.

16:50I want you right now.

16:51And she pleads and she pleads and she wouldn’t stop pleading.

16:54And Jesus and his heart was just touched.

16:57And because of her words, it says actually mark seven because of your words, I’ll heal your daughter.

17:03What a hope for us.

17:05What’s your situation today?

17:07We’re unclean.

17:09Yes, we’re unclean outside of Christ.

17:12But he says, now I’ve made you clean and I have you have access to the father.

17:15I’m waiting for you to pound on my door a little bit.

17:17I’m waiting for you to press in a little bit.

17:19That, that, that Jesus might say to us because of your words, I’ve healed this person or because of your words, this has happened.

17:27So, use words that touches her.

17:31So hopefully, this helps a little bit to show, I think we missed the point when people get up in arms about these kind of things, but maybe, maybe we’re all acting like pigs and dogs frankly.

17:41because you just has a precious pearl in the story that we’re missing.

17:44Maybe we hear it.

17:45Hopefully, this helps in Jesus name.

17:47Amen.