Jesus' words, His answer to the Gentile woman's request that He free her daughter from the power of dark forces, may seem excessively harsh, even cruel. Yet there was no cruelty in them, only the statement of a simple fact obvious to everyone at the time: the world is divided into...
Jesus' words, His answer to the Gentile woman's request that He free her daughter from the power of dark forces, may seem excessively harsh, even cruel. Yet there was no cruelty in them, only the statement of a simple fact obvious to everyone at the time: the world is divided into Jews and Gentiles, into the people of God and all the other nations. This was a fundamental division that could not be ignored.
In this case “dog” is not an insult, but simply a symbol of uncleanness: for a Jew every Gentile was unclean by definition, regardless of the life he led and even of whether he believed in the God of Israel. It is God who cleanses a person. To be clean, one must belong to the people of God, who, as the sages of the Second Temple period taught, constitute a spiritual unity, a kind of single spiritual body. No one can be clean without belonging to it. Gentiles, of course, saw the matter differently; but the woman mentioned in the Gospel story was addressing a Jew and hoping in the power and mercy of the God of Israel, so her own opinions and views were not what mattered in this case.
By comparing Gentiles to dogs, to unclean animals, Jesus thereby makes the matter absolutely clear. The people of God really are the people of God, purity truly matters, and paganism truly stands below Yahwism—as far below as any pagan religion, whatever may lie behind it, stands below the faith of Abraham and Moses. The coming of Christ did not mean that all boundaries became blurred and all distinctions were erased; as such, they remained unchanged. What changed was something else: the general order of things, which, while preserving distinctions and even boundaries where they are appropriate, decisively destroyed every wall and barrier. In the fallen world, making a boundary impassable often becomes the only guarantee of its reliability.
It is not so in the Kingdom: there are no boundaries or distinctions there that cannot be crossed or overcome. Yet the distinctions themselves do not disappear; they merely acquire a new quality and cease to be hostile to one another. These are the distinctions Jesus invites the Gentile woman to accept, and along with them her own spiritual and existential condition as a given. Without accepting herself as she is, she cannot enter the Kingdom.
Naturally, there could be no question of this woman's having a right to her daughter's healing. But in the Kingdom there is no talk of rights at all: rights enter the discussion only when every relationship has been destroyed and each person who once took part in it now feverishly tries to preserve the remnants of what he once possessed in fullness, naturally and freely. The woman accepts the rules of life in the Kingdom: she claims nothing; she merely asks Jesus to enter her life and her daughter's life. Then He does enter, for such trust opens to Him doors that, for the one who opens them, become the doors of the Kingdom.
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1:1 By the will of God - Not by any merit of my own. To the saints who are at Ephesus - And in all the adjacent places. For this epistle is not directed to the Ephesians only, but likewise to all the other churches of Asia.
1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us - God's blessing us is his bestowing all spiritual and heavenly blessings upon us. Our blessing God is the paying him our solemn and grateful acknowledgments, both on account of his own essential blessedness, and of the blessings which he bestows upon us. He is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, as man and Mediator: he is his Father, primarily, with respect to his divine nature, as his only begotten Son; and, secondarily, with respect to his human nature, as that is personally united to the divine. With all spiritual blessings in heavenly things - With all manner of spiritual blessings, which are heavenly in their nature, original, and tendency, and shall be completed in heaven: far different from the external privileges of the Jews, and the earthly blessings they expected from the Messiah.
1:4 As he hath chosen us - Both Jews and gentiles, whom he foreknew as believing in Christ, Pe1 1:2.
1:5 Having predestinated us to the adoption of sons - Having foreordained that all who afterwards believed should enjoy the dignity of being sons of God, and joint - heirs with Christ. According to the good pleasure of his will - According to his free, fixed, unalterable purpose to confer this blessing on all those who should believe in Christ, and those only.
1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace - His glorious, free love without any desert on our part.
1:7 By whom we - Who believe. Have - From the moment we believe.Redemption - From the guilt and power of sin.Through his blood - Through what he hath done and suffered for us.According to the riches of his grace - According to the abundant overflowings of his free mercy and favour.
1:8 In all wisdom - Manifested by God in the whole scheme of our salvation. And prudence - Which be hath wrought in us, that we may know and do all his acceptable and perfect will.
1:9 Having made known to us - By his word and by his Spirit.The mystery of his will - The gracious scheme of salvation by faith, which depends on his own sovereign will alone. This was but darkly discovered under the law; is now totally hid from unbelievers; and has heights and depths which surpass all the knowledge even of true believers.