Encountering Jesus

Amidst the backdrop of Roman subjugation, pharisaical religiosity, and in general a culture with its back toward God, Jesus Christ and his disciples ventured into the racially charged region of Samaria.

Matthew 15 records the Lord’s encounter with a Syro-Phoenician woman of Canaan. She asked Jesus to heal her demonically oppressed daughter. But Jesus did not answer her. Rather, he told the disciples that he was sent only to the “lost sheep” of Israel, and it would to be good to share the children’s food with little dogs.

In New Testament Greek, there are to words for dog. One was a generic ter...