BREAKFAST BIBLE STUDY

Jesus Calls a Gentile Woman a Dog

Matthew 15:21-28; Mark 7:24–30 (NIV)

12/28/25

“Christian nationalism is about power, nothing more.” – Christian Pecker

Everything about Christmas was great, with Mom here for the week and taking her medicine, but when we had to take Mom back to the airport, we ran into a problem with ICE, whom Grace does not like at all. ICE was not bothering us, but they were bothering a family getting off a different flight. Since Grace still misses her protest work, she tried to do a protest right there in the airport and scolded the ICE people for violating Fourth Amendment rights. The family did not ask Grace for her help, but Grace likes to poke her nose where Christian sometimes does not think it belongs.

Since I never liked ICE either, I helped Grace with her protest work. Since one of the ICE people looked like he was ready to punch me for standing in his way, Christian jumped to my defense, whipping out his military ID card and making scary threats about Second Amendment rights if they laid one finger on me or Grace or anybody else Christian took an oath to protect. We almost all got arrested without probable cause or something, just for trying to help defend some process that was due.

“Why did they want to take away that family?” I finally asked when we got to the truck. “They weren’t breaking any rules. They were just getting their baggage.”

“ICE has racist orders,” Grace said, “because we have a racist government.”

“I don’t like ICE,” I said. “They knocked out one of my teeth.”

“You have all your teeth,” Christian said.

“Before I time traveled,” I said, “and was caged with all the children.”

“Well, we’re lucky we weren’t arrested for obstruction,” Christian said.  

“No, they were racially profiling,” Grace said. “They have orders to harass anybody of color. They are following unlawful, fascist orders from our unlawful fascist government with glee…because Krusti Gnome hires the scum of the earth for her SS ICE battalions. She’s fascist scum, just like every other fascist scum in the Trump regime.”

“Racism is not very Christian,” I said. “All I know is that Jesus wasn’t a racist.”

“Yeah, well, Mr. Manning wasn’t a racist,” Grace said, finally catching her breath, “but the Jesus of the Bible was pretty partial to his people.”

“Jesus came for everyone,” I said, “maybe even especially for ICE scum like Krusti Gnome, who needs to be saved from her evil ways. That’s what I think.”

“A savior for all is how Paul modeled Jesus,” Christian said. “The authors of Mark and Matthew tell a different story. And thank you for changing the subject so we can all cool down, Cole.”

“Wait, which story did Mark and Matthew tell different from Paul?” I asked.

“The meaning gets reinterpreted by modern scholars,” Grace said, “but Jesus compared a woman to a dog.”

“The one with the child who had demons? Wasn’t that a metaphor or something?” I asked. “For an object lesson on loving everyone, no matter who they are?”

“That’s what you were taught,” Grace said. “That could be what the gospel writers intended, but the tribalism is explicit no matter how you interpret the story.”

“Matthew changes the ethnicity of Mark’s woman for dramatic effect,” Christian said. “Mark says she’s a Syrophoenician. Matthew makes her a Canaanite. Canaanites were never depicted in the Old Testament well. Jesus showing mercy to a Canaanite woman likely would have had more impact and made him appear more merciful, but the ethnocentric viewpoint runs strong through the text.”

“But…see, he showed mercy,” I said. “That’s not racist.”

“After he compares her people to dogs,” Grace said.

“That’s the metaphor part,” I said.

“When you call someone a pig or dog, you’re not speaking literally, buddy,” Christian said. “The comparison is not complementary. It’s vulgar and cruel.”

“Oh, that’s not good,” I said. “Why did Jesus call her a dog?”

“To refuse to help her with her child until she proved herself worthy,” Grace said.

“Oh,” I said, “but he does help her, right?”

“After she says what?” Christian said.

“I don’t know,” I said.

“Look it up,” Grace said.

I found the passage on my phone and read: “‘Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.’

 “‘“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”’

“‘“Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”’

“‘Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”’”

“‘She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.’ That’s the one in Mark. Should I read the other one?”

“Indulge us,” Christian said.

“‘Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 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.’”

“See any problems?” Grace said.

“Are they two different stories,” I said, “with two different women?”

“Matthew amended Mark’s version,” Christian said, “but the stories are nearly the same.”

“It could have been two separate women,” I said.

“Jesus claimed he was here for the people of Israel,” Grace said, “and compares the woman (singular or both) and her people to dogs.”

“I thought it was about getting the demon out,” I said.

“Gospel demons are probably what we would call medical conditions nowadays,” Christian said. “The demon of epilepsy was a popular one.”

“But we know demons don’t cause epilepsy,” Grace said, “because demons aren’t real. They are just the product of fantasy and imagination.”

“So…that’s what you believe…but, wait, why is Jesus a racist exactly?” I asked.

“Comparing a woman to a dog is ethnocentric,” Christian said. “He’s guilty of that. The idea of racism didn’t really exist. There were in-groups and out-groups back then.”

“But he heals her daughter,” I said.

“How do we know?” Grace said. “Did one of his disciples go home with her to check on the daughter? Did she come back to proclaim the demon gone? If the child had another seizure in the future, would that mean the demon had returned…maybe with seven friends?”

“It doesn’t say any of that,” I said.

“Remember that these stories were passed down from oral tradition,” Grace said. “We don’t know what Jesus said or did. The narrative has some logic gaps that can only be filled by believing that God inspired these accounts, which the authors never claim.”

“So, um, maybe he wasn’t a racist?”

“Would you prefer he wasn’t, Cole?” Christian said.

“If you do prefer that, then don’t take the story as historical,” Grace said. “Consider these stories literary inventions of the writer. That doesn’t mean Jesus wasn’t a healer. It just means the stories might have been invented through oral tradition.”

“Oh,” I said. “I don’t like doing any of that…except believing in Jesus.”

“I take aspects of these stories as historical, especially the ethnocentric parts,” Christian said. “The faith healing, though? Seizures pass, which makes exorcising those ‘demons’ rather easy…until the seizures come back, but by then the healers are long gone. Faith healers exist to this day, never healing anything you can actually see. When I see a healer grow back an arm or leg, I’ll be impressed.”

“You think the healing was fake, but the racist part of the story happened?” I asked. “I didn’t think you believed any of the stories in the Bible.”  

“To believe this story, I would have to believe in demons,” Grace said.

“But that’s not the part that’s interesting for me. Jesus’ very human ethnocentric bias is. For ancient readers, no big deal. For modern readers, Jesus comparing a woman to a dog doesn’t paint Jesus in the most flattering light,” Christian said. “The story is inconvenient unless you’re a Christian nationalist…then the bias can be used to justify your repugnant worldview.”

“I don’t like that,” I said. “Jesus was never like that around us.”

“Mr. Manning was a decent man,” Grace said. “For his times, Jesus was probably pretty decent, too. These stories were written for people thousands of years ago. Luke and John exclude the story because they were writing those gospels years later.”

“Why would that matter?” I asked.

“Because Jews weren’t accepting the Christian message,” Grace said. “Paul had more luck outside of Israel. There were some Jewish converts to Christianity, but I’m guessing the authors of John and Luke did not want to include stories that would alienate a wider audience of converts, so they excluded the story of the Canaanite woman.”

“Oh,” I said. “So…wait, why wouldn’t Christian nationalists want this taught in schools?”

“They wouldn’t mind the racism,” Grace said.

“Or the notion of demons,” Christian said.

“So…for next year, can we do good stuff in the Bible that Christian nationalists wouldn’t like, like the good laws about foreigners and prophecies about Jesus and stuff that talks about him wanting peace and junk like that?” I asked.

“If it keeps you out of trouble at church,” Grace said.

“You might not like what you find,” Christian said. “Most of those prophecies fall apart when read in context. That’s why the Jews didn’t recognize Jesus as a messiah.”

“But I’ll probably like the good stuff, so it’ll all balance out,” I said.

In state legislatures across the country, Christian fundamentalists are passing laws meant to force the teaching of the Christian Bible in public schools. From the posting of textually inaccurate iterations of the Ten Commandments on the walls of classrooms to the incorporation of the “Trump Bible” across multiple pedagogical disciplines, these laws and mandates are sweeping the reddest parts of this nation.

The height of hypocrisy is banning books in the name of “protecting children” while mandating one particular book rife with numerous acts of sexual violence and scenes of graphic violence and genocide.

Book bans are dangerous. The Bible is worth reading and exists online and in public school libraries across the country, but proponents of mandating its formal teaching in public schools need to know what it actually says.

Some themes in my books below might not be appropriate for children.