📖 Lent 2 Gospel Reading: Matthew 15:21-28

A Canaanite woman approaches Jesus. 🙏 She’s desperate — her daughter’s possessed by a demon — and she’s begging Jesus for help. 🆘

At first, Jesus totally ignores her. 🤐 The disciples are like, “Can you make her stop? She’s annoying.” 🙄

When Jesus reminds them He was sent only to Israel ✡️, the woman kneels before Him and pleads for help. 🧎‍♀️

Jesus replies by saying: “It is not right to give the children’s bread to the dogs.” 🐕

Think of it like saying, “What father would feed the animals before he feeds his own children?” 👨‍👧‍👦

The Israelites are God’s children, so why would he give anything to this Canaanite woman who is not one of them? ❓

But this woman is not letting go. 💪

She responds by saying, “Even the dogs feed from the scraps that fall from the master’s table.” 🍽️

Jesus then praises her great faith ✨ and heals her daughter immediately. 🙌

Does she get what she wants because she believed hard enough? 🤔

We know we can’t believe on our own, but this woman’s response is a very faithful one. 🤲

She knows (because it has been revealed to her) that Jesus is able to heal her daughter. 💫

That’s why she comes to him and won’t give up. 🚫

This text shows that even just a small bit of faith, it is enough ✨, and that God’s smallest gifts (the crumbs) are greater than anything we could imagine. 🎁

During Lent, we are reminded that even when we falter and are overcome by despair 😔, that even just a little bit of God-given faith is enough to get us through because it is the full power of God. ⚡

Contributor Deaconess Emma Heinz serves as the Registrar of Higher Things.

#higherthings #lcms #lutheran #lent

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