Designated Dogs

Understanding how election also means rejection

2/10/2022

Mk 7:24-30 Jesus went to the district of Tyre. He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, but he could not escape notice. Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” She replied and said to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

In today’s gospel we hear one of Jesus’ most stinging rebukes. It always makes me cringe, and maybe it does you, too. A Greek woman asks Jesus to come and heal her daughter afflicted with a demon. And our usually loving Lord rejects this reasonable request, saying coldly: “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” Wow, Jesus just called that woman a dog. But what is even more surprising is the woman’s humility in accepting that epithet, and she actually answers: “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” And precisely for that humble response Jesus heals the woman’s daughter from the demon. What a weird exchange. What is really going on between Jesus and this Greek woman?

One reason this episode sounds shocking and scandalous to 21st century Americans but seemed rather matter-of-fact to 1st century Jews and Greeks, was because of the Old Testament background that we are so ignorant of. Beginning with Abraham’s call in Gn 12, going through his son Isaac, and culminating in his grandson, Jacob – whose name was changed to “Israel” in Gn 32 – God had chosen the Jewish people out of the whole world to be his particular possession.

This divine election comes to a climax at the foot of Mt. Sinai, where God says to Moses in Ex 19:6: “You will be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. That is what you must tell the Israelites.” I love that cute little couplet that captures the heart of this divine election, saying: “How odd of God to choose the Jews.” But if God had chosen the Jews, that also meant that he had rejected the rest of the nations, meaning, in effect, they were designated “dogs.” Election always implies rejection. We elect one candidate to be president, and thereby we reject the rest of the field.

But we know that this Old Testament background changed with the New Testament and the coming of Christ. Thus we read in Gal. 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female, for you are all one in Christ.” In other words, Jesus has introduced a radical equality into the human family and there are no longer “children” and dogs,” but all are beloved of God.

And yet, there is still a sense in which the Jewish people, indeed all Israel, hold a pride of place among all the children of God. How so? Well, not in the sense that everyone else is designated a dog, but in the sense that the Jewish people are always our older brothers and sisters in the faith of Abraham. And we, therefore, are younger siblings. St. Paul suggests as much when he writes in Rm 11:28-29, about the special place and privilege of the Jews, saying: “In respect to election, they are beloved because of the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob). For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.” In other words, while the rest of humanity is no longer designated “dogs,” nonetheless, God will always have a special place in his heart for the Jews. His call is irrevocable.

Folks, let me just point out just two practical applications for this balancing act between Jews and Gentiles, between the Old and New Testament, between Jerusalem and Athens. Have you ever noticed how American politics often revolves around support for the nation of Israel and defense against her Arab neighbors? This is one effect of a movement called “Zionism,” that started back in the late 1800’s to support the establishment of the nation of Israel. Mt. Zion is another name for the mountain on which Jerusalem is built (cf. Ps 48).

Now, I’m clearly not qualified to take a position on the pros and cons of this political hot potato. But I do believe that some of its roots, the roots of Zionism, go back into the Old Testament and we hear some surprising echoes in the New Testament, like in today’s gospel reading. In other words, the Zionist movement would emphasize that God has chosen the Jews, but they might deemphasize that the rest of the world is designated dogs.

The second application is how we pray in a special way for our Jewish brothers and sisters on Good Friday. Do you recall those lengthy Intercessions on Good Friday? One of those special intercessions reads: "Let us pray also for the Jews, that our Lord and God may illuminate their hearts, that they acknowledge Jesus Christ as savior of all.” Then it continues: “Almighty and eternal God who wants that all men be saved and come to recognition of the truth, propitiously grant that even as the fullness of the peoples enters thy Church, all Israel be saved.” In other words, the Jews will always and forever be our older brothers and sisters in the faith, even if we are no longer designated dogs.

Praised be Jesus Christ!