Grab some Earl Grey and a nice English muffin and join me in today’s reading of the New Testament. Today’s reading covers a brief debate over Tradition and Jesus healing a Gentile woman’s daughter. Here are some notes:
In v 2 , the “tradition” they are speaking of is extra-biblical, i.e. oral teachings not found anywhere in the Torah. Later, after Jesus talks about the difference between what goes in a man’s mouth versus what comes out of it, Peter asks Him to explain the “parable”.
There is no mystery whatsoever to the words of Jesus, it was simply a very hard concept for the disciples to accept. Years later, in Acts 10:14, Peter still had trouble accepting that all food was clean.
JM notes that in vv 26-28, Jesus is not talking down to the woman, instead he is trying to openly draw out the faith he knew she had for others to see.
