Imagine If...

Gospel: Matthew 15: 21-28

Let us imagine this Gospel story from another angle.  Imagine if Jesus had listened to his disciples who tell him to ignore this foreign, pagan woman and the needs of her daughter who is caught in the grips of a demon.  Let us suppose that this version of the story is preserved, recorded, and passed on into the Gospel text, permeating the tradition.  Let us consider the various outcomes and consequences of this rendering of the story.  

Most immediate is the fact that the young girl would still remain in the grips of the demon; she would not have been helped.  Then, we would have a story and a tradition that now can create a theology of exclusion based on prejudice and bias against women, foreigners, and those of different faith backgrounds that can then be used to justify all sorts of animus against the same throughout history, leaving a trail of pain and death across the centuries.

Yes, even with the story as it is, we have still managed to create such ideologies and outcomes in the world.  At least with this story standing as it exists, those who do create such theologies and exact such pain on the world do so in opposition to the example and teaching of Jesus, not because of it.  The world can see that such theologies are utterly false and demonic, and that those who struggle to accept Christianity do so because alleged Christians follow the way of the disciples and not the way of Jesus.