16th August 11.30am, Eucharist for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity
- Occurring
- for 1 hour
- Venue
- St George's Church, Malaga
- Address St George's Church, Malaga, Avenida de Pries 1 Malaga, 29016, Spain
A strange story in this morning's gospel, where a Canaanite (so, non-Jewish) woman approaches Jesus for help with healing for her daughter who is tormented by a demon. But Jesus walks by, and when challenged says he was "sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel", ie the Jews. But she begs him on her knees, and he changes his mind, with these words: ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish". And her daughter is instantly healed.
It's a sligthly shocking portrayal of Jesus. But it shows two things which are important. Firstly that he didn't come to earth with a ready-made playbook. But he was learning and understanding as his ministry developed. And secondly that he was persuadable. Rather than being locked up in some frigid dogma, he was ready to go and do the humane thing, and didn't mind people seeing him change his mind.
We have so much to learn from Jesus about how we should behave as Christians.