So, you want to make an important request for help from a very important and busy person. And you don’t feel that you yourself are all that important. You are imposing on that person, and besides, he’s a different nationality from you. But you ask anyway, because it’s really important. Could even be a life or death situation.
Mark records an exchange between a woman who was not Jewish and Jesus, who was. So far, Jesus’ ministry has been to people of his own tribe. But he decides to go to a foreign country (about 20 miles away) into what we now call Lebanon. Trying to be incognito, he is recognized and approached by the Syrophoenician woman whose daughter is ill. She asks for help from the great healer. I don’t know if he was forcing her to assert herself or if at this point he was still focused on healing his own tribe, but whatever, Jesus says that he should first feed the children (meaning Hebrews) and not feed the dogs (certainly a pejorative term).
The woman to her immense credit teaches us a lesson. She stands up to the great religious man and healer and retorts, “Even the dogs get crumbs from the master’s table.” Jesus, always one to recognize deep faith, heals the daughter from afar.
This isn’t the only story of persistence in the face of authority in the New Testament. But it reminds us that sometimes we have to assert ourselves to God. It may be a test of faith where God wants to see how much you want it and believe it can happen.
Faith Venture 
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