Matthew shares a very unsettling story. A Canaanite woman cries out to Jesus to heal her daughter, And by the end of the story, her daughter has been healed -- but between the crying and the healing, Jesus says some distressing things. He appears to be arrogant, a racist and just plain mean.
So over the years, people have tried to clean up this story. One attempt goes something like this: Jesus was testing this woman to see if she had enough faith. When she passed the test, Jesus said, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." That verse has caused plenty of pain because some people have heard Jesus saying, "If you had more faith your husband or wife, your mother or father or child would not have died." But the woman in this story doesn't make any confession of faith.
Another option to soften Jesus' words: the Greek word kunarios (translated "dogs") really means "little dogs, or puppies." So when Jesus tells the woman, "It is not fair to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs," he really means puppies. Does that help?
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She models a person who is willing to speak up to authority. She represents those who keep on speaking out for justice and basic human rights. She represents those who do not give up. "Lord, help me," she begs. And Jesus responds; "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." She picks up his words and throws them right back: "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." When Jesus hears this, he says, "Woman, great is your faith!" But she hasn't made any confession of faith. There's no sign she's been born again. She simply spoke the truth: the children have been fed -- 5,000 men, not including the women and children were fed before this encounter. Surely there's enough for me and my
Her worship of God, therefore, becomes a representative power for her. She is empowered by the belief that she can at least count on God, if nothing else. When she is escaping from the plantation she is against all odds, but she says that “And den de Good Lawd seen to it dat Ah wasn’t taken.
...he shows us her character, not by how she gives herself respect, but by the continued respect that she gives to others: even her tormenters. Her secret shame was kept inside, and it was an impossible burden to bear. She was brave.
In Wendell Berry’s “Pray Without Ceasing”, there are many characters described by grandmother Margaret that would be a positive model for the way we might live our lives. Many have role model worthy qualities and characteristics about them, but the one that stands out the most to me is Martha Elizabeth Coulter. Martha Elizabeth is the daughter of Thad Coulter, the antagonist of the story. She stands out to me because of her love, patience, thoughtfulness, determination, and her ability to forgive. These great characteristics are shown in a couple different parts of the story.
She allows us to understand the duality of God. This concept was not new. The Old Testament prophets portrayed God as a loving mother nurturing, caressing, and comforting her children. Isaiah invokes God in labor giving birth while Psalms compares the femininity of the body and the creator.
...onsoled by her words that it was her time to go. We did not lose faith because of that instance, it just led us to believe that sometimes there is another plan in place. “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9, NIV).
She shows the nature of power and how it slowly slips away from the person’s grasp. First it corrupts the mind of a person and changes them, and then it slips away from their hands leaving them with nothing but arrogance, pride and
...nspired to make a change that she knew that nothing could stop her, not even her family. In a way, she seemed to want to prove that she could rise above the rest. She refused to let fear eat at her and inflict in her the weakness that poisoned her family. As a child she was a witness to too much violence and pain and much too often she could feel the hopelessness that many African Americans felt. She was set in her beliefs to make choices freely and help others like herself do so as well.
paved the way for religious freedom. She was a great leader in the cause for
She was a writer who suffered from Lupus. Her father died of the same illness when she was thirteen. Her Catholic beliefs reflected in her work, as well as the implementation of violence and darkness ironically used in her short stories. The titles in the stories give the readers an idea that the stories are the opposite of what the titles really state. She uses metaphors and similes to describe the characters and the settings of the stories. Each story relates to the darkness of the characters: people with racial prejudice, ignorance, and evil. Each story ends in a tragedy. The use of irony allows her to transport a meaning to each story that is not easy for readers to understand.
Despite the current scrutiny that her race faces she asserts to the reader that her race and color define her as a person and does not determine her identity. Despite the mindset that most of her peers keep about the inequality of race, she maintains an open mind and declares to the reader that she finds everyone equal. Thus proving herself as a person ahead of her own time.
In her life, she has overcame obstacles that most people in life most likely would not overcome such as rape, abuse, and even losing her daughter on Christmas Day. Despite of all she has gone through in her life, she is determine to help people to their lives better.
...She writes of the type of person that one can only hope exists in this world still. The message of her writing and philosophy is contained in a single phrase from the novel: “I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine,” (731). This is an inspiration, awakening an inner voice and drive that impels each person to do their absolute best. It implores the soul of the reader to awaken, to become the ideal of the human spirit, and to rise until it can rise no higher. It is a call to anyone with reason, anyone with the strength to be an Atlas, and it is reminding him or her of their duty to live up to the individual potential. For as long as there are those who would hear the message, there will still be hope for mankind.
...ualities and influences we want to accept as truth instead of blindly accepting the book of myths. She encourages women to descend the ladder and find the “thing itself” and the meaning that thing has for each individual woman.
By having this person be devout to their political beliefs, it draws on questions of ethics and how these political ideologies affect her life choices and her writing (i.e. fleeing to safety versus standing to sight against the Nazi
She set a moral standard on how to follow God. She trusted in God to do what he said, therefore, she did whatever he told her to do. She led the people of Israel by example. She Deborah was a faithful leader. Overall, Deborah’s life involved following God and breaking social constraints.