Hard Truths

But He answered and said, I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, Lord, help me! But He answered and said, It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs. 

Matthew 15:24-26 

Christ speaks truth. We are accustomed, for the most part, to perceive Him, and His speaking of truth in a manner we recognize as kind and benevolent-sounding, especially toward seekers. It surprises us to hear Him speak truth in what we would perceive to be a hard way. The verses before us sound hard. They are, from what we know about Christ and His mission, true words. Christ did come to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He did not come to the wider world population. The disciples would be the ones to take the gospel there. To a Jew, the gentiles were considered dogs. There was a hard social division between Jews and gentiles. Although to our ear this sounds hard, any other Jew would have understood what He was saying about the dogs. The woman takes no time to debate with Him. She takes these hard truths without any quibble. Her great faith was such she would accept His utterance of hard truth and speak truth herself. There are times when we hear hard truths from Christ through the word of God. We can bristle at them or accept them and continue to look to Him.  He is kind to speak truth to us, however hard that truth may sound.

Our Kind and Loving Savior, 
we rejoice that You speak truth. 
We praise You that as we accept Your truth, 
we grow to understand You more. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning