The Crumbs The Dogs Got

And yet these are the very words that this frantic mother grasps and holds on to like a life ring. We don’t see or hear these words in the same light as she did because we’re not hearing them as she heard them.

Throughout the Bible the word “dog” is used to describe someone or something undesirable. In the book of Revelation Chapter 22 verse 15 there are a whole list of folks who will be outside the gates of heaven. Outside the city are the dogs—the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idol worshipers, and all who love to live a lie.

And right at the beginning are “The DOGS”, kind of sounds like an Alfred Hitchcock movie.

You see 2000 years ago most dogs weren’t pet’s but were dangerous strays who roamed the streets, feeding off the trash and whatever or whoever else they could find. The word used most frequently in the New Testament was a Greek word, which is fitting seeing the New Testament was written in Greek. The word was  , koo´-ohn and it means “Dog or Hound”

In this story though both in Matthews account and Marks account Jesus uses a different word, he uses the word  , koo-nar´-ee-on which means a little dog, or a puppy. You see even though most dogs of that day were dangerous strays or work dogs, the very wealthy families of the day kept small lap dogs as pets.

Now I don’t know if it was something that this woman heard in the voice of this Nazarene Carpenter or something she saw in his eyes but there was something that caused her to push on and she said, “Yes, Lord, but even dogs are permitted to eat crumbs that fall beneath their master’s table.” She didn’t get argumentative, she didn’t deny what he had said was true, but as Martin Luther said, “She caught him with his own words.”

The woman simply claimed her rights under the conditions that he had set down. She didn’t demand a spot at the table, she didn’t want the children’s portion, she was content to accept her place in the household that she had been assigned. But she wanted the privileges that went along with that position.

How many people here own a dog now or have owned a dog at some time or another in their life. Then you know the cardinal rule of owning a dog, which is “If it falls on the floor then it belongs to the dog.”

When I was growing up we owned a mutt named Spike. And my Dad always bragged on how good Spike was, how Spike would never take any food that he hadn’t been given. Point in fact. One night I had been asked to pick up a box of meat from a cousin of ours who had just done in a cow. I brought the meat home and got ready to go out and forgot the meat on the kitchen floor, in a box, with the dog. Mom and Dad got home and the meat was still intact, the dog hadn’t touched it. Spike was such a good dog, you could leave treats on the coffee table and never have to worry about the dog getting into them, Spike was a great dog. One Christmas a couple of years before Spike went to doggie heaven my father was standing in the kitchen looking over the half wall that separated the kitchen from the living room. As he watched Spike came into the living room, carefully looked around to make sure he wasn’t being watched, obviously not too carefully because he missed Dad. And then very deliberately he stuck in nose in a bowl of chocolates rooted around until he found one he liked and ate it leaving all the rest. Aren’t you glad you never visited our house during those days and ate chocolates?