The bible tells us of a woman who comes to Jesus and begs for her daughter to be healed. Jesus reacts to this woman in a way that most have a hard time getting their head around. At the first He simply ignores her, if that is not enough to cause us to pause He then goes on to call the woman a dog and declare that He has come for the children to have meet.
This reaction has been interpreted as hateful, racist, or as a testing of faith however these explanations are difficult to align with the rest of what we know of Jesus ministry. A better understanding can be had if we consider the way in which the divine power of God interacts with the earthly man.
When the earthly man finds himself in need of help from another his first recourse is to make a deal; in other words he appeals to the helper from a place of what said helper will gain i.e. money, acceptance, honor, fame, ect. When man has nothing of value to offer for the help needed they are forced to come from a place of weakness submitted to the helper and dependent on their mercy, kindness, and goodwill; we commonly refer to this as begging.
The Father in His wisdom does not allow himself to react to emotion for if He answered our desperation with salvation then it would be necessary to answer our hatred with cursing. The Father only allows Himself to react to our faith despite the fact that He cries when we cry and when we refuse Him.
The woman who comes to Jesus in desperation does have faith but it is clouded by her emotions. The interaction between her and our Lord is simply to make her have a clear understanding that the Father gives from His goodness alone as we trust in Him without any thought of making Him react by our actions.
