Jesus, for some unexplained reason, for a time paid no heed to her cry. At length, with great seeming severity, he said to her, “It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.”
She replied, “Truth, Lord; yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”
Jesus answered, “O woman! great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that hour.”
This is all the record we have of this long journey. It is the general assumption that Jesus retreated to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, not to extend his ministry there, but to obtain transient rest from its exhausting toils. Returning, he crossed the Jordan several miles above its entrance into the lake, and approached Gennesaret on its eastern shore. But his footsteps could not be concealed.
“Great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, andcast them down at Jesus’ feet; and he healed them, insomuch that the multitude wondered when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see; and they glorified the God of Israel.”
One man was brought to him here who was deaf, blind, and nearly dumb. His friends implored Jesus to interpose in his behalf. Jesus moistened his own finger with spittle, and then touched his ears and his tongue. Looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said,“Be opened! and straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.”[19]
It is worthy of notice, that Jesus, in performing these wonderful miracles, manifested no spirit of exultation. In this case, looking up to heaven, “he sighed.” This same pensive mood of mind seemed to accompany all his teachings and all his actions.
Jesus was here again in the comparatively desolate region on the east side of the lake. Four thousand men, besides women and children, had gathered around him. “I have compassion on the multitude,” said Jesus, “because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat; and, if I send them away to their own houses fasting, they will faint by the way.”
There were but seven loaves and a few little fishes at hand. Jesus, as before, directed all the multitude to sit down upon the ground. He then took the seven loaves and the fishes, gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples to distribute to the multitude. When all had been abundantly satisfied, seven baskets of the fragments were gathered up.
Dismissing the well-fed multitude, all whose sick he had also healed, Jesus took ship and crossed the lake to Dalmanutha, a small town on the western shore of the lake, about twenty miles south of Capernaum. Some scribes and Pharisees came to him in a cavilling spirit, demanding that he should perform some miracle for their special entertainment or satisfaction. Saddened by the unbelieving, captious dispositionthey manifested, “he sighed deeply in spirit;” and, refusing to minister to their entertainment, he left them, and returned to the other side of the lake, warning his disciples to beware of the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The ship landed them again at Bethsaida, on the north-eastern shore of the lake, near the spot where he had performed the miracle of feeding the multitude with the loaves and the fishes. A blind man was brought to him, whom he healed by applying spittle to his sightless eyes. He then, we cannot tell why, sent him away to his house, saying,“Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.”[20]