The Canaanite Woman.
This story from Mark 7: 24-31 is invariably used as an illustration of strong faith, but I think it is more than that. In fact there is a reluctance in many sermons given in church to look beyond this "faith" aspect, as it throws up considerations of the human side of Jesus, and to some, twinges of uneasiness.
The encounter between Jesus and this woman was such that they both walked away changed, healed and strengthened i.e for the woman, the daughter is healed of demons, for Jesus his thoughts concerning the ministry to the Gentiles will be expanded.
The story occurs near the latter stages of Jesus' activity around the Sea of Galilee and is directly preceded by Jesus' dispute with the Pharisees over what constituted clean and unclean food.
It is also important to note that the location is in Gentile territory and potentially dangerous for him as a Jew
The woman prostrates herself before speaking to Jesus. She is a Greek "lady" i.e of some social status compared to the relatively itinerant Jesus; of Syrophoenician nationality, and a female. Thus she is by Jewish standards at that time, thrice an "outsider."
She begs for an exorcism for her daughter. The response from Jesus is unexpected and harsh. " Let the children eat first all they want; for it is not right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs." Presumably the "children" are the Jewish race, the "dogs" the non Jews.
But the retort is not submissive on the part of the woman. " Sir, even the little dogs under the table make a meal of the crumbs that the children give them."
Using his own degrading metaphor, she boldly turns the tables on Jesus and causes Him to reconsider His position and grant the healing. It is in fact a key passage that compels Jesus to expand His teaching ministry to non-Jews. How appropriate that shortly hereafter Jesus feeds the 4,000 Gentiles.
What I find fascinating is that here you have a God in a man's body and all the dogma of "He who was without sin" is so untrue. He had a temper and could be rude and abrupt. Mind you, if you knew that your future involved being crucified, then the sheer stress of that and the daily demands made on Him would have caused even gods to be short tempered!
At the end of the day I can relate to Jesus both as a man and as part of the Trinity. The understanding of the former is the crux to appreciating the latter.