Before You Ask, Check Your Posture
Pastor Rachel Culver
June 14, 2026 Message Recap
Posture matters. A ballet teacher will tell you. A vocal coach will tell you. A physical therapist will tell you.
The way you position yourself changes everything about what you are able to do. And in Mark 7 and Matthew 15, Jesus makes the same point—not about shoulders and spine, but about the posture of approaching God.
The woman at the center of this story had no credentials. She was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician, an outsider by every measure that mattered in her world. Her daughter was tormented by a demon, and she had run out of options. She had done everything she knew to do, and none of it worked. Then she heard that Jesus, the Jewish rabbi who had been performing miracles, had come to her region, and she did not hesitate.
What follows is one of the most remarkable encounters in the Gospels.
Jesus does not respond to her at first. His disciples want her sent away. He tells her plainly that his mission is to the lost sheep of Israel. And then he offers her a metaphor that, in any other context, would have ended the conversation: it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.
Any one of those responses would have been enough to make most people walk away—but she doesn't. Instead, she does something that catches Jesus' attention. She steps into the metaphor.
"Yes, Lord," she says, "yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table." She is not demanding the bread. She is not arguing about her status. She is simply saying: I know who I am in this story, and I know who you are, and one crumb of what you carry is enough to heal my daughter.
Jesus looks at her and says something he says only one other time in the Gospels: "O woman, great is your faith." He does not say this to the disciples who walked with him. He says it to a Gentile woman who refused to quit, and her daughter was healed instantly.
Four things marked this woman's posture: desperation, persistence, humility, and faith.
Not four things she worked up through discipline. Four things that came out of her when every other option was gone, and all she had left was Jesus. That is where great faith is often formed. It’s not in the comfortable seasons, but in the ones where you have stopped pretending you can manage it yourself.
The question Jesus is still asking is the same one the story poses to all of us: what is your posture before me?
Scripture References:
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About Radiant Church
Founded in 1996, Radiant Church has grown into a multi-location church committed to biblical teaching, discipleship, and mission.
At Radiant Church, there is an invitation to grow in your spiritual journey, build meaningful community, and truly get connected. We are passionate about helping people grow in faith, encounter the Presence of God, and become part of a church grounded in Spirit and truth.