In Matthew 15:21-28, Jesus responds to a needy woman in a manner most of us would consider offensive. He ignores her. He calls her a dog. He denies her request for healing.
How are we to understand Jesus’ words?
At the Gospel Coalition, Jimmy Agan has an excellent article addressing this question and more. Agan models good observation of the text, tracing the flow of thought from one episode to the next, considering the context, and answering interpretive questions from the text.
