Was Jesus Perfect?

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"The woman came and knelt before Him. 'Lord, help me!' she said. But Jesus replied, 'It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.' 'Yes, Lord,' she said, 'even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.' 'O woman,' Jesus answered, 'your faith is great! Let it be done for you as you desire.' And her daughter was healed from that very hour." ~ Mathew 15: 25-28 (ESV)

I was raised to see Jesus as the only perfect person to ever have walked the Earth.  I'd accepted the idea as an axiom (if religious axioms are a thing).  Then, I actually read the Bible. 

In Mathew 15: 25-28, Jesus makes a racial slur, comparing Canaanites to dogs.  Unfortunately, this moment of racial insensitivity wasn’t the only tarnish I found on Christ's armor of perfection. 

In John 2: 1-11, when Mary tells Jesus the wedding they're at is out of wine, Jesus calls her, "Woman," and essentially tells her it's not His problem.  He talked back to His mother. 

Then in Luke 8: 22-25 His disciples wake Him during a storm at sea, and He grumbles at them, "Where is your faith?"  Jesus woke up cranky.  

By my way of thinking, perfect people don't make racial slurs, talk back to their mother, or wake up cranky.  By my way of thinking, perfect people are kind and pleasant one hundred percent of the time.  Ah, but there’s the rub, I was holding Jesus to my idea of perfection without any objective reason to believe my idea of perfection was correct. 

I still think racial slurs, flippant remarks, and post slumber crankiness are things to shy away from.  In the end though, it's not my idea of perfection that matters.  Like I said in a recent blog, I think it's a perfection we don't understand; it's a perfection we need to accept on faith.