Jesus didn't know himself?

Various teachers and preachers have been making a comment that has made me shiver all the way up my spine. This comment is that Jesus did not know his divinity until later in life. The Scripture that is primarily used is the account of the Canaanite woman who begs him to cast out a demon from her daughter. The account goes as such:

Matthew 15
22 And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came
and called out, "Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My
daughter is tormented by a demon."
23 But he did not say a word in answer to her. His
disciples came and asked him, "Send her away, for she keeps
calling out after us."
24 He said in reply, "I was sent only to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel
25 But the woman came and did him homage, saying,
"Lord, help me."26 He said in reply, "It is not right to take the foodof the children and throw it to the dogs."
27 She said, "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the
scraps that fall from the table of their masters."
28 Then Jesus said to her in reply, "O woman, great is
your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her
daughter was healed from that hour.

In this passage, what is used is that it seems that Jesus is calling the woman a dog, thus acting totally on his human nature. While this is somewhat understandable from a point of view that isolates this passage from the rest of Scripture and also wants to make Jesus more "approachable", I beg to differ.

All throughout the Scriptures we are constantly told to seek the kingdom of God. We are told of parables where a man finds a treasure in a field, sells everything and buys the field just to get the treasure (Matt 13:44); and a man who finds a great pearl and does the same (Matt 13:45-46); we are told of forsaking our very own life to seek God's kingdom (Mark 8:34); and seek the narrow gate (Matt7:13). What would these Scriptures have to do with the account of the Canaanite woman? Jesus is continuing his teaching of going beyond what we think we are capable of believing to establish an utter dependence on God.

The account of the Canaanite woman is a test for her to "prove" her faith. Jesus first said nothing to her and a "natural" human response may be to go away if the person we are talking to seems to ignore us, but she didn't. She then approached him and "did him homage" taking her faith a step further and putting it into action. Jesus then replies that "it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs." A second test. In other words he is searching to see how far she would go. Again, human nature would think that first if we were being ignored and now being called a dog, we should have nothing to do with this man...but she perseveres. She responds "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters." She continues to seek even though it would seem that she is being put off. Jesus then responds "O woman, great is your faith."

"Great is your faith"! This woman new that she had no other to turn to and that without Jesus there would be no hope and this was the attitude that Jesus was looking for.

Another account is similar to such a situation, but did not turn out as pleasant. This is an exchange between Jesus an a "rich official"

Luke 18
18 An official asked him this question, "Good teacher,
what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
19 Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good? No one
is good but God alone.
20 You know the commandments, 'You shall not commit
adultery; you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall
not bear false witness; honor your father and your mother.'"
21 And he replied, "All of these I have observed from my
youth."
22 When Jesus heard this he said to him, "There is still
one thing left for you: sell all that you have and distribute
it to the poor, and you will have a treasure in heaven. Then
come, follow me."
23 But when he heard this he became quite sad, for he was
very rich.
24 Jesus looked at him (now sad) and said, "How hard it
is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!
For it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye
of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of
God."
26 Those who heard this said, "Then who can be saved?"
27 And he said, "What is impossible for human beings is
possible for God."

First, the man approaches Jesus with an apparent desire to have eternal life. Jesus responds "why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone." This is the first test where it would seem that he is rebuking the man, but he is asking the ruler if he believes what he is saying about Jesus. He then quotes the commandments to which the ruler states that he had observed them from his youth. The final test is Jesus telling the ruler to sell all he has, give to the poor, and follow him, but the ruler became disheartened. as far as we can tell, his attitude failed the test because he enjoyed possessions more so than his desire for eternal life through Christ Jesus.

In regards to these accounts, it is not clear that Jesus did not know his divine nature, but rather kept with the consistency of his teaching by pressing those coming to him further in their desire for him.

This is the same way he tests us and presses us to grow. We state we need him, but he wants us to act on it. After acting on it, he wants us to realize whether we love and need him more than our possessions, our reputation, more than our very selves.

So the question remains: is it that Jesus did not know himself or is it that Jesus wants us to know ourselves?