Mark 7:24-30

The Faith of a Syrophoenician Woman

24Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. 25In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. 26The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

27"First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."

28"Yes, Lord," she replied, "but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."

29Then he told her, "For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter."

30She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.



BACKGROUND READING:


Matthew 10:5-6


Matthew 11:20-24


Matthew 15:21-28



Dig Deeper

One thing that sets apart truly great athletes from the rest of the pack is their incredible ability to focus. It makes no matter the pressure of the situation, the amount of time left on the clock, or the crowd screaming and pulsing around them. The great athlete can block all of that out, leave all that behind and concentrate on what needs to be done. Lesser players will often get distracted by all the other incredible things going on at the moment, and lose the focus on the primary task at hand.


Understanding this type of concept, will help us to see this story in its proper context. After several particularly intense exchanges and incidents which were significant enough to be remembered and recorded by Mark, Jesus retreats to a decidedly Gentile town to try to lay low for a little while.


As has become typical for Jesus, he was trying to keep his presence secret, yet was unable to do that. The Greek woman approaches Jesus in an urgent, but apparently a somewhat teasing manner. In other words, this exchange was probably a bit more good-natured than when we might think at first. In any case, she clearly approaches Jesus with humility. She begs Jesus to heal her daughter of the demon that has possessed her. Jesus responds with an apparent insult. She accepts that insult and even turns it to her own advantage.


The point of this story is really more political than just another healing story. Jesus had a particular vocation during his ministry. He was well aware of it throughout his time before the Cross. In the twenty-first century we often forget that truth but Jesus never did. He stayed focused on the task at hand. His vocation was to spread the news of the coming kingdom to the Jews, it was not to spread the gospel to the Gentile world. Although Jesus did occasionally have contact with Gentiles, that was not his mission. He believed (a typical Jewish belief at the time) that when Israel was redeemed, that would be the time to carry the saving rule of God to the rest of the world.


It is not that Jesus was denying the saving love of God to the Gentiles. Rather, Jesus was careful about sticking with the reason he came. He came to inaugurate the Kingdom of God, and did not want to be drawn away from his work into other areas. This would be to divert his attention from the difficult and dangerous work that was his focus.


This is also a reminder that Jesus’ mission was not to just go around and heal the sick and help everyone he could. Jesus had specific, dangerous, and controversial things to do. Jesus wasn’t a universal problem-solver, he was the Messiah that had come for a specific task. If Jesus wouldn’t be distracted from his messianic vocation, then we too, should not be distracted. It is up to us to recognize Jesus’ main task and focus on that both when we learn about him, and when we carry his message to the world of our day.


We also shouldn’t miss another purpose that Mark probably had in mind for including this passage into his gospel. Mark has just described some intense discussions about cleanness and uncleanness. The old barriers, the old way of doing things were being swept away. Mark is now giving a living, breathing example of that. This woman, is one of those that is on the outside in the mind of the Jews. She is one the dogs under the table, one of the unclean.


Was this, then, a matter of Jesus doing exactly what I just said he didn’t do, losing focus. Not at all. This is not part of Jesus’ vocation, and he will not be distracted ultimately, but he does have a purpose in this act that is related to his vocation. Jesus performs this miracle, as he does so many other times, for the purpose of what it points to rather than the mere healing itself. He heals this woman’s daughter because of the message that it will send to the Jews. In healing this woman’s daughter, Jesus (and Mark by including this account) is pointing to a time that he has been warning the Jews about. The dogs under the table are already beginning to share in the children’s food. There is a time when they will no longer be dogs, when they will have free and full access to the kingdom. If the Jews do not repent, then not only will the dogs be part of the meal as children, the children will be cast out and be like the dogs.


We must understand Jesus’ mission and words here then, as a short-term, urgent message. A message that Israel needed to hear and heed before it was too late. This incident was yet another symbolic act by Jesus meant to point to the new order that was being instituted by God.



Devotional Thought

Why do you think that Jesus’ vocation was to come to the children of Israel rather than to the whole world? If his message was for all nations, why did Jesus focus on only the sheep of Israel? How does the answer to that question provide direction and insight for the Church today?