Did Jesus really say that?

 This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church on Sunday, 9/8. The text was Mark 7:24-37.

Jesus is on the move. Earlier, we’re told he was in Galilee, probably Capernaum, where Peter’s house was. Jesus then goes to Tyre for some rest, about 35 miles from Capernaum. That's the location of our story. After that, he goes “by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee,” (v. 31). I don’t think so! Sidon is about 15 miles northeast of Tyre, while Galilee is southeast of Tyre. Jesus’ route was pretty circuitous. 

Jesus has gone away to get some rest. The problem is Jesus’ notoriety. I love the way Mark puts it, “Yet he could not escape notice,” (v. 24). Jesus is the master of demons, disease and nature, but he is unable to secure the privacy he wants. Word has gotten around that Jesus was there, and before you know it, he has company. 

That’s bad enough, but now a woman has found him. And she’s a Gentile besides. Additionally, women were not supposed to be seen in public with men that weren’t their husbands or family.

The Syrophoenician woman wanted healing for her daughter of a demon. But this is culturally unconventional and even shameful since it is not coming from a male member of her family. Even so, her manner was one of humility. She was persistent, but not demanding, bowing to Jesus, thus displaying her humility. She begged Jesus for this miracle. 

The response we expect is for Jesus to act like Jesus: compassionate when he sees people in need. However, his response to the woman is rude. He has already performed a healing on a Gentile earlier in Mark (the demoniac of the tombs in chapter 5), so what’s the problem? 

Jesus says, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” (v. 27). Did Jesus just compare this woman to a dog? How demeaning! If we were so insulted by such a great person, we’d likely burst into tears and creep away, feeling small and insignificant. I think I would like a hole to appear in the floor to swallow me up.

For the Jewish people of that time, dogs were not household pets, but semi-wild scavengers, who ate unclean food. Gentiles, however, would domesticate the animals and bring them into their homes. In the woman’s Gentile worldview, it was possible to be a dog and yet be within the larger confines of family space. She wonders why this bread can’t be used to feed her and her people’s hunger (v. 28). 

“Let the children be fed first.” Jesus is describing his healing power metaphorically as the children’s “food” or more literally “bread,” while Mark is pointing forward to the time when Gentiles would also be fed. Mark asserts Jesus’ boundary-breaking power to feed the hunger of both Jews and Gentiles. 

However, Jesus was convinced that he must not be distracted from his primary mission to his people. Some try to explain away Jesus’ awful remark, saying that he meant a little puppy, a term of affection. Not so! In that day and age, it was an insult. Today in Palestinian culture it is still very offensive to call a person an animal of any kind. 

Let’s cut Jesus some slack, maybe in a very human moment of physical and mental exhaustion, he has lost sight of his mission and needs to be shaken up. Was she there to straighten Jesus out and open him up?

Or is it that the unconventionality and shamefulness of the request coming from the woman directly, draws Jesus’ wrath and disdain, not because she is a Gentile. She had no right to engage Jesus in conversation. It would be like a homeless person interrupting the dinner of the President of the United States to ask a favor. 

Perhaps Jesus responds this way because he was aware of the economic hardships that many Jews in the region of Tyre experienced because of the exploits of Gentile landowners. His rebuff of the Syrophoenician woman may have reflected this. 

The woman responds, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs,” (v. 28). This is one gutsy lady. She gives it right back to Jesus, using this same slur, standing up to what it means. Then she turns it upside down and inside out. It’s as if she said, “Sure Jesus, I don’t care if the bread is meant for the children, that doesn’t mean that your loving, gracious Father wants everyone else to go starving. That can’t be what you’re saying, Jesus, is it?” (V. 28).

The conversation was likely longer than indicated in this passage, with verbs indicating continued or repeated actions. It may have gone like this, “She was asking him.” “He was saying to her.” “She is saying to him.” This woman was not going to leave Jesus alone until he granted her request. 

The Syrophoenician woman acknowledges the priority of the “children,” even as she presses her request to be fed from the same table. Although they may have priority, she is not satisfied with this. Her faith calls for a larger vision of God’s mission, which includes the Gentiles. 

The woman’s faith in Jesus’ healing power takes Jesus by surprise. Her courage to confront Jesus is what changes his mind. Mark may be showing us that being incarnate is not a cakewalk for Jesus. He may have been struggling to find his own center in God. The Messiah must suffer under the challenge of the human condition itself, otherwise, Jesus would not be fully human. Earlier, Jesus’ response was very human, and his insight is now perhaps divine. Now he understands her challenge. 

Jesus realizes that his mission may be primarily to, but not exclusively to, the Jewish people. He recognizes the God-given wisdom of the woman’s words. God’s love expands beyond and crosses all borders. Jesus tells the woman, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter” (v. 29). Jesus seems to admire her persistence. 

Our world teaches us to shun the dirty, smelly woman ranting in the street or on the bus next to us, and not to embrace her. Countless children spend empty, abused lives shuttled from one foster home to another, forgotten and unloved by the world. Talk to Pastor Heather Allport-Cohoon about the work in which she was involved as the chaplain at the G. A. Home. Maybe God would like to use you with needy children. Prisoners of other countries and religions can be blindfolded and humiliated because they are deemed undeserving of the same rights and privileges as those in power (Howe). Are we to just keep silent and let the powerful dominate the weak? Can we use the means available to us to speak out against injustice?

Are we willing to take circuitous routes to meet the needs of such people? We are in an awful hurry today and don’t have time for detours. Shall we follow our Lord into unplanned areas, crossing boundaries and borders? Who knows what God will do through us.

Mark teaches us about persistence in prayer on behalf of others. Are we willing to continually call out to God for those in the margins of our society? Can we be like the Syrophoenician woman who didn’t care whether it seemed right or not to approach this great teacher on behalf of her daughter? We believe and say in prayer, “your will be done,” but we must not prematurely abandon our prayers for healing. We are reminded that “faith is a lively, vigorous, insisting power that does not give up easily” (Craddock).

Imagine what it would be like to be renewed in mission and energy and spirit. When we identify the people around us that need our advocacy and care, this will happen. Congregational renewal does not come from the songs we sing or the programs we most want. Renewal comes when we look around us—in our households, schools, communities and world—to see who requires us, what they require from us and how we might leverage our resources to be their advocates before God and the world (Lose). We’re doing well on some of this, but there is so much more that God wants to do that his love and grace may flow through us for the sake of the world. Amen. 

Resources

Brian K. Blount and Gary W. Charles, Preaching Mark in Two Voices

M. Eugene Boring and Fred B. Craddock, The People’s New Testament Commentary

Fred B. Craddock, Preaching Through the Christian Year B

Loye Bradley Ashton, Amy C. Howe, Douglas A. Hare, Feasting On the Word: Year B,       Volume 4: Season After Pentecost

Brian Stoffregen, crossmarks.com