Introduction
In the movie “The Kid,” Bruce Willis plays an image consultant. We see him racing in to save clients who have said or done something that makes them appear insensitive to people, which in their cases they actually are. “What did I say?” “What did I do?” is their befuddled reaction to the controversies swirling around them. It’s Willis’ job to give them a positive image. Fortunately, he did not have Jesus for a client, as this text brings out.
Text
Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. This is the area north of Galilee. He has traveled outside the traditional borders of Israel, which would have been considered pagan territory in his day. This was unusual for Jesus. We have no record of him traveling outside Jewish territory other than the short excursions on the east side of the Sea of Galilee. He does minister in Samaria, but even then that is while he is traveling through the territory to get to Jewish populations.
Jesus intentionally kept his ministry restricted to the Jews. In Galilee there were a number of predominantly Gentile towns, but the only towns that he is reported to have ministered in were Jewish. Even in this passage note that he does not actually enter into the town of Tyre, and Mark comments that he went into the territory to get away from people rather than to minister: He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it.
It is apparent that Jesus, with his disciples, is trying to get some rest. They are mobbed by crowds everywhere they go, as we have seen. He then travels outside of Galilee altogether in hopes of taking a break.
Good try. Yet he could not keep his presence secret. 25 In 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. 26 The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
Jesus’ fame has spread far and wide. When they heard all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon (Mark 3:8). This woman has heard about this man of God who heals all manner of sickness and drives out demons in everyone who comes to him.
Let’s review for a moment all the types of people who have come to Jesus for help. There are the sick. Regardless of their ailment, Jesus heals everyone. There are the unclean – the lepers. He cleanses them even though they are outcasts who ought to be avoided, especially by a holy man. He drives out demons from the demon possessed. He befriends public sinners. He, in other words, helps everyone who comes to him no matter his status or condition.
The woman coming to Jesus is a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She is Hellenistic, i.e. she is raised in the Greek culture of the Roman Empire. She is a native of that territory north of Galilee that is known as Syrian Phoenicia. She is neither a Jew living in Gentile territory, nor a Gentile who has adopted the Jewish faith and culture. Mark wants us to know that. She in no way has claim to God’s covenant people.
What is her need? She has a daughter who is demon possessed. As Matthew quotes the mother, her daughter is suffering terribly from demon possession. We are used to this by now. That’s hardly a difficult problem for Jesus. It is no effort on his part to call a demon out and send him on his way. Jesus has already demonstrated his compassion and willingness to heal. We’ve already seen another parent come to him to heal his daughter, and Jesus goes out of his way to help.
He then comes up with a response that, mildly speaking, is shocking. 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.” Excuse me? Wait a second, Mark. Jesus said what? He to referred this mother’s suffering daughter as to a dog?
Mothers, you wouldn’t have trouble with that, would you? If you took your gravely ill daughter to a doctor and asked him to heal her, it wouldn’t bother you if he dismissed you by saying that he was in medicine to help children, not dogs? I have read this passage many times and I still cannot read these words without shock and embarrassment.
Review the story. Mark makes clear the intensity of the mother’s emotions. As soon as she hears that Jesus is near she goes to him. She falls at his feet. She begs his help. Her emotions and behavior are the same as the father who sought Jesus’ help for his daughter. For him, Jesus immediately goes with him to heal the daughter. For her, well, what is the problem? This is not like Jesus. He hasn’t hesitated to help anyone, much less speak so offensively. All the more reason his response is so baffling. He is not someone of whom we might say, “He’s a nice guy, but sometimes he can be out of sorts.” If anything, he is too willing to help people in need.
Commentators note, by the way, that Jesus uses the term for dogs who are family pets. He doesn’t use another term for dogs who are stray animals. Well, that’s good to know. Would that make you mothers feel better? Your daughter is on the level of a family pet, not a stray animal.
One commentator thinks that Jesus was actually speaking in a playful way. He was taken by the woman’s faith and intended to help. He knew that she would come up with the right answer. We’ve all done this. A friend asks for help. We smile and say something like, “Why should I help you?” The friend smiles and gives a retort, knowing that you are playing a little game. But we also know there are times when such playing is not appropriate. This is one of those times. Going back to the illustration of a mother taking her gravely ill daughter, if the doctor has said that he was only teasing or testing her, I doubt that she would have chuckled.
The disciples took Jesus seriously. Mark makes no mention of them, but Matthew does. He reports that they were after Jesus to send her away because she was pestering them. They probably were thinking that it was time for him to put his foot down. Enough is enough, particularly when Gentiles are imposing themselves on him.
So, what’s going on with Jesus? I don’t know. I really have no idea why he spoke to the woman like that. No matter what angle one uses to look at his words, they do not fit our image of the compassionate shepherd that he is. We know Jesus to be the Good Shepherd as he called himself (John 10:11). We know that there is no sheep to insignificant for him to help. He is the shepherd who seeks the one little lamb out of a hundred who is lost (Luke 15:1ff). Why he would then give this poor woman a hard time, I don’t know.
Most commentators say that he was testing the woman to see what kind of faith she really had. Another angle is that he, through his response, was drawing her out to demonstrate her great faith. Whereas, others would have backed down, she persisted because of her strong faith. She is a living example of Jesus’ parable about the persistent woman who got justice from the unjust judge.
I suppose that is a good interpretation. The woman certainly showed persistence and good wit. 28 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
She gives the kind of reply that most of us think of hours later after we’ve been nailed with a remark. “Oh, man! I should have said…,” instead of the stunned silence or mumbling we did: Oh, yea, well…well… She certainly impressed Jesus. 29 Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
Jesus does drive out the demon. The woman does show great faith. Indeed, she shows the same faith as the centurion. She just takes Jesus at his word that the demon is gone. She doesn’t insist that he come with her. Everybody is happy.
I hate to beat the subject, but even that ending still leaves me scratching my head. Now it looks like Jesus required the woman to have good wit to help her out, as though he required her to jump through at least one hoop to get help when no one else has had to do the same. And the manner in which he answers her plea shows that the exorcism took no great effort on his part. All the more difficult it is to understand his reluctance. When she asked the first time, he could have simply said then you may go; the demon has left your daughter. And then the whole matter would have been over. What’s the big deal?
The big deal is that this woman is a Gentile. What’s a Gentile? You and I, if you are not of Jewish blood, are Gentiles. We are the people far from God, a people excluded from the covenant of God. I am not using prejudice language here. I am using biblical language.
Listen to Paul talk about us Gentiles: Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men)— 12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:11-13).
Note Paul is speaking to gentile Christians about their former state. They are united to Christ now. But we are not at the point yet in the gospels. Paul could speak of Jews and Gentiles becoming one people in Christ. That’s not how it was viewed before Christ finished his atoning work. The nation of Israel made up the covenant people of God. If you had any hope for salvation you needed somehow to get identified with that single people group. It was the Jewish people who were waiting for the Messiah to come and deliver them, not the Gentiles. Indeed, all the Gentiles could expect at the Messiah’s coming was judgment. Maybe some Gentiles could expect mercy. There were Gentiles regarded by the Jews as God-fearers. The centurion was one, whose son Jesus healed. So was the other centurion Cornelius. But still, the Messiah was coming on behalf of the Jews. He was to be the Good Shepherd, yes, but as Jesus said in Matthew, he was sent for the lost sheep of Israel.
This was understood by the Jews and their neighbors. The Jews did not keep their opinion quiet, which peeved a lot of Gentiles, and yet was respected by those who were pious. There were those few who did recognize the special religion of the Jews or at least understood how their idea of being God’s covenant people worked. This woman did not need to know a lot of Jewish theology or believe it to know that this man whom the Jews were excited about would have been for them alone. Just as the leper would have been uncertain if a holy man of God would bother with him, so this gentile woman would have been unsure if this Jewish holy man would bother with her.
One other thing to note is that unlike us modern Americans, she would have accepted the idea of classes of people. We think everybody should treat everybody the same, regardless of social status. That is a modern Western concept. The woman would have not regarded herself as having the right to receive Jesus’ help. A man helping a woman; a holy man helping a common or unclean person; a Jew helping a Gentile; a famous and respected man helping a commoner – all these distinctions were clear, and it would have been reasonable to everyone if Jesus had not helped. His response, shocking to us, would not have been surprising to her. Perhaps she was able to give such a clever response because she had anticipated his reaction to her.
Lessons
But Jesus did help and Mark’s lesson is that he came to be the Messiah for everyone, regardless their ethnic heritage or status in life. Jesus did come as the Messiah of Israel and his primary mission on earth was to the Jewish people. He told his disciples before he ascended to be his witnesses first to Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria, and then to the rest of the world. The Jews, as the people of God’s covenant, did receive first priority. But even then, as this woman so wittily pointed out, God’s mercy spills over to even the lowliest of people. Even the dogs get the crumbs from the table, and be sure that the crumbs from the table of the Lord is the finest of servings.
There are two lessons we can gain from this woman’s experience. One is grasping the importance of humility. Commentators laud the woman’s faith, but I think it is her humility that stands out. With a 100% track record for healing and driving out demons, any parent would go to Jesus. Not so many would have persisted after such a rebuff. I think this mother’s strength was accepting the poor position she was in to get help. She didn’t argue that her child had just as much right as everyone who got help. She appealed, not to her rights, but to Jesus’ mercy.
Isn’t that the real reason why most people reject the Christian faith? It requires humility. One must appeal to God’s mercy, even taking the position that he is not worthy to be saved. He must accept that Jesus owes him nothing, and though Jesus may help one person, he has no obligation to help another. That is tough to accept, especially for a modern American. We are bred to regard ourselves as having rights and to be treated with the same respect as everyone else. That may be fine for a society, but it transfers poorly to our relations with God. God is not the president of his people; he is the King. Jesus established a kingdom, not a republic. And he established his kingdom out of mercy. Every one of his subjects is received into his kingdom out of his mercy. No one, no one has gotten in through merit or by asserting his rights.
And because that is the case, no one has right to assert his superiority over anyone else, whether they are in the kingdom or out. No Christian has the right to boast about anything. Our salvation and any gift or virtue that we might have is purely a gift given out of Jesus’ mercy. Therefore, we have no excuse to withhold mercy to anyone else. Just as God gives the rain to the just and unjust alike, so we are to help all who need our help.
Finally, let us understand that it is not our business to tame Jesus. I used to worry about preaching such texts as this one, because I thought I needed to explain Jesus, or rather, defend him. There are times when he says or does something which doesn’t seem to be proper. But it finally dawned on me that Jesus does not need my analysis of his mind and certainly not my defense. Goodness, for me to question Jesus’ compassion! I, who begrudge helping a needy person get some food, question the merciful Son of God who put aside his glory in heaven to die for all his enemies? I, who sin against God everyday and break continually God’s command to love my neighbor, dare suggest to sinless and perfectly loving Jesus that he should have chosen better words?
No, Jesus doesn’t need me to justify or soften anything that he has said or done. All that he calls me to do is proclaim it as a preacher. You and I are the ones who need taming. What we need to be careful of is trying to interpret Jesus to be like us or at least be acceptable to us.
Indeed, here is a good rule of thumb for you in your relation to Jesus. If Jesus ever becomes predictable, if he becomes easy to live with, then something is wrong. It is not that Jesus is tough to get along with, but that we are in such bad condition. Jesus is good and is King; we are bad and rebellious. Remember? Our hearts are bad. We are incapable of judging perfectly what is good, much less living perfectly good lives. To relate to one who is perfect is unsettling. The very fact that he will only say and do things that are good and right will upset us, because we will misjudge them and attach wrong motives. The very fact that he acts as King is unsettling, because in truth we want him only to be our servant who helps us as we want help.
Let us learn from this humble woman the blessedness of being humble before our Lord. Let us learn to serve him with humility. Let us learn always to examine ourselves in light of Jesus and not examine Jesus in the dim light of ourselves. It will cause discomfort, to be sure, but how wondrous it is to serve a true King and to experience the mercy of a Lord that we truly fear.
