Today’s reading is Mark 7.
Admittedly, Jesus’s response to the Syrophoenician women is shocking. It seems out of character. He has consistently shown compassion to the most unclean. But He refuses a miracle and calls this woman a dog. What is that about?
The stage was already set for Jesus to work with a woman like this back in Mark 3:7-12. There we were told part of the crowd coming to Him was from Tyre and Sidon. No exception is made in that text regarding their sick being healed and their demons being cast out. Maybe we assume those crowds were Jews among the Diaspora in Tyre and Sidon.
When the Gentile woman begs on behalf of her daughter, Jesus says:
Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.
—Mark 7:27 (ESV)
We are left wondering why Jesus even traveled into Tyre and Sidon if He was going to dismiss the inhabitants in such a way. But, like the parables which arrest our attention and cause us to ask if something else is really being discussed below the surface, this shocking response causes us to pause and dig deeper before moving on.
Are we really to believe Jesus was against helping this woman until she outsmarted Him in a game of wits? I find that difficult to believe. Rather, it makes much more sense that Jesus allowed this scenario to play out in order to draw attention to a lesson His apostles needed to learn, the woman needed to learn, and we need to learn. What lesson is Jesus bringing to the forefront?
Elsewhere in the gospels, Jesus teaches, “Do not give the dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you” (Matthew 7:6, ESV). How easily the Jews following Jesus might latch on to this statement. How easily they might say to themselves, “Gentiles are dogs. We shouldn’t teach the gospel to Gentiles.” Yet, now we see Jesus in a different setting giving the other side of this teaching. The Jews following Jesus have to moderate the one teaching with the other demonstration.
In Matthew 7, Jesus was not claiming the gospel is not for Gentiles. After all, the gospel may be to the Jews first, but it is also for the Gentiles (see Romans 1:16). The “dogs” then from whom holy things must be kept are not people of a certain bloodline or ethnic heritage. They are those who have demonstrated themselves hostile to the gospel no matter their ethnicity or nationality. Remember, in the limited commission of Mark 6:11, if people did not receive the gospel, the disciples were not to quit spreading the gospel. But at the same time, they weren’t supposed to simply keep trying to force a village, city, or people to accept it. They were to shake the dust of their feet as a testimony against the rejecters, but then they were to move on.
What a surprising point this would be for Jews of that day. A Gentile might indeed be the little dog under the table eating the children’s crumbs, but a Jew might be the wild dog from whom the holy things must be kept.
When Mark wrote his account of the gospel, Peter had already taken the gospel to the Gentiles. The meeting in Jerusalem in Acts 15 had already taken place. This story demonstrates for all that the apostles and Christians had not gone out on their own adding something to the teaching of Jesus by including Gentiles in the kingdom. Jesus had always demonstrated the good news is for Jews and Gentiles alike. Yes, to the Jew first, but also to the Greek.
And I praise the Lord for that because I’m one of those Gentiles. Praise the Lord!
Tomorrow’s reading is Mark 7.
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PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family
How does Mark 7 prompt or improve your hope in God?
Read the Bible 