A Sermon preached on Sunday, September 5, 2021 at St. Augustine’s and St. Christoph
Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23, James 2:1-10, 14-17, Mark 7:24-37
This is one of the more challenging Gospel readings, challenging because of the way in which Jesus behaves towards the anonymous Gentile woman. He initially refuses her request for help for her daughter, though at least he answers her. In the version of this story in Matthew’s Gospel – 15.21-28 – his first reaction is to ignore her completely: “Jesus did not answer a word”. His refusal is also anything but polite: “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” (Mark 7:27) Dog was a Jewish term of contempt for the Gentiles. I have seen commentaries calling out Jesus for his behaviour and for using a racist slur. The woman on the other hand is praised for her role, for her quick repartee - “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs,” (7:28) or her devotion to her daughter, and for having changed Jesus’ mind about his mission. Only now and thanks to the woman’s response, that narrative goes, does Jesus realise that he has been sent to bring the Good News to all people and not just to the Jewish people. This is not an interpretation I would sign up to, at least not all of it.
What I do agree with wholeheartedly is that the woman’s role is significant and positive. While I wish she had been given a name, this is still one of those occasions in Scripture where we encounter a strong, compassionate, clever, and courageous woman, and a foreigner to boot! Jesus’ ministry relied on female support. Women are often raised up as examples of exceptional faith and love. Jesus’ conversations with women are all important teaching moments, as is this one.
But this is not Jesus’ first encounter with a Gentile, not the first time he traverses ethnic boundaries and heals non-Jew, and not the first time that Jesus indicates that God’s mission also extends to Gentiles. The Gerasene demoniac, the one whose demons were transferred into a herd of pigs, was a Gentile. After his healing Jesus sends him back to his people as a witness: “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.” (Mark 5:19) And let’s not forget that in the passages before our reading, Jesus had just declared the purity laws of the Pharisees null and void, he is already breaking down barriers and crossing boundaries.
This episode is carefully sandwiched between the feeding of the five thousand (Mark 6.35–44) and the feeding of the four thousand (Mark 8.1–10). The five thousand were almost certainly all Jews – based on the context and the geography. The four thousand on the other hand, as Jesus was still in a Gentile-dominate region on his way back from today’s encounter, will at least have included many non-Jews. That’s probably one reason why we have the two multiplication stories, to show Jesus feeding first Jews and then non-Jews, meeting their physical and spiritual needs, thereby showing us, as we heard in Proverbs, that the Lord is the maker of them all.
So, in Mark’s account, Jesus’ encounter with the Syrophoenician woman is part of a clear trajectory in Jesus’ ministry and teaching from local to national, from his people, to all people. After the feeding of the four thousand Jesus’ focus returns to the people of Israel and to the city of Jerusalem for the fulfilment of his earthly ministry on the Cross. But as Tom Wright points out “As Jesus dies, Mark has a Roman Centurion affirm that he was truly the son of God (Mark 15:39). From that moment on, what was anticipated in the Syrophoenician woman became universally true. The King of the Jews had become saviour of the world.”[1]
But even if Jesus had always intended – and I believe often demonstrated – that his ministry was never just for Israel and the Jews, although that is where it began and from whom the mission to the world would extend, what about the problematic encounter with the woman? What about the words he uses? Anyone watching and listening would have been surprised that he was talking to the woman at all. Women were not supposed to approach male strangers, and Gentile women were especially to be ignored. In Matthew’s version of this story the disciples are recorded as having simply urged Jesus to simply send her away.
But she is here because she has heard about Jesus, she is anxious for her daughter, desperate even, but she must also have some expectation that it is worthwhile trying to get his help. That he will allow it. And he does – if initially a little impatiently (for he is fully human too). Remember that the passage tells us that after his argumentative encounter with the Pharisees, Jesus had gone “away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice.” (Mark 7:24) He was looking for some peace and quiet, he wanted to rest and replenish and still he has been found and someone wants something again. I think there was some exasperation in his reaction (not now), but also that he was also being deliberately provocative – not for the first or last time in the New Testament when he wanted to get a message across or get people thinking.
We can still be uncomfortable with Jesus’s response – even if the word he uses is not actually “dog,” but puppy, little dog. But we see him willing to interact with this woman, to enter a discussion, not only accepting, but admiring and praising her response. In the context of his time this was incredible. And for Mark’s audience, remember he was writing for a group of Gentile Christians, this would have been a passage to rejoice in, one showing that their inclusion in the God’s kingdom goes all the way back to Jesus, that it was always part of God’s plan. They are not intruders, and they are now counted as children of God.
Another reason why Mark (and Matthew) retained this event, is for us to admire and learn from the example of the Syrophoenician woman. There is a lot to admire: She is faithful, persistent, quick witted, focused and yet still humble. In the traditional language version of the Eucharist, Rite I, we still retain the Prayer of Humble Access that dates back to Thomas Cranmer’s first Book of Common Prayer. Partially based on today’s Gospel from Mark, it contains the words: “We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord whose property is always to have mercy.” That pretty much summarises her theology. On the one hand – her humility – she knows that we are nothing compared to God, and of course even the crumbs from the table would be enough for our healing and salvation. But she also believes in a generous and loving God who wants all people to be filled, all people to be healed, and all the world to be saved. What drives her are the three great virtues of faith, hope and love (1 Corinthians 13.13): Her faith in Jesus’ power to heal, her hope in a generous and gracious God, and her love both of another – of her daughter, who so needed healing – and ultimately of God.
Amen.
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