“The mission expands”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Monday, March 28, 2022
Mark 7:24-37 (Forward, p. 58) CEV p. 1036
Many people are quite happy to paint Jesus in an unflattering or negative light. For instance, they suggest that Jesus was obstinate and set in His ways, and was refusing to reach outward to the Gentiles, but that this Syro-Phoenician woman taught Him otherwise. Thus, having learned His lesson, He immediately went out to the Decapolis and ministered there. These ‘critics’ forget that Jesus had already been in the Decapolis and had ministered to the so-called xx demoniac while there. (Interestingly, the folks there, after that one particular episode, one that greatly disturbed them, they had asked Jesus to leave the place.). So, maybe Jesus’ encounter with the Syro-Phoenician woman, and her ardent faith, convinced Him that it was time to try again!
And likewise, these critics take issue with what they consider to be very hurtful and demeaning words on the part of Jesus, when He referred to the Gentiles as dogs. How very insensitive, how very racist, many would say. But they miss out on three things that provide a different colour to this verbal interchange between this woman and Jesus. Firstly, the woman would have known fully well that good, righteous Jews considered any Gentile to be a dog, those mangy, disreputable, unkempt scavengers of much of the ancient world. She would have known this to be the standard view, the generally prevailing standard of official Judaism. But then, Jesus changes things a bit. He doesn’t use the standard word for ‘dogs’, but a diminutive, a softer, gentler form, sort of akin to our word ‘puppies.’ And so Jesus is saying, “It isn’t right to take away the children’s food and feed it to the puppies.” But then, there is one other thing: our written text gives absolutely no indication of Jesus’ tone of voice when saying this, or whether He said this with a bit of a wink, as if to say, “That’s the official line, that’s what I am ‘supposed’ to say as a good and respectable Jew, but…”
Anyway, the woman is not at all offended and immediately picks up on Jesus’ little clue, his little inside joke. She says, in response, ‘but the children are naughty and throw their food unto the floor where the puppies await, only too happy to pick up the pieces, the crumbs, of what those children don’t want.’ She is begging to be one of those puppies. She is begging to be counted as one of those household pets that actually do belong and therefore receive the healing that she needs. And Jesus seeing her faith is more than happy to say ‘yes’, and then thereafter head out to minister to even more Gentiles.
These two episodes put in mind two questions for me. Firstly, are we, especially in the established, mainline churches, reaching out to the perimeters, out to people who don’t exactly fit into our mold and expectations or our way of thinking and worshipping? Are there needs out there in these people that we should be trying to meet?
And secondly, are some of our fellow ‘Christians’, those who claim to have a church background, who claim to be ‘Christian’, sometimes like those naughty children who despise and refuse to take up what God has to offer”? Do they sometimes even throw it away or treat it as refuse or as unimportant to their lives just now? Could it be that some of our fellow Christians have received just a small dose of Christianity, sufficiently just enough to inoculate them against getting ‘the real thing’? Could it sometimes be true that those who claim no faith at all might actually be more open, more receptive than those who wear the label of Christian?
Maybe Jesus, and this Syro-Phoenician woman, are trying to tell us something about how we should be approaching missions. Amen.
Forward notes: “Then he said to her, ‘For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter’” (verse 29)
“In the Nicene Creed, we profess that Jesus ‘was made man.’ Jesus’s humanity is exhibited in the story of the Syrophoenician woman.
“Jesus withdraws with his disciples to the region of Tyre. They need rest. But this is not an area that is favourable to Jews. While Jesus attempts to rest, he is approached by a Gentile woman begging him to heal her daughter. He rebukes her, but she is relentless and counters with a clever remark: ‘Even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’ After consideration, Jesus tells her that her daughter is well.
“This text illustrates how Jesus is fully human and fully divine. He is tired. He needs rest. A woman intrudes and annoys him persistently. He takes a stance, listens, then changes his mind and heals the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter.
“Fully human. Fully divine.”
Moving Forward: “What other stories reveal to you the fully human and fully divine nature of Jesus? Share them with us at #ForwardDaybyDay.”
A concluding note: Today’s Forward meditation simply illustrates what I have suggested, namely a more negative view of Jesus. It suggests that He, being human, was incorrect and needed to learn a lesson from this unexpected source. (Interestingly, Mark’s version of the story says nothing about her repeated and persistent intrusion and annoyance, though Matthew’s version does.) Moreover, our author fails to pick up on the most certainly intended and not so subtle verbal nuances of Jesus’ initial response to her.