“Jesus Arrives at a New Understanding”

September 8, 2024

Mark 7:24–30

From there he set out and went 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, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ But she answered him, ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’ Then he said to her, ‘For saying that you may go — the demon has left your daughter.’ So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

This story of Jesus is tricky.

The intent was not to illustrate another miraculous act. Its aim was to tell of Jesus taking time off, away from all the demands.

Up to this point, every time Jesus has tried to catch a break, crowds come looking, needing, begging, crying. At times it is his own disciples who need a hand.

It is fair to say that Jesus is weary, exhausted spiritually, physically, mentally. His humanness is easy to understand here.

We are told Jesus has traveled into the far north of Gentile territory, far north of Israel, north of Nazareth where he grew up and was well known. Perhaps he hoped this would ensure his anonymity and guaranteed escape from sight.

He “entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice.” Even in this gentile region, it seems, word has spread about Jesus. He cannot escape demands for his healing power.

Somehow a desperate mom on a mission breaks through every traditional barrier that should prevent her from doing so and finds him. We are told that she is “a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin” which means she is implicitly impure, one who lives outside of the land of Israel.

She is also a woman, unaccompanied by a husband or male relative. She initiates a conversation with a strange man — another boundary broken.

Her child is sick with a “demon.” Today we would call it a mental health crisis. Biblical writers used “demon” in a time when there were not words or understanding of mental illness.

We are not told how the “demon” affected this girl, but there are other biblical stories about “demon-possessed” people that we can infer this illness made her act in bizarre and anti-social ways.

Jesus’ response to the woman’s desperation is troubling. He compares her child to a dog. ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’

Jesus response to this mother is ethnically offensive. Derogatory. Dismissive.

For generations, preachers have tried to excuse Jesus’ behavior, trying to save him from himself due to his weary state and frustration over being discovered in a time and place of escape. I can hear the excuses:

Maybe he is just speaking as a man of his time.

Maybe he is on a mission that does not include being deterred by this mother and child.

Maybe he is making this ethnic slur intentionally, trying to test her, even goad her. Or irritate her to a degree that she turns on her heels and leaves Jesus to resume his respite.

I prefer to go this route. Maybe Jesus is stretched to such a degree that this encounter convicts him.

As the exchange begins, Jesus is grossly offensive. But this mother is not put off. With her smarts not deterred by offence, she does something amazing. She schools Jesus. With her emotional steadiness, persistence and determination, she flips around his slur and says, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.

Then he said to her, ‘For saying that you may go — the demon has left your daughter.’ So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

In that moment, full of an unexpected, unpredictable grace, Jesus is changed. By this mother’s passion, the fierce love of her child she understands that the divine mission Jesus has been showing to thousands, can be big enough for her and her daughter.

Jesus is changed, he grows.

Jesus is opened.

Jesus’ ministry is re-defined.

In a time like ours, so full of complexity, where ethnic offensiveness, disparagement, distrust, and denigratory behaviors seem to have become an acceptable part of societal norms, I find tremendous Good News in this story.

We have a Savior who teaches us how to listen closely, how to be stretched, how to grow.

For some it is challenging to acknowledge Jesus’ hard, insensitive response for what it is because such thinking is grounded in the concern that if Jesus is human enough to make a mistake, then grow and change, then can he still be divine?

In Jesus Christ, fully God, fully human, we learn how to be human, and in that, thank God, Jesus shows us how.

He is tired. He loses composure and sensitivity and he blatantly offends. But he does not stomp off or withdraw, refusing to make better a wrong situation. Rather, he engages and he is humbled He is opened. Jesus learns, Jesus grows, he changes.

That is a Godly witness and a human witness we need, right now, perhaps more than ever.

Barbara Brown Taylor writes, “You can almost hear the huge wheel of history turning as Jesus comes to a new understanding of who he is and what he has been called to do.”

I hold out the hope that in these times, people of faith and people who yearn for a better way of life for all can come to a new understanding of who we are, and what we are called to do.

Praise God that this woman did not back down. Thank God that Jesus was opened and changed.

Image: godwhospeaks.uk