Pushing Buttons and Boundaries: Jesus and the Syrophoenician Woman (Mark 7:24-30)
Introduction:
When I was a teen and woke up to the world I was living in, which was a small Southern town in Mississippi, where 4 Civil War battles were fought within an hour’s drive and where 9,000 Confederate and Union soldiers were buried, I asked my dad what it was like growing up in a segregated South. He didn’t like segregation. He remembered the separate water fountains, entrances, and lunch counters. People could not drink or simply eat together.
I would go to school, walk into the cafeteria, and sit next to whoever I wanted. It occurred to me one day that I and my black friends who were seated next to one another, who played basketball together, who hung out together, were only one generation removed from the segregation of the American South. Though it may not have seemed like it, sitting there holding that plastic rectangle tray with the little carved-out sections for corn, potatoes, and that “bread-tangle” of pizza, it was an act of God’s beautiful justice that we could sit at the same table and break bread together. To be companions.
I read this week that the word “companion” comes from two Latin words. “Com” is “together.” And “pan” is “bread.” A companion is someone with whom you share the experience of bread.
In our passage today, from the table in Tyre where dinner is interrupted by the faith of a Canaanite woman to the feeding of 4,000, we see bread and that Jesus is a companion to all people and does not segregrate himself based on human-created categories.
Jesus Ate with “Sinners”
One of the most scandalous things Jesus did during his ministry was eat at the table of sinners. The word translated as “sinner” in the gospels means a Jewish person who is not observant. They are ethnically Jewish but are not involved in the religious aspect of their faith.
One day Jesus struck up a conversation with a sinner who had a job working for the Roman government. The way this sinner made his salary was that he charged his fellow Jewish people more than they actually owed on their taxes and the overage went to him. That’s how he made his living. It’s a disgusting way to make a living.
That man’s name is Matthew and Jesus said, “Matthew, I’d like you to become a student disciple of mine.” He responded, “I’d love for you to be my rabbi and tonight I want you to eat bread at my table with my friends who are also tax collectors. I want my friends and their friends to meet you.” Jesus responded, “I’d love to be your companion.” Matthew would later write a gospel
Jesus responded that way because he is a companion to all people, especially sinners and outcasts.
Eating at Matthew’s house and being surrounded by sinners set peoples’ hair on fire. The gatekeepers said, “This guy says he is the Messiah, yet he is a companion of people who don’t give two cents about religion,” some protested. “Shouldn’t he worry about sullying himself with such filthy people? How could he stoop so low?”
In other words: the Messiah should not befriend those types of people and neither should they. They also believe those people are not worthy to have a Messiah.
Church, that is what some of those religious folks thought of their own people. Now imagine what they thought of Gentiles, people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds.
Those people would refer to themselves as children of God and to Gentiles as dogs. Not just a common dog, but a specific kind of dog—a scavenger, ravenous, brutal, vicious. Stay away because they are unclean.
If the Messiah should not be a companion to Jewish “sinners,” then the Messiah will absolutely not focus on the Gentiles. He will limit his actions to a certain territory (Galilee, Judea, Capernaum, Jerusalem) and a certain kind of people in a certain kind of way.
In other words, we will segregate the world between those who can sit and eat with the Messiah and those who can’t.
Mark 7:24-30 Commentary on What Jesus Said to the Syrophoenician Woman
This morning, when the Scripture was read, I think some of you became concerned about it, as it should.
I’ll give you two points to help you in your future reading and study of Scripture.
1) When something is unclear in Scripture you seek to understand it by what is clear in Scripture. For instance, what may be unclear to you is why Jesus said that to the woman. Is it because he doesn’t like women or Gentiles?
There’s substantial evidence that women financially supported Jesus’ ministry and were foundational to his core group of followers. He broke several cultural taboos in his ministry regarding women. In a time when women could not give legally binding testimony in a court of law, they were the pivotal witnesses of the resurrection. So, it’s clear Jesus is not a misogynist.
Second, in the Gospel of John 3:16, Jesus says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son.” The world means everyone – Jews and Gentiles. Jesus does not segregate God’s love. Right after that, Jesus talks to the Samaritan woman, someone who is ethnically and religiously different from him. He shares the grace of God with her and welcomes her and her whole community openly. In another event, Jesus heals a Roman soldier’s servant. And as we will see, our passage today shows that Jesus has expansive love for all people.
2) When reading the Bible, remember the passage you are reading is connected to the passages before and after it. It is not isolated.
Chapter divisions didn’t exist when Mark wrote it. He wrote it as one piece. This passage is connected to Mark 6 and Mark 8, which involves Jesus feeding bread to large crowds.
What’s going on here?
Mark 6 Feeding of 5,000
In Mark 6, Jesus is in the predominantly Jewish area called Galilee. He teaches in the local synagogues and performs miracles. Hundreds and thousands of people flock to him and follow him through the countryside, from town to town.
At one point, he looks at 5,000 people. Scholars I’m familiar with make the case that these people are primarily if not exclusively Jewish because of the location and the symbolism.
Jesus looks at them with compassion and asks, “How are we going to feed them?” Do you remember this?
“You will know the kingdom of God is among you when we live like we have an obligation to one another.”
With 5 loaves and 2 fish, he feeds them. It’s a miracle. Everyone ate what they wanted, and they gathered 12 baskets of leftovers. 12 baskets representing the 12 tribes of Israel. The Messiah is a companion of all of his people. There is no doubt.
Just as expected! This is what the Messiah would do!
What does Jesus do next? Where does he go? To Jerusalem? Deeper into his people’s territory?
Jesus Goes to Tyre and Meets the Syrophoenician Woman
He goes to Tyre. Do you know where Tyre is? It is 40-50 miles to the northwest in modern-day Lebanon. It is a Roman port city that is Gentile dominant.
He doesn’t just go to the edge of the boundary. He leaves Jewish territory and Jewish Messianic expectations, and he lives what he preaches, “God loves everyone and so must I.”
While he is there, he is hosted by someone, likely a Jewish family.
Perhaps the person hosting Jesus is a successful businessperson in the city who has been touched personally by Jesus’ ministry and they want to host him. Perhaps Jesus healed their family member, or they are drawn to his teachings.
What is clear from our next passage is that Jesus plans to go deep into Gentile territory to spread the love of God to people who have never, ever heard about it. First, he needs a place to rest.
That would explain the sentence: “He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it.”
Jesus is the honored guest, probably there with the host and his family, and his other guests. They all have questions.
The core of Jesus’ message is this: this is what the kingdom of God looks like when we live the way God wants us to live.
They may have asked, “Okay, Jesus, I live in Tyre, this port city that is filled with Gentiles with whom I have very little in common. How do I live and be faithful to my God here?” What does it mean to be a faithful child of God in this city, Jesus?”
And then in comes a Gentile woman, a woman from that city who is from a different ethnicity and different religion. She reports that her daughter is possessed by a demon, and it must be a bad situation because her daughter is not healthy enough to make it across town to come to where Jesus is.
Jesus is seated at the table. She is at his feet, begging Jesus to free her daughter of this evil force. Please come.”
The host invited Jesus 50 miles away to talk to him about the kingdom of God, about what it looks like when we live the way God wants. Now a Gentile has interrupted dinner with the Messiah, and they have to wrestle with this question: Do I think the Messiah should care about her?
The Faith of the Syrophoenician Woman
Jesus says, “First let the children eat all they want.’ “Children” was how they talked about themselves. We are children of God, and the Gentiles are dogs. That’s the play on words.
“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 the _______.’
[An aside I did not cover in the sermon. Here is the source for this. In the third column from the left Jesus uses the word #2952 “little dog” which builds from its root word from the column to the right “kuon”, which is “universally despised in the East” and is defined as a scavenging dog.]
But, Jesus changes the word for dog. I don’t know why our English translations don’t acknowledge this. Instead of a dangerous scavenger, he says, “First let the children eat all they want, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the puppy.”
In front of other people who share his faith and his ethnicity, who are interested in what the kingdom of God looks like on earth, he calls her a harmless, lovable pet that he has an obligation to take care of.
She acknowledges the situation. The “children” are seated at a table and she’s at his feet begging and says, “Yeah, I am a puppy but sometimes the kids give the puppy some food when it’s begging to keep it quiet.”
Jesus loves the answer.
For such a reply, you may go. In other words, I will heal your daughter from a distance, right away. You have shown great faith. I won’t keep you waiting. Your daughter is well. Amazing.
Jesus is answering their question. You are wondering what the kingdom of God looks like? You will know the kingdom of God is among you when we live like we have an obligation to one another.
The kingdom of God is not about being born into a certain family or group. It’s about relating to God and one another with love, care, and devotion.
Perhaps Jesus is testing her faith like he tested so many others, but he is also testing the faith of those around the table by showing them that they cannot segregate the Messiah’s lunch counter.
Mark 8 The Feeding of 4,000
After this event, Jesus goes further north in an even more Gentile-dominant area called The Ten Cities, the Decapolis. We know it’s very different from other areas he went to and taught it because there’s no mention of him teaching in a synagogue. There were likely no synagogues because of such a lack of Jewish presence.
Jesus walks through this vast area, some of it wilderness. Jesus goes city to city, town to town, talking to these Greco-Roman people. He teaches them about the kingdom of God. He heals their sick. He performs miracles. He talks to them about the love of God and the kingdom of God among them. They love him. They follow him from town to town and city to city.
After a number of days Jesus looks at the crowd and asks, “How are we going to feed these people?” The question is really, “How are we going to feed 4,000 Gentiles?”
And what does Jesus do? He feeds them 7 pieces of bread and a few fish. Like the 5,000 Jewish people who were fed, the Gentiles ate and there were leftovers. The Jewish leftovers were 12, representing the 12 tribes of Judah. The Gentile leftovers were 7, representing the number for completeness and the 7 Canaanite Nations which makes up most of the Old Testament writings.
Jesus is a companion to all people.
Mark 7:24-30 Commentary and Closing
When you hear that Christians are to love everyone, we mean all sorts of people because Jesus led by example. He could have stayed in his tight, safe religious bubble but he didn’t. He led by example and we are to follow him.
What does Mark 7:24-30 mean for us today? Let’s find out by answering an important question: Where are you in the story?
Are you the woman? Do you find yourself in desperate need of grace? At this point you’d be happy for a sliver of a miracle? Come to Jesus.
Are you the people in Mark 6? You’ve received a great blessing. You’ve received, and been “fed” by God. We rejoice with you. Now, respond in your life with gratitude. That will honor the Lord.
Are you the people in the Decapolis? You’ve heard good news was possible. Many of you are waiting for an answer to prayer. You really want God to help people in your life. Let us commit to pray for one another.
Are we the people at the table with Jesus who need to be reminded that there is enough room for someone else?
As we leave here today, may we see every table we sit at as an opportunity to be companions to one another, just as Jesus is to us. May we push the boundaries of our own comfort zones, welcoming the outsider, and trusting that God’s table always has room for one more. Let us go in peace, knowing that as we break bread with others, we are living out the inclusive love of Christ. Amen.
Scholarship:
William Lane – In his The Gospel According to Mark (New International Commentary on the New Testament),
James R. Edwards – In The Gospel According to Mark (Pillar New Testament Commentary)
R.T. France – In his The Gospel of Mark (New International Greek Testament Commentary), France points out that the setting of the feeding of the 5,000 is on the Jewish side of the Sea of Galilee. He contrasts this with the later feeding of the 4,000 in Gentile territory (Mark 8:1-10) and sees the difference in symbolism and audience.
