Mark 7:24–30
24 And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. 25 But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29 And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.
Today we are back in Mark. This is part of the text I was planning on preaching this past Sunday. The rest of this week we will look at 3 similar encounters in chapters 7 and 8—the Syrophoenician woman, the deaf man, and the blind man.
To open this section we see Jesus traveling to Tyre and Sidon. Tyre was a Gentile region—one that represented the furthest expression of Jesus' outreach to the Gentile world in his ministry to this point. Jews had beef to say the least with the people of Tyre and Sidon. During the Maccabean Revolt in the 2nd c. BCE Tyre sided with the Seleucids against the Jews. This led Josephus to declare that the people of Tyre had "the greatest ill will towards [the Jews]." (Josephus, Against Apion 1.13) This encounter with the Syrophoenician woman in Tyre was no minor encounter. As Edwards notes in his commentary, "Jesus’ visit to Tyre universalizes the concept of Messiah in terms of geography, ethnicity, gender, and religion in a way entirely unprecedented in Judaism." (Edwards, J. R. (2002). The Gospel according to Mark (p. 217).)
This woman from was from Gentile, pagan territory and her dress would have obviously differentiated her from an adherent to Judaism. According to the tradition of the elders she had no business approaching Jesus. She was a woman from a pagan, Gentile, enemy nation of Israel. Yet, she threw it all to the side in desperation and came and "fell down at his feet" —the same response to Jesus as Jairus, the Jewish synagogue leader. Yet she couldn't be more different than Jairus in just about every other social and religious category.
At first glance the response of Jesus to the woman's request seems awfully offensive and out of step with his character that we see elsewhere in the gospel (ie. Jairus and his daughter, the demoniac, the bleeding woman). So what are we to make of this statement? First, it seems as if this is a proverbial saying, the meaning of which nobody would disagree with. We shouldn't take food off of a child's plate and give it to the dog. Even this being a proverbial statement softens the comparison of the woman to a dog.
The word Jesus chooses for dog here also softens the comparison a bit. It is true that Jews didn't think much of dogs and just about every reference to dogs in the OT and the rabbinic literature is negative. Rabbis often referred to Gentiles as dogs in the pejorative sense symbolizing their idolatry and uncleanness. However, in other ancient cultures dogs were often referred to in a positive light. But the word Jesus uses here implies a little dog (like a Yorkie) that lived in the house with people. The other word for dog refers to a wild, scavenger dog. The little house-pet wasn't used in a pejorative sense as the other word for dog was. Here and in the parallel passage in Matthew are the only times this word appears in the NT. (btw. English needs 2 words for dogs. Yorkies and labs should never be categorized with the same term.😜)
What Jesus is really saying with this comment is that his Messianic ministry is primarily to the people of Israel. Most of his ministry isn't focused on the Gentiles. Notice in Jesus' statement he doesn't reject the Gentile's "eating". He simply places them second in the list of priority, "Let the children be fed first...". The Kingdom was always meant to expand to the Gentiles, but Jesus' ministry was primarily to the Jews (Matt. 15:24). Then, his followers would take the message to the world (Matt. 28:16-20). Yet, events like this in the gospels give not-so-subtle hints as to the universal mission of the Messiah.
The woman's response expresses not only great faith but also humility, understanding and acceptance of the mission of Jesus. Even the Jewish leaders, like Jairus, failed to demonstrate this so quickly. This little back and forth that she has with Jesus indicates that she gets his message, even his cryptic, proverbial message. She is the first in Mark's gospel to understand one of Jesus teachings without needing it clarified! She understood it and allowed it to bear fruit in her life. This Syrophoenician woman is good soil. (Mark 4:8, 20) For that Jesus casts the demon out of her daughter.