Introduction
Because Matthew uses Mark as a base for this section, if you want a connection to the history of the context, take a look at my Matthew 15:10-28 commentary from last year (here). This will go into more detail about the animosity with the Gentiles from Tyre and this particular insult.
But I will also say explicitly what I said in my intro last year:
It is an insult.
Please don’t try to explain away Jesus’ words here by saying that they wouldn’t have been insulting in Jesus’ day or that Jesus was just trying to test the woman’s faith. His words were insulting, and, in some ways, they are even more pointedly insulting (with potential to cause harm) because of Jesus’ time.”
Narrative Connection
In order for this story to make sense, we need to understand the building tension. Unfortunately, the building conflict in this text is often overlooked or pushed off to the side and we only focus on this one scene in isolation. And one of the many reasons is because we like our Jesus to be nice. We like our Jesus to be one of heaven and divinity. Above reproach. It makes us really uncomfortable to see Jesus as human and capable of mistakes.
But this text in particular illustrates Jesus’ humanity. And this Syrophoenician woman who approaches him, illustrates another angle of humanity as well.
So, putting it all into context today, last week we left off with the Pharisees, the disciples, and Jesus debating over whether or not it is necessary to ritually wash one’s hands before eating. In sum, Jesus goes on to say that ‘there is nothing that we can put into our bodies that defiles us, but it is what comes out of us that defiles us: our hurtful words, our harmful deeds.
To put it simply that was not an easy debate for Jesus. At this point in time there are religious leaders with more authority who are beginning to show up to keep an eye on this Jesus of Nazareth. The Pharisees and scribes of last week, have shown up from Jerusalem, even though Jesus is all the way up in Galilee.
That puts an extra weight and pressure on these debates. Not only for Jesus to get his Good News across, but also to ensure that he still has time to fulfill all of his ministry before the inevitable arrest and execution that he knows is coming.
So, I wonder if you have ever had that feeling where you have just had a long and tense conversation, or debate, maybe even and argument. Oftentimes it leaves us exhausted. It leaves us drained of energy and creative potential. It leaves us with little left in the tank to care for others around us.
That’s where Jesus is as we begin our text today. Jesus his leaving this region. And he is heading into the region of Tyre. This is a region with more Gentiles, and more people of Greek origin. And in this area—as our gospel tells us—Jesus is hoping to escape notice. Jesus is exhausted from the fighting with the religious leaders who have been following him. Jesus is probably a little bit of tired of teaching his disciples. He is tired of the crowds pressing in on him in need of healing, or food, or teaching. He is hoping to find some quiet.
But Jesus can’t escape notice, even here in the region of Tyre.
Now, we only hear about the Syrophoenician woman. But odds are she was not the only person to see Jesus and to recognize him for who he was. She sees him and others probably did too as the miracle worker, as the one who has been healing people across the region. And I’m sure they, like her, are hoping for a miracle. And so, in this moment when Jesus was just hoping to be by himself, he’s confronted with this ask.
“Please heal my daughter.” This woman of Greek origin (the Syrophoenician woman as we have come to know her) kneels down before Jesus and begs him to cleanse her daughter of a demon.
Now I set up what happened before, both in last week’s gospel and the scene of Jesus leaving the region and heading into Tyre, to help us understand what Jesus might be feeling in this moment. Because all of it is intentional by the author of the Gospel of Mark. All of it sets up the next exchange of words, that will change everything.
The woman begs him to cast out the demon in her daughter. And Jesus says 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.”
“It is what comes out of a person that defiles.”
Now there have been numerous commentaries and pastors that have explained over the course of time that this statement made by Jesus isn’t so bad. That Jesus wouldn’t have been referring to her with a slur but it was referring to maybe more of a household pet.
And yet I ask all of you… if you came up to somebody in need of healing or in need of care, and they referred to you as something other than human, how would you respond?
What Jesus may have been trying to say is something along the lines of “I have come for the Jewish people. I have come for my people. And I am exhausted and I have nothing left to give you.”
However, the words that he uses instead, are ones of defilement. Jesus calls her a dog.
Pastor Tamika Jancewicz once put it like this in a text study that we had together:
“The Syrophoenician woman is the only person that Jesus can say ‘no’ to at this point. When others have been coming to him, they are disciples, they are religious leaders of the Jewish faith, and Jesus has to respond to those people. His mission and ministry up until this point is for the Jewish people. And whether it is with disciples—who he is sharing the good news with—or it is with religious leaders that he needs to appropriately debate with in order to get his point across, he has to see them, he has to engage with them. When people in need of healing in the Jewish community are coming to him, Jesus has to respond to their needs in order to continue to evangelize to the Jewish community around him. But here in the region of Tyre, in this Gentile area, this woman who is not Jewish, is the first person that he can say ‘no’ to.”
Jesus says 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.”
“Sir,” she responds, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
This line is one of the most powerful and one of the most tragic in all of scripture. Because rather than attempting to debate the previous statement that was made, this woman recognizes that Jesus is the only one who can save her daughter. And so, in her response, she claims the derogatory title that she was just given but in turn flips it on its head in order that Jesus might see her humanity.
In her response to Jesus she is saying “I am not asking for the food of the children, I am asking for one crumb.” She is saying that “I know you are tired and exhausted and I know that you are here for another people, however, all I need is this one thing a crumb from the table so that my daughter can live.”
There is so much tension in this moment. This woman is coming begging Jesus to please heal her daughter. A gentile woman who is not connected to the Jewish faith. Jesus tired and frustrated with his own people, with his very faith, is just trying to find rest and cannot find it. This woman pleads for her daughter’s life. Jesus uses a line about hypothetical children need the food that he is giving. And she responds by reminding him that she has a very real daughter who is in need of the bread of life that could save her.
“Sir,” she responds, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
It is not notated in our scripture. But from the wisdom of Pastor Jason Chesnut, it is important for us to read scripture as though we were telling it out loud (storytelling). And so, if we were just going along reading and we weren’t thinking about how it might actually sound out loud, Jesus’ words might just come out and it may have seemed like Jesus planned the entire conversation to go this way. This conversation was always going to be a test of Faith for her.
But Jesus was trying to escape notice. This conversation was never planned.
“Sir,” she responds, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
I like to imagine there is a long pause here. Time for Jesus to see all of this unfold. Time for Jesus to realize what he just said to this poor mother in need. After a long pause, he responds, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.”
Be Opened
There is more than one theologian that has argued that this is the turning point in the Gospel of Mark. To this point in this gospel, Jesus’ ministry has only been for the Jewish people. But now as Jesus is standing in the region of Tyre having just been confronted by the Syrophoenician woman, Jesus looks up and sees needs of humanity all over the world.
Remember where we have just been coming from in the text from this summer. We saw the 5000 people sit on the grass in the field. We saw Jesus break bread and hand it out to everyone. We saw Jesus breaking open traditions, breaking open ideas so that the Kingdom of God could come to all the people gathered.
And yet here in this moment Jesus wasn’t thinking that way until her words. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs from under the table.”
The Kingdom of God in scripture is often depicted around a table around a meal. The reference to children often is in relation to the children of Israel, God’s chosen people. And so, in this moment as Jesus opens up this imagery of the children eating around a table, the Syrophoenician woman boldly asks for a seat at that table. And in this moment Jesus realizes what is happening before him, The Kingdom of God is broken open for all the world.
While a beautiful story in and of itself, there is a beauty to the words that Jesus will speak to man who is deaf at the end of this Gospel text. Jesus’ words last week about defilement seemed to be a prophecy for himself. These words of being opened may be an acknowledgement of change.
Jesus’ ministry is not just for some, but for all.
Preaching Possibilities
Even Jesus Needed to Set a Wider Table
We may think that we are totally welcoming and that there is no one that we would exclude. We have a sign that says “All Are Welcome,” after all.
However, if even Jesus needed to set a wider table, then what makes us think that we are above reproach? What makes us think that we are incapable of exclusion, whether it is deliberate or not?
So, who are those that are not here with us? Who are those that are in need of God’s love and grace but do not feel that they are welcome here? Who are those who have visited us and joined us, but did not feel welcome or cared for in this space? Who did we intentionally or inadvertently offend because of our indifference or disrespect?
Even Jesus needed to set a wider table for the Syrophoenician woman. It wasn’t until he saw her and realized his mistake, that he set that space. So, how can we realize those we have excluded and how we make space for them to join us at God’s welcome table?
Uncomfortable Texts
When a text makes us uncomfortable, it is often amid the tension, that the most understanding can be found. It is much easier to brush a passage off, or to explain away tension in order to keep the meaning for surface level and easier to digest.
So much of the Gospel that we hear tells us about Jesus debating scripture and tradition with religious leaders, with the disciples, or with gentiles. The deep wrestling with our faith and with scripture is a part of our coming to understand God better.
If we brush away texts like this one and do not take the time to understand the context of the story and the implications of what it all means, then we might miss critical learnings that would in fact strengthen our faith and open us up to be a more welcoming presence in the world around us.
We do not have to perfectly understand scripture. None of us will ever be able to perfectly know all that God has shared with us through these words. But we are expected to wrestle with the words and meanings of scripture. We are expected to debate and argue with one another and with God.
After all, according to our text today, it is the Syrophoenician woman who debated with God and opened the kingdom to all. We too are called to debate the words of scripture in order to better understand how to be in relationship with one another and with our God.
Beloved, through the tension of our Gospel today, there is so much Good News to be found.
We have a God that continues to make a wider table for each of us to gather in the kingdom.
We have a God who breaks traditions in order that more might find welcome and inclusion.
We have a God who delights when we wrestle with the tension and complexities of holy scripture in order to interpret it faithfully.
And we have a God who has put trust in us to do all the same for others.
Let us open our hearts and minds to the world around us, opening the kingdom for others to be included at the table of God’s love and grace.
Micah Krey 
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