Faith and Humility: The Syro-Phoenician Woman's Encounter

We’re going to continue now with our study of the Gospel According to Saint Mark where in today’s lesson, we are still in chapter 7, and I will reading the brief passage from verse 24 through verse 30, which is Mark’s record of Jesus’ encounter with the Syro-Phoenician woman, and I would ask the congregation to stand for the reading of the gospel. [00:00:01]

From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden. For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. [00:00:35]

But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” And she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.” Then He said to her, “For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.” [00:01:12]

Again, beloved, you have just heard not the opinions of John Mark or of Peter or of Paul, but the veritable Word of God Himself. If you have ears to hear it, then by all means, hear it. Please be seated. Let’s pray. Again, O Lord, as we inquire into the person and work of Your dear Son, we thank You for this record, which gives us not only history but divine revelation. [00:01:58]

And we’ve seen the religious authorities of the clean manifest their unbelief and their unwillingness to pay homage to Jesus, and now in stark contrast to the unbelief and hostility of the Jewish leaders, we have this pagan woman, who is manifestly unclean, prostrating herself before the Lord Jesus Christ and begging Him for His mercy. [00:09:01]

But notice what she does. Mark tells us that she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. She doesn’t just come and say, “Please, Jesus, heal my daughter.” But she’s persistent. She’s begging. She’s asking over and over and over again, recalling to our minds the importunate widow who pestered the unjust judge until he relented and gave relief to her. [00:10:22]

And we see that Jesus is not quick here to give answer to her petition. He allows her to repeat it over and over again, and finally when He does give answer, His answer seems at least on the surface to be completely harsh and insensitive. Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to that the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” [00:11:04]

And notice what she says. There’s no feministic protest here by the Syro-Phoenician woman. When He says, “We feed the children first and not the dogs,” the woman says, “Yes, Lord.” Now how much of the pejorative idea of dog is incorporated in Jesus’ statement we leave for further debate. But whether that pejorative connotation is great or infinitesimal, it didn’t bother that woman. [00:21:48]

Her response was, “Yes, Lord, I understand. I have no prior claim to your mercy. I am not numbered among the children. I can’t jump up on the table and feast upon the food that you set before your children. I don’t want that. I’m satisfied, Lord, with the crumbs. All I’m asking, just let one crumb that falls from your table come into my mouth, and I’m satisfied. [00:22:41]

And the good news is that in the overflow of mercy and grace that comes to us from the hands of God, though we should be satisfied with crumbs, He is not satisfied with giving us crumbs. He prepares a table before us. He has appointed us to attend a banquet in heaven. He has established from the foundation of the world the wedding feast of the Lamb. [00:25:33]

Notice also in the New Testament that we who are Gentiles are the wild olive branch that has been grafted into the tree of Israel. In terms of redemptive history, we are the dogs. Israel are the children. But because the children refused the gift of the Father to them, the Father gave that gift now to us who had no claim upon it originally. [00:28:14]

Would any of you trade in the crumb of your salvation for anything in this world? Because that crumb is at the same time the pearl of great price. He gave it to the Syro-Phoenician woman. He gives it to you. Let’s pray. Thank you, Lord, for this touching narrative of the way Jesus gave the gift of life and rescue to this woman’s daughter. [00:28:59]