Release

Robert E. Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

September 6, 2008

Mark 7:24-37

Jesus and the disciples have traveled way up north, far from the Temple. Not many fellow Jews there. Jesus had experienced rejection in his home town; he had heard about the death of his cousin John at the hands of Herod Antipas. He had been taken to task because his disciples do not observe some of the rituals.

He is trying to be anonymous but apparently his fame has spread to remote places. Tyre was where the heathen lived. They worshipped other gods. Imagine little figurines on the mantles. Imagine rings in their noses, earrings and necklaces----not as decorations but as amulets, to keep evil spirits from entering through their nose, eyes, ears or mouth.

A woman approaches Jesus. We can imagine his consternation. (Even the Messiah needs a rest!) She is a gentile, a Syro-Phonecian by birth.

Women alone did not approach men asking for favors, especially rabbis. And gentiles were not welcome in the fellowship of the people of the covenant-----the descendents of Abraham. And even though the covenant people were now scattered all over the place, they still saw themselves as special, a holy nation, those through whom God would bless all the nations someday.

She is a brave woman! And desperation makes one braver than one would be otherwise. There were no doctors to whom she could take her daughter, no emergency rooms, no clinics, no psychiatrists, no pediatricians or social workers or counselors. Healers of various kinds were plentiful.  Why would she come and fall down at the feet of this Jewish healer and rabbi?

Perhaps God was leading her to Jesus.

Her daughter was “disturbed.” “Unclean spirit” was the name given as the cause of many kinds of maladies, mostly mental and emotional. These demons would get into a person and make their lives miserable, so it was believed. Sometimes the results would also be physical. Had she sinned, some would say, and brought this on herself? Had her mother sinned? Or maybe the daughter was just a helpless victim of evil forces. What is to be done?

So she begs for help from Jesus.

And Jesus says “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

Can you hear the silent gasps of the woman’s friends? Or the chuckles of Jesus’ disciples? They would have been protective of Jesus’ time and energies. They knew that the proclamation of the imminent reign of God was more important than helping a foreigner. They would also know that Jews often derided gentiles, calling them “dogs.” (In our culture, dogs are more highly regarded!)

Derogatory names like this are used today when we want to imply that someone is not quite human in the same way that we are.

This is a moment frozen in time. The world waits for what happens next.

Why would Jesus say such a thing? It does not fit with our view of Jesus, the man who was unfailingly kind to suffering people. Jesus could be harsh in his judgment of religious leaders, but this woman has no power and no presumption.

Was it a matter of timing? Jesus’ primary mission was to the lost sons and daughters of Israel. Jesus’ kinsmen were still in exile, still dominated by a foreign, pagan power. The kingdom of God would be established first for those who had longed for messiah, God’s anointed-----people like his mother, Mary; Elizabeth, Zechariah, and John the Baptizer. His disciples were Jews who were rooted in the memories of God’s people in slavery in Egypt and their deliverance, the days of Kings David and Solomon, the glory of the Temple.

Or maybe Jesus was challenging her resolve.

Either explanation does not take away the sting of his retort, calling another person a dog----even “little house dog,” as some translate his words.

The truth is that we cannot know why Jesus’ spoke as he did.

But we know this much. “Hope is not going to be put off by a put down.” (I borrowed this saying from Dan Taylor ,who remembered a friend saying it.)

“Sir [respectful], even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

Meaning something like this: “I may not be one of the favored daughters of Israel, but God’s goodness and power are extended, don’t you know, even to people like me. The bread you give is not food for dogs, but food for all people.”

We can imagine the look of surprise on Jesus’ face--- or his look of recognition. “My Lord, this strange woman gets it! She really does have faith in me and hope in what I am doing and working for!”

Jesus says, “For saying that, you may go----the demon has left your daughter.”

And it was so. It was done. The daughter was released to be whole again. Jesus changed his mind! Or he sees that God’s time-table had changed.

Consider this way of dealing with this event.

When Jesus would heal or restore people’s mental health, he would often tell them to tell no one. Why? Perhaps he did so because there were many healers, magicians and exorcists. Jesus’ acts of healing were signs of something more lasting and deeper than healing. They were signs of the reign of God coming into the world, the great good news of forgiveness and new life in communion with God now and forever. The bridge had been crossed. God had come in Jesus’ ministry to begin the transformation of the world, beginning with the Jews.

And Jesus was not expecting the Syro-phonecian woman to know this! She did not have roots in the Hebrew culture.

God sees in the courage of the woman a faith in God’s goodness for all people, something which not even his hometown neighbors understood.  

Are there parallels to this kind of story? Consider Moses, coming down off Mt Sinai with the Ten Commandments (and more!) and finding the covenant people worshipping gods of their own creation. God says to Moses, “I cannot take this any more. I delivered them from their lives as miserable slaves in Egypt and here they are bowing down to a golden bull, thanking it for their salvation?! Stand back, Moses, I will wipe your people (not his) off the face of the earth!”

Moses then, respectfully, speaks to God. “Lord, sir, what would the other nations say if you destroy your people after having saved them for such a noble purpose? Won’t you change your mind about your decision to destroy them?”

And God changes his mind. Moses intervened on behalf of his people to beg for God’s mercy on a people who did not deserve a second chance.

And the foreign woman intervenes with Jesus to get him to change his mind. Or, if you will, to remember what his mind really was. And how unbounded was the love God for all people.

God’s steadfast love and faithfulness did stretch beyond the boundaries even when it seemed premature or a waste of precious time and energy. “Where the traditions of the elders and the religious law could see only an outcast, Jesus sees the woman’s heart of faith.” “From this point on, Jesus does not hold his saving power in reserve, but expands the circle of God’s mercy to include those once considered outsiders.” ( Heidi Hustad, Christian Century, August 16-23, 2000, page 829)

The strange woman was not a stranger to God.

Faith is not “a theoretical belief……It is not belief in spite of all evidence…..That is folly. Faith is not belief in spite of evidence, but a life in scorn of the consequences…..Faith is not so much what we think as what we do!” (Clarence Jordan, quoted in Michael Elliott, The Society of Salty Saints, (Meyers Stone Books, 1987, page 87)

In some communion liturgies, there is a prayer just before receiving that worshippers are invited to share. “We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table, Lord. But say the word and we will be healed.”

No matter who you are, where you are from, you are welcome at the Lord’s table. We do not come presuming we are persons who have earned the right to be here by our virtuous lives. We, like the woman, kneel in Christ’s presence, ready to receive forgiveness and a fresh start.

And we bring our loved ones in their needs, physical, emotional and mental and relational. We ask for Jesus to free and heal them. We trust that God hears and answers our prayers for them as for us. The best gift of all is life in Christ, a connectedness with God which brings great joy and peace, and which never ends.