Always in Demand
The text this week is Mark 7:24-37. This passage contains two short stories about an in-demand Jesus. People are crowding in on Jesus and in both cases asking healing for someone close to them. What is notable in both cases is that the people who approach Jesus are not Jews but outsiders to the Hebrew faith community. This shows that the ministry of Jesus is not simply to the lost sheep of the House of Israel but for everyone. However, as we see with the first story this help offered to everyone is not immediately forthcoming.
Did Jesus Call This Woman a Dog?
The first tale is of a Syrophoenician woman who approaches Jesus on behalf of her daughter who had an unclean spirit. She asks Jesus for help He responds in Verse 27 with “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’” Wow! Now, I don’t think Jesus was really calling this woman a dog but was likely referring to the fact, that although His ministry is for everyone, He was first calling to the Jewish people. Nevertheless, this comes off as harsh. Yet there it is.
The woman, however, is made of sterner stuff than to be easily discouraged. She immediately responds in Verse 28, “‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’”. Jesus then tells her that for saying this the demon that had been tormenting her daughter is gone. No doubt the human Jesus was moved by the plight of this woman and her staunch faith in both Jesus’s ability and ultimate desire to heal her daughter.
Are We As Staunch As This Woman?
The takeaway is twofold, I think. First, we should be bold in approaching our Lord for healing and help. We may feel like dogs and think ourselves unworthy, but God will be moved by our boldness as Jesus was toward this woman’s. It is the vestiges of a misunderstanding of what God has been telling us that we think that whatever we may have done makes us unworthy of God’s love. We may in fact be dogs, so what? God loves us and forgives us and has given us everything. Trust in that truth and then boldly approach God with the requests for healing that you or someone you love needs.
Second, we should be ever more confident that God’s invitation to healing and restoration is open to everyone. No one, not even those the world considers dogs are to be excluded. We may very well respond initially as Jesus did to this woman’s request. No doubt there are those we would not think of approaching with an invitation. Yet, we should remember that Jesus was moved by the desire of this woman for help and respond in the end as He did. Our response to all whom God puts in our life, “outsider” or not, is to believe in God’s word, then obey in God’s way.
Praise Be to God
