A Gentile Has Faith
Mark 7:24-30
Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre. That is north of Galilee in what is now Lebanon. He may have been avoiding the Pharisees. They were beginning to attack him. He also may have had concerns about Herod, who thought Jesus was the resurrected John the Baptist, whom he had murdered.
It could also be that Jesus wanted more time to teach the Twelve. They clearly did not understand all of his teaching, as previous stories has showed us. The fact that he did not want anyone to know they were there shows he hoped for some privacy.
This is a Gentile area. The Pharisees believed contact with Gentiles made you unclean, or defiled, requiring ceremonial washing. This continues the theme of 7:1-23 regarding what defilement, which ended with Jesus saying external things did not defile you or make you unclean.
It was also a pagan area. Most worshipped Canaanite gods. This is the area Jezebel was from many years before. She married Ahab, the king of Israel. She led the king and the nation to worship Baal. (1 Kings 16) The disciples must have been puzzled. Surely the Messiah would not go into a pagan country unless it was to destroy it.
Yet, God sent the prophet Elijah to Zarephath in this very region. (1 Kings 17:8) There he raised a widow’s son from the dead and miraculously provided food for them.
You can see that Jesus’ fame had spread. Although he tried to stay anonymous, a woman with a problem immediately found him. This woman was a Gentile, being born in this area (“a Syrophenician by birth”). Jesus is in an unclean area and dealing with an unclean woman.
The woman’s problem was a daughter possessed by an unclean spirit. She did not bring her daughter to Jesus. She might not have been able to. She left her daughter at home. But she came to Jesus in faith, believing he could he could cast out the demon. (26) And she came in humility, falling on her face before him. (25)
Jesus’ response seems harsh at first glance. He said to let the children be fed first because it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs. (27) He spoke metaphorically. The children are the Jews, the bread is the gospel, and the dogs are the Gentiles. Some Jews of that time, such as Pharisees, referred to Gentiles as dogs, lesser beings that Jews. It sounds less harsh in the original Greek, as the word used for dogs here is not the word for feral dogs that roam the streets, but small dogs kept as pets (part of the household).
The principle Jesus mentions here is that it was God’s plan to send the gospel to the Jews first, then to the rest of the world.
Paul stated that principle this way:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek”. (Romans 1:16) Paul also practiced this principle, going to the synagogue first to preach the gospel in every city he visited.
The Jews were the people to whom God chose to reveal his plan of redemption. Jesus told the woman at the well that salvation was from the Jews. (John 4:22) The promise of a savior was that he was to be the descendant of Abraham, the father of the Jews, and of David, the most revered king of the Jews.
In Romans 2:9-10, Paul also says judgment for disobedience will come first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles. So, the blessing is first offered to the Jews, and they also have the first responsibility to receive Christ.
Although God’s plan was to give the gospel to the Jews first, Jesus did not turn away Gentiles who came to him in persistent faith as this woman did. In response to Jesus’ statement, she claimed a right to the “crumbs”. She seems to understand the metaphor, or parable, better than the disciples have been understanding parables. She does not attempt to usurp God’s plan or her secondary place in it. So, she asks Jesus, believing he has enough grace to give her, just as the master of the house would have enough to feed the pets.
In response to her persistent faith, Jesus cast the demon from her daughter. Matthew 15:27 makes this clear, recording Jesus as saying “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire”.
Ironically, this Gentile woman is the first person to understand a parable of Jesus. She understood and accepted his word. She asked for grace according to his word. Jesus brought salvation to Israel, but also intended Gentiles to partake of it.
Martin Luther put it beautifully: She took Christ at his own words. He then treated her not as a dog but as a child of Israel”.
The theological significance of this encounter is that the gospel may be first offered to the Jew, but it is offered to the Gentile on the same basis. The Gentile does not have to become a Jew first, or satisfy any other criteria of righteousness. The Gentile must simply have faith in Christ. And that is very good news.
Healing A Deaf Man
7:31-37
Jesus left the region of Tyre, went north through Sidon, then down to the Decapolis region near the Sea of Galilee. It was a circuitous route through Gentile inhabited country.
A crowd gathered. They brought a man to Jesus who was deaf and had a speech impediment. They wanted Jesus to heal the man. Jesus did.
In this case, Jesus did not just speak healing words. He put his fingers in the man’s ears and commanded them to be opened. Even more curious, Jesus spit on his fingers and touched the man’s tongue.
Mark did not explain why Jesus did it this way. Certainly he showed compassion by dealing with the man personally and not remotely. There may have been some belief among the people that the spit of a prophet had healing powers. Regardless, we see these Gentiles coming to Jesus in faith that Jesus can and will heal a man.
The “insider\outsider” motif is here also. The Pharisees, who were religious insiders, rejected Jesus and gained no benefit from him. The Gentiles, who were outsiders, believed in him and received healing. They were “astonished beyond measure” at his healing power.
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