Crumbs from the Table
Introduction It is important for today’s readers to remember that those who first encountered God’s word did so as hearers. It was not uncommon for early Christians to hear the entire Gospel of Mark at one time. As New Testament scholar David Rhoads explains, "the hearer ... [had] heard Jesus of Nazareth announce the Kingdom of God, seen his healings, ... met Jesus’ dense disciples, made evaluations about ... who is good and bad, ... felt the suspense of knowing who Jesus is when the characters in the story do not know. ..."
1 The undeserved and often unexpected nature of God’s grace is provocatively illustrated in the story of Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman. The exchange between the two, at once dramatic and intense, compelled the full attention of those who heard it.
Brief HistoryMany of the cultural tensions and conflicts between Jews and Gentiles in the borderlands of Tyre and Galilee were rooted in religious, social, and economic differences. With their ability to buy up the grain supply, the economically stronger residents of Tyre probably often took bread out of the mouths of rural Jewish folks.
2 At the same time, the Jewish religious tradition viewed non-Jews as unclean and outside God’s care and redemption. These dynamics helped set the stage for this encounter between Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman. Biblical scholar Gerd Theissen describes the woman "of Syrophoenician origin" as being Hellenized (under the influence of Greek culture), and therefore most likely educated and a member of the upper class. She is a religious outsider and a foreigner. Jesus is a preacher and healer from the "backwaters of Galilee. The cultural clash between them is striking.
3 The StudyVerse 24: Jesus seeks solitude and hospitality in a land of foreigners.
Jesus "set out and went away to the region of Tyre."
4 He willingly went into Gentile territory. We are told he "entered a house," and we presume he enjoyed hospitality that respected his desire to have no one "know he was there." Yet "he could not escape notice."
Verses 25-26: Jesus is approached with humility and respect by a Gentile woman.
One who "immediately heard about him" was a woman "whose little daughter had an unclean spirit." Did she know he wanted to escape notice? All we know is that she heard about Jesus and sought him out. She came "and bowed down at his feet."
Her introduction and request create suspense (v.26). A woman. A Gentile. Not a disciple. AN unnamed woman who asks Jesus, a Jew, to "cast the demon out of her daughter." This she asks from the one who did not want anyone to know he was there. The tension mounts. What will Jesus do?
What kind of faith did the woman have? Where do you believe such faith gets its power?
Verse 27: Jesus rebukes the Gentile woman and declares his mission to be exclusive.
Jesus did not reject her directly. He answered using a common folk saying: "it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs." There’s no getting around it: Jesus referred to the woman as a dog. This "answer" is uncharacteristic of what we know so far in the story about Jesus as a healer. The Syrophoenician woman encounters the greatest obstacle — rejection from Jesus himself. Jesus rejects her plea, implying that he was sent only to the "lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 15:24) when he says, "Let the children be fed first."
How would this story change if the Syrophoenician woman had walked away after Jesus refused her request? Do you think Jesus would have pursued her? Why or why not?
When have you been denied access because of your difference (for example, your age, race, ethnicity, gender)? In your experience, how have such barriers been budged?
Versus 28-29: The woman claims that the crumbs falling from the table are sufficient.
The suspense of the exchange intensifies when the woman does not let Jesus’ refusal end their encounter. Recognizing his right to accept or reject her and her request, she neither argues nor loses heart. Is that not faith? The woman’s response honors all that he says. She does not dispute his rejection, but her faith finds a place for her request.
5 She calls him, "Sir," or "Lord," and restructures the exchange, permitting a new view of the situation by offering a saying of her own: "even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs." Her faith implies that God’s gracious goodness is so abundant that even the crumbs falling from God’s table are sufficient! Acknowledging the insightfulness of her words, Jesus responds, "For saying that ... [RSV: "Because of this word"], the demon has left your daughter." As Gerd Theissen observes, "Along with this demon, the equally threatening demon of prejudice between the members of different nations and cultures was also driven out."
6 Based on this encounter, can we learn anything about engaging someone very different from ourselves — someone of a different race, age, gender, or sexual orientation or someone with a physical or sensory disability?
It is tempting to decide when crumbs are enough for others, but when are crumbs enough for us? Does one always have to have a seat at the table?
Conclusion
This encounter defied the convention of that time. The Syrophoenician woman does not remain in her "place" as a woman or as a Syrophoenician. The woman’s single-mindedness compels her, an outsider, to intrude upon Jesus for one thing and one thing only: the healing of her daughter. The woman’s determination places her in direct conflict with Jesus’ expressed priority to fulfill God’s mission with Israel. Initially the story provides no room in Jesus’ mission for anyone outside Israel. As will be seen in Part 2, however, this encounter seems to expand the potential for healing and the possibility for a mission that very much includes Gentiles.
Notes1. David Rhoads, "Jesus and the Syrophoenician Woman in Mark: A Narrative Critical Study,"
Journal of the American Academy of Religion 62, no. 2: 344-46.
2. Gerd Theissen,
The Gospels in Context: Social and Political History in the Synoptic Tradition (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991), 79.
3. Theissen,
The Gospels in Context, 65 ff.
4. The Scripture quotations contained in this Bible study are from the New Revised Standard version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.
5. Rhoads, "Jesus and the Syrophoenician Woman in Mark," 359.
6. Theissen,
The Gospels in Context, 80.
Introduction
As depicted in Mark, Israel’s leaders erected and maintained many boundaries to preserve holiness. They refused to eat with sinners and in many other ways avoided contact with others. Jesus crossed boundaries. Immediately after Jesus declares all foods clean (7:19), the Syrophoenician woman enters the story. As a result of his encounter with the Syrophoenician woman and the boundary-crossing nature of their exchange, Jesus returns to the region of the Decapolis (7:31).
1 The Study
Jesus clarifies boundariesJesus does not eliminate the boundary distinguishing God’s people from others. He provides a crisper definition of how that boundary actually falls (7:1-23), speaking about the core of a person as opposed to a person’ moral behavior. With the feeding of the 4,000 Gentiles (8:1-9), the previous boundary crossing (preparation for the global mission of the church) are no longer questioned. See Mark 13:10, where Jesus tells his disciples, “the good news must first be proclaimed to all nations.”
Jesus crosses boundariesThe catalyst of the Mark 7:24-30 exchange was simple: a woman’s daughter needed healing. The encounter between Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman brings together two persons who couldn’t be from more different cultural contexts. She is a woman; he is a man. She, a Gentile; he, a Galilean prophet. She, of a class perceived as oppressing Jews; he, poor and itinerant. Clearly, many social, economic, and religious differences separated their worlds. This encounter served as a springboard for the global mission of the church as it is now understood: crossing boundaries to reach all people with the gospel. Can you give examples of barriers that have prevented you from knowing another person or group of people? What barriers have kept others from involvement in your congregational unit?
Have you ever crossed boundaries to advocate for another who would have otherwise have been discounted? How can your congregational unit cross boundaries to get new people involved?
Followers of Jesus cross boundaries
Instead of avoiding contact with perceived outsiders, Jesus crossed boundaries and gave all people the opportunity to experience the good news of God’s reign. Followers of Jesus also cross boundaries. They recognize that holiness is extended by making contact and reaching out. Years ago a lame woman who lived in a shelter would come to the church building of a small urban parish throughout the week. Gladys had suffered much abuse in her life. Finally, on Sunday, Gladys came to a worship service. Recognizing the parish worker who fed and sat and talked with her on weekdays, Gladys sat with her throughout the service, punctuating the sermon with affirmations. As soon as the benediction was given, Gladys left.
Following the service, some members of the congregation stood around and marveled at the church worker for having physically touched the woman. Other shared how significant Gladys’s presence had been for them. Her sitting up front where she could clearly been seen and heard had touched something within them. Gladys had made their worship experience richer. To this day, that parish worker remains enriched from having known Gladys. Overcoming obstacles and barriers is not a new thing. Can you recall others in Scripture who have overcome barriers to healing and inclusion? (See Mark 2:1-12, 9:14-29.)
Share examples of what you have seen people do to cross boundaries. Were these attempts always successful?
Faith is the basis and means for crossing boundaries
Often faith is seen as the voluntary crossing of a boundary. Theissen states, “Faith means an act by which a human being crosses a boundary in the fact of actual suffering. ...”
2 Martin Luther, in his sermon on Matthew’s account of this text (15:21-28), said the Syrophoenician woman found the “yes” in God’s “no.” “Whoever understands here the actions of the poor woman ... catches God in his own judgment and says: Lord, it is true. I am a sinner and not worthy of thy grace; but still thou hast promised sinners forgiveness, and thou art come not to call the righteous, but, as St. Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:15, ‘to save sinners.’ Behold, then must God according to his own judgment have mercy upon us.”
3 How does your congregation faithfully share the good news of Jesus Christ with those who are visibly different? How does your congregational unit extend itself to those who are not usually involved?
At what point do we ourselves become worthy of God’s grace? Our need for the grace of God compels us to cross boundaries
That faith overcomes obstacles is clearly illustrated in this story. The Syrophoenician woman finds and approaches Jesus, challenges, his words, influences him to reconsider, and becomes the agent of healing for her daughter. Yet the real miracle may be the crossing of the historical, religious, and cultural boundaries that separated, and continue to separate, God’s children. The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., along with others, commented that the hour between ten and eleven o’clock on Sunday morning is the most racially segregated hour in this country. Clearly, the baptized are divided. Women and men struggle to understand each other. People with physical and sensory disabilities lack access to many churches, church functions, and church resources. The aged can feel discarded, and youth often feel like afterthoughts. Perhaps the most hidden of those who feel unwelcome are the baptized who are gay and lesbian. What in your life has prompted you to cross a significant cultural or social boundary? What role did faith have in this experience?
What opportunities do you imagine are missed when we fail to cross cultural and social boundaries? What could such Jesus-like boundary crossing do for Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America?
ConclusionThis story gets to the heart of human resistance to the universality of the good news, calling those “who have ears to hear” to sow the seeds of God’s dominion to the ends of the earth. As Luther preached, all of us are the Syrophoenician woman. And, like her, we have the best of God revealed to us in our time of deepest need. This story challenges the sexism, racism, and ethnocentricism of its hearers (ancient and modern), who tend to consider those who are different as the “other.” The story invites us to place ourselves in the role of the “other.” We are invited to struggle not only with God (as the Syrophoenician woman did) but also with our own perception of whom we regard as the “other.” As baptized children of God we can dare to believe that there is grace sufficient for us to cross boundaries and discover community and communion with each other.
Notes1. David Rhoads, “Jesus and the Syrophoenician Woman in Mark: A Narrative Critical Study,”
Journal of the American Academy of Religion 62, no. 2:362.
2. Gerd Theissen,
Studies of the New Testament and Its World (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983), 140.
3. Martin Luther,
Sermons of Martin Luther, Vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1983), 152-54.
Copyright © 1998 Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Written by Michelle Robinson. All rights reserved. May be reproduced for use by the Women of the ELCA in congregations, provided each copy carries this notice: © 1998 Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Reprinted with permission.