At that time: Jesus arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house, and would not have any one know it; yet he could not be hid. But immediately a woman, whose little daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And he said to her, "Let the children first be fed, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." But she answered him, "Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." And he said to her, "For this saying you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter." And she went home, and found the child lying in bed, and the demon gone.– St. Mark 7:24-30
In this Gospel passage we see our Lord exercising His ministry in Gentile territory. Tyre and Sidon were cities of Phoenicia. Although these cities were part of Syria, they were all independent, and they were all rivals. They had their own kings and their own gods. The gospel passage just before this one showed Jesus doing away with the distinction between clean and unclean foods. Now, we see Him doing away with the difference between clean and unclean people. Just as the Jew would never soil his lips with forbidden foods, so he would never soil his life by contact with the unclean Gentile. But here we see Jesus indicating that the Gentiles are not unclean, but that they, too, have their place within God’s kingdom.
Jesus came north to this region probably for a temporary escape from the attacks He was experiencing. The scribes and Pharisees had branded Him as a sinner because of His seeming disregard for their rules and regulations. Herod regarded Him as a threat. The people of Nazareth treated Him with disdain. So we begin to see the movement of the Gospel from the Jews to the Gentiles.
The gospel tells us of a Gentile woman coming to Jesus and asking Him for help for her daughter. His answer was that it wasn’t right to take the children’s bread and give it to dogs. At first hearing, this seems rather harsh. In that society at that time the dog wasn’t the lovable companion we think of today; rather, it was a symbol of dishonor. To the Greek, the word “dog” referred to a shameless woman. In fact, the Jews often used the word “dog” as a term of contempt for Gentiles. Now, since this word was obviously an insult, how do we explain Jesus’ use of it here? First of all, He didn’t use the usual word for the dogs of the street; rather, He used a term which denoted the pet dogs of a household. Also, His tone of voice made all the difference. We know how a word can be used in one way as an insult, or with a different tone can be almost affectionate in its use. We can imagine our Lord’s tone taking some of the harshness out of the word.
In any event, Jesus didn’t shut the door on the woman. First, He said, the children must be fed; but only first. We can infer from His words that there was food left for the household pets. True, Israel had the first offer of the gospel, but only the first. There were others still to come.
The woman no doubt had a sense of humour, and she saw that Jesus was speaking with a smile. She said, “I know the children are fed first, but might I not get the scraps which the children throw away?” Here was a woman with a faith that wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. This woman, with a daughter tragically ill, still had enough light in her heart to reply with a smile. Her faith was tested, her faith was real, and her prayer was answered. We can see in this woman a symbol for the Gentile world which eventually would receive the Bread of heaven which many of the Jews rejected.
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Pictured: "The Canaanite Woman"
from the Très Riches Heurers du Duc de Berry.