Mark 7:24-30 Jesus Deals Under the Table

First Things: Devotions in Mark’s Gospel

Mark 7:24-30 Jesus Deals Under the Table

Mark 7:24   Jesus got up and went away from there to the region of Tyre. And when He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know of it; yet He could not escape notice. ²⁵ But after hearing of Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet. ²⁶ Now the woman was a Gentile, of the Syrophoenician race. And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷ And He was saying to her, “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” ²⁸ But she answered and *said to Him, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children’s crumbs.” ²⁹ And He said to her, “Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.” ³⁰ And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having left.

This passage almost seems offensive. Jesus is Jewish. The woman is from up north. We could say that she is Syrian. He is there to serve “the children,” that is, the Jews, God’s chosen people. She’s an outsider. But she desperately wants to be served. Her daughter is demon-stricken. She keeps asking, over and over, for help. Would Jesus help someone outside His own people?

Let’s keep some perspective here? Jesus had traveled northwest to Tyre, and so the woman was in her home territory. I assume Jesus was there, not to minister to Syrians, but to Jews who had scattered that direction. But there is even bigger perspective. Jesus had not only traveled to Tyre; He had traveled to earth. His starting point was not primarily Galilee. His starting point was heaven. Jesus didn’t need to come at all - to Israel, or to Tyre. Every minute and every moment of Jesus’ earthly ministry was absolute mercy. We are in tough territory if we start asking why He didn’t do more.

But one of the lessons of this passage is the the woman kept asking. I believe that it is presented here as model for how we should seek Jesus. We could ask once, get uppity and say Jesus wasn’t responsive, and go our own way. But that would not be the kind of faith that is exemplified here. But then Jesus pushes it even further.

“Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs,” Jesus says. Jesus is making an obvious distinction between peoples; between children, and dogs. And if I understand the culture right, children were regarded as a gift of God, and dogs were not highly valued family pets, but were mere scavengers, more like rats or raccoons.

The lady responds, and there is no apparent offense in her reply: “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children’s crumbs.” She maintains the distinction, perhaps realizing that Jesus, true to His mission, has been sent to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” among whom she is not numbered. But then, as if to say, “Is it possible that there would be just a little bit left over for me, for my daughter?” And, Jesus responds: “Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”

Jesus speaks, and it is done. The demon is driven from the daughter, even though we are not there to see it. Jesus speaks, and the woman is done. She takes Jesus at His word, and I do not believe that she is the least bit surprised when she gets home and finds her daughter well. 

There are other instances of Jesus reaching beyond the people of Israel in His earthly ministry. And then, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, the apostles are led in full measure to the Gentiles. Jesus’ priority of mission to the Jews was critical to the fulfillment of God’s plan. But He left some bread crumbs along the way, so that the Gospel would find its way to all nations and peoples; so that Jesus would indeed be “the Savior of the world.”