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Sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 8, 2024
Mark 7:24-37
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
This morning we find Jesus leaving his familiar environment in Galilee and traveling into the region of Tyre. Jesus was no longer among his fellow Jews. Now he was in Gentile territory. He wasn’t in Tyre too long before he was approached by a Syrophoenician woman. It was extremely unusual for a Gentile woman to approach a Jewish man, but this woman was desperate. This was a mother whose little girl was suffering, plagued by an unclean spirit. The precise nature of her daughter’s problem is unclear, but she was battling some kind of demon. She was in the power of something terrible, something not of God. This desperate mother came and fell at Jesus’ feet. She begged Jesus to help her. She had heard stories about the things Jesus had done, the healings he had performed, the demons he had cast out. She had nowhere else to turn, and so, although she was a Gentile and a woman, she turned to Jesus for help.
And Jesus, at least at first, said…no. In fact, Jesus didn’t just say no, he said to her: “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” Preachers have been trying to do damage control ever since!
Scholars have long tried to make sense of Jesus’ words here, and especially struggle to do so today in our hypersensitive, just-waiting-to-be-offended age. Some have suggested Jesus was testing her. Some say he was testing the disciples. Some say he had a sparkle in his eye when he said it and was only joking. Some say he was tired, and this illustrates his humanity. Some have said Jesus was just using the common language of his time and culture. Others have said he was only following God’s timeline, which was Jews first, Gentiles later. Some point out that he uses the term for little dog, or pet, instead of the term for a street dog, so it isn’t as mean as it sounds. The newest one I’ve heard is that Jesus was racist and that this is God the Father putting him through diversity training. This last one, of course, is theological illiteracy – not to mention blasphemy.
Some of those explanations are better than others, but I like Martin Luther’s explanation the best. Luther doesn’t try to apologize for Jesus. He leaves the offense there, but looks beyond it to where it ultimately led. Luther acknowledges that Jesus appeared to be rude to her, but he said there was a purpose in it. He argues that Jesus was talking this way in order to provoke faith in her. Luther argues that Jesus was stirring up faith in her like a hunter flushes a pheasant out of the bushes.
And boy did Jesus ever flush out her faith! This Gentile woman responds with one of the most powerful and bold demonstrations of faith in all of scripture! This woman doesn’t get offended, and she won’t be deterred. She doesn’t deny the position that she is in. She doesn’t deny that as a Gentile she has no right to demand anything of Jesus. She doesn’t try to argue that she deserves anything from him. Instead, she holds Jesus to his own words, trusting that even the smallest bit from him will be enough. “Sir,” she says, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
You’ve heard of mustard seed faith – well this is table crumb faith! She trusts Jesus in spite of what seems like his initial cold shoulder. She trusts him in spite of his appearance of rudeness, in spite of his initial “no.” She trusts that Jesus will come through for her. She won’t let go of that hope so easily! This woman has faith in Christ, and it is on full display! Jesus recognizes this. This is what he was provoking in her. And so he said to her: “For saying that you may go – the demon has left your daughter.” She went home and found her daughter lying in her bed, and the demon gone.
There is a particularly desperate kind of anguish that parents feel for their children when they are suffering, but even if you’re not a parent or have never been in that kind of situation with your kids, probably all of us have had times when God seems to be ignoring us, when Jesus seems to be brushing us off. There are times when all of us feel like God is blessing others while treating us like the dog under the table. There are times when God seems to be ignoring our prayers or saying no to them.
I talk to people all the time who have much in common with the Syrophoenician woman. I talk to people who come to me with tears in their eyes because their child has a demon of unbelief, or the demon of addiction, or a demon of depression or anxiety. I talk to people who have loved ones who are suffering, who are facing serious health problems. I know there are people in this sanctuary right now who have been begging Jesus for healing of bodies and minds and relationships, begging Jesus that things could be different, and so far all they’ve gotten from him for an answer seems to be a cruel-sounding “no.”
The Syrophoenician woman is the patron saint of all who have ever experienced what seems to be God’s cold shoulder. She is the patron saint of all Gentiles, all who acknowledge that they don’t have a birthright or a special claim to God’s attention. She is the patron saint of all who have wondered if they haven’t somehow ended up in the doghouse with God.
And this Syrophoenician woman doesn’t just echo the desperation of what seem to be our unanswered prayers. She also shows us what Christian faith looks like. “Sir,” she says, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” This is more than a witty comeback; it is a beautiful confession of faith. Christian faith understands that we have no right to demand anything from Jesus. It understands that we don’t deserve anything from him. But at the same time, Christian faith boldly holds on to hope. Christian faith trusts that even table crumbs from him are enough! Christian faith boldly holds Jesus to his Word. Christian faith trusts in the goodness and mercy of Christ even when it cannot be immediately seen.
We’ve probably all known someone who is a little gruff or abrasive in their personality, but when you get to know them, you see that they have a heart of gold. My grandfather was like that. He was often distant and prickly. He used to call all his grandkids “dummkoph,” which is German for “blockhead.” (And that is a generous translation.)
But all of us grandkids knew that underneath that sometimes gruff exterior there was a loving heart, and so in spite of the often-perceived aloofness and the snarling, we all loved to spend time with him. We knew that behind the snarl there was a tenderness, a great generosity, a playfulness and a deep affection. We called it out of him by pulling on his arm and demanding his attention. Then he would come down to our level and show us his softened heart. Then he would lift us up into his lap and hold us in his loving arms. You could say that our trust in him, our faith in him, revealed his true self to us. It revealed what was ultimately his loving heart.
The Syrophoenician woman verbally yanked on Jesus’ arm, and her confession of faith continues to be heard throughout the world to this day. This insistent faith ultimately revealed Jesus’ true self. It revealed his goodness and his mercy.
This was Jesus’ purpose all along. This is who he always was, despite initial impressions. Jesus was flushing out her faith. He was provoking her to trust him in spite of appearances, and as she did, it ultimately revealed Jesus’ true self. It revealed his loving heart.
This story provokes us to faith too. It invites us to look beyond what sometimes seems to be God’s cold shoulder. It invites us to trust Jesus beyond the “no” which sometimes seems to be the answer to our prayers. It invites us to believe in his goodness and mercy, even when we cannot immediately see it.
Like the Syrophoenician woman, we sometimes find ourselves desperate for help from God. We too contend with demons – in our own lives and in the lives of the people we love. We too fall to our knees, pleading for help, help that sometimes seems slow in coming.
But like the Syrophoenician woman, as we tug on Jesus’ arm, he shows us his true self. As we hold him to his Word, as we trust in him, he shows us his true heart.
We see this true heart in scripture. We see it in where this story ultimately ends up, as Jesus ultimately casts the demon out of the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter, making her well.
We see this true heart most clearly on the cross, where Jesus experienced everything that we do: the cup of suffering that isn’t removed from us, the sense of forsakenness, the seeming silence of God. Jesus suffered all of that himself so that we would know that we are never alone, that we are never forsaken, that we are never without hope. In his great love for us he died and rose again to show us God’s true heart towards us.
We see Jesus’ true heart at his table, where he gives us so much more than mere crumbs. He gives us Himself. He gives us his own Body and Blood. He gives us the full meal deal of forgiveness, life, and salvation.
I can’t fully explain why Jesus says the things he does to the Syrophoenician woman.
Nor can I tell you why he sometimes seems to be reluctant to answer your prayers more quickly.
But I can tell you that Jesus has ultimately shown us his true heart.
He is showing it to us again today through Word and Sacrament, so that no matter who you are or what your situation is, you would know that his heart is full of goodness and mercy and love and compassion for you.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church