Mark 7:24–30
24 Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret.
25 In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet.
26 The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
27 “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
28 “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
29 Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”
30 She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
Amen.
Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Let us pray: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.
“Even the Dogs: A Lenten Message about Encounters with Jesus”
Good Evening! I am Pastor Amelie Castillo – For those of you who don’t know me, I have been the minister serving along with the people of Trinity Christian UCC in Skippack since 2018.
Thank you to Pastor Sue and the people of Bethel Hill for inviting me into your pulpit tonight.
This Lenten season, the messages each week focus on an encounter Jesus had with a person who was not one of his Disciples. Each of the encounters made a lasting impression on the person who met Jesus – a life changing encounter. Last week, Pastor Rachael spoke about Jesus’ encounter with the men who were crucified beside him. Although their time with Jesus was brief, and they were all highly stressed, Jesus brought the men comfort in their time of greatest need.
Over the past few weeks, we have also heard reflections on Jesus healing a Samaritan man with leprosy and a Gerasene man who was believed to be possessed with Demons, and Jesus’ conversation with the Woman at the well. Each of these encounters led to a transformation for the person who met Jesus – they were healed, they were forgiven, and they were finally at peace.
This evening, we are turning to a story that is often called the “Syrophoenician Woman’s Faith.” According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus and his friends had left the region of the Geresenes and travelled to Tyre – the city where our encounter takes place.. Tyre still exists – it is the 5th largest city in the modern nation of Lebanon ... The people who live there have been ordered to evacuate and their city has undergone bombing over the past few weeks. So, Tyre and its people are once again living through dangerous and terrible times.
Back to the first century – Apparently, when Jesus and his friends arrived at Tyre, Jesus wanted their visit to be kept quiet. Jesus and his friends entered a home and were receiving hospitality from their hosts. But, word spread and people quickly found out Jesus was there.
One of those people was a woman with a sick daughter. She rushed to the home where Jesus was and threw herself at his feet. The woman had a lot working against her: She was a woman; she was ethnically Greek; she was born in Syrophoenecia; and she was not Jewish. From the perspective of a devot-Jewish world view, the woman was an outsider in at least 4 different ways. And, for the woman, Jesus was an outsider to her: a man of a different ethnic group practicing another religion and from another country.
But, the woman’s daughter was sick. She overlooked all of the societal rules that should have kept her from approaching Jesus and threw herself at his feet. She was desperate to have her daughter better. She was desperate to have her daughter healed.
The woman begged Jesus to heal her daughter. Jesus’ initial response seems cruel to modern ears. He said, with metaphorical language, that he wasn’t there to help her. He was there for Jewish people. He said he wasn’t there to feed the “children’s” food to the “dogs.”
But, the woman smartly replied, “Even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
After her retort, Jesus told her she could go home; the demon had left her daughter. And, when the woman returned to her home, she found her daughter healed.
This is a controversial story for 21st century people. We don’t like that Jesus first refused to heal the daughter. We don’t like that Jesus essentially called non-Jewish people “dogs.” We are uncomfortable that Jesus would say “no.” We are uncomfortable that Jesus maybe was testing the woman to see how she would respond to a “no.”
But, Jesus used many of his encounters with people as “teaching moments.” This story comes down through the ages because it is one of those moments. Jesus and the woman were not alone – they were with the disciples and the household members who were hosting his visit. Jesus used this teaching moment to demonstrate to the observers that his love, his grace, and his healing was for all-people – not just Jewish people. And, likewise, God’s love and grace is for all people.
As Jesus’ ministry beyond this event unfolded, he healed and ministered to many more non-Jewish people: Romans, Samaritans, Greeks, and other Gentiles. In the chapter of Mark that follows this story, Jesus performed the Miracle of feeding 4000 people – Those people are presumed to be Gentiles. So, Jesus not only healed non-Jewish people, he also preached to them, taught them, fed them, and ministered to them.
This is good news. Jesus came to bring his message to all people…. the stories we read in our scriptures of the life of Jesus contain example after example of Jesus ministering to all kinds of people – women and men, children and adults, pious and irreligious, Jewish and Gentile, locals and foreigners.. Jesus ate with tax collectors and prostitutes and Pharisees. Jesus touched people who were suffering from diseases that made them “untouchable” to everyone else. Jesus broke many of the rules “proper” Jewish people followed in order to demonstrate that God’s love is for all people, God’s grace is for all people, and God’s forgiveness is for all people.
Even though people have been following Jesus for the past 2000 years, we don’t always embody his message. We are still pretty tribal – we identify ourselves with the sports teams we root for, or the high schools we went to, or the neighborhoods we grew up in. We have trouble embracing our neighbors who are of different ethnic backgrounds than ours, or who grew up in another country, or practice a different religion. Even our churches get a little tribal – at Trinity, we joke around about the competition among the SPAM churches to have the best snacks after the Lenten services – instead of embracing the differences, we become a little tribalistic. 🙂
As followers of Jesus, we must work to be like Jesus. Instead of focusing on differences, we must remember that we serve a God who designed us to work together. We are called to overcome and overlook differences that formerly would have kept us separate. Let us remember we follow a savior who ministered to all people. In our lives, let us work to see the humanity in all of the people we encounter, and treat each other with kindness and love. We are living through scary and difficult times….we need each other more than ever. Let us remember that as followers of Jesus, we must support each other and work tirelessly to extend love and kindness to other people, no matter who they are, where they came from, or what they believe.
May it be so. Amen.
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