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James 2:1-17 Mark 7:24-37 

Earlier this week, my husband was suddenly asked to cover the service at St. Paul’s today.  He asked me what the lessons were, and when I told him it was the Gospel about the Syrophoenician woman, he said, “Ah yes – Jesus gets racist.”  Let’s take a closer look at that.

Jesus set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there.

Tyre is Gentile territory; it is the area known today as Lebanon.  It’s a long way from Galilee, from Israel, and that’s why Jesus has headed there.  He’s attempting to get away from the locale where He’s now so well-known He’s constantly being bombarded by people seeking His help.  Mark, who is the earliest Gospel writer, closest to the time Jesus lived on earth, is always talking about the crowds that make Jesus’ life something of a misery, and today Mark even mentions that Jesus didn’t want anyone to know He was there in Tyre.  We all sometimes need a rest, to get away from the pressures of work, the crush of the crowd.  We call it vacation.

Mark doesn’t tell us whose house Jesus has entered, or how Jesus Presence is then discovered.  Mark isn’t interested in these details.  He moves right into what is the important part of the story.

A woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about Jesus, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin.

This woman is a mother desperate to cure her child.  She has obviously heard of Jesus, and someone has let her know that inexplicably He’s arrived in her city.  Thus, she doesn’t wait a moment before seeking Him out.

Mark has presented us with two people, a woman driven by desperation and love, and our Lord, driven by the great need to get away, to get some rest.  But despite Jesus’ needs, the woman finds Him, and when she does, she shows Him great respect, bowing at His feet.

Up to this point, Jesus’ ministry has been among His own people, the Jews.  But in this Gospel reading, He’s faced with an outsider, a Gentile.  He’s tired, and He’s hoping for anonymity.  In His shoes we might feel exasperated and annoyed about being found.  And, alarmingly, Jesus is no exception to this very human reaction.

Shockingly, we discover Jesus is both exasperated and annoyed.  We get to see the very human side of His personality.  We get to hear our Lord being racist.  The woman begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. Jesus 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."  There is no other place in the Gospels where Jesus so bluntly and so rudely refuses to help someone.

Some scholars, perhaps unable to accept this brief look at Jesus’ humanity,  have suggested that He is joking, but He is not.  He is saying that the Jews come first.  The Gentile mother is desperate.  She does not, as we might, become defensive. Instead, she latches onto every single word He says, turning Jesus’ argument in her favour, and arguing back.  “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 

And, incredibly, but far more in keeping with the Jesus with which we are familiar, Jesus is convinced to change His mind and cure her daughter.  He does this, because her reasoning is sound and clear.  He says to her, "For saying that, you may go-- the demon has left your daughter." 

Jesus doesn’t come with the woman to her home to see the child.  He merely tells her that what she asks has been accomplished.  For her part, the woman doesn’t demand that He prove He has done the miracle, but accepts His word that her daughter has been healed.  Her faith in Him must be very great indeed. 

It is interesting that Jesus chooses to heal from a distance.  We know He wishes to remain anonymous and perhaps He feels this is better accomplished by staying where He is, but then He also does not mention the woman’s faith as having contributed to His decision to heal her daughter.  Both actions speak to Jesus reality at that moment.  To this point He has seen Himself as sent to the Jews – and she is not a Jew.  This is a turning point for Jesus.

Something else this mother is not is someone to be pitied.  She has seen or sensed something in Jesus, an abundance of grace, a generousity she reaches out to.  She doesn’t mind humbling herself.  She bows at His feet, and she willingly compares herself to “the dogs” of which Jesus speaks, because she is determined to get help for her child, and she believes this man, this Jesus, can give it.  

Like Jacob, who wrestled with the angel, she finally gets from Jesus what she desires. For His part, having met the Syrophoenician mother, Jesus opens Himself up to the wider ministry before Him, His ministry to the gentile community.  It is the moment when He recognizes He has come, not just to save the Jews, but to save the whole world.

In today’s Gospel, Mark is talking, not just about healing, but about faith and determination, the willingness to be humble, and the conviction that Jesus will help.  It is about changing one’s stance, being willing to reconsider, to reevaluate one’s position.  Jesus can and does just this.

The Syrophoenician mother actively seeks for and locates Jesus despite His best efforts to remain hidden.  Jesus never hides from us, but we do not always recognize Him.  We need to remind ourselves to be always actively seeking Him, every moment, in everything we do, in each person we meet. 

When the mother meets with resistance, she does not withdraw, because she senses the deep abundance of Jesus power and love, and she is determined to reach that source of healing and grace.  We too are called to look for Jesus, but looking for Him in an unpleasant task or person may sometimes be difficult for us.  What we need to remember is that Jesus truly is there, and seeking Him and serving Him is what we are called to do.

How often do we stubbornly hang in there with faith, knowing that Jesus is present in everything, and will guide and support us if we ask Him to?  How tenacious are we, how determined to spread His love and do His will?  How humble are we, how graciously do we accept God’s will and change our plans to fit His?  Being Jesus followers isn’t about doing the easy thing or about comfort.  It’s about facing ourselves, our resistance to God, and our reluctance to do the hard work – and then changing our priorities, changing ourselves, into the people Jesus is calling us to be.  We are called to imitate our Lord, to be, open to new possibilities face the sometimes unpleasant task of changing ourselves.

In Mark, "faith" is about clinging to Jesus and expecting him to heal, to restore, to save.  It's about demanding He do what He says He came to do.  It’s about us doing what He did and does, about changing ourselves about opening ourselves up.  Today’s Gospel is about seeking Jesus, finding Jesus, and doing His work in this world.

 In the book of James, Jesus’ brother asks us: What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works?  We are called to be doers in the world, and not merely hearers or receivers.

When we do not take time to listen to each person as an equal, we are deaf to the voice of Christ.  When we do not find the face of Christ in each person we meet, we are blind.  When Jesus asks – no task is too great – and as He has shown us, everyone is our equal.  Sometimes it takes real humility to see it that way, but then, we are called to be humble.

“Rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.”  What matters is not how much we have, but how empty we are of self.  Only when we are empty of our opinions and our prejudices, and our preconceived notions, can we can fully receive Jesus in our life and let Him live His life in us. 

Mark’s second story of healing today involves a deaf man.  It involves someone whose world, because of the times in which he lived, was closed.  We can choose to live closed lives, safe and self-righteous in our comfort and contentment, or we can shoulder our cross and get on with the work of God.

“Then looking up to heaven, Jesus sighed and said ... ‘Ephphatha,’ that is, ‘Be opened.’  And immediately the deaf man’s ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.”  Lord, let it be so with us.

Let us pray:

O God, the source of all health and strength: So fill our hearts with faith in your love, that with calm expectancy we may make room for your power to possess us, and gracefully accept your healing, living each day to fulfill your holy purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.