Saint Mark 7:24-37
James {has} a letter that does not pull any punches. The rhetorical style of this passage is not intended to comfort and assure, but to jolt readers into action. Where some New Testament texts appear to draw a distinction between faith and works, James is rather blunt on the issue: faith without actions that evidence that faith is not actually faith at all.1
Somehow, he has found out that even in your new, fledgling community, you are “trying to combine snobbery with faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.”
Somehow word has gotten back to him that: “If a man enters your church wearing an expensive suit, and a street person wearing rags comes in right after him, and you say to the man in the suit, ‘Sit here, sir; this is the best seat in the house!’2 and either ignore the street person or say, ‘Better sit here in the back row,’ haven’t you segregated God’s children.”3
And we might say to ourselves: We don’t do that. That isn’t us. That isn’t our church! We’re a friendly congregation. Listen folks, every church in Christendom sees itself as a friendly congregation.
In the history of Christendom, I have never heard a person when asked to tell me what they liked best about their church respond with: "I like how unfriendly we are."
But I’m willing to “own it” along with Dr. David Kech who, in a Christian Century article wrote:
Maybe it is just me, and maybe I have been in too many churches with very tight budgets, but I can easily imagine that if there is any chance that this rich person is going to connect with the church, church leaders are suddenly imagining how they can finally pay for the repair to that failing air handler. A rich person represents many things: opportunity, respect, status, power, wealth. And all of these can be very useful. The church has needs, after all, and imagine what we could do with . . . And look how welcoming we are! We’ve just received this person with open arms.4
But what about everybody else? Here “James is talking about something more daring.
James’s point is not to encourage the ushers to smile with equal warmth toward all who come to worship but instead to remind the church that in the economy of God’s grace, the very ones for whom the world has little regard have become the guests of honour in the household of God. 5
That’s hard to remember. Which may be why we have also before us this day the painful little encounter with Jesus and a woman who daughter was tormented by a demon.
No matter how many times I read this story I always wince at Jesus’ reaction to the woman whose daughter was suffering so badly that she would risk crossing national and social boundaries to get what she so desperately needs.
I have only been a dog-parent so I can only imagine how much more the feeling of anguish and helplessness parents get when their child is in trouble. Parents have to be at wits end when they have tried everything and nothing has worked.
That is where this Gentile woman is when she, desperate for help, drops to her knees in front of Jesus and begs him for his assistance. And what does our sweet, gentle, Jesus say in response? “It is not good to take the children’s food and throw it to the little dogs.”6
We are in shock! The people at last Thursday’s on-line Bible study were flabbergasted. Some who were new to the faith had not ever heard this passage before. Nobody told them about this side of Jesus and they rebelled. One suggested that Jesus was just having a “bad day.” (Like a ‘bad hair day?”) One wondered why Mark even included this little conversation in his gospel. Why not leave it out so we could go on with our pristine vision of Jesus as the perfect one.
They rebelled because nobody we know or even know of would ever call another human being a dog. Nobody we know or even know of would ignore the pleas of a parent on behalf of a child. Nobody we know or even know of would exclude a whole people because of their country of origin. Nobody we know or even know of would act like that. Those words are unacceptable out of anyone’s mouth and coming from the lips of Jesus they come like a slap on the side of the head. These words leave our ears ringing.
I have always loved the way scholars have tried to soften the words and stop the ringing. Gallons of ink and reams of paper have been spent trying to explain Jesus little outburst away. This is not the Jesus we know or even want to know. This is Jesus who is almost unrecognizable making us profoundly uncomfortable.
Some have suggested that it was simple exhaustion. Others have suggested that when Jesus called her child a dog, he really meant a puppy.
You know, a cute, little, adorable puppy who wakes you up seventeen times during the night to be let outside only to sniff around the yard for forty minutes trying to find just the right spot. Oh yes, puppy makes everything better.
I stand second to none in my love for puppies and dogs but to refer to another person as a dog is to dehumanize them. So, what are we to do with this passage? What are we to do with Jesus talking like this?
With no other scholars I can find backing me up here is what I think, and I think this because of the events of the last few months. If Jesus and scripture ever offered a critique of our society this would be it.
Remember who Jesus was. He was a rabbi, a respected man in the community, whom people looked up and he is now calling another person a low life.
And think about her! Who is she? She is not only a woman who by law was forbidden to talk to a man in public who was not her husband. Not only a woman but a woman from a country that many considered inferior full of “rapists, drug dealers, and other bad hombres.” Think a member of a small, blown-to-bits community in Gaza asking a favour of some powerful Jewish politician. They would think nothing of calling her a dog.
Think of a parent who lost a child or had a child injured in yet another school shooting turning to one of our politicians and having them reply with a shrug of the shoulders and telling them that: “I don’t like to admit this. I don’t like that this is a fact of life.”7 Not even so much as a crumb.
Around these two – Jesus and the woman – stands a crowd. While some in that crowd may have been surprised at Jesus calling the woman’s child a dog perhaps another third was nodding their heads in agreement.
“You tell her Jesus!” they might have been smiling and saying to themselves. “This woman has no business bothering you! You give her what for!” As we look closer to agreeing faces and nodding heads, we see the worse in us and in our society and we have to own that.
But this is one strong woman! She has Jesus and the rest of us in a very tough spot when she simply agrees with him saying: “Of course, Master. But don’t dogs under the table get scraps dropped by the children?”8
She has him! She has us! We all have to own our part in this conversation just as much as we have to own the behaviour James was talking about. Yet she has us. This powerless woman has become the powerful one in the scene.
I cannot imagine Jesus losing an argument, given his ability to leave the powerful speechless. He often questions religious authority and quotes scripture to make points that religious leaders cannot refute. In other cases, he simply asks questions that leave his listeners confused and unsatisfied with their own ineffective answers.
And yet a Syrophoenician gentile woman is apparently able to win an argument with Jesus himself.9
She has Jesus and all the rest of us in a very tough spot because we have to answer a very difficult question: “Is the Gospel for everybody or is it only for a select few?” We have to own that often we have seen the Gospel as only for a select few who act like us, believe like us, look like us, love like us.
In this strong, tough woman Jesus has met his match. He had sparred with some of the brightest and best minds of his day is bested by someone who, in a single sentence has reminded Jesus and all of us that if the Gospel isn’t meant for everybody than is it really isn’t any meant for anybody? We have to own our answer to that question too.
The always wonderful former Episcopal priest, Barbara Brown Taylor, brings us right into the centre of the scene. “You can almost hear the huge wheel of history turning as Jesus comes to a new understanding of who he is and what he has been called to do.” The Syrophoenician woman’s faith and persistence teach him that God’s purpose for him “is bigger than he had imagined that there is enough of him to go around.”10
When he owns this and we own this eyes are opened. There is more than enough of Jesus to go around. There is more than enough of Jesus for everybody, everybody, who comes through the doors of our church. There is more than enough of Jesus even for those people who would never even think of coming through the doors of our church. There is more than enough of Jesus for everybody!
The Gospel isn’t dependent on who we are or what we are. The Gospel isn’t dependent on status or orientation. The Gospel is for everybody.
Jesus has had a wakeup call with his little encounter with the woman. Sometimes losing an argument can change us, help us grow, own our mistakes and learn from them.
Jesus has learned and that is why no sooner is the deaf man brought to him he took him aside and healed him. No outward show and, above all, no judgement, just a touch and a word. “‘Ephphatha,’ that is, ‘Be opened.”11
There will be times, I promise you, there will be times when Jesus will need to touch our ears too to help us live out the Gospel. Maybe Jesus will needs to shout or maybe just whisper to us “Ephphatha” in order that we may speak to each other, see each other, the way Jesus has spoken to us, sees us.
We have to own the fact that there are times when we haven’t loved, don’t love, everybody as we should but the message of the Gospel is that when we don’t, Jesus does. With eyes wide open Jesus doesn’t stop at loving just you and me here in our Sunday best.
Jesus loves all of us and all of us equally. There is not a sumptuous feast of his love for some and table scraps for others. We don’t have to sit up and beg for his love. We don’t even have to scrounge around on the floor looking for it. Jesus’ love is here for everyone fully, completely, unreservedly.
When we own that message and own that sometimes we have fallen short when proclaiming it I think our ears and other people’s ears will be unstopped and they will join us in telling others the wonderful joy, and peace, and love that is to be found in Jesus who welcomes all.
Own that! And then share it! And eyes and ears will be opened.
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1. Kelsie Rodenbiker, “Commentary on James 2:1-10 [11-13] 14-17,” Working Preacher, August 21, 2024, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-23-2/commentary-on-james-21-10-11-13-14-17-6.
2. James 2:1. (PHILLIPS) [PHILLIPS=J. B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English (London, ENG: HarperCollins, 2000).]
3. James 7:2-4. (MESSAGE) [MESSAGE=Eugene H. Peterson, The Message (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2004).
4. David Keck, “‘Proclaiming God’s Abundance or Dwelling in Perceived Scarcity?’” The Christian Century, August 25, 2021, https://www.christiancentury.org/lectionary/september-5-ordinary-23b-james-2-1-17
5. Thomas G. Long, “God Is Partial,” The Christian Century, August 31, 2009, https://www.christiancentury.org/blogs/archive/2009-08/god-partial?
6. St. Mark 7:27b. (NKJV) [NKJV=The New King James Version]
7. Fancis Vinall, “JD Vance Calls Reality of School Shootings a Bleak ‘Fact of Life,’” washingtonpost.com, September 6, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/09/06/jd-vance-school-shootings/.
8. St. Mark 7:29. (MSG)
9. Katie Van Der Linden, “Sunday’s Coming Premium: Can Jesus Lose an Argument?” The Christian Century, September 2, 2024, https://mailchi.mp/christiancentury/sundays-coming-premium-words-of-stability-and-hope-357512?e=58919ce9b
10. Debie Thomas, “Be Opened,” Journey with Jesus, September 2, 2018, https://journeywithjesus.net/essays/1907-be-opened.
11. St. Mark 7:34. (NRSVUE) [The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition]
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