As a pastor who preaches God’s inclusive love, Jesus’ rejection of the Syrophoenician woman led me to recognize how quick I am to say “no” to people who don’t fit my criteria of those who deserve my help.
Recently, a young alum of the college I served as chaplain reached out to me. She needed a recommendation from a pastor to get a job teaching at a Catholic school. I happily write a lot of recommendation letters for students and former students. But this request gave me pause. I knew of this young woman, but didn’t know her well. She’d never shown up for worship, never attended any religious life programs, never participated in any service projects. So I quickly added her to that vast category of young adults uninterested in religion until they find themselves needing a pastoral recommendation, or a cute church to serve as the backdrop for their wedding, or a baptism for a child they have no intention of raising in the church but need the ritual to appease the grandparents. Yeah, no. I wasn’t going to write this letter of recommendation.
The placement of the two healing stories in Mark 7:24-37 is interesting. They follow Jesus rebuking the Pharisees for their hypocrisy — for the way they judge people according to tradition and doctrine instead of God’s commandments. They honor God with their lips, Jesus says quoting Isaiah, but not their hearts. But immediately following this rebuke, Jesus himself appears to make a snap judgment. A desperate Gentile woman, of Syrophoenician origin, seeks him out, bows at his feet and begs him to cast a demon out of her daughter. To this desperate, begging woman whose child he can certainly heal, Jesus responds; “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
This story is shocking for a variety of reasons. Here, Jesus is uncharacteristically rude. He refers to the woman as a kynarion in Greek, translated here as “dog,” but known widely throughout the ancient Middle East as an ethnic slur used by Jews against non-Jews. And, Jesus had already healed a Gentile in chapter 5 of Mark (the Gerasene demoniac), so why is he so put out by this poor woman’s request?
This is a tough text to handle. Christians are often tempted to soften it, to make excuses for Jesus, to avoid the difficult questions this text raises. How could Jesus be so quick to judge? Why would he withhold healing from a woman in need? Why would the Son of God stoop to the use of a terrible slur? Some commentators have described this scene with the Syrophoenician woman as Jesus’ conversion moment. It’s the moment when someone outside his tribe, someone society gives Jesus every right to disdain, presses Jesus to be as generous with her as he is with others. “Sir,” the woman says to Jesus, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
What this woman says to Jesus changes his mind. Her persistence in asking is rewarded. She forces Jesus to reconsider his stance, and reconsider he does. “For saying that,” Jesus responds, “you may go — the demon has left your daughter.”
What follows this exchange is another healing story that also feels strategically placed. A deaf man is brought to Jesus. Jesus puts his fingers in the man’s ears, looks up to heaven and, in Aramaic, says, “Be opened.” Immediately the man is healed and the reader is left with the feeling that being opened, or to be open, is a blessed miracle.
Human beings are very tribal. We are constantly sorting people into categories — who belongs, who does not, who deserves our care and attention, who does not. It seems like people of faith are especially interested in drawing lines in the sand, setting doctrinal standards, deciding what or who is acceptable or not. I’m pretty progressive. I believe we should include more than we exclude. Yet, when asked for a letter of recommendation, I am quick to judge. The Syrophoenician woman who changed Jesus’ mind is working on me this week as well. Maybe the person in need of healing is not the young person asking for a pastoral recommendation, but the pastor reluctant to be open, accept and give.
Questions for reflection:
- What feelings stir within you as you read this passage?
- Who are you reluctant to help because they don’t fit into your category of “deserving”?
- If you or your church were to “be opened,” what would this miracle look like? In what ways would you or the church be changed?
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