13 February 2025 - not hearing a no

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth,

and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.

This woman had heard about the power and the compassion of Jesus. She came to him even though he was a Jew and she a Gentile because she believed he might be the only hope for her daughter who was afflicted with an unclean spirit. She had even gone to some effort, apparently, to discover Jesus who had entered a house discreetly so that no one would notice.

He said to her, "Let the children be fed first.

For it is not right to take the food of the children

and throw it to the dogs."

It seems fair to say that most of us would have given up there, when one we hoped to show compassion started slinging racial epithets. Yet she sensed there was more to the story than the surface of the words of Jesus' response. He had come for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And yet he was present in this Gentile city. Didn't that imply anything? A hardcore anti-Gentile rabbi might well have avoided a predominantly Gentile territory. Maybe, she thought, this initial denial was not a rigid no. And after all, he hadn't said no explicitly. Maybe he was stating out loud the fears she had in coming to a Jew to ask for help. Could her faith transcend her own expectations, especially when Jesus seemed to lean into the reality of those expectations?

She replied and said to him,

"Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's scraps."

Then he said to her, "For saying this, you may go.

The demon has gone out of your daughter."

Her fear told her that perhaps Jesus didn't have enough to help her. Perhaps his power was only sufficient to save the house of Israel to whom he was sent. But her faith suggested that he had no such limits, and this may be why she addressed him as Lord, which was a title only used for God in the rest of the Gospel of Mark. There was such an abundance of bread that not only would it feed the children of Israel but it would be almost impossible to keep the excess from overflowing to the Gentiles. And to limit the reception of grace was not the goal of Jesus. His goal was to elicit this deeper faith with which the woman responded.

Then he said to her, "For saying this, you may go.

The demon has gone out of your daughter."

When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed

and the demon gone.

Some of the greatest examples of faith resulting in the most miraculous of healings were actually from Gentiles such as this woman. It was right for Jesus to prioritize the Jewish people, the heirs to all of the promises of God. But these promises were always meant to make Israel a light that manifested God's glory to the nations. Ultimately the basis that both Jews and Gentiles would avail themselves of the grace of God given in Jesus Christ was one and the same: faith. This is still true today. Along with with that truth is the fact that our faith too is often tested before we see it rewarded. We too often need sufficient faith to look beyond the apparently impossible in order to remember God's all sufficient abundance.

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work (see Second Corinthians 9:8).

Matt Maher - Overflow