Mark 6:24-30 – The Faith of a Syrophoenician Woman
- Jesus calls a woman a dog. And people think I’m inappropriate!
- Firstly he tries to sneak into a house without anybody seeing him so that He does not have to heal anyone.
- There are a couple of things going on here:
- Firstly again after yesterdays reading, the Gospel goes on to highlight Jesus’ commitment to the right priorities. He is avoiding getting drawn into healing lots of gentiles because He knows He will get distracted from His calling – to the Jews. So He firstly sneaks into the house, then avoids immediately answering the woman, they argues with His disciples who tell Him to send her away and then finally heals her daughter from a distance. All these things point to Jesus trying not to attract the inevitable huge crowd of gentiles who will come based on the testimony of this feisty woman should she get Jesus’ immediate attention.
- Secondly; could it be that Jesus was leading her in the conversation? As a Rabbi, He rarely gave a straight answer to anything. But instead wanted to make sure people understood the principles of the Kingdom before they got their answer. So;
- Note that he does not send her away as the disciples suggest [see Matthew], so although he refuses to answer her, he obviously has a plan.
- In everywhere else in the Bible the Jews refer to the gentiles as wild dogs. In only this story however; is there a difference in the type of dog – the Greek word [to a Greek woman] refers to a house dog – perhaps even a kind of lap dog; think Paris Hilton [her pet not the woman herself].
- Rather than simply refusing her request – He asks her a leading question; she immediately gets His point and then answers with an understanding of His principle. The principle I believe He was trying to lead her to.
- Faith is understanding acted out!
- I need to pray that I understand quickly in order that I can get a quicker response from Jesus!
- HSOTB Mark & Matthew.
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