SyroPhonecian Woman by Julia Stankova
16th Sunday after Pentecost
Sept. 8, 2024
Mark 7:24-37
How many of you have a table in your house that you gather around to talk or eat a meal? Where is that table in your home? Do you have more than one? Gathering around a table is hugely important to a lot of families. Images of holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays, etc., are images of people gathered around a table, eating, being fed. When you are invited to sit at a table, you are being invited to do more than eat, but to be in communion. Gathering around a table is a sacred activity, even if the offering is meager. Breaking bread together is a symbol of welcoming someone into the intimacy of their home, and in some cultures, even into their family. Sharing food is a way to bring people together.
I have spent my adult life in ministry and much of it visiting partners in education and ministry around the world. The most important events that took place were not about the work we were doing, but about being invited to a meal. I soon learned that many of these families spent most of their month’s earnings to provide that food which for them was an enormous feast. (Americans have a reputation for eating a lot.) Sometimes it was just rice and coconut juice from a coconut tree in their yard. Sometimes I had no idea what was in front of me and did not ask until afterwards. My middle daughter who had pet guinea pigs as a child never forgave me when she found out that I ate cuy in Ecuador. We did not expect those we were visiting to feed us but it would have been unheard of to decline such an invitation. Eating and drinking together is holy work. It is sacred time. And it is very good for well-meaning, privileged folks to sit down and receive from others, especially the poor.
Today we are looking at a passage in Mark that centers around a table and the access to food. Once again, Jesus is seeking some respite. He is in need of one of those “don’t talk to me” retreats. He has entered the region of Tyre and goes into a house. We don’t know whose house, but clearly he knows someone and is hoping that if he sneaks into another region that isn’t Jewish maybe he can go incognito and no one will know he’s there and he can breathe a little.
Have you ever needed to get away from work or school and just be alone for a bit only to have them call you or even worse, find you and show up where you are? Can you imagine the office staff discovering where you’ve gone on vacation and, surprise! We would all be groaning and probably quite a bit grumpy no matter how much we liked our co-workers.
And here comes a SyroPhoencian mother whose daughter is demon possessed busting in on Jesus alone time. Most mothers on a mission to help their child are not easily deterred. The scripture says that Jesus could not escape notice, but much like Taylor Swift, that doesn’t happen. You can almost hear Jesus groan. “Look, lady, I seriously need a rest. I’ve only got crumbs left to give.” The Son of God dealing with the realities of the incarnation, dealing with his humanity. Don’t forget, Jesus just came from being smacked around by the Pharisees over accusations of his disciples being unclean, he has tried to get away from it all and the constant demands being placed on him, and in his more human moment is snapping at this woman who shows up demanding more of him when he just wanted a moment’s peace.
This woman makes her way to Jesus and bows down before him, an act of supplication and pleading, and asks him to free her daughter from the demon. Jesus’ ministry is, after all, about freedom, freedom from the evil that harms the world. In the Gospel of Mark all healing, all miracles, are connected to exorcizing the evil out in order to restore one to wholeness. She’s somehow heard about this and is determined.
Now, it is hard to dodge Jesus’ seemingly insulting words here, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” Most scholars agree that this is as much an insult then as it is now, but others believe that the image Jesus is referring to is about the order of access to the necessity of food, not the character of the participants. Families are responsible for feeding their own members; the more familiar “charity begins at home” makes a similar point. Israel is the original family, Jesus understands his ministry to be for God’s chosen first. And Jesus sees his mission as a mission to the Israelites.
What seems to me to be the interpretation most congruent with Jesus’ ministry and his message of the Good News is that he’s using a rhetorical device of purposefully saying what everyone is already thinking. He calls out the racism in the room but gives the woman a chance to plead her case for Gentiles. And here is why the SyroPhoenician woman is a rock star in the middle of Jesus’ ministry on earth and why her story is recorded. It’s important. She doesn’t see Jesus as a magic healer, she recognizes him as God and since God has no boundaries, she confidently approaches Jesus and calls upon him as God. “I’ll even take the crumbs, Lord,” because she knows it is enough. And Jesus is moved by this.
She doesn’t bat an eye at Jesus’ irritability and uses his very words to weave them into a masterful response. She did not hear a denial because Jesus said, “Let the children be fed first.” Implying that later the dogs could eat. The children, meaning Israel, needed to eat, and that was why he was feeding thousands of them on a hillside. It was hard for most rural Galilean children to find daily unlike the prosperous children from Tyre. There was also a double meaning to his words referring to the Bread of Life, Jesus as the Word of God. And really, it is Jesus’ word that she’s seeking. The very word that she is confident he can speak that will heal her daughter.
“Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs,” she replies. She is not deterred by his rudeness. But she answers him, and I wonder whether he hears the voice of God in her response–a voice that says to him, no, you can’t quit, you have more to do, no, you can’t walk away and you can’t hide from who you are.
Jesus hears in this woman’s quick witted reply the further call that now is the time to expand his ministry beyond Israel only. She challenges him and he listens. She caught his attention, and in Jesus’ humanity he experiences what many of us do in our lifetime, that God speaks to us through someone else, and quite frequently through the mouths of those we might otherwise dismiss. That is why it is so important for us to not shut ourselves away from those whom we may deem unclean. Those we even go so far as to call, “evil.” She was socially and culturally and religiously considered unclean in Jesus’ world, but God used her to open Jesus’ ears to God’s word that now was the time to expand the Good News beyond the boundaries of ethnicity, gender, and religion. This was quite extraordinary. With so many of Jesus’ followers not understanding Jesus’ mission on earth and especially not understanding who he was, she did. It must have stunned Jesus. Finally, finally someone gets it.
There’s a table at the center of our lives. A table at the center of worship, the table which we all gather around, bound together for the one thing we all agree on, that Jesus is our Bread of Life. It is where we come to say thank you to the God of the universe. That even the crumbs from this table are enough and that what we have to offer should be offered to all. This table raises us above our divisions for true healing happens in community where Jesus is at the Center. We would rather build a bigger table than deny anyone a seat. Let’s listen for the ways God may be speaking to us. Sometimes it is through someone that interrupts our quiet time and challenges us to consider expanding our understanding of our ministry and who we should be offering the bread and even the crumbs. Who’s under our table looking for the crumbs we drop?
Magdalena's Musings 