Mark 7:24-30--The Syrophoenician Woman's Faith

Mark 7:24-30
English Standard Version
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The Syrophoenician Woman's Faith
24 And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. 25 But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.” 29 And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

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Jesus travels to a Gentile region to the north of Galilee that was once part of the land promised to the Jews as part of the Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenants.  Jesus still went into these areas even though there probably were few Jews there and most of the Jews who were there would look just like the Gentiles they lived among.  Jesus tried to enter this region secretly, but He could not keep the crowds from following Him and His location was quickly known.

A woman from the area (a Syrophoenician woman) came to Him to ask Him to heal her little girl who had an unclean spirit.  She fell down at His feet in worship to plead with Him (pray to Him).  Mark emphasizes that the woman was a Gentile and Syrophoenician by birth.  That's important for what Jesus is about to say to her.  She's not even a Proselyte (a Gentile who has converted to Judaism).

The woman begged Jesus to cast the demon out of her daughter, but He said to her, "Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."  Jesus is saying that although there aren't many Jews in the area, there are some, and His primary mission was to come and minister to His own people (the Jews).  IT would not be right for Him to use the time and resources the Father had given Him in order to help the Jews to help the unbelieving Gentiles and then for Him to not have anything left to help the Jews with.  The Syrophoenician woman is quick though, and she changes the metaphor to say that even the "puppies" that hang out under the table get the scraps and crumbs that the children drop (and we all know that sometimes the children intentionally feed their food to the puppies, so they don't have to eat it).  The Syrophoenician woman knew Jesus wouldn't even be there in Tyre and Sidon if the Jewish people hadn't rejected Jesus, so she asked if she could have some of the "crumbs" that they had dropped.  She knew there was more than enough of Jesus to go around.

Jesus says that because she has answered well (and shown great faith), she could go on her way--the demon had left her daughter.  This is one of the first times that we see someone believe that Jesus can cast out a demon from a distance.  Jews had brought the demonized to have Jesus touch them or for Him to speak to them so there was a distance between them that one's natural voice carried, but this woman believed that Jesus could speak from anywhere and the demon would have to listen to Him.  Where would she have heard about Jesus having such power over demons?  We don't really know, but we see several stories in the gospels of how the Gentiles seem to come to Jesus with sometimes even greater faith than the Jews, and their faith moves Jesus to action.  That's not saying anything bad about the Jews--but was see a small portion of the Gentiles that have also been prepared to hear the gospel and spread it among their own people to make it easier for when apostles like Paul, Barnabas and Silas come to them later (John Mark who is writing this gospel was part of those early missionary journeys to foreign lands).  Jesus always wanted both Jews and Gentiles to receive the gospel, but He laid out a pattern for His disciples and apostles that the gospel was for the Jew first, and then also for the Gentile after that.  This is the pattern followed in the book of Acts even for Paul when he went into the places that were mostly Gentile--he'd always go into the synagogues first and only after they rejected him did you go into the lecture halls and marketplaces.