The Syro-Phoenician Woman III

The woman's response to Christ's comment in Mark 7.27 is remarkable. Christ essentially says, "Jews are first. Gentiles are second," yet in a seemingly harsh way. However, he leaves open the possibility that there will be "food" for the Gentiles. In the Greek (where word order often indicates emphasis), Christ says, "Permit first, the children to be fed." The woman immediately picks up on his meaning (Mark 7.28).

Chadwick paraphrases her response: “'I thank Thee, O blessed One, for that word! That’s my whole case. Not of the children? True. A dog? True also: Yet the dogs under the table are allowed to eat of the children’s crumbs — the droppings from their master’s full table: Give me that, and I am content: One crumb of power and grace from Thy table shall cast the devil out of my daughter.' Oh, what lightning quickness, what reach of instinctive ingenuity, do we behold in this heathen woman!"

Second place is good enough for her. As a Gentile who follows this unnamed woman, I gladly embrace second place as well. Jews are first. No problem. There is enough grace left over for me (a Gentile) coming second.

The Syro-Phoenician Woman II

Persistence. Mark's description of the woman's approach to Christ is to say (Mark 7.26) that she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. The verb tense used (imperfect) implies that she kept on begging, that she was persistent; that she would not stop. Matthew's version of the incident (Matt 15.23) makes this explicit. He writes: And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, “Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us (NASB).

The woman is persistent as Christ throws up several obstacles to her getting her request. She keeps on begging, because she is not going to be stopped by a few obstacles. We learn from this that faith requires persistence if it is truly faith. A "faith" that gives up at the first obstacle tossed in its way is no faith at all. This woman had a living, active faith that Christ could (and would) do what she asked.

The Syro-Phoenician Woman I

Context. Mark doesn't just set this story (Mark 7.24-30) will-nilly as if it suddenly popped into his mind. The two pericopes that come before this demonstrate how the Pharisees lambast Christ's disciples for eating without ceremonial cleaning. In turn Christ lambasts the Pharisees for being legalists. Next Christ explains that, in contrast to the Pharisees' theology, it is not what comes into a man that defiles him, but what is inside of him. Then comes the story with a Gentile, Canaanite, pagan-therefore-unclean, woman. She tells Christ that second place (behind the Jews) is okay with her, if she can just have the demon cast out of her daughter (incredible faith). Here is the way one writer puts the contrast between this woman and the Pharisees:

Ironically, the unclean Gentile girl is cleansed of the unclean demon (Mark 7:30) by her mother’s decisive and intercessory faith in Jesus, but the clean Pharisees remain unclean because their evils come from unrepentant and unbelieving hearts that reject Jesus (Mark 7:15, 23).

Thus the importance of context.