Dave's Diary

Daily Readings: Mark 7 and Psalm 58

It feels like an awkward interaction and I’m hesitant to focus on it, but my attention keeps being drawn to it. So here goes. Disclaimer: This blog is going to be longer than usual, and its a rambling sort of reflection. But hey, it’s a public holiday in most nations of the world, so you should have the time to read it today… 🙂

First, let’s remember the context. Think of all the “unclean” people who were touched and made whole by Jesus’ ministry in Mark 5. Now Mark 7 starts with a controversy over uncleanness. Jesus taught extensively (in v.1-23) that God’s approach to spiritual cleanness and uncleanness was not at all what the Pharisees had made it. They had made it purely external. But, for God, cleanness or otherwise comes from the heart and is revealed by the ways we live and the words we speak. Jesus made the vital point: “Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them’ (v.15). The intentions of our hearts are the measure of our cleanliness or otherwise, and they are unavoidably revealed by our outer speech and behaviour.

Immediately after that interchange, Jesus went quietly and privately to the Gentile region of Tyre (v.24). It appears that he intended primarily to retreat from the public eye for a while and spend time instructing His disciples, before returning to continue his ministry. But Jesus also had a “divine appointment” there. Word quickly spread, as it always does, and the desperate mother of a badly demonized child fell at Jesus’ feet (in an attitude of worship, by the way) to beg for deliverance.

To the Pharisees, there would have been no one less worthy of their ministry than this mother. She was a woman, she had been born a Gentile and was still a Gentile (not even a “god-fearer”), probably still practising pagan religion (the only one she had ever known). Externally, she was so unclean to the Jewish leaders that they would not even have let her in the door. In fact, they would also never have been behind this particular door in the first place because they considered even that region and every household in it unclean. To the Pharisees, this woman was a “dog”. That’s what they routinely called the Gentiles – and she knew it.

Now let’s carefully consider the conversation between her and Jesus.

‘First let the children eat all they want,’ He told her, ‘for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.’

When Jesus spoke cryptically about taking the children’s bread, He meant His Gospel ministry of word and action, and that it was intended to be first for the Jewish people and only thereafter for the Gentiles. But when He spoke of “throwing it to the dogs“, Jesus actually made a very clear distinction in this cryptic reference to the Gentiles. The Pharisees used the Greek word “kuon” (a scavenger dog on a dump) as their derogatory word for the Gentiles. But Jesus used the word “kunarion” (a pet puppy) to ask her the question. Their word made her a hated outcast. His word communicated that she was loved, even though she was different. Yes there was a distinction. The Jews were like children in the household of God, and the Gentiles were not. But they were still loved.

I believe she caught the nuance and was emboldened by it, because she replies:

‘Lord, even the dogs (kunarion) under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’

I love the way the Good News Bible phrases her reply because it gets to the heart of it: “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s leftovers!”

Leftovers! Do you mean that the Jews (the “children) would not have wanted to consume every last crumb of Jesus’ ministry of the Bread of Life? Well, no. Remember Nazareth and the “food” of Jesus’ Gospel ministry that the people of Nazareth pushed away on their “plates” saying, “We know this chap. He’s the carpenter“. In Jesus’ analogy and hers, those “scraps” or “crumbs” or “leftovers” (depending on your version) were probably precisely the ones Jesus freely gave to this woman and her daughter (as He healed her demonization).

When the pressure was on, nothing unclean was squeezed out of this woman. In fact, the pressure of her conversation with Jesus revealed that in her heart there was tenacious faith in Jesus’ ability to heal, great belief in the goodness and kindness of Jesus’ God, and beautiful love for her daughter. And in our traditional communion liturgy we quietly honour her each time we pray: “We are not worthy even to gather up the crumbs under Your table, but it is Your nature always to have mercy, and on that we depend.”

Life application: Take a moment to consider how incredibly gracious and merciful God has been to you, despite everything that you know has lurked (or even still lurks) in the darker shadows of your heart. And be grateful. Then ask forgiveness for ever considering anyone to be less worthy of God’s gracious acceptance.