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Zoe and Emmanuel, I can safely say that the Gospel reading that we had earlier isn’t one that we would normally have for a Baptism service. It’s not in any of the recommended texts or suggested verses. But it’s the appointed Gospel reading for today and we’ve chosen to keep it in.

Jesus wants to get away from it all and have some ‘me-time’. So, he heads NW from Galilee to Tyre, roughly 40 miles away. Tyre was a seaside town, with at best a mixed reputation. Perhaps it was the first century equivalent of Jesus getting away from Heywood and hiding out in a B&B in Blackpool.

The dogs

But it’s not long before word gets out and he’s found by a local woman who isn’t Jewish and has a different ethnic background. Her daughter was extremely unwell. Perhaps it was epilepsy or something similar.

She asks Jesus for help – but instead of giving it straightaway, which he seems to do everywhere else, he answers with those unsettling words that it wasn’t fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs. The children, in this case, were the people of Israel and the woman and her daughter were the dogs. In another version of this story there’s an explanation that Jesus considered his mission to be only to Israel, not anywhere else.

How ever you look at it, those words seem pretty insulting. Dogs were seen as shameless and unclean. Maybe it was a proverb or saying in use at the time. But it’s troubled Bible commentators ever since looking for excuses or reasons as to why Jesus would use those words which could be sexist or racist or both. We can explore that another time though.

Crossed boundaries

On top of that, within the culture at the time, a man and a woman who weren’t related to each other wouldn’t normally speak to each other. And he a Jew and she a Gentile. So, some boundaries had already been crossed here. And she might well have been expected to walk away at this point.

But she’s not for giving up and, quick as a flash, mum comes back with her own quick-witted response: ‘Even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs’. Maybe that was another proverb or saying.

Normally it’s the scribes and pharisees saying something provocative and Jesus comes back with a telling reply which makes them think twice. This time it’s the other way round. It’s the woman who responds to Jesus.

Speaking the gospel

I imagine Jesus pausing and looking into her eyes, maybe with a smile and with compassion – or perhaps in surprise and deep in thought. Whichever, his tone changes.

‘For saying that’, he says, ‘your daughter is healed’. If you translate the original Greek, he says: ‘for saying that word, your daughter is healed’.  The Greek word that Jesus uses for ‘word’ is logos. Which elsewhere in Mark means gospel. The woman has spoken the gospel to Jesus…

And from that point on, Jesus is indiscriminate in how he spends his time. Regardless of creed or colour, Jew or Gentile, he heals them or feeds them.

Thank you

I heard a lovely sermon once where the preacher speculated that the woman and the daughter later meet up with Jesus at the feeding of the four thousand. In the imagination of the preacher, Jesus tears them off a big lump of bread and says ‘Thank you. You both deserve more than crumbs.’

This smart, determined, woman fights for her daughter and not only gets the healing that she desires but seems to broaden Jesus’ view of his own ministry. And sometimes as parents and grandparents we have to fight and battle to get what we want for our children too – and, when we do, maybe there’s a ripple of far-reaching consequences which have a larger impact than we can possibly imagine. Be encouraged by this strange story if that ever happens to you.

Reclining

But what of the child? She’s given no words to say. We just know that she’s little, maybe little like Afriyie. And the story begins with her being unwell and ends with her being found with the illness gone and lying on the bed at home.

Only again, the Greek version is more subtle than that. If you’ve ever seen films about Greeks and Romans and there’s a scene where they’re eating, then the better-off ones don’t sit at a table like we do. They recline on their sides on couches, with the food on a low table in the middle.

In the Greek, when mum goes home, the girl isn’t lying on a bed – she’s reclining on one of those couches. It’s as if she’s about to eat. Jesus has turned the tables on his own words. The girl is now restored, perhaps about to make crumbs of her own.

What we do

In the whole story the girl says nothing. But in her body, in her actions, she speaks volumes. Her mum had courageously said all that needed saying but sometimes words just aren’t enough. Old or young, the gospel, the good news, is communicated by what we do as well as what we say.

Afriyie becomes the latest member of the church family today – and she’s equipped as well as any of us to share the good news of Jesus Christ. In time that may be in what she says – but for now, and for the rest of her life, let’s ask for God’s blessing on what she does. Amen

‘More than crumbs’ was delivered by Ian Banks at the baptism of Afriyie, St Margaret’s, Heywood on Sunday 8th September 2024. It was based on Mark 7:24-30.

References:

• Bailey, K.E. (2008). Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes. SPCK
• Gench, F.T. (2004). Back to the well. Louisville: Westminster John Knox
• Levine & Brettler (2011). The Jewish Annotated New Testament. New York: Oxford UP
• Lyons-Pardue, K.J. (2019). A Syrophoenician Becomes a Canaanite: Jesus Exegetes the Canaanite Woman in Matthew. Journal of Theological Interpretation, Vol. 13. The Pennsylvania State University,
• Newson, Ringe & Lapsley. (2012). Women’s Bible Commentary (3^rd Edition). Louisville: Westminster John Knox
• Stagg, E&F. (1978). Woman in the world of Jesus. Edinburgh: St Andrews Press
• https://www.academia.edu/8572742/_When_Word_is_not_Enough_the_Syrophoenician_Encounter_with_Jesus_Mark_7_24_30_FourthR_25_5_2012_3_9_14