(Gospel passage: “Jesus went to the district of Tyre. He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, but he could not escape notice. Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” She replied and said to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.” Mark 7.24-30)
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Daily homily given on February 8, 2018:
There are a few scenes in the New Testament that seem strange, or hard to understand. For example, why would Jesus refer to a group of people as dogs? Is he being incredibly rude, or is he making a point, one that is often lost in a modern context?
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People living during Jesus’ time didn’t eat with forks, knives, and napkins; they ate with their hands. When their hands were dirty, they’d wipe them on a large piece of bread and throw the bread to their house pets, to their dogs.
Using this image, Jesus creates an analogy for his own ministry. He came to feed the Jews first; they were the chosen ones. But they have wiped their hands clean of the Gospel; they have rejected Jesus and his words and thrown them away, like bread tossed to a dog.
But notice how eagerly this woman consumes the words of Jesus. She is persistent and trusts that when he says her daughter is healed, she is.
And so in this woman we find the model for true discipleship. We do not need to be a Jew; rather, we must be like this foreigner, who approaches Jesus with absolute faith in his power to save.