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Gospel: Mark 7:24-30
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.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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This is one of only two miracles that Jesus performs at a distance. Meaning, the person being healed is not physically present.
In this case, a desperate mother falls at the feet of Jesus, telling him that her daughter is being tormented by a demon.
In the ancient world, a “demon” could’ve been anything – something as mild as a temper, more serious like mental illness, or an actual demonic possession.
We don’t know what the case was, only that this little girl needed to be healed.
Interestingly, the other miracle Jesus performs at a distance is the healing of another child: Jairus’ twelve-year-old daughter. In both cases, the children are Gentiles, not Jews.
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Why would Jesus heal a Gentile? And why would he heal someone at a distance?
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To emphasize two things:
First, Jesus came to save all people.
Secondly, healing a person from a distance re-enforces the intercessor’s faith – in this case the mother – which is what Jesus wants from everyone.
This mom has no proof that her daughter had been healed other than Jesus’ words, “You may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.”
Yet that was enough, which is why the Lord says elsewhere, “Not in all of Israel have I found such faith.”
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Just as the Lord healed children at a distance, all we need to experience his healing power is an open heart filled with faith.
“Ask and you shall receive,” he says, “seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened for you.”
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Image credits: (1) IMPACT Church Parkersburg (2) Benedictine College Medium and Culture (3) Etsy