Mark 7:24-30

Be Still: Lord, help me to be present to you as you are so graciously present to me. Amen

Read: Mark 7:24-30

''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.'

'Lord,' she replied, 'even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.'

Encounter:  What? Is Jesus being insulting and even racist? That doesn't match the Jesus I know throughout the gospels: the One who proclaimed freedom and equality, who championed the 'underdog', reproved the 'top dogs' and willingly met every seeker's need. The passage worried me when I first read it and scholars telling me that the Greek word used here for 'dogs' (kynarion) relates to household pets, didn't really help.

Here we need to put on our cultural glasses: Jesus has gone into Gentile territory to 'lie low' for a while, to avoid provoking the Jewish authorities into action against him too soon in his ministry. Jesus knows the first stage of his mission is to establish the 'kingdom of heaven' and the 'New Covenant' among the Jewish people so that, in God's perfect timing, they would be carriers of the good news to all nations. A 'scatter gun' approach would not work.

And here was a Syrophoenician woman asking him for a miracle, to 'break cover' as it were. The conversation that ensues is on a level of banter with serious purpose underlying it. Jesus tests her with the cultural Jewish norm: people were either 'children' (Jews) or 'dogs' (Gentiles) The woman knew well that Jews considered all Gentiles 'dogs', way below them in spiritual purity, and outside the favour of God who was their father alone. The woman squares up to Jesus with humour and faith. And, as Jesus responds lovingly with healing power on her child, his action points forward to the time when no-one would be under the table eating crumbs, but every one of every tribe and nation would be an invited guest at Jesus' table.

Apply: Next time you approach the Lord's table at Holy Communion, as you take Bread and Wine, remember you have been elevated to sit with him, no longer an outsider, but family.

Devote: Lord Jesus, by your Holy Spirit, help me, help your Church, to spread the good news that through your death and resurrection, we can be adopted into your family – one in Christ.