In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
We’ve been following St Mark’s gospel in recent weeks so I thought it would be a good idea to carry on and see what happens next. The reading begins “Jesus left that place and went to the district of Tyre” (7.24). “That place” was of course the area round the Sea of Galilee where Jesus had been working so hard. The point to note about his destination, Tyre, is that it is in Gentile territory, on the Mediterranean coast. Mark does not explicitly say why Jesus goes there. Perhaps Jesus wanted to get away from the persistence of the crowds of people. Perhaps he wanted time away with his disciples. Or maybe he went to begin building a bridge over the vast gulf which separated the Jews from everyone else, the Gentile, non-Jewish world. It was, after all, God’s purpose that the Jews, his chosen people, would bring his word and his kingdom to the rest of the world. And this of course began with the first Pentecost and the sending out of the disciples from Jerusalem But before that could happen Jesus needed to lay the foundations of Christianity among the Jews.
But Jesus left Galilee and went to Tyre, on the coast. But he didn’t escape notice. A Syrophoenician woman, a Gentile, came to find him. She came to Jesus for help. Her little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit and, going on her knees at his feet, she begged him to heal her daughter. Jesus’ reply to her sounds uncharacteristically harsh. He says “Let the children be fed first for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs”. (7.27). There seems no way of softening these words. The Jews used the word “dogs” to insult Gentiles and to show how much they despised people who were not the Chosen People of God. But then there is Jesus’ teaching earlier in the chapter where he says that people are only differentiated by whether their heart is clean or unclean, not by whether they follow the Jewish tradition of washing hands before eating. A person with a clean heart will produce good thoughts and good deeds because their heart contains no evil. On the other hand a person whose heart is full of evil intentions will show it in what they say and do. So human attitudes and traditions and beliefs are not the basis for making judgements about people. The distinction between Jew and Gentile therefore cannot stand. We are all equally God’s children in Jesus.
Perhaps Jesus was testing the woman to see whether her faith would really hold. She doesn’t despair or shrink away in defeat. She accepts that the Jews have a special place in God’s care, but all are members of a household, even the animals, and are therefore in the master’s care. She perseveres. Addressing Jesus as Lord, she says “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs”. (7.28). Jesus sees the strength of the faith which has brought her to this point. He says “For this saying, go your way. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” (7.29). She goes home and finds her little daughter is well again.
Do you remember that lovely prayer in the first book of Common Prayer of 1548 which is sometimes offered before we share the Lord’s Supper? “We do not presume to come to this thy table merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy table, but thou art the same Lord whose nature is always to have mercy …” and the petition to share the Lord’s supper follows.
The second miracle Mark recounts is the healing of the man who is deaf and has a speech impediment. Jesus is now moving back into Galilee. Mark tells us that they brought to Jesus “one who was deaf and had an impediment to his speech” (7.32). It maybe that because the man was deaf had never heard words spoken he had difficulty in producing the right sounds to speak clearly. The Greek word Mark uses here for speech impediment is “mogilalos” and it is quite rare. One of the places where it is found is in Isaiah, in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Speaking of the end of the Lord’s anger against the Israelites, Isaiah says “ Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will hear. Then the lame will leap like a hart and the tongue of the stammerer will be clear”. The man’s friends beg Jesus to help him. Jesus takes the man apart, away from the crowd, touches him and gives the command “be opened”. The cure is immediate. The man can now hear and speak.
There is of course a symbolic meaning to this miracle which Jesus wants the disciples to understand. Just as he restores hearing and speech to this man, so he can give the spiritual ability to his disciples to understand what seems to be obscure in what he says, and to speak out that understanding clearly.
The people were “amazed beyond measure” at what Jesus had done (7.37). They said “he has done everything well”, echoing perhaps the words in the book of Genesis at the Creation. (1:37) “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good”. God’s works are perfect and so also is the manifestation of his Son’s power. It can be no other. But while the people were astounded, they and the disciples were not yet able to see and make the connection between God and Jesus his Son. But understanding does come. Later, Jesus asks his disciples who they think he is. Peter says at once “You are the Messiah”. (8.29)
Amen.
SR