An Avalanche of Crumbs - When Jesus called a Woman to Preach.

Jesus Honors a Syrophoenician Woman’s Faith
Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

“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.”

Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”

She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

— Mark 7:24-30 (NIV)

Jesus Called a Woman a Dog?!?

The way that Jesus speaks to this woman has been the source of much
controversy, especially given the meaning and use of “dog” as a
chauvinist slur towards women in our culture. The fact it was used to insult gentiles rather than women doesn’t really help that much. When we see Jesus seemingly refer to this woman as one of the dogs, it can make us very uncomfortable, to say the least. And we shouldn’t pretend that it
doesn’t.

But I’ve come to realise that this story of the Syro-Phoenician woman is
an incredibly important story in the Gospel of Mark. And that the
message it tells --- when we see what Mark is doing --- is profound.

Jesus Retreats

In this story we see Jesus retreating. In his hometown and the areas he
has been walking around so far in Mark’s Gospel, he can’t go anywhere
without people coming to him --- with their problems, challenging him,
trying to get something from him. So he retreats to the coastal area of
Tyre and Sidon. It almost feels like he’s gone on a beach holiday.

But this is the first time in Mark’s Gospel that he has stepped outside
his Israeli context. Tyre and Sidon are part of the region Matthew calls
Syro-Phoenicia. Wealthy port cities. Supplied with goods from Galilee
--- the rural region Jesus comes from.

The Woman: Privileged and Disadvantaged

And this is where a woman from Tyre and Sidon --- a woman from the
Gentile world --- comes to Jesus and falls at his feet.

He is the rural, working-class Galilean.
She is the metropolitan, wealthy woman.

On one hand, she is at a significant cultural disadvantage because she
is a woman. On the other hand, she has significant social advantage
because of her socioeconomic status.

And yet she comes vulnerable.

She brings shame upon herself --- a lone woman falling at the feet of a
strange man. And not just any man, but someone lower in the social
pecking order than her. She crosses every cultural boundary to come to
the one she knows can heal her daughter.

And this is where Jesus is faced with a quandary.

Up to this point, his ministry has been focused on Israel. The
expectation that Israel had for the Messiah was that he was primarily for the people of Israel. And yet this woman is asking that the blessing be poured out not just on Israel, but on the nations.

This is where we see the genius of Mark’s writing.

The Crumb Sandwich

He has placed this story equidistant between two very similar stories:

The feeding of the 5,000 in Mark 6:30-44 12 baskets of crumbs.
The Syrophoenician woman asks for the crumbs.
The feeding of the 4,000 in Mark 8:1-10 7 baskets of crumbs.

Before the Syrophoenician woman, in the feeding of the 5,000, bread is multiplied and twelve baskets of
fragments are gathered up. Twelve --- echoing the twelve
tribes of Israel.

From a table with a few loaves and fish come baskets and baskets and
baskets of overflow. The crumbs from the table are not a consolation prize. They are an avalanche of Grace.

After the Syrophoenician woman, Jesus reveals the truth of what she has seen --- that the blessing never stops with his people. It widens out to bless the nations. The second feeding story - 4,000 people on the gentile shore of the sea of Galilee. The crumbs fill seven baskets. Seven --- the number of fullness, completeness, universality. A widening out. A blessing for the Gentiles. For the whole earth. The “dogs” eat the crumbs. But these crumbs are not a consolation prize. They are an avalanche of Grace.

Mark is showing us the trajectory of God’s blessing. It never stops with his people. We are always blessed to be a blessing to the whole world.

Right in the middle of the two feeding stories stands a woman who sees it before the disciples do.

Jesus Challenges the Woman

Jesus says, “Let the children be fed first. It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” The language is still
feeding language. Still bread language. In the context, the name “dog” is definitely provocative but it isn’t about her gender. He is play-acting the isolationism of his fellow Judeans because he has seen in her eyes that she is ready to blow it wide open.

And she responds, “Even the dogs under the table eat the crumbs.”

She doesn’t reject the metaphor. She pushes it further.

She has noticed something. She has understood something about the
character of God. That Israel was never called to be a holy huddle,
sectioned off from the rest of the world. Abraham was called to father a nation that would be a blessing to the whole earth.

Throughout Israel’s history there are women from outside the tribe,
outside the nation, who seem to understand this better than the
insiders. Rahab, Ruth, Tamar. Women who, with a kind of holy
audacity, expose how wide God’s grace truly is.

This woman stands in that line.

She sees that even though the people of God are gathered to feast on his
blessings, the economy of the kingdom is not scarcity. It is abundance.

Jesus initially turns her down because he knows she has seen
something. He gives her the dignity of saying it out loud. Of being the one to call out the disciples’ dismissiveness and the exclusivity of the people of God.

In Mark’s Gospel, the disciples repeatedly fail to grasp what is going on. In fact, the passages between feeding the 5000 and the Syrophoenician woman are a masterclass in missing the point.

Jesus calls the woman to preach

In 6:52 Mark writes: “for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.”
And here, unexpectedly, a dispised Gentile woman understands about the loaves more than the disciples do.

More than I did until I stopped to listen to her.

She illuminates the heart of the Gospel to the gathered disciples.

In other words:

She Preaches.

The Question for us

So the question for us is this:

When we gather to worship, when we use our resources as a church, do we prioritize the overflow of blessing to the world?

Do we recognise we dont have to defend our church’s borders because of the economy of the kingdom where the crumbs vastly outweigh the main course?

And when the voice comes from outside --- or from people we dont expect --- are we curious enough to notice the wisdom they are offering?

As is often quoted from the pulpit: “The Church is the only organization that exists for the benefit of non-members.”

Amen. Lord have mercy.

We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O 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 property is always to have mercy:
Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood,
and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.
— Thomas Cranmer: The Prayer of Humble Access, Book of Common Prayer, 1549