Crumbs of Grace
The Reverend Shearon Sykes Williams, Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, September 8th, 2024
“Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Mark 7: 24-36
In today’s Gospel, Jesus has just had a dust-up with the Pharisees, the religious authorities who were always challenging his teachings. Jesus has just called them hypocrites and chastised them for failing to “love thy neighbor as thyself,” as the law of Moses demands. Then Jesus leaves the predominately Jewish region where he has been preaching and teaching and heads to a mostly Gentile, or non-Jewish area. He wants to keep a low profile, according to Mark, but the news of his healing ministry has preceded him, and a Gentile woman approaches him and throws herself at his feet. She is desperate because her little girl has an “unclean spirit”. This could have been a physical illness, a mental health issue or something else. We just know that the little girl was seriously unwell in some way and that her mother is beside herself with worry. She has heard that this wandering preacher heals people.
Anyone who has ever loved someone who was extremely ill, be it a child, a partner, a parent, a friend, anyone who has ever felt desperate to get help, can relate to this mother’s plea. When we love someone so completely, so wholeheartedly, we would do anything for that person that we can possibly do. And we are vulnerable in those moments, looking for kindness and understanding from the people we seek out who might be able to help. That, I think, is why we find Jesus’ response to the woman in the Gospel today so jarring, and shocking. We worship a compassionate and loving God, and we have a Savior who shows us the depths of God’s mercy. And yet, today Jesus tells this heartsick, anguished mother, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
There have been various interpretations of this passage over the years. Many scholars have said that at this point in Jesus’ ministry he understood his mission to only be to his own people, the people of Israel. And those outside of Judaism were considered unclean because they were not included in the covenant that God made with the Israelites. But as Jesus’ ministry evolved, he came to understand that his mission was to all people, and this woman helped him to see this. Other theologians have focused on the extraordinary response that the mother gives Jesus, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Mark’s Gospel doesn’t say, but when Jesus decides to help her, he seems to be rewarding her for her faith and humility, even though he first rejected her as being “other”. I believe that both are true. Today’s Gospel speaks to a mutuality between this unnamed woman and Jesus. They need each other. She calls forth a deeper self-understanding in him, that his vocation is so much bigger than even he had understood it to be at first. And she desperately needs him to heal her little girl whom she loves more than life itself. He calls forth strength in her. This woman has faith in Jesus and she represents the spread of the Gospel to people beyond Israel. The Pharisees challenged and rejected Jesus because of their arrogance and pride, but this woman challenged him while also expressing faith in him. “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” I am always bowled over by her response. To have the presence of mind and the boldness to say this. She is challenging him in a very humble way. She has no pretense or pride, but she also won’t take no for an answer because Jesus is her last and greatest hope for her daughter.
The Syrophoenician woman is a great model for us. In our moments of desperation, turning to God in prayer is the best thing we can do for ourselves and for our loved ones. Sometimes we don’t feel like God is listening and that our prayers are not being answered, but this woman reminds us to persist, to ask God for what we need and our prayers will be answered. The answer just may not be as we expected or on our timeline. We don’t control the outcome, God does. Sometimes things turn out exactly as we had hoped, as in today’s Gospel. Other times they turn out differently. But healing always happens in some way, whatever the answer and whenever it comes. Often healing occurs in the form of a deep peace that settles in us, an unexplainable knowing that all will be well, no matter what, because God is with us. Sometimes God gives us the courage to face a difficult path forward. And even when death does come, we know that we face the darkness befriended, that Jesus is there with us. We are never, ever alone in our struggles, whatever they may be. Sometimes we don’t know what kind of faith we really have, until we are broken open by grief or hardship.
I have been extraordinarily blessed over the years to walk with people in challenging times. And I am always amazed when we can pray together and have a palpable experience of Jesus there with us. It is a mysterious and wondrous thing. God is with us in joys and challenges, but we often know Christ in a visceral way when we are at our wits end and we feel profoundly grateful for every morsel of grace that he gives us. “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”