The pandemic has been compared to a foot race that began as a sprint and then turned into a 5K. And then we realized we were in a marathon, and now it has become an Ironman, a race where participants don’t just run of 26 miles but also swim 2.4 miles and then bike another 112. It’s exhausting.
I imagine this is the kind of weariness Jesus was feeling when he left Galilee where he had been arguing with religious leaders. He just wanted to find a place where he could go unnoticed. But Mark tells us that wasn’t possible. Word of the healings and miracles that Jesus had done had reached even the northern region of Tyre on the Mediterranean – the place we know today as Lebanon. And that’s where the Syrian woman, a Gentile not a Jew, found Jesus.
Like the synagogue leader Jairus in Mark 5 who fell at Jesus’ feet and begged repeatedly for his daughter to be made well, this Gentile woman bows down to Jesus and begs him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
But this time we don’t witness Jesus’ compassion. He doesn’t go with the woman; instead, he rebukes her, telling her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.” (Mark 7:27 NRS)
Anytime we diminish a person and call them names, we are failing to
see that person as a wholly beloved child of God, with all the dignity and
worth that we each have. Hearing Jesus use this insult and turn his back on
someone in need is uncomfortable.
Many have tried to soften his words or find a way to excuse him, but
there really isn’t any acceptable explanation. His words are ugly, and he says
them to make the woman go away.
Ironically, Jesus has just been teaching about how evil comes from our hearts when he abruptly dismisses this woman. We can’t know why he spoke the way he did –whether it was because she was a woman or a Gentile or if there was some other reason, but he provides a real-life example of what happens when our hearts are left unguarded. Our heartless words and actions inflict pain.
Thankfully the story doesn’t end there. The woman doesn’t leave. She doesn’t let Jesus off the hook.
She has heard about the powerful acts he has done in his ministry and, because she has heard, she believes she and her daughter are included in God’s kingdom. She doesn’t argue that her daughter should come before the Jewish people, but that God’s abundance is great enough for all who are in need. She is willing to receive a smaller portion of God’s mercy and to believe it is enough.
The woman’s humility and willingness demonstrate her faith that God’s gracious actions are for her too.
And something in her words opens Jesus’ heart, and he is able to hear what this woman is saying. After he listens, he tells her that she will find that the demon has left her daughter. (Mark 7:29)
One lesson we learn here is from the woman. Like the psalmists who
lament to God, crying out because they are suffering and then calling on God to
be the God they have witnessed in history, she has witnessed what God has done
in others’ lives, so she calls on Jesus to share the abundance that God has
provided because she knows he can. God’s love and mercy is for every one of
us.
The second lesson is one we learn from Jesus. Their conversation shows the importance of listening to those we think don’t belong. We all belong to God and we all have value and worth in God’s sight. Jesus shows we can learn from those who come from outside our familiar traditions and places.
Listening well is a spiritual practice.
To listen well to another person’s story, without judgment or
commentary, without advice-giving.
To listen for the feelings and themes of life that person is
sharing.
To listen for faith, for the words of hope, healing and
opportunity.
To listen for the “story of the soul” – for how the pieces fit together.
This spiritual listening is a practice of “listening for our
connectedness, our common ground, the deepest realities of which we all are a
part.”
When we listen well, we recognize we are all members of one family – regardless of our differences– and one community. [i]
And it is in that listening that we open ourselves to transformation. The obvious transformation in this gospel is that the daughter’s demon is cast out, but Jesus too is changed through this encounter with the woman.
We may be as uncomfortable with a Jesus who can change as with one who slanders, but this gospel witnesses to us how God’s Word works as it reaches people who desperately need to know they are not hopeless. It witnesses to us how we need to guard our hearts so that we won’t harden them against others. It witnesses to us that it is possible to change how we think about people we have dismissed or turned away from, and how God can work in us all to God’s glory.
And that is Good News.
Let us pray…
Good and gracious God,
Thank you for your Son Jesus who although without sin experienced
all that we do in life, and shows us the way to new life, full of grace and
mercy.
Thank you for showing up in people who are different from us and
teaching us to listen well to their stories, recognizing how we are all one
human family, created and loved by you.
Forgive us when we are hard hearted.
Transform us by your Spirit that our ears and eyes will be opened
to Your presence in our lives.
We pray in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen.
[i] Craig Rennebohm. Souls in the Hands of a Tender
God: Stories of the Search for Home and Healing on the Streets. 78-79.
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