David Bahn – Reflections

Mark 7:27-28

[Jesus] said to her,“Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” ²⁸ But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

The young man was a consistant disruption in the confirmation class. He would make smart remarks or funny sounds while I was teaching. He had self-distraction down to a fine art. That particular night he was paying particularly little attention. So I used him to help teach the lesson on the Holy Spirit. I had him stand in front of the class and play the part of the Holy Spirit in my live object lesson. His job? Whisper into the ear of a fellow classmate, “It’s good stuff!” He was to do this whenever his classmate was told about God, forgiveness of sins, salvation, the abundant life of Jesus, or any spiritual truth. The trick worked; whenever I would speak of some aspect of salvation or blessing from God, I would cue him, and he would very self-consciously say, “It’s good stuff!” We weren’t trivializing, and I think he got it that day.

The problem of our natural inclination – apart from the Holy Spirit’s work in our hearts – is that we dismiss God’s gifts, seeing them as anything but good. Whether it is the distracted and disinterested youth, the too-busy, too-successful, too-self-satisfied road warrior, or the down-and-out addict, we hear the call of Jesus to repentance and faith with dull ears. We’re not so certain Jesus’ grace is needed, and we’re not inclined to embrace his truth.

So when Jesus tells the Syrophoenician woman that she is a dog, and that she stood down the line of God’s blessings, behind the children of God, the Holy Spirit must have been mightily at work, convincing her that this was “good stuff!” For her answer was one of humble faith. She acknowledged that she had no right to claim Jesus’ grace – even for her daughter. She would line up in whatever place she belonged. But that truth and humility put her in the center of Jesus’ love and healing touch for her daughter (see the fuller story below).

We worry much today about self-esteem. We talk about forgiving ourselves. Truth is, we can neither forgive ourselves, nor claim a higher esteem for ourselves. These are gifts from God. Whether we have trouble acknowledging the truth of our place or embracing the grace of God’s valuation, apart from the Holy Spirit we can only be offended by our poor treatment, or shake our heads in disbelief at God’s loving promises.

The woman went home and found that her daughter was healed. I wonder whether she ever looked at her daughter or a dog the same way again.

Mark 7:24-30

And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. ²⁵ But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. ²⁶ Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷ And he said to her,“Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” ²⁸ But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” ²⁹ And he said to her,“For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” ³⁰ And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.