Sermon Cloud

SLIDE:           Mark 7:24 - 30; pg. 843

The Scriptures record this delighted exclamation from the lips of Jesus: "Woman, you have great faith!" (Matthew 15:28), and that compliment warrants our closest attention. Thousands of named and unnamed people appear in Scripture. Only a few are commended for their faith. We find here in our text the faith of a woman whose name is unknown. Spurgeon has remarked that "Our Lord had a very quick eye for spying faith.... " He added:

The Lord Jesus was charmed with the fair jewel of this woman's faith, and watching it and delighting in it he resolved to turn it round and set it in other lights, that the various facets of this priceless diamond might each one flash its brilliance and delight his soul.

In our passage, Jesus held the woman's faith up first to the light of his strange silence, and then to his apparent rebuff, so the Church down through the ages could see how beautiful her faith was.

This is the story of a faith that delighted Jesus. As such, it can be of great help for any person who has not yet come to faith in Christ. It can be of equally great help to the believer who is struggling with his or her faith in difficult circumstances.

When this beautiful encounter is viewed from beginning to end in its context, it is evident it was divinely arranged. Jesus had just come off a huge clash with the scribal establishment over the concept of ritual defilement, arguing that externals do not defile a person, but what is within makes a person unclean (7:1-23, especially v. 15).

The encounter over, Jesus withdrew to get some needed rest, but in doing so he purposely journeyed into Gentile territory, which according to the scribal mind was ritually unclean. There he met an "unclean" Syrophoenician woman. Her faith dramatically contrasted with the hardened unbelief of the Pharisees and scribes, and even outshined the understanding of the disciples as you might remember from last week when we see that they just didn't get it (cf. 7:17).  As such, her faith became a beautiful prophecy of the gospel of Christ which would be proclaimed with such power to the Gentile world. Jesus held it up like a jewel in the light for all to see.

Mark tells us:

READ:           Mark 7:24-26

This was only a short trip of no more than twenty miles into Gentile territory, as the coastal district of Phoenicia was contiguous to Galilee. As was so often the case, Jesus' fame preceded him, even here in Gentile territory. He was sought out by a Syrophoenician woman. Matthew, in his parallel account, adds that she was a "Canaanite woman" (15:22). Thus, she was a descendant of the ancient race which Israel had attempted to exterminate. But she was also "Greek" in the sense that she had been Hellenized by the Greek culture and spoke the Greek language. She was a Greek-speaking, pagan Gentile from Tyre. Accordingly, she was despised by the religious establishment and was considered unclean-a "dog," and a female one at that!

The establishment was scandalized by any rabbi having conversation with such a person. In fact, there was at this time a strict sect called "The Bruised and Bleeding Pharisees" because every time they saw a woman they covered their eyes, and thus bumped into whatever happened to be about.  Their bruises were the pious marks of their exalted sexual ethics, they thought. Jesus' dealings with this woman would get notorious press from the establishment.

The barrier here was great, and it went both ways. Greek women were socially savaged by their own pagan culture, which made this woman's approach to Jesus even more remarkable. But she had great need: her daughter was afflicted with a demon. It probably wreaked terrible havoc to the girl's young body. She was being progressively scarred and even maimed. Think how you would feel if she were your daughter. What would you do? The mother was desperate and at the end of herself. She had heard of Jesus, perhaps through the testimony of a merchant who had seen him work miracles. She now believed that Jesus was her only hope-and that he could and would heal her daughter. She came in faith, and Jesus knew it. As Jesus drew her remarkable faith out, the first thing we see is that it was a persistent faith.

THE WOMAN'S PERSISTENT FAITH (Mark 7:27, 28; Matthew 15:23-25)

Mark tells us that she "came and fell at his feet" (v. 25) and that "[s]he begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter" (v. 26). The tense here means that she did not beg just once, but kept on begging. She would not be denied.

Matthew 15:22 dramatized her persistence:

READ:            "And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon." (Matthew 15:22).

She was not only persistent, but noisy. Jesus' Messianic title had come her way, so she kept repeating, "O Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me." She did not have a Jew's knowledge of Christ, but the term sounded good to her and she repeated it over and over.

Knowing the heart of Jesus as we do, his response was amazing, The Gospel of Matthew says, "But he did not answer her a word." It was absolute indifferent silence.

We rightly say that the opposite of love is not hatred but indifference. Indifference says, "I care nothing about what happens to you." That is what Jesus appeared to be communicating to the woman. Luther said, "Now he is as silent as a stone," and he was! Can any of us imagine treating someone who is pleading at our feet with cold silence?  What would have been your response if you were that woman?  Put yourself in her shoes.  Think about your response when there is silence in your interpersonal relationships.  What goes through your minds?  What is your response?  I'll tell you what my response would be:  Screw you.  I came to you with my deepest needs and all I get is silence?  Forget it.  I'll find someone who really cares, someone who isn't indifferent.

Actually, Jesus was not being indifferent. Remember the stormy Sea of Galilee?  Helmut Thielicke, The Silence of God, says this:

SLIDE:           "When Jesus lay silent and asleep in the ship, He was more kind and His arm more near to help and more certain than the anxious cry of the doubting disciples suggests."

Jesus' silence was the silence of love. By it he would elevate the woman's awareness of her own faith, holding it up for the Church forever to see.

Remarkably, the woman was not silenced by Jesus' silence, nor by the disciples' compassionless annoyance: "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us" (v. 23). Peter probably scowled, quick-tempered John got impatient, and Andrew and Philip and the rest thought her rude and presumptuous. What rejection. But the woman thought about her daughter, and remembered what she knew about the Lord, and persisted.

She even persisted when Jesus himself seemed to speak words of rejection found in Matthew's account of this incident:

"I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel" (15:24).

First his silence, then this.  The poor woman did not know it, but Jesus Christ, the Creator, Sustainer, and Goal of the universe, was completely taken with her great faith. And here, for reasons we shall see, I believe his tone radically changed. There is no way we can hear the tone and cadence of his voice, or see the sparkle of his eye or his playful smile, but I believe it was all there.

READ:           Mark 7:27

The softening in Jesus' tone is seen in the word he used for "dogs": kunaria, which referred to household dogs rather than the despised scavenger dogs of the streets.  These house pets would find a nice place under the table and wait for what fell or was surreptitiously slipped to them under the table.

The dear woman sensed where Christ was going:

READ:           Mark 7:28

She made Jesus' response her argument: "Yes, I am a little dog, so I get some of the children of Israel's crumbs."  

The kingdom of heaven is for those, like this woman, who are willing to spend untiring energy in pursuit of spiritual things. They are persistent. It is for those like the paralytic's friends who, when they could not get him through the crowd, climbed the roof and tore through eighteen inches of sod and branches, lowering him to Christ's feet (2:1-12). Jesus exults in persistent faith like that of the woman who kept returning to the judge pleading her case, until the judge gave in. Jesus desires such faith.

The Virgin Mary put it perfectly in her Magnificat:

SLIDE:           He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty." Luke 1:53

The Lord celebrates a hungry faith, a desperate faith, a violent faith-one which persists.

Do we, do I, do you persistently and passionately pray for anything? We must understand that this is what the Lord wants from every follower. "The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working" (James 5:16). The woman's faith was great because it was persistent; it was also great because of its humility.

THE WOMAN'S HUMBLE FAITH (Mark 7:25, 27, 28)

Now, I would be irresponsible if I left anyone with the impression that the woman's persistence earned Christ's ear, and then earned his healing power. Nothing could be further from the truth! Her persistence was only a demonstration that she had faith. Jesus wanted us to see the works which resulted from that authentic faith.

The woman was light-years away from supposing that she merited any help from God. May I say seriously, from the context of the passage, that she knew that she was a "dog." She knew there was no merit in her that would win Christ's help. She was a Gentile, not a child of the household. The bottom line is: she depended upon Christ's goodness and not her own. It was all of grace. King David understood this: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." (Psalm 51:17). Christ promoted the same when he said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3), and "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled" (Matthew 5:6).

THE WOMAN'S TRUSTING FAITH (Mark 7:27, 28)

One final thing: the woman's faith was great because she took Christ at his word.

"Lord, if you say I am a little dog, I am. But that means I have a Master, and that is you. It means I am a humble part of the Household and that I can claim the crumbs."

The writer of Hebrews tell us:

SLIDE:           "And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." - Hebrews 11:6

She believed that God is, and thus she earnestly sought him, and thus she pleased him.

Her faith was humble: "Nothing in my hand I bring, solely to the cross I cling." It was a faith that believed his word. It was a faith that persisted.

What was the result? Christ's healing power. As Mark says:

READ:           Mark 7:29

Her dear little daughter was completely restored. What a celebration there was in heathen Tyre that evening when she returned to her calm and resting child. In addition, there was Christ's eternal commendation, the bounding expression of his delight: "Woman, you have great faith!" (Matthew 15:28).

The Syrophoenician woman came to Jesus on the other side of the Cross. She did not have the ultimate revelation of God's love and power toward us. But we do: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).

Like the woman, you may not have had all the advantages of being raised in the household of faith. Then again maybe you have. But like her, the word has come to you that Christ can meet your needs. He can heal your heart.

What is required?

1.      First, that you believe.

2.      Second, that you approach humbly. "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5).

3.      Third, that you come to him, just as the woman did. Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).

That is how we are to come to the communion table.  Remembering that we are that woman. We are the "dogs" - people with unclean lips, with hard hearts who need the constant reminder that we as followers of Jesus, people who were bought with a price (his precious blood) are still in need of this Gospel.