#DailyDevotion Praying Using God’s Own Words
Mark 7:24–30 24Leaving that place, Jesus went away to the neighborhood of Tyre. He went into a house and didn’t want anyone to know it, but it couldn’t be kept a secret. 25There was a woman in whose little daughter there was an unclean spirit. As soon as she heard about Him, she came and bowed down at His feet. 26 The woman wasn’t Jewish but was born a Phoenician in Syria. She was asking Him to drive the demon out of her daughter. 27“First let the children eat all they want,” He answered her. “It isn’t good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the puppies.” 28“You’re right, Lord,” she answered Him, “but even the puppies under the table eat some of the children’s crumbs.” 29“Because you said this, go!” Jesus told her. “The demon has gone out of your daughter.”
In the Gospel of Mark Jesus doing things in secret is a them. Here, Jesus while in Tyre when into a house but didn’t want anyone to know where he was. Now Jesus is far from his base in Galilee near the coast of the Mediterranean and this is a mostly gentile (non-Jewish area). Now there weren’t a whole lot of Gentiles who came to Jesus. Most of them were God-fearers. Jesus’ first advent ministry was to the lost sheep of Israel. I would suppose there must have been a community of Jews there in Tyre. Nevertheless, though Jesus is in the house in secret a woman who had a daughter with an unclean spirit found Jesus and came to him for help. Mark calls her a Phoenician whereas Matthew calls her a Canaanite. Both designations are kind of strange because I didn’t think they were even using these terms at the time of Jesus for inhabitants of those area. Perhaps Mark uses Phoenician because there were in Tyre which was a former Phoenician capital back when Judah and Israel were independent kingdoms some 6-700 years earlier. One thing is certain, she wasn’t Jewish.
She bowed down at Jesus’ feet and begged him to get rid of the demon in her daughter. Jesus however will have nothing at it at the moment. He responds to her that he needs to take care of his children (the Jews) first. And then he insults here saying, “It isn’t good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the puppies.” Jesus calls her a dog, a diminutive of a dog, i.e. a puppy. This was an unclean animal to Jews yet one wonders if they had them as pets. Can you imagine a pastor calling someone who came to him for help a dog or a puppy in an insulting manner as Jesus did? Jesus is certainly putting this woman in her place.
Yet, the woman knows what she wants. She knows who is able to give it to her. She believes Jesus can do this. She is not letting go of Jesus until he gives us her what she wants. She accepts the insult and counters, “but even the puppies under the table eat some of the children’s crumbs.” She’s not looking for Jesus to make some big deal out of helping her. She merely want him to give her a crumb from the children’s table. She humbles herself before him and makes a plea based on his words and analogy. Jesus answers her prayer and has the demon come out her daughter with these words.
So too, we should humbly come to Jesus with his words and promises and make our needs known to him with the faith of this woman and receive from him all good things.
Heavenly Father, grant us such faith in Jesus that we can come to him with our petition based on his words and received what we need. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.