SECOND WITHDRAWAL FROM HEROD'S TERRITORY
MATT. 15:21
MARK 7:24
HEALING A PHOENICIAN WOMAN'S DAUGHTER. (Region of Tyre and Sidon)
MATT. 15:22-28
MARK 7:24-30
The Bible never fails to catch me sleeping at the wheel. Stories that I've dismissed too quickly turn around and tease me, "So you think you know me already? Well...." The last few mornings it's been the story of the Syrophoencian woman lingering in my thoughts. The journey began with The Fourfold Gospel providing broader context for this miracle.
Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by race. -Matthew 15:26
"The Macedonian conquest had diffused Greek civilization throughout western Asia till the word Greek among the Jews had become synonymous with Gentile. The term Canaanite was narrower and indicated an inhabitant of Canaan--that is, a non-Jewish inhabitant of Palestine. The term Syrophoenician was narrower still. It meant a Syrian in Phoenicia, and distinguished the Phoenicians from the other Syrians. Phoenicia was a narrow strip near the northeast corner of the Mediterranean Sea. It was some twenty-eight miles long with an average width of about one mile. Canaan means lowland; Phoenicia means palmland. The Canaanites founded Sidon (Gen. 10:19), and the Phoenicians were their descendants." Fourfold Gospel
It is important to note where Jesus seeks isolation. It is in Gentile territory and is also a potentially dangerous place for him as a Jew. 11 Tyre had a mixed population of Jews and nonJews; Mark's readers would have known these two groups to "be bitter enemies."12 This fact heightens the boundary-breaking drama that will ensue in the following passages. Not only are Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman "strangers," they belong to rival cultures/nationalities. -Christopher E. Alt
Scofield comments on the prophetic gesture inherent in Christ's response to this woman:
"For the first time the rejected Son of David ministers to a Gentile. It is a precursive fulfilment of Mat_12:18 Addressed by a Gentile as Son of David, He makes no reply, for a Gentile has no claim upon Him in that character. (See Scofield on Mat_2:2) Eph_2:12. Addressing him as "Lord," she obtained an immediate answer. Rom_10:12; Rom_10:13"
And he answered and said, unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet [suitable, becoming] to take the children's bread and to cast it to the dogs. -Matthew 15:26
"By the use of the word "first" Jesus suggested that there would come a time of mercy for the Gentiles. He uses the diminutive for the word dog, thus indicating a tame pet, and suggesting rather the dependence and subordinate position than the uncleanness of the dog. By so doing he gave the woman an argumentative handle which she was not slow to grasp." -Fourfold Gospel
"She replies by alluding to the well-known fact that dogs under the table are permitted to eat the crumbs even while the meal is in progress; intimating thereby her hope to receive and before all the needs of Israel had first been satisfied." -Fourfold
Then I dipped into an essay in Lumen et Vita, a publication from a Boston School of Theology and Ministry (Catholic and Jesuit in influence). The author, Christopher Alt, brought new dimensions to this story for me. His essay took the story and viewed it through a lens of lessons in humility and wisdom. It also taught me some sophisticated Bible study terms along the way such as chreia and pericope.
"Jesus' response" in Mk 7:27 is a chreia, "a saying that conveys an example of the wit and wisdom of a philosopher or other famous person. It was a common form in Greek rhetoric and was often used as a teaching device in rhetorical schools," --Ringe, "A Gentile Woman's Story, Revisited,"
Typically, Jesus' chreia serves as the climax of any given passage. Here, however, the woman's retort....serves as climax of passage." -Christopher E. Alt, "The Dynamic of Humility and Wisdom: The Syrophoenician Woman and Jesus in Mark 7:24-31."
Fourfold gets at the heart of her motive most precisely--what would a mother not do for her child?
"The woman's experience has been often repeated by other parents who have prayed for children which, if not demon-possessed, was certainly swayed by diabolical influences. The woman's faith is shown in many ways: 1. She persisted when he was silent. 2. She reasoned when he spoke. 3. She regarded this miracle, though a priceless gift to her, as a mere crumb from the table of his abundant powers. It is noteworthy that the two most notable for faith--this woman and the centurion--were both Gentiles." -Fourfold
Christopher Alt's essay interprets the exchange between Jesus and this woman as a mutually beneficial experience that prompted Christ to re-examine and further expand his ministry to the Gentiles in the context of his own growth. I find his argument uncomfortable because he concludes it was a "learning experience" for both of them, forcing me to think through the intermingling of being both God and man. My impulse is to immediately default to the God side, perhaps because humanity feels fragile. However, God willfully made himself a man, with fully knowledge of man's weaknesses and limits. I allow there is great mystery where God and man meet and suspect it's an unfathomable road to press further--certainly for little me and my coffee this morning. ; )
For me, the most compelling and applicable part of Alt's essay is his determination to accurately define humility in the larger context of wisdom:
"Too often, people think of humility as having a modest or low view of one's own importance. In this mindset, it is taken as the opposite of pride. It also causes most people to assume incorrectly that humility is on the completely other end of the virtue-vice spectrum; they place it on the exact opposite pole from pride. People forget that virtues do not act as polar bookends to vices. This is to say that virtues, rightly understood, go against extremes.26 They are more the books in between the bookends, the white cream between the oreo cookies. These analogies, however banal, simply mean to illustrate the space virtues occupy. Again, virtues are not extremes, but rather the median between two corresponding vices (this explains why we get it wrong more than we get it right; the virtue is always outnumbered 2:1)." -Alt
"The other–the one that is often confused with humility–is self-deprecation. Keenan describes this as an extreme that "[makes] oneself so weak as not to exercise oneself responsibly."28 Elsewhere, Keenan adds, "[w]hen we find our place between…extremes, we are humbled, for we shall stand before God. We are a people who hope and trust that we are saved– sinners, but saved." -Alt
Alt argues that the woman knew her proper place in relationship to Christ and acted in faith accordingly. I agree with this assertion; however, I think he over-intellectualizes the underpinnings of her plea for help. As a mother, I understand that a mother would seek help for her daughter's well being. It is the type of need that would drive a woman beyond traditional boundaries as a matter of course.
Also, Alt concludes that the Syrophoenician woman has "the last word" in their dialogue about dogs.
Things that intrigue me:
Alt stresses that Mark focuses on her prostate position, but I feel the weight of her emotional cry in Matthew is equally impactful:
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.” But he did not answer her a word.-Matthew 15:22-23
Why is Christ silent in the face of this?
"This poor Gentile mother had no claim on Jesus as the son of David-He was therefore silent. It was impossible for her to come in by the door of the covenant, but His silence led her to knock at another door, and taught her to cry, Lord, help me."-F.B. Meyer
Those who yield to God most absolutely are able to decree things! See Job_22:28; Joh_15:7.-F.B. Meyer
"If you return to the Almighty you will be built up;
if you remove injustice far from your tents,
if you lay gold in the dust, and gold of Ophir among the stones of the torrent-bed,
then the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver.
For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.
You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you, and you will pay your vows.
You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you, and light will shine on your ways.
For when they are humbled you say, ‘It is because of pride’; but he saves the lowly.
He delivers even the one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.” Job 22:23-30
Alt stresses that Mark focuses on her prostate position, but I feel the weight of her emotional cry in Matthew is equally impactful:
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.” But he did not answer her a word.-Matthew 15:22-23
Why is Christ silent in the face of this?
"This poor Gentile mother had no claim on Jesus as the son of David-He was therefore silent. It was impossible for her to come in by the door of the covenant, but His silence led her to knock at another door, and taught her to cry, Lord, help me."-F.B. Meyer
Those who yield to God most absolutely are able to decree things! See Job_22:28; Joh_15:7.-F.B. Meyer
"If you return to the Almighty you will be built up;
if you remove injustice far from your tents,
if you lay gold in the dust, and gold of Ophir among the stones of the torrent-bed,
then the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver.
For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.
You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you, and you will pay your vows.
You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you, and light will shine on your ways.
For when they are humbled you say, ‘It is because of pride’; but he saves the lowly.
He delivers even the one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.” Job 22:23-30
No comments:
Post a Comment