The Syrophoenician Woman: A Prevailing Faith

Invite to Mark 7:24-30. Reminder of children’s activity page.

As we continue our series of different women in the Bible, we are going to consider the account of a woman who is simply identified as a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth.

And the main theme of this passage has to do with having a prevailing faith that overcomes barriers.

I’ve heard it said that having saving faith is like jumping off a high dive into the pool.

I certainly hope that is not true, because I absolutely hate the thought of jumping from a high distance into a pool of water.

I remember as a kid, sitting by the pool watching these insane people jump right off the diving board into a pool of water like this is a normal and rational thing to do.

My mom would take me to swim lessons, and the teacher would stick around after the lesson trying to get me to jump into the pool.

And she would tell me that we were going to be here until I finally jump.

We were there a very long time.

I just experience this huge mental barrier holding me back when it comes to jumping into a pool of water.

In the same way, we all experience different barriers when it comes to having true saving faith and in walking out our faith.

(Maybe you…(barriers people experience))

Yet, through our passage today, we will see that saving faith perseveres and prevails no matter what the barriers.

Would you follow along as I read God’s word that speaks of our Lord Jesus:

Mark 7:24–30 ESV

24 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.

This passage is found in the middle of a chapter in Mark’s gospel where Jesus has been confronted with questions about uncleanness and defilement.

The chapter begins with the Jewish religious leaders questioning why Jesus’ disciples do not walk according to the tradition of the elders by properly washing their hands before eating.

Now, this challenge was in no way concerning physical hygiene.

This challenge was concerning the idea of being clean or unclean in the religious sense, meaning whether one was clean or unclean before God.

According to the Old Testament law, there is a category of a person being in a ritually clean or a ritually unclean state before God.

And if you were in a ritually unclean state, you were not to come before God to offer sacrifice in worship until you were made ritually clean.

It’s important to understand that being ritually unclean was not always because of sin.

It was just a time or season where you would not come make your sacrifice.

And God used this whole system to teach his people both about the importance of obedience to His commands and the holiness of God.

Well, by the time of Jesus’ ministry, the Jewish religion had created a system called the tradition of the elders that were essentially more rules to add to God’s law to make sure no one could ever even get close to breaking God’s rules, which shows a wild misunderstanding of God’s law in the first place.

They also expanded the idea as if you could apply the traditions to all of life and always be ritually clean 100% of the time, which was not the point either.

Yet, nonetheless, the religious leaders were challenging Jesus and his disciples because they did not follow steps of the traditions of the elders in how to ceremonially wash their hands before a meal.

Jesus responds by calling the religious leaders hypocrites who honor God with their words but their hearts are far from God.

And he points out how they actually end up disobeying God’s word in order to hold to their own man made traditions.

Then Jesus goes on in the chapter to teach that there is nothing outside of a person that can truly defile him, but the things that come out from the inside of a person is what defiles him.

Mark 7:21–23 ESV

21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

You see, the true barrier between God and men, the true defilement that separates us from a Holy God is nothing that comes from outside of a person, but is sin that is inside all of our hearts.

All sinful actions begin and come from sinful desires in the heart. Desires that are focused on self and self glory.

That’s the great barrier between each one of us and a Holy God.

So, with that context in mind, we see in our passage today that Jesus arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

Which would have been surprising to the disciples because the area of Tyre and Sidon is to the north and way outside of Jewish territory.

The people of Tyre had historically been pagan enemies of the Jewish people.

Tyre was the home of Jezebel, one the most evil women recorded in the Scriptures who polluted the northern kingdom of Israel with paganism and false worship.

This is the first time in the gospel of Mark that you see Jesus travel beyond Jewish territory, and the first readers would certainly have taken notice, since the gospel of Mark is written to a mostly Gentile (simply meaning non-Jewish) audience.

And we read that when Jesus got there, he entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there, but he could not be hidden.

By this time in Jesus’ ministry, he was experiencing fierce opposition from most Jews including the religious establishment, so it is very likely Jesus brought his disciples out of Jewish territory and tried not to draw attention so that he could have focused time with his disciples to teach and train them.

Yet He could not be hidden.

Back in Mark 3, we read that Jesus’ healing ministry had made him so popular that even people from Tyre and Sidon had come to see him, and while they were there, unclean spirits would cry out, “You are the Son of God.”

It’s no wonder why people in Tyre and Sidon knew who Jesus was and came to see him when he came there.

Verses 25 and 26 say - But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

Here we are introduced to this woman who is a Gentile, and a Syrophoenician by birth.

In the Jewish mind, they were in an unclean place amongst unclean people.

It is important to understand at this point that the saving plan of God has always carried a Jewish priority.

After the great fall of the human race into sin, God established his saving plan through one family, the family of Abraham.

And while God promised that through Abraham and his family all the earth would be blessed, the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises were all given to the family of Abraham who went on to be the people of Israel, the jewish people.

And while we do see throughout the Old Testament a few people outside of the Jewish people place true saving faith in God, the vast majority of Old Testament believers were those of Abraham’s family, the Jews.

And when Jesus came, the vast majority of Jesus’ ministry was to the Jews.

And when he did leave Jewish territory, we see that he purposed to remain hidden.

Another gospel writer, Matthew, also wrote about this same event, and in His account, He tells us that Jesus said plainly:

Matthew 15:24 ESV

24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

So, coming back to this woman, we can better understand the barriers she was immediately faced with.

For one, she was a Gentile, not a Jew.

For another, she was Syrophoenician, just as evil Jezebel was, a known enemy of Israel and the Jewish people.

For another thing, she was a woman.

Women were not supposed to approach religious teachers in that day.

Now, back in Mark 5, Jesus had a man who came to him begging him to heal his daughter, but that man was a man, he was a Jew and he was even a ruler of the synagogue.

It made sense to Jews that Jesus would help a man such as that.

But here is a Gentile woman from an enemy people whose daughter had an unclean spirit.

So surely, in the disciples’ mind as they are processing Jesus’ teaching, if outward rituals can’t make you clean or unclean, but it is the sin from within that makes a person unclean, is it any wonder that this Gentile woman from a pagan context would have a daughter with an unclean spirit?

Of course, she has an unclean spirit! You are pagan sinners outside of the bounds of God and his blessings.

Yet, the woman begged Jesus to cast the unclean spirit out of her daughter.

The barriers are beginning to feel a bit overwhelming at this point, and shockingly, what Jesus is about to say first in response to the woman’s request is going to emphasize the barriers all the more.

Verse 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.”

Wow!

Jesus responds to the woman with a one sentence parable.

We know that Jesus is referring to the Jewish people when he says, “Let the children be fed first,” because like I said before, the Matthew account adds the sentence, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

In John, Jesus referred to himself as the bread of life who comes from heaven and gives life to the world and eternal life to all who will partake of this bread.

Here, this Gentile woman was asking for Jesus to intervene on behalf of her daughter with an unclean spirit, and Jesus says, “Let the Jews be the ones who receive me and benefit from my ministry first.”

What a barrier!

For the woman, it is going to get worse before it gets better.

Jesus says, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

If the children are Jews, and the bread is Jesus, who must be the dog who is not to receive any of Jesus?

It’s the woman.

In that day, Jews used the term “dog” in everyday speech in order to refer to Gentiles.

The word they used for “dog” referred to a street dwelling, dead flesh eating, unclean scavenger of a dog.

Yet, when Jesus says that it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.

He uses a word for “dogs” that speaks to a small house pet kind of dog.

One who might be sitting under a food table hoping for crumbs to fall.

So, what Jesus says is an offense, but it is a offense like me saying to someone, “You are a sinner.”

When I could have said, “you are a rotten good for nothing adulterous filth.”

So, putting it all together, Jesus’ response is, I came for the lost sheep of Israel first, not you who are a Gentile sinner.

What a barrier!

It’s even more of a barrier when you read in the Matthew account that this woman had been continuously crying out to Jesus and He did not respond to her at all.

Wow! This isn’t the first time she had asked!

Yet, in the face of all these barriers, (from the wrong place - Tyre, of the wrong ethnic people - Syrophoenician, of the Gentile sinners, a woman, ignored by Jesus when she had cried out to him before, told by Jesus he had only come for the lost sheep of Israel first, told by Jesus that she is a sinner), in the face of all those barriers, the woman answers back to Jesus in verse 28.

But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

It was a witty answer.

It was a bold answer.

It was an answer filled with persevering and prevailing faith.

Here’s why:

Despite all of the barriers this woman has been presented with, she understood something about the nature and character of God that it was so easy for Jews like Jesus’ disciples to miss.

And that is this: Jewish priority certainly does not mean Jewish exclusivity.

When God was establishing Abraham and his family as the chosen people of God, He promised:

Genesis 22:18 ESV

18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

From the very beginning, there was a plan for all the nations to be blessed.

Isaiah 2:2–4 ESV

2 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, 3 and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

Isaiah 56:6–8 ESV

6 “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant— 7 these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” 8 The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.”

Zechariah 8:20–23 ESV

20 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities. 21 The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts; I myself am going.’ 22 Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord. 23 Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’ ”

In persevering and prevailing faith, this desperate woman clung to Jesus’ every word, and she understood that the word that made all the difference in Jesus’ little parable was the word “first.”

Let the children be fed first. He did not say, “Let the children be fed only.”

So, while Jesus identified this woman as one who is not a part of the prioritized people of God, she understood from what she had heard about the true God, and from discerning Jesus’ word “first” that God’s great compassionate grace, love, and mercy is so all sufficient that it not only is enough to fill all of the Jewish people, but there is enough for the crumbs to fall and fill all peoples who would come to Him by faith.

It’s helpful to note that in the chapter just before this: Jesus miraculously feeds five thousand men plus women and children in Jewish territory, and the food was so oversupplied that the disciples gathered up twelve baskets of leftover bread and fish.

In this miracle, Jesus was showing the disciples, even after ministering to all the people, there is still enough left over for my twelve disciples.

Then, in the chapter immediately following our chapter today, Jesus miraculously feeds four thousand people in Gentile territory, and the food was so oversupplied that the disciples gathered up seven baskets of leftover bread and fish.

In this miracle, Jesus was showing them, even after ministering to all the Jews, there is still enough left over to fill all the peoples of the earth.

For the number seven in the Bible represents completion and fullness.

Verse 28 again - But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

Why was it such a bold statement of persevering and prevailing faith? Because despite all the obstacles, she believed that God was more than sufficient, in compassion, love, mercy, and grace to overflow to a sinner such as herself, and to her daughter with an unclean spirit.

Jesus said that because of this woman’s bold statement of faith, the demon has left her daughter.

In the Matthew account, Jesus says, “Great is your faith!”

He said she had great and abounding faith in the great and abounding provision of God.

She went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

The child was able to lie there in peace and rest because through faith, Jesus did everything necessary to rid her of her unclean spirit.

1. Do Not Be Arrogant Toward The Lost, But Pray, Give, and Go For Their Salvation

The Matthew account of this event tells us that when the woman was persistently crying out to Jesus, the disciples told Jesus, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.”

You see, they read Jesus’ silence not as a test of faith like it was, but as an unwillingness to offer compassion to her due to the fact that she was an unclean Gentile.

You see, while Jesus first came for the lost sheep of the house of Israel, the vast majority of Jews rejected him to the point where he had to hide away with his disciples in Gentile territory.

Yet, in the providence of God, Jesus took this opportunity to show the disciples then and us today that God’s saving plan and kingdom is to extend to the whole world and all the peoples of the world.

One of the things that the gospels and the book of Acts is doing is showing us how the Jewish priority of the gospel was always meant to then take that gospel to all the nations, even to the ends of the earth.

Yet, as the vast majority of Jews rejected their Lord and Savior, just like John writes, he came unto his own, yet they knew him not, as the vast majority of Jews rejected, we see the gospel of God’s kingdom advance more and more into Gentile areas to the point that by Acts 18 writing about the apostle Paul, we read:

Acts 18:6 ESV

6 And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

The theme verse of the book of Romans reads:

Romans 1:16 ESV

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

We are living in the time of the gospel going out into the all the earth so that all peoples are to hear the message of the gospel and believe on Jesus for salvation no matter what the barriers.

We are living in the time of Gentile salvation where all who repent of sin and trust in Jesus in response to hearing the gospel are grafted into the people of God and can claim all of the promises of God as their own.

But Paul exhorts us on Romans 11 not to be arrogant toward the Jews nor toward any who are lost, for it is by grace alone that we have been grafted into his saved family, and it is now our job to take this gospel message to others, both Jew and Gentile, because it is through hearing and believing the gospel that all barriers are broken down and people from every tribe language and nation will call upon the name of the Lord and be saved.

This is the mission God has given us, not be arrogant toward the lost, but to pray, and give, and go proclaiming the gospel despite all barriers knowing that we too were sinful dogs hidden under the table of God’s kingdom, when the all sufficient bread of the gospel came to us and we through faith believed.

2. Believe That God Has Torn Down All Barriers So That You Can Persevere And Prevail In Faith

Maybe you are here today and you really feel like you can identify with this Gentile Syrophoenician woman who had a daughter with an unclean spirit.

Maybe you are at a point in your life where you know that you need God and you know that you need something to change but you are facing a lot of what seems like overwhelming barriers.

Maybe those barriers are difficult questions you can’t seem to find the answers to,

Or maybe those barriers are sins and struggles in your life that you don’t know what to do with,

Or maybe those barriers come from your family background, or difficult experiences with Christians and the church,

Or maybe you just have this strong sense that there are barriers between you and God, and you don’t know what to do about it,

Romans 10:13 ESV

13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

To be saved means to have the barriers of your sin taken away in order to be made right with God.

The Syrophoenician woman called out to the Lord in persevering and prevailing faith, and the Lord answered and healed her daughter.

What does it mean for you to call out to the name of the Lord?

Romans 10:9–10 ESV

9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Just like Jesus did everything necessary to save the daughter from the unclean spirit when the woman had faith,

Jesus has done everything necessary by dying in your place for your sin and rising from the dead to defeat your sin, so that when you call out to him in faith, he saves you and justifies you, meaning declaring your right before God.

Yet, this woman does not just help teach us about persevering and prevailing faith for our first moment of salvation, but for our whole life from the time of our salvation to the time we go and see Jesus face to face.

The Bible tells us that as Christians, we will come against all kinds of trials, temptations, and sufferings that will test and challenge our faith sometimes to the very core.

But can I encourage you that though you will oftentimes be caught off guard by the kinds of trials you will face and the barriers you will crash into, the grief of these trials can never snuff out genuine faith.

They actually serve the opposite purpose.

1 Peter 1:6–7 ESV

6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Oh Christian, your greatest trials, temptations, and sufferings serve the purpose of making the genuineness of your faith so tested and so precious that you will see all the more clearly for eternity that praise and glory and honor goes to our great God and Savior alone who has overcome every barrier to make us His own, and to bring us into His family, and bring us into a all satisfying completely joy filled and unhindered relationship with Jesus in his kingdom for eternity.

Is there any kind of person that you are tempted to believe falls outside of the barrier breaking power of Jesus?

Are you giving yourself to pray, give, and go to take the eternal bread of life to the lost?

Are you persevering and prevailing through your trials as you place your faith fully in Christ alone?

(Elder at couches)

Pray.

Lord’s Supper.