“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6)
Animators (Props): cornucopia….apples…..pumpkins
As we enter the fall season, we prepare for a lot of celebrations. Halloween, All Saints Day, Thanksgiving, Advent. In the midst of all that, there are festivals for families and celebrations for children too. It’s the season of abundance! Cornucopias abound. Pumpkins (pumpkin-spice lattes, anyone?), corn, apples, squash, pecan pie. In our own way, we celebrate the fall harvest! It’s a time to put some joy and juice in life. Food. Cider. Parties!
Anyone remember “bobbing for apples?” Making scarecrows? Creating Jack-o-lanterns? Apple pies, apple dumplings, apple crisp, apple butter! Anyone getting hungry yet? I know I am. Or how about pumpkin pie and roasted chestnuts –the outpouring of fall foods that we all look forward to. And the parties that host these dishes!
Most of us have hosted a party. Perhaps it was a Halloween Party. Or a Thanksgiving celebration. Perhaps it was for a child’s birthday, or an anniversary. A fall festival. A wedding! But whatever the party, it’s about lavishing your guests with food, music, drink, games, fun!
For most any party, especially if it’s a large party, you want to make sure you have enough food, enough gifts, enough space for those you will host. So…you send out invitations! And you expect an RSVP.
And the best seats at the table or the first dibs on the food are for the ones who RSVP first and show up first.
But what happens if your best friend forgets to call. He/she calls at the last minute, and you fit them in, don’t you? Somehow, you find an extra place.
But then your nosy, nagging neighbor, whom you don’t like very much, calls. She has heard about the party. What if she asks if she can come? Or what if she assumes, she is invited. Are you tempted to say, you don’t have any room? All have already RSVP-ed, and she was definitely not invited. Your friends say, you didn’t invite her, did you?! They don’t like her. She doesn’t run with the same crowd. She doesn’t fit in with the other guests. What will you do?
That’s a bit like the situation Jesus had when he visited the Syrophoenician woman that day. His disciples definitely didn’t want the woman calling to Jesus to be part of their “party.” She wasn’t good enough. She was an outsider. They didn’t like her. She had a racy history. She was kind of from the “wrong side of the tracks.”
But Jesus ends up “inviting her in.” Healing her daughter. Because ‘Syrophoenician lives matter.’ Yes, Jewish lives matter. But Syrophoenician lives matter too.
The Jewish people knew God first! But, as Jesus reminds us, those coming late to work in the vineyard are paid just the same! We may not like that idea! But that’s how God plays it!
In God’s abundance, there’s plenty for all! Even if you show up late! Even if you don’t wear a halo, or are not part of the “in” crowd. God has created life and all creation with plenitude, not scarcity. We share abundance, not scarceness. There is plenty to share. There is always more room at the table. Just add more leaves. The tree of life always can grow more “leaves.” Jesus said “I have come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
We have people in our congregation who have been in this church since the day they were born. Some of you were always members. Most of you are so used to this church that maybe you take for granted that you’re part of Jesus’ table.
Then there are those who are new to the table. You may even be new to faith in Jesus Christ. Are we open to sharing our table with the “Syrophoenicians” of our neighborhoods? Are we a place where those who don’t dress very well, who don’t smell very well, who have maybe different problems than we do are welcome to our table? What about those who don’t feel very well --- who are disabled or depressed or suffer from some sort of mental illness? Are they welcome here? Are you as eager to see them and say “hello!” to them as you are everyone else? Are you as eager to spend time with them, sit with them, eat with them, as everyone else?
Jesus was! Jesus believed that all lives matter, that Syrophoenician lives matter as much as Jewish lives matter.
It doesn’t matter if you only discovered Jesus last week, or last month. It doesn’t matter if you are still struggling with cleaning up your life. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t like anyone here. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t grow up in this church. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t on any committees, or don’t have money to put in the offering plate. It doesn’t matter to Jesus. And it shouldn’t matter to us.
Jesus wants you. Jesus wants you at his table. And Jesus wants them at his table too!
It doesn’t matter if you’re one of the “chosen” ones or one of the “outcast” ones. It doesn’t matter if you’re Syrophoenician or if you’re Jewish. It doesn’t matter if you are white or black or Mexican or Syrian! It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, a new disciple or an old one.
Jesus is only interested in the state of your heart! Is your heart warming to love and to life? Is your heart warming to Jesus?
If so, come to the table. And be blessed.
It only takes a little bit of God’s grace to bless every one of us! God blesses us with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, and that pouring out is an outpouring. An overflow of abundance. In fact, just one “touch” and you are blessed by grace and glory.
Anyone here love pudding? To flavor pudding, it only takes a little drop of vanilla. More than that is too much. It’s overkill.
Same thing as in music. Most musicologists lift up Mozart as the greatest musical genius who ever lived. Every Mozart piano piece is abundant with what musicians call “grace notes.” Grace notes are tiny little notes that embellish the main melody. But yet without those little passing notes, the music would never be as rich and resonant.
Every one of us is a grace note . . . we embellish the symphony of creation that is Jesus and our grace note adds flavor and flair and fullness to an already beautiful song. Your presence here in this community adds beauty and truth and goodness to this body of Christ known as [the name of your church].
No matter how much grace each one of us needs, there is enough grace to go around for all of us. God’s grace is powerful. God’s grace is abundant. God’s grace breaches borders and breaks boundaries. God’s grace is eternal.
This body of Christ is full of the abundance of Christ. And every day that we spend together at Christ’s table together, we make room for still more people who discover the magical elixir of life: the grace of Jesus.
This week, I want you to look for those people who need to be invited to the table –those who have been shut out, those who have been ignored. Give them grace. And invite them to the table. Jesus already has!
A little over a hundred years ago, Julia H. Johnston wrote a song after having spent a lifetime teaching infants and children about God. For 41 years, she served as the head of the infant and children’s department at her local Presbyterian church in Peoria, Illinois. She dedicated her life to convincing the church to bring infants and children to the table. And in 1910, she wrote this song, reflecting on her ministry in the church. Some of you may know it by the words “Marvelous Grace.” [You can either end your sermon with everyone singing this song, or you reciting the words to this song.]
1. Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt,
yonder on Calvary's mount out-poured,
there where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.
Refrain:
Grace, grace, God's grace,/grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
grace, grace, God's grace,/grace that is greater than all our sin.
2. Sin and despair, like the sea waves cold,
Threaten the soul with infinite loss;
Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold,
Points to the refuge, the mighty cross. [Refrain]
3. Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace,
freely bestowed on all who believe;
you that are longing to see his face,
will you this moment his grace receive? [Refrain]
Based on the Story Lectionary
Major Text
Matthew’s Witness to Jesus’ Healing of a Canaanite Woman’s Daughter in Tyre (15:21-28)
Mark’s Witness to Jesus’ Healing of a Syrophoenician Woman’s Daughter in Tyre (7:24-30)
Minor Text
The Story of Tamar (Genesis 38) –Loyalty is not as it may appear
A Raining Down of Manna (Exodus 16 and Numbers 11)
Elijah’s Healing/Raising of a Phoenician woman’s son and a gift of bread (I Kings 17)
The Story of Jezebel (of Phoenicia, daughter of King of Tyre), Ahab, and Elijah (I Kings 9; 16-21)
Elisha’s Healing/Raising of a Shunammanite Woman’s Son (2 Kings 4)
The Story of Ruth –A Story of Faith From the Heart
Psalm 19 –The Lord’s Salvation
The Parable of the Great Dinner (Luke 14:15-24)
Salvation is for All Who Believe With the Heart Reminds Paul (Romans 10)
Matthew’s Witness to Jesus’ Healing of a Canaanite Woman’s Daughter in Tyre
Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!"
Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, `Honor your father and mother' and `Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.' But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, `Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God, 'he is not to `honor his father' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: "`These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.' "
Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. What goes into a man's mouth does not make him `unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him `unclean.'"
Then the disciples came to him and asked, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?"
He replied, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit."
Peter said, "Explain the parable to us." "Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them. "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man `unclean.' For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man `unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him `unclean.'"
Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession."
Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us."
He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."
The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said.
He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."
"Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."
Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted."
And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them.
The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.
Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way."
His disciples answered, "Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?"
"How many loaves do you have?" Jesus asked. "Seven," they replied, "and a few small fish."
He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. They all ate and were satisfied.
Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
The number of those who ate was four thousand, besides women and children. After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan.
Mark’s Witness to Jesus’ Healing of a Syrophoenician Woman’s Daughter in Tyre
Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.
And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”
And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
“‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”
And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God) then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”
And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
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.
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.
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.” 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.
Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him.
And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.
And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.
And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
Image Exegesis: God’s Bountiful Breadbasket
In my humble opinion, you can’t understand most of what Jesus was saying and doing in the gospels without looking at the stories of the Hebrew scriptures. Not only does Jesus reference these stories and prophecies, but the images and characters have significant meaning, many times layers of meaning, in Jesus’ teachings.
Additionally, the scriptures were meant to be told not in pieces but as a whole story, taking into account the story’s prefaces and “postscriptures.” Today’s story in particular cannot be understood without looking at all of these contexts.
We begin with Jesus confronting some of the Pharisees and Scribes, while he is in the midst of teaching the many people who are following him. He is in Capernaum, teaching presumably by the sea, after which he enters his home to instruct his disciples (Mark tells us he went into “the house”). The topic is ‘what makes a person “defiled”’ –that is, “unclean” in the eyes of Jewish law. Jesus claims three things: 1) He asserts that Jewish law is not necessarily the same as God’s law 2) He claims that the Pharisees and Scribes from Jerusalem follow laws of their own making….not the laws of the heart that God desires and 2) He claims too that they follow only the ones that are convenient. Others, they discard altogether when it doesn’t suit them (honoring father and mother for example). Jesus goes on to instruct first the crowd, and then his own disciples that God is interested in what comes from the heart! This is a theme we see throughout the gospels over and over again. It is not the manmade laws that matter, but a relationship with God. It is not laws for their own sake that matter. But kindness, love, mercy, loyalty to God and walking in God’s ordinances.
Loyalty in fact –faith—and reliance on God and only God is the subject not only of this part of the story but the next parts, as well as several of the Hebrew testament stories that Jesus intimates or suggests by his words or actions.
And what will come across in the next passages in both Matthew’s and Mark’s witnesses is that this faith and loyalty of the heart (the desire to follow God’s statutes not those of human traditions!) is the ONLY requirement God needs. In fact, God will grant understanding to the “wayward” and will give instruction to those who complain! Those lost will be saved. What a great introduction to Jesus’ encounter with the Syrophoenician woman!
The words above come from the passage that Jesus quotes, as he convicts the Pharisees and Scribes. The passage is from Isaiah (9:13-24). Listen to the entire passage:
The Lord says:
These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
Therefore once more I will astound these people
with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.
Woe to those who go to great depths
to hide their plans from the Lord,
who do their work in darkness and think,
“Who sees us? Who will know?”
You turn things upside down,
as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,
“You did not make me”?
Can the pot say to the potter,
“You know nothing”?
In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field and the fertile field seem like a forest?
In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll,
and out of gloom and darkness
the eyes of the blind will see.
Once more the humble will rejoice in the Lord; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
The ruthless will vanish,
the mockers will disappear,
and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down—
those who with a word make someone out to be guilty,
who ensnare the defender in court
and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice.
Therefore this is what the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, says to the descendants of Jacob:
“No longer will Jacob be ashamed;
no longer will their faces grow pale.
When they see among them their children,
the work of my hands,
they will keep my name holy;
they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob,
and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding; those who complain will accept instruction.”
Following his teaching encounter in Capernaum, Jesus ups and goes out of Israel’s borders to the north and enters the area of Tyre and Sidon. He does this intentionally. It’s important to notice that just before he does this, he can’t get over how “dense” his disciples are in understanding what it means to “defile” or not! They are accustomed to following the laws created by the Jerusalem Shammai Pharisees. It was hard apparently to understand why not following what had become artificial “traditions” of the Jews had become in Jesus’ mind irrelevant, and that instead to be righteous in God’s eyes kept one from true defilement.
Jesus says, what goes into the body does nothing to contaminate the heart. What comes out of the mouth….comes from the heart –that is what is important. One’s heart, one’s deeds, one’s words, one’s behavior, one’s faith, one’s loyalty to God in relationship –this is what matters.
But the disciples have trouble getting it. So, Jesus ups and drags them out of Israel and into “unclean” territory. It must have been a shock. But then, Jesus IS the master of the “teachable moment.”
If Jesus merely wanted to “get away,” perhaps he would have gone to the mountains or across the lake, as he often did. If he wanted to be incognito for a while, perhaps he may have gone out of Israel, but he doesn’t remain long enough to really “hide out.” He appears to go there quite temporarily. He encounters a Syrophoenician woman, and then returns immediately afterward to the Sea of Galilee only to teach another large crowd of 4,000, healing them and feeding them in the way he had with the 5,000 before (this time with 7 baskets of breadcrumbs left over!)
This image of God’s abundance and the leftover breadcrumbs relates to the Syrophoenician woman’s comments about the crumbs falling from God’s abundance. Even a small crumb of God’s abundant grace is unfathomable in power and forgiveness. God’s blessings are so vast (as are the heavens….as are the descendents promised in the Hebrew scriptures by God to Abraham and his kind –more than the stars and the sand)! God’s “bread” of Life yields enough for all….with much leftover! What falls from God’s breadbasket rains upon all and is meant for all!
“You [Israel] shall be a Light to the Gentiles” says Yahweh according to Isaiah, “so that my salvation might reach the ends of the earth!” According to the prophecy, the gentiles were always included. But they will see the Light of the God of Israel as illuminated by God’s people, Israel. As Jesus opens the eyes and ears of the gentiles in these passages, the prophecy is fulfilled.
Note that when Jesus returns to Galilee from Tyre, he goes through Sidon into the area of Decapolis –another densely gentile region on the Sea of Galilee, where he heals a deaf man. There, he heals many according to Matthew, and the people are amazed, and they praise “the God of Israel!” Afterward, he moves on to Magadan.
If these people were Jews, the gospel wouldn’t say, they praised the God of Israel! Obviously, they were being introduced to the healing power of Yahweh for the first time! And were converted that day in worship and praise, perhaps believing in the Messiah. God’s breadbasket had overflowed, and all were fed with abundance left for more. Always abundance left for more.
All of this context is quite significant surrounding the passage of the encounter with the Syrophoenician woman. And one needs to look at the interchange between Jesus and the disciples, particularly in Matthew, to imagine what may have been going on in that “teachable moment.”
Let’s look at the story again. The disciples don’t get Jesus’ explanation of what defiles and what does not. He chastises them for their density. At the end of that passage, they are in the house, and he is trying to explain what he means. At that, he gets up, leaves, and brings the disciples with him to Tyre.
Jesus may not know whom he will encounter. Perhaps the woman who appears and beckons to him is unexpected. Perhaps he made that teachable moment even better. But clearly, Jesus intentionally leaves the borders of Israel….and this breaching of the borders is a metaphor in itself. As Jesus breaches the physical borders of Israel, he also metaphorically breaches the borders [as the Pharisees understood them] of the covenant. Why? I believe he wanted to “show” the disciples what they could not mentally understand. This was the meaning of being a “disciple” –one who would go everywhere with the master and learn from what he not only said, but what he did.
Surely the disciples were already uncomfortable. Clearly they felt they were better than everyone there in that region. Why Tyre and Sidon? Jesus had a very good reason for going there specifically.
Tyre has a history!
Tyre was the city of origin of one of the most notorious woman gentiles in Israel’s history –Jezebel, Queen of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, who mislead many of the lost sheep of Israel away from Yahweh. Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal, King of Sidon. A Phoenician princess, she became the wife of Ahab. Confronted by the prophet Elijah, Ahab caved to his wife. And Elijah prophesied that Jezebel would die and her corpse be eaten by dogs --a prophecy that came through when her own kinsmen killed her and threw her body out of a window, to be consumed by stray dogs below.
The island of Tyre itself was a place teeming with sailors, pirates, weathered seafarers, and skilled dye makers. Josephus notes: “among the Phoenicians, the Tyrians are notoriously our bitterest enemies” (Against Apion 1:70, 71 LCL 1:191). It was a dangerous place to visit, much less live.
Jesus’ mission to the lost sheep of Israel would have brought him perhaps to these areas, where many had gone astray due to the lure of Jezebel years before. How significant then that Jesus healed the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter here? In a sense, the act is a restoration of this woman for her faith. What defiles is not where she lives or her history or her lineage. Her faithful heart has deemed her worthy!
Jesus’ own bloodline (see Matthew’s genealogy) contains multiple gentile women, whose faith to Israel’s God made them part of the lineage of the Messiah! And in Nazareth, he drives home that one is a child of Abraham not by blood but by the heart, and he indicates that all those disciples around him are his family. When he therefore leads his disciples into this territory, he is doing so in order to “show” them what they could not understand in words.
The “teaching moment” begins the moment they exit Jewish territory. They go to the worst city possible. The disciples were undoubtedly already feeling nervous. Then a woman comes shouting and begging fort Jesus to heal her daughter.
The reaction of Jesus’ disciples? According to what Jesus expected they would do, they begin urging him to get rid of her –to shut her up! They still don’t get it!
But Jesus doesn’t. He allows it to go on, watching his disciples’ reaction. They are getting more and more perturbed.
So Jesus says to her what his disciples would assume. What they would say: “I’ve been sent to the lost sheep of Israel.”
But she begs and kneels before him.
Whether Matthew’s or Mark’s witness, Jesus comments that the “children” might first be fed –those who are of Israel. One shouldn’t throw the children’s food to the floor for the pets. (Greeks kept beloved pets in their homes.) At that, Jesus’ disciples must have been lifting their chests and noses, and nodding their heads.
But the woman comments, “Even the household’s pets eat the crumbs from the master’s table.” Even they are fed by the master, even if they were not first!
God is the God of all people, even though the Hebrews were the first to worship Yahweh. Others may not have been first to accept the invitation to the master’s table (remember Jesus’ parable of the Wedding Banquet), others will be invited in!
Just as the disciples are thinking Jesus is doing exactly as they would…..Jesus turns to the woman, compliments her for her faith, and for her answer, and tells her, her daughter is healed.
Imagine the disciples’ surprise! Jesus then takes them on to the huge gentile cities of the Decapolis, healing and feeding many, with 7 baskets of crumbs left over!! While there were 12 baskets left over when Jesus fed the Jews who followed him, here there are 7 left over, for the 7 gentiles nations that were conquered when the Hebrews entered Canaan –“the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you.” (Deut7)
“And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance.” (Acts 13:19)
The crumbs left over from feeding all of the 4,000 gentiles in the Decapolis region symbolize that God’s abundance is not just for the 12 tribes of Israel, but also for the 7 conquered nations of gentiles –for all of God’s people.
The Bread of Life consumed by all has made them undefiled. And the history of those regions has been redeemed. The unfaithfulness of Jezebel has been reversed by the Syrophoenician woman’s unfathomable and abundant faith.
Like the story of Jonah, this “test” of faith by Jesus is not merely for the gentile woman! It is most of all for his own disciples –to demonstrate to them what they just couldn’t seem to “get.”
Faith is most important. Love, faith, trust, loyalty to God and to Jesus. Jesus shows us this again and again. “Just a touch of his robe,” said the hemorrhaging woman. “Just a crumb from the table,” said the Syrophoenician woman. “Just a command from his lips,” said the Centurion. “Just a mustard seed,” said Jesus. A little bit of faith is all it takes. A little bit of grace is all we require in an encounter with the Lord.