Monday Devotional: Jesus and the Syrophoenician Woman (Mark 7:24-30)
And no, Jesus didn't need to repent.
From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone (Mark 7:24-30).
This is one of the most vexing passages in Mark’s gospel. Why didn’t Jesus want anyone to know he was in Tyre? How do we account for Jesus’ reluctance to cast the demon out of the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter? Why does he refer to the Syrophoenician woman as a dog? What is it about her response that moves Jesus to heal her daughter?
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