Jesus and the Syrophoenician Woman

The lectionary gospel reading for today is the story of Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman. As this text is frequently misunderstood, I am sharing my interpretation of the story. I will return to my reflections on the work of the Spirit next week.)

It is a strange story … one that stirs lots of questions. It relates things Jesus said and did that are seemingly out of character … at least, out of character with how we think of Jesus. It is the story of Jesus’s interactions with a Syrophoenician woman — a Gentile. It is recorded in both the gospel of Mark and the gospel of Matthew.

The woman approached Jesus, begging him to heal her young daughter who was described as having an unclean spirit.  

Both Mark and Matthew record that Jesus responded to the woman with what looked to be a cold shoulder, even referring to her as a dog. “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” (Mark 7:27). Matthew’s account adds that Jesus first ignored her before responding in such an insensitive, demeaning manner.

How are we to understand Jesus’s response and, thereby, the story?

For me, the key to understanding the story is its context. The story took place in Gentile territory (Mark 7:24). It was one of three stories in Gentile territory recorded by Mark: this one, the healing of a deaf man, the feeding of the 4,000. The three stories go together.

Just before the story, Jesus had responded to a complaint by the Pharisees that his disciples ate without ceremonially washing their hands, that is, with “unclean” hands (Mark 7:1-2).  Jesus used the occasion to point to the heart, not ritual or behavior, as the primary human problem and as the proper focus of the spiritual life (Mark 7:14-23).  The Jews, including Jesus’s disciples, considered Gentiles to be ritually unclean. The way Jesus treated the Syrophoenician woman – ignoring her, giving her the cold shoulder, speaking to her with disrespect — was in keeping with how the Jews typically treated Gentiles. Matthew’s account records the disciples urged Jesus to send the woman away because she was an irritant (Matthew 15:23).

The way Jesus viewed and treated the woman was the way Jews typically related to Gentiles. Was it what he himself believed about Gentiles or is there another explanation for his actions? Some suggest Jesus’s actions were what he himself, as a Jew, believed and the Syrophoenician woman taught him to think differently. Personally, I believe there is another explanation. Jesus knew what he was doing. His actions were intentional.

These stories involving Gentiles are in the section of Mark’s gospel in which the disciples “don’t get it.” They did not understand Jesus’s teachings. They did not understand the meaning of Jesus feeding the 5,000 (Mark 6:52). They did not understand his teaching about the heart (Mark 7:17-23). They did not understand his teaching about the leaven of the Pharisees (Mark 8:14-16). This section of Mark’s gospel ends with Jesus asking them a string of questions: “Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear? Do you not yet understand?” (Mark 8:17b-18, 21).

Jesus led the disciples into Gentile territory in order to teach them a truth they could not grasp: God embraced the Gentiles just as God embraced the Jews. His interaction with the Syrophoenician woman was a part of his effort to teach them a truth what they did not want to accept.

In his interaction with the Syrophoenician woman, Jesus mirrored the attitude of the disciples toward Gentiles … but it was not his attitude. His attitude was reflected in the word he used with the woman. The word translated as “dog” is a word meaning a lap dog, a beloved household pet. Had his attitude been that of the disciples, he would have used the word for dog that meant a cur, a dog that roomed the streets scrounging for food. The woman’s comeback suggests Jesus made his comment with a playful, teasing tone — although we cannot know that for sure. Her comeback played off of the word Jesus used. The family pet eats the crumbs that fall from the table. Jesus affirmed the woman’s comeback and healed her daughter. What would the disciples have thought about the healing? We know what they felt about the woman. 

The second story that is a part of the lectionary reading is Jesus’s healing a man who was deaf. Because of his deafness, he could not speak clearly. This man, too, was a Gentile but he represents the disciples. They could not hear the truth that Jesus was teaching. They needed Jesus to unstop their ears.

This story of the Syrophoenician woman mirrors our own spiritual experience. Like the disciples, we all have spiritual truths we are not ready to hear. We need Jesus to unstop our ears so we can hear what we don’t want to hear.

What might that truth be?