Mark 7:24-30 — this was my outline for last Sunday

“Bread, dogs, and crumbs”

Mark 7:24-30

I. Mark’s story:

• Key themes:
  • New exodus, in-breaking of the kingdom of God, Jesus’ identity, his death
• Context: Mark 6-8 is a literary unit
  • Framed by discussion of Jesus identity and discussion of John the baptizer and the Elijah the prophet
  • Ministry to the Jews (6:31-56)
    • Feeding miracles (6:31-52)
    • Healings (6:53-56)
  • Redefinition of clean/unclean (7:1-23)
  • Ministry to Gentiles (7:24-8:9)
    • Healings (7:24-37)
    • Feeding miracle (8:1-9)
  • Summary: sight and blindness
    • Outsiders are blind and deaf (8:10-13)
    • Insiders are blind and deaf (8:14-21)
    • Sight to the blind (8:22-26)*
    • *I borrowed this outline from Shayn Dowd’s commentary on Mark in Reading Mark

II. What we learn from the Syrophonecian woman:

• She is nameless
• She had heard about him (7:25)
• She is a Greek and Syrophonecian (7:26)
  • She is a gentile
  • She is a pagan
  • She is a religious outsider
  • She is a woman, probably from high society, approaching a Jewish traveling preacher
  • She is unclean
• She is determined to find help for her daughter
• She crosses social boundaries
• She humbles herself
  • Falls to his feet
• She accepts her dog-status (7:28)
• She is a mother
  • Concerned for her daughter
  • Willing to do anything to find help
• She has faith
  • Leaves having heard that her daughter is made well
  • Notice the transformation: there is a move from dog to daughter
  • Doesn’t ask Jesus to come along to verify his work

III. What we learn from Jesus:

• Typical Jewish boundaries protected against defilement
• Jesus turns these social boundaries on their ear
• Jesus’ mission not limited by geography, social boundaries, nationality, economic status, race, or gender
  • He will go anywhere for anyone, anytime
  • He removes barriers
• Jesus’ word is powerful (7:29)
  • He heals this little girl from a distance
• Jesus is not afraid of saying the hard things
  • Pharisees – called them hypocrites to their faces and calls them to task over their tedious keeping of traditions of men
  • Gentile woman – he calls her a dog
  • Only when we recognize the truth about ourselves will be open to get the help we need

IV. What do we learn about ourselves?

• We too have great needs
• Many of us have heard about Jesus
• We too live in a day and age full or prejudice
• Prejudices keep us from responding to other’s needs
  • Prejudice is really fear, and believing information that may not be true about a particular group or person
  • Prejudice is prideful – we think that our group is better than everyone else’s
• We are equally unclean before God (Mk. 7:17-23)
• We have equal opportunity to be made clean by God (Mk. 7:24-30).