Mark 7:27-30 (NASBStr)
And He was saying to her, “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered and *said to Him, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children’s crumbs.” And He said to her, “Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.” And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having left.
Sandwiched between Christ's revelation about the dangerous teaching of the Pharisees and the feeding of the 4,000, we have this story about the Syrophoenician woman, who had a daughter possessed by a demon. The passage tells us that when she "heard" about Jesus she went to Him, without her daughter, to seek a healing for her. We don't know why she didn't take the daughter with her, like others in the stories we read about Jesus and His healing. Perhaps she was embarrassed, or the daughter was so possessed she couldn't control her, or any other of plausible reasons. With this story, no matter the background, we can learn some great lessons about Christ and our trials and suffering in life:
1). Know who to bring your problems/trials/suffering. In another passage someone brought someone possessed of a demon to the disciples (while Jesus was on the Mount with Peter, James and John) they could not cast out the demon (Matthew 17). This women didn't do that. She took her struggle and problem directly to the Son of God. If we hope to have healing and miracles in our life, we need to bring out issues to Christ. He not only CAN heal them and care for every need, He WANTS to heal them and take care of every need.
2). We need to get over who we are and focus on WHO He is. This women was not a Jewish women. She is a Gentile. In today's world, Jesus' statement inferring her as "dog" would not be politically correct (and, in fact, this passage is often sighted by unbelievers as demonstration of Christ's intolerance of others ... or, His prejudice). Christ her is a Jew. The Women knew that. The two didn't like each other. In fact, the Gentiles had much more intolerance for the Jews of the day, more than the Jews toward the Gentiles. The point of the lesson is to remember, that Christ is the Son of God and we have to humble ourselves and be willing to go to Him if we want healing. If she would have been a normal Gentile she would never have humbled herself to ask for help from a Jewish man. Before any helping we have to come to a position of humility to know who we are and WHO He is.
3). Our faith only needs to be small to see great things. Jesus' response to the women is that He was sent, first to the Jews. She recognized this truth and only wanted a "crumb" of God's grace. God's grace, even in crumb form, is more powerful than any demon. She knew that. Christ rewards her faith and heals her daughter as a result. We need to remember that any portion of God's grace is enough for our healing and our blessing. Christ is so full of grace and truth. As we pray and search for salvation from our struggles, we can have faith that just a droplet of God's grace will heal our lives and our struggles. Jesus told the disciple, after they failed to casts out the demon in Matthew 17, that if they but had a small amount of faith, they could move mountains. Our faith is not sized by what we have but by what we believe He can do. She, apparently, knew that and Christ rewarded her.
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