079. Chapter 20 - The Syro-Phoenician Woman

Chapter 20 - The Syro-Phoenician Woman Matthew 15:21-28;Mark 7:24-30 Rest and Instruction

Only on two occasions do we have a record of Jesus having been in a foreign country. When an infant, He was taken to Egypt by Joseph and Mary. After the hectic controversies with the Zealots and the Jerusalem Pharisees, Jesus withdrew to Phoenicia. The distance was not great, but the change of community was calculated to allow the heated controversies to die down. Further evangelism now in Galilee was not promising. A rest was needed by Jesus and His disciples. The furious pace of the ministry had not even been allowing ordinary time to eat, immediately preceding the feeding of the five thousand (Mark 6:31). At that time Jesus had proposed to His disciples that they needed to take some time from their strenuous evangelistic campaign and rest. The exciting succession of events that immediately followed did not allow much time to recuperate. A more deliberate effort is now made to give the apostles time to receive more private attention. They had to try to think through the very distressing rejections which Jesus had faced. They needed to place the controversies alongside the prodigious miracles they had just witnessed so that they could reach secure conclusions. In Phoenicia In order to gain time for rest and instruction, Jesus and the apostles found a welcome in some home in Phoenicia. Undoubtedly it was the home of a disciple. As there were Gentiles living in Palestine, so there would be Jews living in Phoenicia. Some commentators hold that Jesus did not actually go into Phoenicia, but only into the borders of that country. Matthew says “into the parts of Tyre and Sidon,” and Mark says “into the borders of Tyre and Sidon.” But Mark makes it very clear that Jesus went up through the length of Phoenicia, passing from Tyre up to Sidon: “And again he went out from the borders of Tyre, and came through Sidon unto the Sea of Galilee, through the midst of the border of Decapolis” (Mark 7:31).

Tyre and Sidon

Tyre and Sidon were the two famous cities of Phoenicia. Phoenicia was a narrow strip of country fronting on the Mediterranean and producing a seafaring people, celebrated mariners of the ancient world. Carthage was the most famous colony of Phoenicia. Syro-Phoenicia means that part of Phoenicia which was located in Syria as distinguished from Libo-Phoenicia, or Carthaginia, in northern Africa. The people were of Canaanitish descent and worshiped Baal.

Christ in a Pagan Land

One of the thrilling tributes to Jesus is recorded by Mark with utter simplicity: “And he entered into a house, and would have no man know it; and he could not be hid” (Mark 7:24). He was the approachable Christ, and even here in a foreign land “he could not be hid.” His fame was too great; His personality was too compelling; His love was unfailing. It was a mother’s love for her daughter which caused His presence to be broadcast and which compelled Him to move on farther north in search of seclusion, even in this foreign country. The Woman The woman is described as Canaanitish (Matthew 15:22), emphasizing her pagan ancestry that reached back to the original inhabitants of this whole region. She is also called “a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician” (Mark 7:26). The term Greek was currently used to describe all Gentiles, as they would speak of “Jews and Greeks.” Syro-Phoenician gives more definite information as to her race and geographical home. With the mixture of races prevailing Canaanitish may be used merely in the sense of a non-Jewish inhabitant of the section, and Greek may indicate a mixture of Greek blood by intermarriage. Both Matthew and Mark are very careful to make clear she was a Gentile. Her Appeal

“Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a demon” (Matthew 15:22). Here again is an instance of great faith among those not of Israel. She may have heard Jesus preach on a number of occasions and seen some of His miracles. At least she had heard thrilling and convincing accounts. It would be a journey of only some seventy-five miles to the center of Jesus’ campaign in Galilee. We are definitely told that Jesus’ fame had become so great that it reached throughout all Syria (Matthew 4:24). In some of His tours through Galilee Jesus must have been much closer to the Mediterranean than to the Sea of Galilee. This woman recognized Jesus as “Lord.” We do not know exactly what she understood by this title. The significant verb proskuneo is used: “She came and worshipped him” (Matthew 15:25). It is absolutely certain that she was hailing Him as the Christ, for she used the Old Testament title Son of David. The Apostles The two accounts specify that this scene took place on the highway as Jesus and the apostles were walking along and the woman following. Matthew quotes the disciples as saying, “Send her away; for she crieth after us” (Matthew 15:23). Mark shows that in her desperation, as Jesus went on unheeding and the disciples urged Him to send her away, the woman ran around the apostles until she was in front of Jesus and then threw herself in the roadway before Him pleading for recognition and help. The woman had evidently created such a commotion outside the house that there was now no more seclusion for Jesus and the apostles. They appear to have started northward. The disciples were following Jesus at a respectful distance, and the woman was in the rear continuing her tearful appeals for help.

It is a strange scene with the Lord of all mercy seeming to have no mercy. The perplexed and aggravated apostles intervened to end this distressing situation. We cannot tell whether their appeal meant for Jesus to “send her away” by granting an immediate miracle in order to end a most embarrassing state of affairs. Since they had seen Him perform a miracle for the Roman centurion of Capernaum and had seen Him heal at a distance, it would seem that they were urging Jesus to perform immediately the miracle she requested. But there was more mercy in Jesus’ refusal than in their request to help. They were seeking relief from personal embarrassment and difficulty; He was testing her faith in order to save her soul, as well as heal her daughter. The woman was keen, ingenious, and resourceful. She reminds one of the brilliant woman Jesus met at Jacob’s well — also of non-Jewish stock. In the case of the Samaritan woman, Jesus began the conversation that led her to faith. But the Syro-Phoenician woman had had abundant opportunities to hear; her need was most urgent; her appeals excited and insistent. Jesus placed one obstacle after another in front of her, but she promptly surmounted them all. Her amazing faith increased with each test until finally Jesus cried out with joy, “O woman, great is thy faith” (Matthew 15:28). The Tests of Faith The first test of faith which the woman met was the fact that she did not get an answer to her appeal while Jesus was in the house. She had to follow the group of men down the highway shouting aloud her appeal for help to have her daughter cured of demon possession. How long this continued we do not know, but it was a sufficient length of time that it got on the nerves of the apostles.

Jesus’ answer to the apostles’ appeal was calm and unruffled: “I was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). This answer was intended for the woman as well as the apostles. It explained His refusal thus far. He had been limiting His ministry to the Jews, who were God’s chosen people and who, by reason of the Old Testament revelation, were better prepared to hear and accept the gospel. He did not have time to enter upon a Gentile ministry. His brief ministry had to be concentrated on a limited section. A ministry among the Gentiles would have so alienated the Jews that any further ministry to them would have been rendered impossible. Most of all, Jesus was proceeding now to develop the faith of the woman by severe tests. The woman was quick to see that Jesus did not send her away as the apostles had urged. Furthermore, He did not show any anger or displeasure at her loud appeals. The apostles were bothered; Jesus was not. His manner and voice could have carried an undercurrent of pity which the woman’s quick intuition seized. Boldly she ran around the group until she was in front of Jesus, and then she threw herself down on the highway in humble worship — “came and fell down at his feet” (Mark 7:25); “she came and worshipped Him” (Matthew 15:25). The brevity and simplicity of her appeal is deeply moving: “Lord, help me.” Through her tears and out of her desperate need and with all a mother’s love for her child urging her on, what a heart-rending scene this must have been. We wonder how many people had now been attracted to the group. The answer of Jesus is still calm and seemingly heartless: “Let the children first be filled; for it is not meet to take the children’s bread and cast it to the dogs” (Mark 7:27). This would seem to be the final insult to call her a dog, but there were two things which the woman was quick to see. He had said, “Children first” (then Gentiles, also in due time...and perhaps now, if she is persistent). And the word Jesus used for dog was not the wild scavenger of the camp and village, but the little household pet. It is a diminuitive — puppy. With flashing brilliance of mind and insistent urgency of appeal the woman humbly accepted the contemptuous epithet: “Yea, Lord; for even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master’s table.” She still hails Him as Lord, He is still the Master of all who can provide for all from His abundance. After all. the miracles she had seen or heard, this healing of her daughter would have been but a crumb given in mercy to one so humble. At this juncture the excitement of Jesus is explosive and triumphant: “O woman, great is thy faith; be it done unto thee even as thou wilt.” Both Matthew and Mark record the instant healing of the child and the fact that the mother found it so when she reached her home. We are not told what the effect was upon the community, but it is indicated by the fact that Jesus had to push farther north into this Gentile country to find seclusion. We do not know what the impression was upon the apostles as they listened to the tearful appeals of the mother and then heard at last the great joy of Jesus at her mounting faith. Could they have avoided looking back in their mind’s eye at the hard hearts of Galilee and Jerusalem?