Mark 7:24-30 (see also Matthew 15:21-28)
Jesus was fresh from a bruising confrontation with the hypocritical Pharisees when He made this trip north to the Gentile region of Tyre and Sidon. It is clear from Mark’s account that He was hoping for a few days alone with His disciples but it was not to be. His reputation had gone before Him and a woman of that region came to ask His help for her daughter who was severely demon-possessed. We do not know exactly how the girl’s condition manifested but the Greek, kakos daimonizetai, means “cruelly demon-possessed” or “miserably afflicted by a demon”. For a mother to see her beloved child so tormented must have been incredibly painful.
This woman was desperate and she refused to take no for an answer. Mark tells us that “she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter” (v.26), while Matthew points out that the disciples eventually asked Jesus to send her away because, even though He was ignoring her, she was calling out repeatedly for His attention (v.23). Her persistence finally paid off in that Jesus stopped to speak to her, though His initial words seemed far from promising.
To modern readers Jesus’ words in v.27 sound harsh and unsympathetic but it is clear that the woman was not offended. The word Jesus used for “dog” was not the derogatory word for a scavenger dog that many Jews would have used to describe Gentiles in those days, but the word kunarion, which referred to a pet dog. Jesus was simply saying that the children at the table should be fed before the pets. The woman understood what He was telling her – that He had come to minister to the people of Israel, rather than to Gentiles, because the Jews were God’s covenant people. However, she was not deterred from the purpose for which she had come. She expanded on His picture by pointing out that pet dogs often feed on crumbs that the children drop under the table. She was just asking for one small crumb – the deliverance of her daughter. Jesus was impressed by her faith and granted her request.
I wonder how you and I would have reacted in that woman’s position? It would have been easy for her to go away without receiving what she wanted. It took persistence, humility and faith in Jesus’ compassion and kindness to achieve her breakthrough. How often have you prayed for things and given up before you have seen the answer to your prayers? Maybe you got offended with God or let disappointment take root in your heart because He did not respond the way you wanted Him to? Did you stop to consider whether the problem might lie with you? Perhaps you did not receive because you gave up too quickly, or your motives were not right (see James 4:3)? Maybe it was because you were asking for something that was not God’s will for you, or something that He has already given you through the atonement? We have His promise that when we pray aright He will hear and answer us. We can be sure that when He sees faith that is standing on His word and character He will respond.
1 John 5:14-15 “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. [15] And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”
Prayer
Dear Lord,
Thank you that You are a good and loving Father who is always faithful to those who love You. Please forgive me for those times when I have not trusted You enough to press through in prayer, or have even blamed You for ignoring me when I was praying for wrong things, or with the wrong motives. Help me to grow in faith so that I might learn to pray effectively and bring the the things of heaven down to earth.
Amen.
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