We've Got More than Enough for the Dogs Under Our Table

Brad Sullivan

Proper 18, Year B

September 6, 2015

Saint Mark's Episcopal Church, Bay City, TX

James 2:1-10, (11-13), 14-17

Mark 7:24-37

Jesus didn’t want to heal a little girl who was possessed by a demon simply because she wasn’t Jewish.  That’s a hard point for us to accept, and this is a difficult passage to wrestle with.  Many have said that Jesus was just testing the Syrophoenician woman’s faith, and that he really intended to heal the woman’s daughter all along, but that doesn’t really seem to follow the story. 

Jesus had traveled north of Israel to the region of Tyre.  This was gentile country, and the woman is named as a gentile.  There was no reason to test her faith.  I think we can take Jesus’ dismissal of the woman on face value.  “Let the children be fed first,” Jesus said, “for it is not fair to take the children’s food and feed it to the dogs.”  I was sent for Israel, Jesus told her and that’s not you.  Jesus didn’t want to heal the woman.  She wasn’t his problem.  Don’t ask me to heal you, Jesus was saying, have your little demigod idol thing heal you. 

Then, Jesus healed her anyway.  Jesus dismissed and insulted her, and the woman does not respond with anger, but takes his insult because her love for her daughter was greater than her pride.  I think in that moment Jesus saw this woman’s humanity.  No longer was she a gentile who wasn’t his problem.  She was a woman and a mother who loved her daughter. 

I don’t think that’s sinful on Jesus’ part.  He likely grew up being told that the gentiles were not their people and not their problem.  So, that’s probably what Jesus believed.  Then he met the Syrophoenician woman and realized that she was part of humanity.  No longer was she not his problem, and no longer was he here only for Israel, but for all mankind.

There has been an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Syria which has been growing since the uprising in 2011 aimed at ousting president Assad.  Since then, civil war has engulfed the country, both sides have targeted civilians and used them as shields, and the self-proclaimed Islamic state has taken territory and begun their brutal tactics of maiming and killing Christians, Muslims, and anyone else they deem unworthy. 

This has left over 11 million people displaced from their homes, and over 4 million Syrian refugees have fled the country, seeking asylum in surrounding nations and even up into Europe.  The crisis of refugees has caught the world’s attention recently because of pictures of little children who died trying to escape, their bodies washing up on the shores of Greece.  Folks leaving Syria said it was worth the risk because they were dead there anyway. 

This may seem like it’s not our problem.  It’s a world away.  There are so many people here who are in need.  Why give our help and our prayers to folks fleeing Syria when there’s so much to do here?  It’s not our problem, but then like Jesus with the Syrophoenician woman, we eventually see their humanity and realize it is our problem.  They are people, and as Body of Christ, we are called to seek and serve Christ in all persons.  We’ll also find, as Jesus did, that there is more than enough help to go around. 

After Jesus healed the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter, he healed a deaf man in the largely gentile region of the Decapolis, just east of Israel.  We don’t know if this man was Jewish or Gentile.  Maybe it didn’t matter anymore.  Jesus healed him.  Not long after that, Jesus multiplied food so that from enough for a couple of people he fed 5000 people.  There was plenty of food to go around and plenty of food left over, crumbs enough for all the dogs under the children’s table. 

While believing himself to be limited in his mission, Jesus found that his mission was not limited only to Israel, and he found that he had more than enough healing to go around.  As Jesus’ body, we too have more than enough to go around.  The Syrian people are fleeing the threat of death from three different armies in their country, each of which have shielded themselves behind civilians and targeted civilians.  We have more than enough to help people this humanitarian crisis, which is one of the worst we’ve seen.    

We can give to organizations like World Vision who are helping to provide food and shelter for Syrians fleeing their country.  We can petition our government to allow more refugees into America.  We can learn more about the crisis and learn about other ways to help.  We can pray for the people of Syria, the refugees, those taking them in, and those in danger of dying during their travels. 

Perhaps more than pray for them a few times, we may still not really want to do much to help.  There’s too much to do here.  It’s not our problem, but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.  We may want to do more to help here instead, but there’s no reason why we can’t do both.  As Jesus found after he healed the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter, he still had plenty left to heal a deaf man and then feed 5000 people with 5 loaves of bread and two fish.  We may just find that if we give help to Syrian refugees, that there’s also a deaf man who needs healing here, or 5000 people who need food. 

We have more than enough healing and resources to go around, and like Jesus, we find that people half a world away are our problem because they are human beings made in God’s image, and through Jesus, we have more than enough love to give and we have more than enough help to give.  Amen.