Crumbs from the Table Part I: A Feast of Crumbs, Women of the ELCA

Crumbs from the Table
Part 1: A Feast of Crumbs
by Michele Robinson

Introduction
It is important for today’s readers to remember that those who first encountered God’s word did so as hearers. It was not uncommon for early Christians to hear the entire Gospel of Mark at one time. As New Testament scholar David Rhoads explains, "the hearer ... [had] heard Jesus of Nazareth announce the Kingdom of God, seen his healings, ... met Jesus’ dense disciples, made evaluations about ... who is good and bad, ... felt the suspense of knowing who Jesus is when the characters in the story do not know. ..."1The undeserved and often unexpected nature of God’s grace is provocatively illustrated in the story of Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman. The exchange between the two, at once dramatic and intense, compelled the full attention of those who heard it.

Brief History
Many of the cultural tensions and conflicts between Jews and Gentiles in the borderlands of Tyre and Galilee were rooted in religious, social, and economic differences. With their ability to buy up the grain supply, the economically stronger residents of Tyre probably often took bread out of the mouths of rural Jewish folks.2 At the same time, the Jewish religious tradition viewed non-Jews as unclean and outside God’s care and redemption. These dynamics helped set the stage for this encounter between Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman. Biblical scholar Gerd Theissen describes the woman "of Syrophoenician origin" as being Hellenized (under the influence of Greek culture), and therefore most likely educated and a member of the upper class. She is a religious outsider and a foreigner. Jesus is a preacher and healer from the "backwaters of Galilee. The cultural clash between them is striking.3

The Study
Verse 24: Jesus seeks solitude and hospitality in a land of foreigners.

Jesus "set out and went away to the region of Tyre."4 He willingly went into Gentile territory. We are told he "entered a house," and we presume he enjoyed hospitality that respected his desire to have no one "know he was there." Yet "he could not escape notice."
Verses 25-26: Jesus is approached with humility and respect by a Gentile woman.

One who "immediately heard about him" was a woman "whose little daughter had an unclean spirit." Did she know he wanted to escape notice? All we know is that she heard about Jesus and sought him out. She came "and bowed down at his feet."

Her introduction and request create suspense (v.26). A woman. A Gentile. Not a disciple. AN unnamed woman who asks Jesus, a Jew, to "cast the demon out of her daughter." This she asks from the one who did not want anyone to know he was there. The tension mounts. What will Jesus do?

What kind of faith did the woman have? Where do you believe such faith gets its power?

Verse 27: Jesus rebukes the Gentile woman and declares his mission to be exclusive.

Jesus did not reject her directly. He answered using a common folk saying: "it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs." There’s no getting around it: Jesus referred to the woman as a dog.This "answer" is uncharacteristic of what we know so far in the story about Jesus as a healer. The Syrophoenician woman encounters the greatest obstacle — rejection from Jesus himself. Jesus rejects her plea, implying that he was sent only to the "lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 15:24) when he says, "Let the children be fed first."

How would this story change if the Syrophoenician woman had walked away after Jesus refused her request? Do you think Jesus would have pursued her? Why or why not?

When have you been denied access because of your difference (for example, your age, race, ethnicity, gender)? In your experience, how have such barriers been budged?

Versus 28-29: The woman claims that the crumbs falling from the table are sufficient.

The suspense of the exchange intensifies when the woman does not let Jesus’ refusal end their encounter. Recognizing his right to accept or reject her and her request, she neither argues nor loses heart. Is that not faith? The woman’s response honors all that he says. She does not dispute his rejection, but her faith finds a place for her request.5 She calls him, "Sir," or "Lord," and restructures the exchange, permitting a new view of the situation by offering a saying of her own: "even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs." Her faith implies that God’s gracious goodness is so abundant that even the crumbs falling from God’s table are sufficient! Acknowledging the insightfulness of her words, Jesus responds, "For saying that ... [RSV: "Because of this word"], the demon has left your daughter." As Gerd Theissen observes, "Along with this demon, the equally threatening demon of prejudice between the members of different nations and cultures was also driven out." 6

Based on this encounter, can we learn anything about engaging someone very different from ourselves — someone of a different race, age, gender, or sexual orientation or someone with a physical or sensory disability?

It is tempting to decide when crumbs are enough for others, but when are crumbs enough for us? Does one always have to have a seat at the table?

Conclusion
This encounter defied the convention of that time. The Syrophoenician woman does not remain in her "place" as a woman or as a Syrophoenician. The woman’s single-mindedness compels her, an outsider, to intrude upon Jesus for one thing and one things only: the healing of her daughter. The woman’s determination places her in direct conflict with Jesus’ expressed priority to fulfill God’s mission with Israel. Initially the story provides no room in Jesus’ mission for anyone outside Israel. As will be seen in Part 2, however, this encounter seems to expand the potential for healing and the possibility for a mission that very much includes Gentiles.

Notes
1. David Rhoads, "Jesus and the Syrophoenician Woman in Mark: A Narrative Critical Study," Journal of the American Academy of Religion 62, no. 2: 344-46.
2. Gerd Theissen, The Gospels in Context: Social and Political History in the Synoptic Tradition (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991), 79.
3. Theissen, The Gospels in Context, 65 ff.
4. The Scripture quotations contained in this Bible study are from the New Revised Standard version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.
5. Rhoads, "Jesus and the Syrophoenician Woman in Mark," 359.
6. Theissen, The Gospels in Context, 80.

Michele Robinson serves as pastor of United in Christ Lutheran Church, Chicago, Illinois.

Copyright © 1998 Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. All rights reserved. May be reproduced for use by the Women of the ELCA in congregations, provided each copy carries this notice: © 1998 Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Reprinted with permission.