28 April 2024
Our text is Matthew 15:21-28, the Syro-Phoenician Woman.
Bailey notes that most western Christians are embarrassed by how Jesus puts this woman through the wringer before He grants her request. The rhetorical flow of the passage is ABCBA.
A. The woman's request
B. Jesus is for Israel
C. The Parable of Children, Dogs and Bread
B. The woman's faith (on the fringe of the Covenant)
A. Her request granted
The annoyance of the disciples is a rare element for inclusion in the narrative.
Bailey notes correctly that a critical issue is the conflict between western concepts of the individual, versus the rest of the world insisting that the individual identity arises from the community, whether or not the individual is aware of it. We cannot understand this passage without referring to the collective.
Thus, in the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man, the community cared enough about Lazarus to move him around. The same is true with the Prodigal Son: While the community is off-stage, life would not be possible without it. In the case of this Gentile woman, the community is the disciples. Jesus has something important to teach them. Mark notes that Jesus' ministry was well known in this area, which makes sense, as the whole region was rather dependent on Jewish agriculture.
Jesus starts by ignoring the woman's request, despite her Messianic address. She's obviously familiar with Jewish religion. Side note: Bailey supposes this whole interaction took place in Greek. It's reasonable to suppose many Jews could speak it, but there's also no reason the woman would not know Aramaic. [Edit: Hebrew, Aramaic and Phoenician were very similar languages.] Be aware that the necessity of a translator would rarely be mentioned unless it was germane to the story. At any rate, Jesus ignores her in part because of social customs. She's a woman in public, and a Gentile. Jewish rabbis never so much as addressed their own wives in public, much less other women, and certainly not Gentiles.
But she's at the end of her rope caring for this daughter, and requests mercy for herself. His silence is a test; does her faith justify breaking social conventions? Elijah dealt with a widow in this area with a test, as well. Here, the exam is for the disciples, as well. At first, His lack of response would be expected. But when they could bear it no longer, they urged Jesus to send her away. Not obvious to us is that they implied He should order them to dispatch her. Instead, He turned to her and said that His ministry was only for the Covenant nation.
The disciples would approve of that thought. She's not under His covering. She took this as her cue to actually kneel at His feet and ask again. He responded with an insult about her being the same thing as a feral dog hanging around the community. "Don't give what is sacred to dogs." Again, He was echoing the implication of what His disciples had been taught about Gentiles, but now pushed to a rather embarrassing extreme. The only soft note was referring to her as a puppy, not a really dangerous adult dog.
Would her faith overcome this last barrier? Yes. She seized upon that gap and called herself a puppy, asking only for the scraps the Children of Israel would have dropped, as all children tend to be messy eaters. Genuine faith is humble and can absorb any insult with good humor. She didn't refer in any way to typical insufferable Jewish arrogance.
How many Jews would have such faith? That was the lesson Jesus taught His disciples. Her faith in God is what purchased her inclusion in the future Kingdom of the Messiah. He granted her request without any particular limits. The daughter was delivered immediately. The rest of her life's problems she would gladly bear for the glory of the Lord.
Gentiles are included by faith, because it's the same for Jews.
Comments
Jay DiNitto
Jesus' attitude and testing, if exposed correctly as you do here, would absolutely make modern women go bonkers if it happened today. How dare He!
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