Mark 7:24-30

1 Kings 11:4-13

Psalm 106:3-4, 35-36, 37 and 40

Mark 7:24-30

Jesus went to the district of Tyre.

He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it,

but he could not escape notice.

Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him.

She came and fell at his feet.

The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth,

and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.

He said to her, “Let the children be fed first.

For it is not right to take the food of the children

and throw it to the dogs.”

She replied and said to him,

“Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.”

Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go.

The demon has gone out of your daughter.”

When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed

and the demon gone.

Opening Prayer: Lord God, you are always faithful and merciful. You never give up on your people even though we sin and reject you and your ways. You seek to bring us back into your loving embrace. I am moved deeply by your merciful love for me.

Encountering the Word of God

1. The Downfall of King Solomon: When the Book of Sirach reflects on the life of Solomon, it praises the great wisdom of Solomon’s youth (Sirach 47:13-18), but also recalls how Solomon fell due to the influence of his many foreign wives. Solomon disregarded the law against marriage to Gentiles (Deuteronomy 7:3-4) and this led him little by little to worship their pagan gods. Solomon fell greatly into sin by succumbing to the three temptations of lust, pride, and greed. When the Lord confronted Solomon’s father, David, with his sin, David immediately repented and asked for mercy. By contrast, when the Lord confronted Solomon with his sin, there was silence. It seems that Solomon gave no outward sign of repentance. The Lord says to Solomon that, due to his sin, the kingdom will be torn away from his son, Rehoboam. Yet for the sake of David and the city of Jerusalem, the tribe of Judah will remain. In all this, God shows how he is faithful to his covenant with David, despite human infidelity.

2. Jesus and the Gentiles: In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus has just declared all foods clean (Mark 7:14-23). By doing this, Jesus has taken down a barrier that separated Jews from Gentiles. Today’s encounter between Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman, a Gentile, should be read in that light. Salvation is not exclusively for the people of Israel but is extended by Jesus to all peoples. 

3. Jesus tests the Syrophoenician woman: When the woman asks Jesus to cure her possessed daughter, Jesus tests her faith in the form of a parable saying that the children should be fed first and that the bread of the children should not be given to dogs. What Jesus means is that the blessings of the kingdom will be given first to the chosen people of Israel (i.e., the children) and not yet to the Gentiles (i.e., the dogs or puppies). The Gentile woman is not offended by Jesus’ words and wisely extends Jesus’ parable. She points out that the puppies and dogs in the house do not go hungry but get to eat the children’s scraps that fall from the table! Jesus is very impressed by her faith and mercifully casts the demon from her daughter. The bestowal of divine blessing on the Gentiles is also emphasized in the next two stories in Mark’s Gospel. Jesus will cure a Gentile in the region of the Decapolis and also multiply seven loaves of bread for four thousand people in Gentile territory. This second miracle looks forward to the day when both Jews and Gentiles, as children of God, will eat at the same table of the Eucharist in the New Covenant. 

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you tested the faith and hope of the Syrophoenician woman and she passed the test with flying colors. Instead of being offended by your parable, she persisted in her prayer and petition to you. I hope that when you test my faith and love, I pass the test like her, renew my trust in you, and only deepen my love for you.

Resolution: We see such a contrast between King Solomon and the Syrophoenician woman. The king of Israel is surrounded by material wealth and pleasure and, having experienced divine blessing, refuses to repent from his grave sins. The Gentile woman, by contrast, is suffering greatly and humbly approaches Jesus and, in faith, requests a favor from him. Who and what are we going to imitate today? The prideful unrepentance of Solomon or the humble perseverance of the Syrophoenician woman?