Reflection for March 5 – BC Eydt
Today’s Passage from the Bible: Mark 7:24-37
From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ But she answered him, ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’ Then he said to her, ‘For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.’ So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’ And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.’
Reflection – BC Eydt
At this point in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus has launched his public ministry and has been gathering many followers. He has been meeting with all sorts, including sinners and the dreaded tax collectors. Now, for the first time, he encounters a gentile, a Greek woman born in Syria. He’s very rude, suggesting she’s a dog. Why would Jesus be cruel to a stranger? Is he having a bad day? Very unlikely. There would be little reason for an author writing decades after someone’s death, as scholars believe Mark was, to highlight the deceased weaknesses, especially when it’s the divine Christ. Matthew, who had access to Mark’s Gospel, tells an even more elaborate version of the same story years later.
No, what Jesus is doing is testing the woman, as was the protocol for those seeking to be accepted by the Jews. She passes, and Jesus grants her request immediately. She receives Christ’s grace through her faith alone. She does not have to master the religious law, perform special tasks, or be free of sin.
These verses encourage me to ponder the mind of those receiving the Gospel in the first century of our Lord. They teach me that the Gospel is universal and not restricted to those in the land where Jesus preached.
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