A woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit came and fell at His feet. Now the woman was Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to drive the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Allow the children to be satisfied first, because it isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she replied to Him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Then He told her, “Because of this reply, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” When she went back to her home, she found her child lying on the bed, and the demon was gone. (Mark 7:24-30 — Holman Christian Standard Bible)
Tyre and Sidon were cities along the Mediterranean Sea, north of Galilee in what is now Lebanon and Syria. This was the farthest that Jesus went outside of Israel. There must have been Jews who lived in this region, but this woman was clearly not a Jew. She was Greek — a Gentile, what we would assume was an idol worshipper, someone that did not have true faith in God. And yet, as the Bible does again and again, we see that appearances are deceiving. She had faith that enabled her to walk away that day with exactly what she had asked for. Her faith was intelligent. She had every reason to get upset at the way Jesus spoke to her, to get discouraged, and to go home depressed and hopeless, deciding that there was no cure for her daughter. But instead, determined, unmoving faith changed her life, her daughter, and caused her story to become a part of the Gospel.
God still acts this way today. All along Jesus wanted to heal this woman’s daughter, but He decided to test her. He referred to her and her daughter as dogs, said that others deserved to be taken care of before her. Jesus basically said “no” to her several times, but somehow she was determined not to go home empty handed. Somehow she looked past all that and remembered that God was merciful, and came back with an irresistible argument. But today it’s no different. God is the same and puts us in similar situations, hoping for us to react with faith, stubbornness, and courage.
So many times we find ourselves in situations that seem to tell us that God doesn’t care, that God has forgotten about us, that God doesn’t want us to have what other people have, or that God’s promises are not for us. In these moments we need to return to the basics: God is good, the devil is bad… God is on my side and loves me, the devil hates my guts and wants me destroyed. It is a fact that God is going to let us go through times where everything looks bleak and desperate, but it is exactly those moments that faith means the most, and when God’s power will perform the greatest feats.
Let’s be spiritually mature like that Syrophoenician woman!
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