Gospel of free grace
This passage is about Jesus’ interaction with the Syrophoenician woman, as his text. “And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon.[g] And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.”
THE CONTEXT: Jesus and the disciples were tired. The disciples had completed the missionary assignment given to them by the Lord, where they had been sent out two by two. Though they tried, they had not been able to find much time to rest. Jesus’ miracles of the feeding of the 5000 and His walking on the water had happened, and they had still not quite had the rest they needed. Jesus has also had an extended argument with the Pharisees, whose accusations had been increasing and becoming more ridiculous, and the most recent accusation was about not observing some of the extra-biblical rules of ceremonial washing that the Pharisees observed. Jesus then did something unprecedented; he left Israel and went 40km North East to the region of Tyre and Sidon, where he is met by someone who was quite the opposite of the Pharisees he had removed Himself from.
Jesus meets a gentile Syrophoenician woman. Syrophoenicians were at odds with Israel. This was the area from which the hated queen Jezebel had come from. This was the region against which Ezekiel prophesied. And less than 200 years ago, Tyre and Sidon were involved in a bitter war with Israel. So in the passage, we see that Jesus was in this spiritual wasteland, as it were. And here, with this woman, He has a fascinating conversation, which can be unpacked under three headings, Dogs, Crumbs, and the Table.
DOGS: Jesus was talking to this thrice-unworthy woman, unworthy on account of being a Syrophoenician, a gentile, and a woman. She must have understood that this was a radical situation but came anyway. She would have known that she was unworthy to ask Jesus for His favour but came begging anyway. She truly represented a lost persons, such as we were, candidates for the gospel of grace, simply because we did not have a right to it. In the account in Matt 15, we see that she begged so long that the disciples complained and asked Jesus to send her away. Jesus says, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” This is the same Jesus who touched the leper and healed him, the same One who stopped the procession going to the home of Jairus in order to minister to a woman with the issue of blood, and the same Jesus who later spoke so tenderly to Jairus’ daughter. And here He is saying: Dogs like you don’t get served around here. So these words to the Syrophoenician woman sound very harsh and out of character. Although the word for ‘dog’ that Jesus uses here refers to a little dog, it is still very offensive that she is being considered unworthy. This is especially so in our times when people focus so much on the rights of individuals. Many think that we have a ‘right’ to salvation. But the fact is that we do not deserve to be saved.
CRUMBS: To her credit, as offensive as the words may have been, the woman did not fight it and accepted it as true, which it was. Instead she says something that is very profound: “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” It was true that food is not taken from the table meant for the children and given to the begging dog, but if some crumbs were to fall off the table, could she not have it then? This favour to a begging dog at the family table would be akin to the unmerited favour towards helpless sinners. This woman came knowing that she had no right to the table, but she came begging anyway. This is a picture of every sinner who comes to Jesus with no qualifications and no righteousness, but comes anyway. And this is the only way to come to Christ. People miss out on the crumbs, on free grace, because they cannot humble themselves to come anyway, preferring to wait to put their life together first and to be able to bring some offering of worthiness. Jesus had not told her that the door was closed to her, but He had encouraged further conversation, and she had obliged, demonstrating how unlike the Pharisees she was. She understood ‘unworthiness’ in a way that the Pharisees could not and in a way that even the disciples had not at that point in time. In the Matthew account, we see that Jesus commended her, saying: “O woman, great is your faith!”
THE TABLE: She got what she so badly wanted. In fact Jesus gave her what He would give a child at the table. He gave her daughter freedom from demonic possession. She received not just crumbs, but a seat at the table. This account demonstrates the only kind of people who can come to Jesus—those who know that they have no right to come to Him but come anyway. None of us deserve the favour of Christ, and if we thought we did, we would be as foolish as the Pharisees who thought that washing their hands made them clean. When we recognise that we are undeserving to sit at the family table and come anyway, we are freely qualified by the grace of God to sit at the table, being adopted into the family.
Nothing in my hand I bring / Simply to the cross I cling