The Gospel And The Gentiles
THE GOSPEL AND THE GENTILES
MARK 7:24-30
Sometimes the Lord tests us to see if we really have faith.
One of the things which may strike the modern Christian as strange in the ministry of Jesus is the way in which he confined his work to the Jews and to Jewish territory. There are few exceptions to the rule which he expressed in the words “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:2—note the context!—cf. Matthew 10:5f.). Yet the preceding discussion, in which Jesus firmly declared the invalidity of rules regarding religious cleansing, has as its logical corollary the declaration of the invalidity of Jewish particularism. There must, therefore, be some other explanation of Jesus’ conduct than simple rejection of the Gentiles. The present story clearly bears on this problem; as with some earlier stories (eg 2:1-12), its significance lies not so much in the miraculous power to which it testifies, as in the conversation which is recorded.
The mother who sought the help of Jesus for her daughter is described as a Greek from Syrian Phoenicia; it was so called to distinguish it from Libyan Phoenicia, ie Carthage in North Africa. Jesus met her with what sounds like a harsh refusal: the children (Jews) must be fed, their bread must not be thrown to the dogs (Gentiles). Now “dogs” was a well-known term of opprobrium for Gentiles, but it is going against all that we know of Jesus to imagine that he could have voiced this insult. What, then, did he mean? Did he say the words with such an expression on his face and tone in his voice that they sounded gently ironic? Note how he talked of “little dogs” (the Greek word is a diminutive) which were allowed in the house (E.V. Rieu translates as “house-dogs”), and he qualified his statement by saying “first.” Was he trying to lead the woman to faith? if so, her response was immediate: recognizing the prior rights of the Jews she claimed the crumbs and her child was cured in an instant (Matthew 15:28).
The problem of Jew and Gentile is not wholly solved by this incident. It is clear that Jesus responded to those Gentiles who sought him with his customary compassion, but in the economy of God his calling was to the Jews first. lt was to the church that he committed the task of the Gentile mission. Today the church has learned the lesson of “to the Jew and to the Greek” so well that it has almost managed to forget the Jews.