Desperate for Jesus Crumbs (Mark 7)

Mark 7 tells of my favorite example of faith in all four gospels, the Gentile woman from Tyre and Sidon (modern-day Lebanon) (7:24-30). Jesus has travelled a bit north of where God's people live. We don't know why he went to the Gentile region, but it is important to understand the fact that religion is very much in view in their exchange. This woman is a pagan, a foreigner, someone who does not know the God of Israel. Jesus tells her, "Let the children be fed first," meaning Israel, God's chosen people. Then he calls her a dog: "for it is not right to take the children’s [Israel's] bread and throw it to the dogs [Gentiles, namely YOU!]" (7:27). The Jewish rabbi calls the dirty Gentile a dog, not because Jesus is a racist, but because he has been sent to the lost sheep of Israel (Matt. 10:6; 15:24). God's children, his people, are in Israel. This woman doesn't know Jesus's Heavenly Father.

That is why her faith is so incredible. This poor woman has never heard of God's promises—she has no part in them. She's never been told of God's law—she's geographically removed from anyplace where she could hear it. She knows nothing of a coming Messiah, and so ought to expect to have no part with him. Now the Messiah is standing before her, and he—as would be expected of any good Jewish rabbi—calls her a dog. She is "without hope and without God in the world" (Eph. 2:12), and Jesus is sure to point it out. 

The woman summons every ounce of strength to suppress her outrage, so desperate is she to have her daughter healed. She knows this man is the only one who can help. She doesn't argue. Doesn't fight. Doesn't claim that Gentiles have been known to discover a truth or two about the world. She accepts Jesus's assessment of her situation, embraces her desperation, freely loses her life, her social standing, any last claim to dignity she could possibly have, and blurts out, "Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs” (7:28).

So profound a faith defies description. She acknowledges her destitution before the Messiah, admits to having no standing before him, but nevertheless pleads for help. She throws herself on the mercy of the Lord himself, prays that he would let her, a mere dog, scrape a few morsels from under Israel's table. "I know. I'm a dog. But could you find it in your heart to let me lick the floor beneath your feet?"

James 4:6 says that God "gives grace to the humble." Before we can expect to find mercy, we have to know that we need it Where do you find yourself in need of God's mercy? Throw yourself upon it. Cling to this gracious promise. Look to the Lord Jesus and his grace and lay yourself at his feet. Go to Christ in humility, and he will give you grace.