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First
Reading
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Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
Isaiah 35:4–7a |
Psalm 146 |
James 2:1–17 |
Mark 7:24–37
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There is an old Hasidic legend about a famous rabbi whose prayers were regarded to have God’s ear. I’ve forgotten exactly who the rabbi was, and I suspect a similar story could be told about many wise and holy teachers known in Jesus’ time too. A poor couple who had a sickly child heard that in a far off land there was such a rabbi. So they saved up and then made the journey to ask the Holy man to pray for them on behalf of their child. It was a long, difficult journey and on their arrival they had spent all their savings, save barely enough to return home. After great effort they were allowed an audience with the Holy man. “We believe that you have the ear of God and we want you to pray for our daughter,” they pleaded. For a long while the rabbi was silent as he looked them up and down. “Very well,” he said at last, “but that will be five pieces of gold.” “We have no gold, only a few small pieces of silver to get us back home,” replied the father with rising agitation. “You want me to pray for you; that will be five pieces of gold,” the rabbi reiterated. Maybe it was the frustration of the long difficult journey, but much to the horror of everyone in the room, the mother went up and shook her fist in the rabbi’s face. “Very well,” she exclaimed. “You must realize that we have nothing we can offer. We can’t possibly pay you so we will go home and say our own prayers and God will hear.”
The Holy man rose from his seat. He was a tall man, and towered over the couple. Then he said, “Yes! Yes! I believe God will,” as he broke out in a broad smile.
The journey home for the poor couple was as long and taxing as the first one. Yet they were determined and kept saying their prayers. When they arrived, their daughter was well and flourishing. In the years ahead, whenever their neighbors faced what appeared as insurmountable adversity, when all hope seemed to have been spent, and they had nothing left to give, the couple would retell their story.
As time went by, a significant number of people began to question Jesus’ legitimacy as a teacher. He was not educated in Jerusalem at the feet of the great rabbis. He was not of the educated priestly cast. His parents were good, but ordinary peasant folk. He seemed to have no famous sponsor or mentor, besides a brief encounter with John the Baptist. His disciples were as undistinguished as he was. To be sure, Jesus was largely among his own people, but that did not translate into respect, despite the signs of his astounding wisdom. Too often, at the end of the day, Jesus was regarded with suspicion, if not hostility.
Then Mark remembered the incident that stood out from the ordinary, when a foreigner, a strange woman with no apparent religious or social ties to Judaism insisted in seeing Jesus. Mark’s Jesus is no marshmallow Jesus. Mark is not reticent to show Jesus exhausted and even grumpy. Previously Jesus had had a sharp confrontation and argument with officials from Jerusalem. He had entered a friendly house for some rest. This woman barged through and interrupted Jesus’ brief respite of quiet. It would be easy to surmise Jesus was irritated at the intrusion. She did not wait to try to touch his cloak unnoticed. In front of everyone in the room she boldly asked Jesus to pray for and heal her daughter. Who is this, everyone seemed to say. Even Jesus was surprised. He may have thought to himself, day after day, I have met rejection among my own people and here is someone who knows next to nothing about the scriptures. What makes her so persistent in asking me to pray for her and heal her daughter?
Did Jesus test the woman to see if she was for real? Was the woman pushing Jesus’ buttons to see what Jesus was really made of? Somehow the woman had heard something of what Jesus had said and trusted that Jesus offered the food of life to all. Did he really mean it? Was the food of life for her and her child, too? She was desperate enough to try. The woman wasn’t looking for a royal feast, just a few crumbs of God’s love, just a few crumbs would save her daughter. She did not falter. She was for real. So was Jesus.
It is easy to forget that the Gospels are not necessarily verbatim transcripts of Jesus’ actual words. The Gospel editors set out to communicate Jesus’ message to people far removed from those who first heard Jesus teach firsthand. Mark, we may assume, sometimes wrote for entirely different audiences. Perhaps the particular incident in the Gospel today wasn’t really intended for most of us here. Who knows if Mark was acquainted with a legend about a persistent couple who could not pay a famous rabbi to say prayers for them? But every so often, among us there are those who are at the end of their rope. Maybe they have done some bad things or made poor choices or they haven’t gone near a church or synagogue in years or something haunts them that they can’t come to terms with and believe that they are beyond any hope of redemption if they were found out. They even may be like one who one night finally decides to go to an AA meeting. They may have lost everything; they have exhausted all alternatives, only a much higher power can save them now, a higher power they can hardly imagine for they have fallen so deep in a hole.
They all are in some way like that Syrophoenician woman of long ago, strangers, desperate and trapped in a place that has no future for them. Whatever journey they have taken, it has led to a dead end. They have no defense, excuse, or bribe to offer. They are not expecting a hero’s welcome or a welcome back banquet. Yet they cling to a slender hope, and who knows how they got it, a hope in a loving God, a God for all, a God who doesn’t give up, even in hopeless circumstances.
So perhaps the Gospel today wasn’t really intended for most of us, but just to some, like the Syrophoenican woman, who at least in the Gospel’s editor’s eyes, held on to a desperate strand of hope and dared to test if Jesus was for real. Yes, Jesus is for real and to some, this particular Gospel incident becomes the healing word of new life.
And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
