The Syrophoenician Woman's Faith

 

Mark 7:24-30

 

 

The Syrophoenician Woman's Faith

 ^“And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon.  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.”

Do you recall the Centurion that came to Jesus, the account is listed in Matthew 8:1, 5-13, and in Luke’s Gospel chapter 7:1-10?  This Centurion like the Syrophoenician woman was a Gentile, do you recall what Jesus said about him?  First a little understanding, a Centurion was a Roman Captain over 100 men, and he had a young servant or slave that he cared about that was dying.  He did not go to Jesus but to some Jewish elders to do so.  “They came to Jesus and pleaded with Him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy for You to grant this because he loves our nation and has built us a synagogue.”  This is Luke’s account of what took place, he tells us Jesus was going to the Centurion’s home when the Centurion sent friends to tell Jesus that he was not worthy to have Him come to his house, but just speak the words and the boy would be healed.  He tells Jesus the reason he did not come to Jesus was that he was not worthy to do so. 

 

The Centurion understood authority, something many in the church seem to be closed to.  We find this account in Luke:7: 8, “For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 9, When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”

 

Now back to the Syrophoenician woman, what faith and insight of this non-Jewish lady and love for her daughter.  It reminded me of a bartender in Texas and his lawsuit against a Baptist Church.

 

A bar called Drummond's, in Mt Vernon, Texas began construction on an expansion of their building, hoping to "grow" their business. In response, the local Southern Baptist Church started a campaign to block the bar from expanding - petitions, prayers, etc. About a week before the bar's grand reopening, a bolt of lightning struck the bar and burned it to the ground! Afterward, the church folks were rather smug - bragging about "the power of prayer". The angry bar owner eventually sued the church on grounds that the church ... "was ultimately responsible for the demise of his building, through direct actions or indirect means." Of course, the church vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection to the building's demise.

The judge read carefully through the plaintiff's complaint and the defendant's reply. He then opened the hearing by saying: "I don't know how I'm going to decide this, but it appears from the paperwork that what we have here is a bar owner who now believes in the power of prayer and the entire church congregation that does not."

 

Now anyway you look at that, the Judge is correct and my thoughts are this if the bartender now believes in prayer, maybe he will ask Jesus to come into his heart and turn his bar into a church that prays for those Baptist that has brought shame on the name of Christ.

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice