For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter

 

 From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon.  And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.  For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet.  The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.  But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs."  And she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs."  Then He said to her, "For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter."  And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.

Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee.  Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him.  And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue.  Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened."  Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.  Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it.  And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well.  He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."

 

- Mark 7:24–37 

 

Yesterday we read that the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to Jesus, having come from Jerusalem.  Now when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault.  For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders.  When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.  And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches.  Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?"  He answered and said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:  'This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'  For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men -- the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do."  He said to them, "All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.  For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.'  But you say, 'If a man says to his father or mother, "Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban" --  (that is, a gift to God), "then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down  And many such things you do."  When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, "Hear Me, everyone, and understand:  There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man.  If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!"  When He had entered a house away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him concerning the parable.  So He said to them, "Are you thus without understanding also?  Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?"  And He said, "What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.  For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within and defile a man."    

 

  From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon.  And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.  For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet.  The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.  But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs."  And she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs."  Then He said to her, "For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter."  And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.  My study Bible comments on today's passage (and a similar account, found at Matthew 15:21-28) that Jesus has come to the Gentile region of Tyre and Sidon in order to withdraw from the faithless Pharisees.  Indeed, if we look at yesterday's reading, above, we read that the Pharisees and some of the scribes had come from Jerusalem to observe Jesus' ministry, and found fault with His disciples.  As often happens, this ended with a dispute, and Christ's blistering criticism of the hypocrisy of their own practices.  His desire to withdraw from conflict and scrutiny for a time is made evident in today's passage when we're told that He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.  It's a testimony to how famous He's become, and perhaps also to His annoyance at being both noticed and pestered by this woman to heal her daughter.  In Matthew's Gospel, the emphasis is on His mission first to the Jews, as He replies to her in Matthew 15:24, "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."  This puts the entire conversation in a particular context, and particular both the humility and alacrity of her response, which elicits Christ's praise of her persistent faith.  We should understand that the Greek word used here for little dogs implies a small house dog or puppy, not an outdoor dog (in the context of the culture and the dialogue, it's an important difference). 

 

Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee.  Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him.  And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue.  Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened."  Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.  My study Bible comments on the fact that Jesus sighed, calling it a sign of divine compassion for the sufferings of our fallen human nature.  Note the healing by touch, and even with the use of Christ's saliva (similarly to the momentous healing of the blind man in John 9).  Again, we observe that Christ's very body is life-giving, healing.

 

 Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it.  And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well.  He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."  My study Bible notes that here, our Lord shows us we mustn't seek acclaim or praise when we do good to others.  But, on the other hand, it notes, Theophylact upholds those who disobey Christ in this situation.  He sees them as a good example, that we should proclaim those who have done good to us even if they do not want us to.  

So if we take all the stories together in today's reading, we see an interesting commonality to them.  They each seem to be about liberating the ability to speak in some sense.  There is first of all the story of the woman, whom Jesus compares to little dogs (or puppies).  She is persistent is asking for His help, despite the fact that He seems somewhat exasperated and puts her off with a reference to dogs.  But she takes this reference to heart, and -- if one may use a modern expression -- "dishes" it back to Him in a way that manages to be at once witty, humble, and faithful.  She says, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs."  We get the picture of a little puppy begging under the table, and we understand how this can be an image of pestering and at the same time endearing.  For Christ, her persistence -- and I would venture to even say her witty application of intelligence with faith  --  is something to applaud, and "for this saying" her daughter is healed from the demon.  It is precisely because she "opened her mouth," so to speak, to respond to Him yet again that He rewards her and answers her plea.  Then we come to the second story in today's text, which is quite literally about opening someone's mouth and helping them to speak.  Jesus' very words echo this theme quite literally, as His healing command translates, "Be opened."  The English in our text calls his ailment an impediment in his speech, indicating a kind of stumbling block, a hindrance.  In Greek the word is somewhat complex, it's μογιλάλον/mogilalon.  Lalon means to speak.  Mogi means something extremely difficult, a laborious toil.  "Laborious toil" is, interestingly, something associated with the word for evil.  So when Jesus calls for his mouth or tongue to "be opened" He unloosing the tongue from its restraint, He's almost liberating the man to speak.  The freedom to speak, to express oneself in particular to one's God is paramount in this illustrations of human beings striving to find healing from the Lord in today's reading.  Finally, the theme of liberation of speech is again illuminated in the final example of the people who praise Christ despite His admonition not to -- which we can presume yet again comes from His desire to avoid further scrutiny and conflict with the religious authorities.  In this final case, the people are freed in some sense to express their praise for the Lord, and opening of the world to God, as God has come close and "touched" the community.  Altogether, these form a sort of chorus of voices to praise God for God's goodness and mercy, human beings liberated from the bondage of being outsiders, of struggling with an impediment that is a product of a fallen nature and the evil that has tainted the world, and crying out in the face of the oppression from hypocritical authorities who keep God shut up for themselves rather than sharing God's love for the people.  In Jesus' grand critique of the scribes and Pharisees, we read (among many other things) in Matthew 23, "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in" (Matthew 23:13).  Here in today's reading is the power of the Incarnation, Christ' among us.  Even to the outsiders (and a woman, at that), He is "a light to lighten the Gentiles" (Luke 2:32), the ears of the deaf are unstopped (Isaiah 35:5), and there is liberty for the captives who can now speak and praise God, unbound from their respective prisons (Isaiah 61:1).  This is the action of Christ, in the chorus of praise for God enabled through His action and healing within this community of the kingdom of God found in Him and in His work and ministry.  Let us add our voices in freedom to that praise, for we also are illumined, liberated, and healed through Him.