July 19, 2024

Mark 7:26-27

²⁶ The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷ 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.”

This is the only time in the Bible where Jesus initially rejects someone’s request for healing. And yet it is certain that this reason does NOT apply to you! And in the end, this woman got her healing for her daughter. She did not leave the presence of Jesus empty handed.

Now if you were to base your assessment of what the Bible says about healing on the performance of the modern church, you would probably conclude that there were many times when Jesus didn’t heal people. But this is absolutely not the case!

This interaction with the Syro-Phoenician woman was something unique. And because it is so unique and exceptional, we should look at it closely and find out the reason for His initial reaction. There is not another time when Jesus initially said, “No.” What was happening here?

Nearly all of Jesus’s ministry was conducted in the Roman provinces of Galilee and Judea (more Galilee than Judea). These were the two provinces where Jews were the primary population. Geographically speaking, Jesus didn’t cover a large portion of the world. We do have an instance where He travelled into Samaria, which was the province between Galilee and Judea, But primarily, Jesus kept His ministry focused on the geographical areas where the Jews lived.

And yet we see that the ministry exploded to such a feverish pitch that the demands became enormous. Crowds kept coming and coming to be healed and to hear Him teach. There were times when Jesus and the disciples could not even stop to eat.

So Jesus, for a brief time, left the area of the Jews and travelled into Gentile territory. I can think of two good reasons for this. First, they needed a physical break from the demands of the ministry. It was time for a rest so they wouldn’t burn out from exhaustion. And second, He only had a limited amount of time to teach the twelve before His ministry would be fulfilled on the cross, and so He needed to have some concentrated teaching time for them without interruption.

But even outside His familiar territory, He was still known. And a gentile woman came to Him to request that He cast a demon out of her daughter.

Now surprisingly, He initially rejected her. His purpose for being in gentile territory was not for ministry to the masses, but for rest and training for His disciples.

And yet something amazing happened in His interaction with this gentile woman.

He told her that He had been sent to the Jews. They were God’s children. And it wasn’t right to give the children’s bread to the dogs. In essence, He was telling her that the non-Jews (gentiles) were dogs. Gentiles were not God’s children and had no covenant with Him.

Now the woman could have been offended and gone off with nothing. But she humbly accepted what Jesus said as accurate. She was not one of the children. And yet, she reminded Jesus that dogs get to eat what the children drop under the table.

It was an answer that showed that she had great faith! And because of her answer, she got the crumbs from the table. Her daughter was delivered!

Now this exceptional answer that began with a “No” can never apply to you today. Why? Because what Jesus did at the cross opened the way for the gentiles to become children of God!!

Healing is the children’s bread! And YOU are one of God’s children! You don’t have to wait for the crumbs under the table because the New Covenant changed everything for the gentiles.

There is no longer a difference between gentile and Jew. Jesus destroyed that division at the cross!

So go ahead and enjoy the children’s bread. Healing is for you!