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We Who Thirst by Jessica LM Jenkins
Delve into the captivating tales of women from the Bible, exploring their lives within ancient cultures and historical contexts. These narratives reveal not only their stories but also the profound love and beauty of the God we worship.
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For a complete bibliography for each episode visit: https://rb.gy/xx0no6
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We Who Thirst by Jessica LM Jenkins
021 Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman who won a battle of wits (Matthew 15 & Mark 7)
Have you ever stumbled over the passage where Jesus seemingly insults a desperate mother by calling her a "dog"? This moment in Matthew 15 has troubled readers for centuries—but what if everything we thought about this encounter is completely wrong?
In this eye-opening exploration of the Canaanite/Syrophoenician woman, we unpack the rich cultural context that completely transforms our understanding of this interaction. Far from a momentary lapse into prejudice, Jesus orchestrates a brilliant social exchange that elevates this foreign woman to unprecedented status in her community while simultaneously expanding the boundaries of God's kingdom.
The story unfolds immediately after Jesus rebukes the Pharisees about true defilement, teaching that it's not external factors but what comes from the heart that truly makes someone unclean. Then, deliberately moving into "unclean" Gentile territory, Jesus encounters a woman whose daughter is possessed by an "unclean" spirit. The stage is perfectly set for a masterclass in what true purity looks like.
By understanding the ancient honor-shame culture and the verbal dueling practice called "challenge and riposte," we see how Jesus manipulates these cultural systems to benefit this marginalized woman. When she responds to his apparent insult with her clever "even the dogs get the crumbs" comeback, Jesus doesn't just heal her daughter—he publicly declares her faith "great," contrasting directly with his own disciples' "little faith."
This fascinating episode reveals how Jesus never simply heals physical ailments but restores social relationships and standing. His compassion extends beyond immediate needs to consider how a person will live after the encounter. The Canaanite woman walks away not just with a healed daughter but with elevated honor in her community—a truly holistic restoration.
Join us for this transformative journey into biblical context that will forever change how you read this powerful story of faith, cultural boundaries, and the God who transcends them all while working masterfully within them.
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Welcome back to we who Thirst podcast. We are continuing our series on women in context, where we look at specific accounts dealing with women of the Bible and look at them in their historical and textual contexts to understand these women better and to see what's going on in the account and to see how God cares for women and how that's revealed through this passage. Today we are dialing in to the account in Matthew 15 of the Syrophoenician woman who Jesus calls a dog. This at first blush, seems like he's calling her a slur and therefore this can be a very difficult passage to work through sometimes. How do we understand Jesus, god in the flesh, celebrated teacher, kind, gentle man, who lifts up women in so many ways? How do we comprehend him turning around and calling a supplicant woman who's just asking for help for her child, a needy mother, a dog, a slur? We need to make sense of this. Lots of explanations have been given. Some people say he's providing a test of faith. We'll have to see if we think that's what's going on. Some people even go as far to say he's allowing his human side. Jesus is fully God and fully man, but he's leaning into his fully man side here and some of the inherent classism, racism of his Jewish heritage, is leaking out. And then she teaches Jesus something about his mission and his ministry. I do want to start off saying that second idea I definitely disagree with. Jesus is always fully God and fully man. You can't separate the two. He is perfect and without sin, so racism cannot be what's going on here. Also, as he's dealing with this Syrophoenician woman, this is not the first time where he interacts with Gentiles and heals for them. This account of Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman occurs in Matthew 15 and Mark 7. We are going to focus on the Matthew 15 account because it's a little longer, a little more detailed, a little more to unpack. But you can also read the parallel passage in Mark 7.
Jessica LM Jenkins:But in the Gospel of Matthew, since that's the passage we're focusing on, Jesus heals the centurion's servant in Matthew, chapter 8. So dealing with Gentiles and healing them, obviously not a problem. Later on in chapter 8, he's in Gentile territory in Roman Palestine, near the Sea of Galilee, but it's the Decapolis. These are Gentile Greek cities, and he healed two demon-possessed Gentile men in Matthew 8. And so Jesus healing Gentiles, casting demons out of Gentiles these are not uncommon. Jesus has done this before. We've seen Jesus deal exceptionally kindly with women. In chapter 9 of Matthew he heals the woman with the issue of blood, which I hope to do an episode on soon and he raises Jairus' daughter from the dead. So Jesus dealing with women and healing them contextually in the text has not been a problem. So why in this passage does Jesus look at this woman who's coming to him with a request for healing of her demon-possessed daughter? Why does he turn to her first, ignoring her and then calling her a dog? Let's back up and look at the chapters surrounding this passage before we walk through the verses. So Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman or in Matthew Mark calls her the Syrophoenician woman, matthew calls her a Canaanite woman and we'll talk about that in a moment.
Jessica LM Jenkins:But this passage occurs in Matthew 15, 21 through 28. So let's back up in chapter 14. Just I'm going to give high level overview context here. Chapter 14, john the Baptist is beheaded by Herod. Then Jesus feeds the 5,000. Then he walks on water. Peter walks on water, with him sinks, and Jesus tells Peter calls Peter, oh ye of little faith because of Peter's lack of faith during that instance.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Then we move into chapter 15, where Jesus has an interaction with the Pharisees. Then he has his interaction with the Canaanite Seraphim nation woman. Then he feeds the 4,000. And then he has more conflicts with the Pharisees. I mention all this because I think it's important to consider that the feeding of the 5,000 and the 4,000 bookend three accounts that I think are kind of tied together. You have the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus is feeding people, he's caring for people. The theme of bread and feeding and banquets are really important to understand his interaction with the Canaanite woman. So he feeds the 5,000. Then he's interacting with his male disciples on a boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Peter walks on water and then loses sight of Jesus and Jesus calls Peter, who later or earlier is called the rock on whom I will build my church. I forget exactly where that passage is in the flow. But Peter, who will be the rock? Jesus tells him he has little faith. So Jesus' disciples are struggling with faith. They push back at the feeding. How are we going to feed all these people? And Jesus is like hold on y'all, I got this. And then he walks on water Brilliant faith. That then falls flat as he sinks down below and Jesus says oh, you of little faith. So we have faith struggles happening in Jesus' disciple group and that is how we enter into chapter 15. So in chapter 15, I'm going to start talking through the beginning of the chapter before we get to the Canaanite woman, because it sets up the Canaanite woman. The beginning of chapter 15 is a key contrast for what I believe is going on in Jesus' interactions with the Canaanite woman. So 15 starts.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Matthew doesn't give us the full context that Mark does. In Mark it says that in this beginning of the chapter, jesus and his disciples are walking through a field and they're just picking ears of grain and eating them. Matthew doesn't specify that, but that's the context of what's going on. So Matthew 15 starts verse 1,.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem. Now, these are the Pharisees of the Pharisees. These are like the big mucky-muck Pharisees. These are the really smart, the super educated, the best of the best Pharisees, and they're coming to Jesus from Jerusalem. That's how we know educated, the best of the best Pharisees, and they're coming to Jesus from Jerusalem. That's how we know they're the best of the best, because they're not your neighborhood Pharisee, they are the Jerusalem Pharisees. This is important. So they come to Jesus from Jerusalem and they ask Jesus why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat. What is going on here is the Pharisees are accusing Jesus of allowing his disciples and Mark says it very directly that Jesus is allowing his disciples to eat with unwashed hands. They are defiling themselves by not washing hands because the tradition of the elders says you have to wash your hands before you eat. In this very ritualistic way. It's not germs that they're concerned about, it's not soap and water, it's ritual purity.
Jessica LM Jenkins:So let's pause for a moment and talk about purity in the Bible. This is something I think a lot of people don't fully understand. My explanation right now is going to be really short. I hope to do a full episode on historical context and purity at some point, but for now let's just talk about purity in brief. Purity doesn't necessarily indicate one's sin or sinfulness. I want to state that outright. Your purity status doesn't necessarily match your sinfulness status. So we need to separate purity and sinfulness. Though they're related, they are separate concepts.
Jessica LM Jenkins:In the Bible, purity is concerned with ordering the world and making one's sense of one's everyday experiences in light of the order that God created. David Da Silva, in his book Honor, patronage, kinship and Purity, really talks about this in detail. I recommend that book all the time. It is excellent for understanding the historical context of the New Testament. But that's his definition that I just mentioned. Purity is concerned with the ordering of the world and making sense of one's everyday experiences in light of that order, the order which God created. And so you have a couple of different status markers of one purity, and purity can be of a person or an object. So you have status markers.
Jessica LM Jenkins:First, status marker is something can be either common or holy. Common is just the everyday things. It doesn't mean they're bad, they're not bad, they're just the normal everyday stuff. Then you have holy. These are the special things that are set aside for God. So your house would be a common place. The temple would be a holy place. It doesn't make your house bad, sinful or gross, it's just common, it's normal. Then you have holy, which would be the temple. That's the special set-apart place. Okay, so that's one consideration.
Jessica LM Jenkins:The second consideration is whether something is clean or unclean. According to De Silva, clean is a natural term referring generally to a person or thing in its normal state, the way God created it, to a person or thing, in its normal state, the way God created it, the way it's designed to be, that is clean. Unclean, again, according to De Silva, is the corresponding marked term denoting that something has crossed the line from their normal state into a dangerous state of pollution. So clean and unclean are very big concerns to the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Why? Why is this a concern? You have a lot of generational trauma going on, partly going back to the exile in the Old Testament.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Pre-exile Israel was not following God's commands. They were not following God's laws. They became unclean, both sinfully and purity-wise, and God cast them out. The Pharisees and the rabbinic traditions kind of started while they were in exile in Babylon and then they brought those traditions back when they resettled the land. But these purity traditions became, rather than a wholehearted love for God. A fear of supernatural anger against them took root in some of these people's hearts. That became an obsession with purity laws and legalism, because they are afraid if we are impure God will be angry with us. And so, rather than, as God said in the Old Testament, I care more about mercy and care for one another than your sacrifices, god was even telling them. I'm not looking for the specifics of the purity laws. I'm concerned about your heart, but they're like no, you have to be concerned about specifics of purity laws and we have to stay pure so that you're not mad at us and God's like I want your hearts and they're like it has to be the purity laws. Anyway, that's a very quick overview, but the Pharisees are very concerned about the purity laws because we have generational trauma way back from the exile, but also from the Romans, and a lot of wars and things going on. So the Pharisees want purity for their own safety personally, but also to protect their power. So the Pharisees, in verse 1 of chapter 15, come to Jesus and say basically, you are allowing your disciples to be defiled, to become unclean because they're not following our ritual rules to protect purity. Okay, to further understand this interaction, we also need to understand something that was very common in this honor-shame culture called challenge and riposte.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Now, in an honor-shame culture, you are exceptionally concerned with how the people around you perceive you. An honor-shame culture is oriented towards the approval or the disapproval of others. An honor or shame? Honor, specifically, is your social currency. Those with higher status have more honor. You want to gain honor, some honor you kind of have innately because of your given social status. It could be the family you're born in, the amount of wealth you have, perhaps your gender, whether you were a slave or a freeborn person. These sorts of things give you a kind of base level honor. Everybody kind of comes into the world with a base level of honor because of their family, gender, social status, wealth. There's a whole list of things that impact social status and honor. But you kind of come in with a base level. But this culture had a way of gaining more honor at the expense of others through what is called a challenge and riposte system.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And once you learn about the challenge and riposte system, a lot of Jesus' interactions with the Pharisees make a ton of sense. Because the Pharisees are constantly trying to shame Jesus. That means bring his honor levels down. If you think of it like a video game where they have the health bar, they want to make Jesus' honor bar lower and they want to make their honor bar bigger. And so challenge-repost interactions do that. They make one person they get more shame, the honor bar gets smaller. The other person they get more honor. And it's the crowd, the people who's watching the challenge-repost that typically declares the victor and they are looking to gain greater honor in eyes of the crowd.
Jessica LM Jenkins:So in Matthew 15, that's what we have going on here is a challenge-repost situation with Jesus and the Pharisees again, because the Pharisees are constantly doing this to Jesus. So they come up to him and they challenge him. They say in verse 2, why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat. That's a challenge. They're trying to attack the disciples with the subtle implication that if the disciples are doing wrong because Jesus is a bad teacher, with the implication to the crowd that if Jesus is a bad teacher because he can't even keep his disciples clean, why are you listening to him? That's everything kind of wrapped up in the Pharisees' challenge and it's about purity and defilement. Jesus doesn't even understand purity, he doesn't understand defilement, he doesn't know what keeps people clean, he doesn't follow the tradition. So that is the challenge.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Jesus replies with a lengthy riposte that just rips them to shreds. I'll just read verses three through nine briefly. Jesus replies with his riposte and he says but why do you, pharisees, break the command of God? For the sake of your tradition? For God said honor your father and mother, and anyone who curses their father and mother is to be put to death. But you say that if anyone declares what might have been used to help their father or mother is devoted to God, they are not to honor their father and mother with it. Thus, you Pharisees, nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you. These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain. Their teachings are merely human rules. So, challenge proposed, the Pharisees want to gain honor by shaming Jesus. So they come saying you are a bad teacher because you let your disciples become unclean by not washing their hands. The traditions of the elders says they need to wash hands, defiled, unclean. You're a bad teacher.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Jesus turns around with a very quick reposte and just reams them out and he says you're challenging me on breaking the traditions of the elders. You can't obey God. Here is a very serious death penalty way. You're not obeying God. Who's the bad teacher Actually? Isaiah, your prophet, talks about you and how unqualified you are. Well, the Pharisees don't have a reply to that, which is a way of admitting defeat in a challenge-repost situation. So the Pharisees back off the scene and the crowd continues listening to Jesus which, when his teaching authority is what was being challenged, that is, the crowd continues listening to Jesus which, when his teaching authority is what was being challenged, that is the crowd's way of acknowledging Jesus wins the challenge reposed discussion. Jesus continues to showcase that he does indeed understand purity and defilement. You may be sitting here going, jessica. I thought we were going to be talking about the Serafinitian Canaanite woman. We are. This is all Leda.
Jessica LM Jenkins:So Jesus then moves into a set of teachings about what makes someone defiled or not. The crowd is listening. They're on the edges of their seat. He just won a public challenge or post argument with the Pharisees. He has earned greater honor in their eyes. The original audience of the book of Matthew is reading through this, listening, paying attention. They are recognizing the patterns of their culture. Challenge or post is exceptionally common. They would all immediately pick up on what's going on here, even though we miss it. And so Jesus calls the crowd to them in verse 10. He says listen and understand.
Jessica LM Jenkins:What goes into someone's mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth defiles them. And then he teaches a little bit more and he reiterates that statement about the essence of what makes someone defiled In verse 17,. He says don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach, then out of the body, but the things that come out of a person's mouth, from the heart, defile them? Subtly pointing fingers again at the Pharisees, but setting a foundation for what is it that actually defiles a person? It's not these outward laws on whether you wash your hands properly, it's your heart, which is what the Pharisees have been missing since the exile. They haven't got that since the exile. So he says, what comes out of the heart defiles them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts. Murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander these are what defile a person. But eating with unwashed hands does not defile them. A quick recap we see an example of a challenger post where Jesus wins. We see an example of a challenger post where Jesus wins. He then moves into teaching about what he was challenged on, which is the essence of defilement, and whether he's a qualified teacher. Then the text shifts, and this shift is really important because the very next verse, after he finishes teaching, these are what defile a person, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them. Verse 20, verse 21 shifts to the narrative section about the Canaanite Syrophoenician woman. Verse 21 says leaving that place, jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. Let's pause for a minute. Imagine a map of Israel in your mind, if you can. You have the Dead Sea, you have the Sea of Galilee. Syrophoenicia is above the Sea of Galilee by the Mediterranean Sea. Okay, you can kind of picture it. It's up that region. So Jesus is moving north west and further into Gentile territory.
Jessica LM Jenkins:One part of purity that I didn't talk about earlier is for the ancient peoples, but especially Israel, purity is not only common, holy, clean, unclean, it is also geographic. They viewed purity kind of in concentric circles. So the Holy of Holies in the temple is the most pure place geographically for them on the planet. You move a little, you know. The next circle outside the Holy of Holies would be the temple itself. The next circle is the temple complex. Then you have the city of Jerusalem. Then you have the nation of Israel, where the Jewish people live, the areas they are living in. Then outside that you have the Gentile lands. Okay, so Jerusalem, the city is a holy city. So everything from the Jerusalem circle down to the Holy of Holies, that's more holy space. Common space would be more just where all the Jewish people live, and then unclean, defiled, profane space would be more where the Gentile people live in their mindset. So you have Jesus, who just delivered the stunning teaching on what is purity and impurity.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Move outside of, not only outside of holy, physical geographic space, but outside of the common physical geographic space, into Gentile territories of Tyre and Sidon. Both the original audience and those walking with Jesus are well aware of what has just happened. We missed it. We're just like more cities. He's going somewhere. I don't know what's going on, not all of us, but some of us. You might be like I know what's going on, that's okay, but he's moving outside. So Jesus has just put himself in danger, purity-wise, by exiting the Jewish lands and moving to Gentile lands.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Okay, all of these purity maps are in the minds of the original hearers and those traveling with Jesus in the text, the original hearers being the church, because the Gospel of Matthew was written and composed for the early church. So we have the early church reading, listening or reading about Jesus. So we consider how they thought about this passage. Then we have the people who are actually physically on the ground with Jesus. When this event happened so we're considering both of those audiences simultaneously happened, so we're considering both of those audiences simultaneously. So back to our story that we really want to get into Leaving that place, jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
Jessica LM Jenkins:He's now in impure territory, unclean, impure territory, and a Canaanite woman from the vicinity came to him. The Canaanite Mark calls her Syrophoenician, which fits ethnically, geographically, where she's from Tyre, sidon, syrophoenicia that's the physical, geographic titles for the region. Canaanite is an emotive term. A lot of the Greek people from that to the Jewish early church in the Jewish people who would be traveling with Jesus. The Canaanite term brings up all of the Old Testament issues with the Canaanite people who were a thorn in their side, the entire Old Testament Again bringing back purity concerns from all the way back in the Old Testament. So they've moved to impure space geographically. And a Canaanite woman from the vicinity came to Jesus crying out. Everybody's a little on edge now.
Jessica LM Jenkins:It's one thing when a God-fearing Gentile in a Jewish city or near a Jewish city calls out, but now we're in an impure space and a Canaanite woman calls out to Jesus. But what she says is fascinating and, I think, precipitates a lot of the interaction. She comes to Jesus crying out and she says in verse 22, lord, son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly. We are used to, as the modern reader of the text, seeing Lord, son of David. Everybody's calling Jesus Lord Son of David.
Jessica LM Jenkins:But what we might miss is that for a Gentile who doesn't even live in Israel they live in a different geographic region to call Jesus by his messianic title is very odd. She's coming to Jesus as though she's Jewish, as though she has rights to the Jewish Messiah. She's not coming to him as God omnipotent. She's not coming to him as holy teacher. She's coming to him as Lord son of David, aka Jewish Messiah. Have mercy on me. She's echoing language of the Psalms have mercy on me. She's echoing language of the Psalms. We don't know how she came up with this language.
Jessica LM Jenkins:My hunch is that she's a very intelligent woman, which we will see throughout the rest of the passage. She is very smart, she knows enough and she's like. I need to make an appeal. I am advocating for my daughter. I'm going to do it the best possible way. I'm going to use the most formal title I can for this teacher. And so she comes crying out Lord, son of David, have mercy on me.
Jessica LM Jenkins:My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly. But what is shocking more so than a Gentile Greek woman outside of Israel calling Jesus a messianic title, because that would be shocking is that Jesus ignores her. Very rarely do we see Jesus ignore anybody in the gospel. He is usually very quick to heal, to engage, to care for people. But verse 23 says Jesus did not answer a word. This Gentile woman is screaming his messianic title, begging for his help as her heart is broken and he doesn't say a word. Her daughter is demon-possessed.
Jessica LM Jenkins:This passage does not specify that it's an unclean spirit, but all demons were considered unclean spirits. So this goes back to our theme of defilement. She is in a defiled land, she is of an unclean people group and her daughter isn't just sick, she's possessed by an unclean spirit. She's possessed by an unclean spirit. So, with all this going on, with her rampant defilement in the eyes of a Jewish audience, she's coming to Jesus begging for his help as the Jewish Messiah and he doesn't say anything. Mark says they're in a house. It says he leaves Israel.
Jessica LM Jenkins:He goes to the Syrophoenicia region, he goes into our house and he's trying to hunker down and hide a little bit. He may be trying to rest and even mourn John the Baptist's death, because all of this happens fairly quickly after John the Baptist died, who was Jesus' cousin, and Jesus may be trying to get some space to personally deal with this. And so he's left Galilee, maybe hoping crowds don't follow him, so he can get some space, so he can mourn. And this Syrophoenician woman starts banging down the door and screaming through the windows son of David, messiah, have mercy on me. So he doesn't answer. Finally his disciples get tired of it and they come to him and they urge him and they say send her away, for she keeps crying after us. Now they're not asking Jesus to help her, they want him to tell her to leave.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Again, the disciples low on faith, low on compassion, and Jesus answered and says I was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel. So he is playing off of her call as using the Messianic terms. She says son of David. He says I was sent to Israel. He's not addressing her yet. He's talking to the disciples. She's within earshot, saying this is what people believe the Messiah is here for the lost sheep of Israel. She is outside Now.
Jessica LM Jenkins:He's just given teaching on defilement in 1920. What defiles a person? What comes out of their heart? What is coming out of her heart? Messianic faith. Jesus here is allowing tension to rise. His disciples are rattled.
Jessica LM Jenkins:This woman, it says, she's crying out. She keeps crying out. She is not giving up. She's like the persistent widow. She's just outside this house, or maybe she's gotten into this house and she's just yelling have mercy, have mercy, have mercy. And Jesus is allowing the tension to rise. He's allowing everybody to feel all of the nuances and all of the ah of this situation.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Jesus is the same as he was in Matthew 8, where he's healing, in Matthew 9, where he raises Jairus' daughter and he heals the woman with the issue of blood. Jesus has not changed. We sometimes miss how incredibly brilliant Jesus is as a social strategist, and I believe that's what's going on here and what actually makes this passage incredibly beautiful. So Jesus replies to his disciples and he says I was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel. And you cut I kind of imagine that almost with a right wink, wink, nudge, nudge, like she's out, you're in. Why are you asking me to deal with this. Well, somehow the woman manages to get in the house, or Jesus has walked out of the house.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Matthew doesn't tell us where they're at physically now, but the woman comes and she kneels before him. She drops all pretense. She drops her carefully crafted appeal and her language that she had probably thought through as soon as she heard Jesus was in the region. She drops all of that and instead she just cries out to him, an anguished mother, a woman in desperate need of assistance, and she says Lord, help me, help me, lord Jesus, after pressing the boundaries of what is my calling, what am I here for? After allowing the tensions to rise, so that everybody's paying attention to what's going on. Her screaming has brought a crowd. If he had dealt with her immediately, just a couple people. Jesus has allowed a crowd to gather. He has allowed the tensions to rise. Everybody is wondering what is the celebrated teacher from Galilee going to do? The woman comes and falls at his feet. Lord, help me. The anguished cry of a desperate mother. And here is where the passage can take a really rough turn, because he replies and says to her it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs.
Jessica LM Jenkins:The term dog often is used as a slur in the New Testament and I'm not going to lighten that. Some people say, oh, it's the little pets under the table. It may have been, but even today and we love our dogs today we spend so much money on our dogs today Even today, if you call a man a dog, that guy is a dog. Stay away. It's an insult. He is leveling an insult, but it's not a racist slur. It is not. I do not believe he is purpose.
Jessica LM Jenkins:He is putting her down what I believe Jesus doing here. In his social brilliance. He has picked up, of course, that this is an exceptionally sharp, aware woman. And Jesus is now doing what he very rarely does. He is the one starting something like a challenge-repost scenario.
Jessica LM Jenkins:In the beginning of the chapter we saw the Pharisees challenge Jesus your disciples eat with unwashed hands. How could you do this? So now Jesus issues a challenge to this woman. She's come, she's at his feet. It's abnormal. Normally Jesus just heals those who beg for help, who show faith, and she has shown that by screaming after him. Show faith, and she has shown that by screaming after him. But he challenges her and he says it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs. The children would be the lost sheep of Israel. The dogs are the outside, the Gentiles. He challenges her. I almost see a twinkle in his eye a little bit as he lays this out. He's like dogs. That's what they think of you. I'm the Messiah for Israel. You're asking me for something that you know you don't have rights to. He challenges her. She replies yes, it is Lord. She replies yes, it is Lord. She said even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table. Her riposte, her reply brings Jesus joy. She exemplifies humility. She exemplifies understanding of the purity boundaries that she was in some ways trying to transgress and she recognizes who he is. She also and I love this finds a loophole in Jesus' argument that he can't escape from.
Jessica LM Jenkins:I need to do a full study on Jesus' interactions with women, especially in contrast to some of his interactions with men. But the only times I can think of where Jesus in some way, shape or form loses an argument, a challenge or repost or a disagreement, is generally to a woman. You see it in John 4. Mary's like they need wine, solve the problem. And he's like what am I supposed to do? My time has not come? And his mom's like he'll take care of it. Jesus is like yeah, I will. Again.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Here, jesus says he allows the woman to have the upper hand, he allows her to win the challenge riposte. He set up the entire situation, playing off the prejudices of the crowd, playing off of their heightened sensitivities, their understanding of purity, of honor, of shame. You have a woman who is coming. She is a daughter who's unclean. She's perhaps wealthy, perhaps not, but she's also a woman. She's not coming through a broker or a man to present her request before Jesus. In one of the Gospels, when the centurion asked for his servant to be healed, he sent the synagogue leaders as brokers to talk to Jesus. In Matthew he talks directly, but in other passages it's the brokers he sent. They just cut them out in the Matthew account because it wasn't necessary for the story.
Jessica LM Jenkins:But she's going against cultural conventions on how you approach a celebrated teacher in her desperation, lifts her up, lifts her up. He issues a very specific, nuanced challenge that challenges her use of the messianic title and whether or not she can exist in the space she is trying to occupy, and he says it's not right to take the children's bread which he was just feeding everybody when he fed the 5,000, and now he's going to feed bread to the 4,000 almost directly after this. So he's like feeding everybody already. He's just like tossing bread to the wind and he says it's not right. And there's Gentiles in that crowd, it's not like he's just feeding Jewish people with the 4,000 and 5,000. So that's part of what's going on here.
Jessica LM Jenkins:You see Jesus making a point to everyone, to the crowd that has gathered, to his disciples. It's not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs. They think you're a dog. They think you're a dog, they don't think you belong here and she's able to be like even the dogs. Get the crumbs that fall from their master's table and the word master their master's table and the word master the master's table. I do belong here. I may not be a quote child, but I have a right to the crumbs.
Jessica LM Jenkins:She finds a loophole not only in Jesus' argument, which I believe he left wide open for her to walk through, but in the mindset of the Jewish people and the crowds in the early church. Because again, the early church is concerned. How do Gentiles fit into the kingdom of God. That's why Paul was constantly running into the circumcision party who believed that in order to be part of the church you needed to be circumcised. And the book of Matthew is written to the church.
Jessica LM Jenkins:So again, this is creating an understanding of defilement and it's rewriting the purity boundaries, while Jesus is creating a way for this woman to earn honor. In a challenged riposte, the loser gets shamed and the winner gains honor. Here, jesus challenges the woman who is coming after him. She responds with a brilliant riposte and Jesus declares her the winner, which normally the crowd does that, but Jesus does it. In this instance, jesus declares her the winner and says woman, you have great faith, you win, your request is granted and her daughter was healed at that moment. So you have a situation where Jesus challenges her honor. He tries to shame her in the cultural convention. Is he really trying to shame her? No, he's creating a situation in which her honor is going to be elevated in that crowd forever the Jewish people traveling with him. She is called great faith. Peter was just told he had little faith.
Jessica LM Jenkins:This Syrophoenician, canaanite woman has great faith. So in his disciple group she is honored. She is honored In her Syrophoenician village. She is going to be known as the one who beats the celebrated teacher in a challenge riposte when nobody, even the most dedicated scholars, can do this. Nobody beats Jesus in a challenge riposte Ever. That's part of the reason the Pharisees are so mad, because they keep trying and they keep failing, because Jesus always wins. Now he challenges her and she wins, but Jesus doesn't get shamed because now he heals. So both of them increase in honor through this interaction. She walks off, not slurred off, not slurred, but honored. He calls out her great faith. I don't know.
Jessica LM Jenkins:The text doesn't tell us this woman's story. It's possible she's a widow, since she didn't have a husband to advocate, or maybe her husband didn't believe. We're not sure her whole situation. We don't know if she is rich or poor. A rich person would probably try to hire an exorcist of some kind for the demon. Maybe she's done that already. It doesn't tell us. She is going to be shamed to a degree by both Greco-Roman culture and Jewish culture, because her daughter has a demon, an unclean spirit. This is going to bring her shame in the eyes of her community.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Often the ancient world considered that if you were sick or you had a demon or your kid had a demon. There was a sin or an impurity. Even the Gentiles had purity maps that are a little bit different than Israel, than the Jewish peoples, but they had them as well. These purity ideas are common throughout the ancient Near East. They're just applied differently in Judaism than the Gentile pagan religions. I see that. I see the slurs. You might be called by your community, definitely by my people. I'm going to bring that to the forefront to challenge you so that you can win, to increase your honor and thereby not just heal your daughter but heal your relationships in your community and leave you better than I found you. When Jesus heals in the gospel, he never just heals. He never just heals. Jesus repairs relationships and social dynamics through that healing. When Jesus heals, he brings peace, he brings shalom, he brings wholeness.
Jessica LM Jenkins:This woman, this narrative starts in verse 21 in an impure place with a unclean Gentile woman with an especially defiled daughter, and it ends with a woman whose honor in her community has not only been restored but expanded, a daughter who is clean and her faith. Jesus said in verse 19, or verse 18, excuse me, out of a person's mouth. That is what defiles a person, what came out of her mouth, that which showed her faith. When we look at the story of the Syrophoenician woman in its historical context understanding purity, understanding, challenger, post, understanding, honor, shame seeing the lead up to this passage. And then what happens right after? After he leaves her, he goes on back down to the Sea of Galilee and feeds a crowd of 4,000. Was she in that crowd? Did she follow? We don't know? Maybe, but this idea of Jesus as the bread of life, giving bread freely while repairing social relationships and honor and healing those who come to him, it gives a very different feel of the passage.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Jesus isn't just testing her faith here. I'm going to be kind of mean to you to see if you really have faith. Do you, do you? I don't know. No, jesus is setting her up brilliantly because he knows from her words Lord son of David, have mercy on me. Messianic psalmistic title. He's like ah, I mean, jesus is all-knowing, so he would have known anyway. But he's like ah, you're brilliant, you're up for the challenge. I'm going to challenge you because I'm not just going to heal your daughter, I'm going to make you a celebrity in your town. You are going to be known forever as the woman who bested me, who won my favor through a battle of wits. I'm going to challenge you so that you gain what you need. Physically, your daughter is healed, socially, repair in your community, and I'm going to leave you better than I found you. Your honor will increase, which enables opportunities for employment or marriage or whatever her physical needs are. Having greater honor takes care of a lot of the other needs she could have that the text doesn't mention.
Jessica LM Jenkins:I love the story of the Syrophoenician woman because, though it seems really odd and awkward, it allows us to see Jesus' heart play out in social ways that would make sense to the original audience that we miss. So we can see the situation and go. What is Jesus doing? Jesus is doing what he always does in a tailored way, specific to the people he's working with, according to their personalities and their giftedness. Not everybody does Jesus challenge. Not everybody's up for that.
Jessica LM Jenkins:This woman was, and he knew it. He uses who she is as a person to set forth a message that the kingdom of God is for the Gentiles as well. God is for the Gentiles as well. That, yes, he's the Jewish Messiah, but he's not ignoring the Gentiles. That she is worthy as a woman, as a person of faith. Jesus is creating a new household of faith that includes Gentile women that were often considered dogs, and it's beautiful, because God's heart for women doesn't change. His heart for women is revealed in the Old Testament. It's revealed in the Gospels, it's revealed in the Old Testament, it's revealed in the Gospels and it's revealed through the account of the Syrophoenician woman, as Jesus looks at her and lifts her up as one of the few models of great faith in the Gospels. Thank you so much for coming on this journey today to look at this Canaanite woman. I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the episodes and what you have learned from this. I look forward to being with you next time. Have a great day.
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