Two Additional Healings
TRANSLATION
(24) And from there he arose and left for the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know about it. Yet, he could not keep his presence a secret. (25) Immediately a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit, having heard about him, came and fell at his feet. (26) Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. (27) He said to her, “Let the children first be fed, for it is not right to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” (28) But she answered him, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” (29) And he said to her, “For such a response you may go your way. The demon has left your daughter.” (30) And she went to her house and found the child lying in bed and the demon departed.
(31) Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the sea of Galilee into the region of Decapolis. (32) And they brought to him a man who was deaf along with a speech impediment. And they begged him to place his hands on him. (33) Then (Jesus) took him away from the crowd privately and put his fingers into his ears and, after spitting, touched his tongue. (34) Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” (35) And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. (36) Jesus admonished them to tell no one, but the more he admonished them the more they proclaimed it. (37) They were overwhelmed with amazement and said, “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
OBSERVATIONS
This segment contains the accounts of two additional healings, each one contributing to a deepening understanding of Jesus’ earthly ministry. In the first, three repetitions, “daughter” (vss. 26 & 29), “children/child” (four times in vss. 27, 28, & 30), and “dogs” (vss. 27 & 28), point us to the message of the paragraph. In the second healing, three more repetitions, “deaf” (vss. 32 & 37), “ears” (vss. 33 & 35), and “tongue” (vss. 33 & 35), help us understand the paragraph’s emphasis. These two segments are linked by one further repetition of “begged” (vss. 26 & 32).
Geography played a vital role in this segment. We should note that Jesus was ministering outside the boundaries of Israel in a Gentile area when he traveled to Tyre and Sidon and met the woman who was Syrophoenician. By the time he encountered the deaf mute he had already returned to Jewish territory. Apart from his journey to Egypt as an infant, this is the only time we have a record of Jesus venturing outside Israel’s borders.
OUTLINE
I. In Gentile territory, Jesus delivered a Gentile woman’s daughter from a demon. (24-29)
II. In Decapolis, Jesus healed a man afflicted with deafness. (30-37)
IDEA STATEMENT
Wherever Jesus went, those with afflictions sought his healing grace to meet their desperate needs.
APPLICATION
The response Jesus gave to the Gentile mother when she begged him to heal her daughter strikes us as uncharacteristically harsh: “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” How could the Lord of life and the embodiment of God’s grace speak such off-putting words to a pleading mother? One way to understand Jesus’ answer to her request is to recognize that Jesus was not actually voicing his own thoughts but rather articulating what the Jewish leaders of his day would likely have spoken or at least what was likely running through their minds if they had been confronted with the desperate needs of this foreigner. In doing this, he exposed their arrogance and indifference toward the suffering of those in the Gentile world surrounding Israel.
The woman’s response to Jesus’ statement, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs,” demonstrated a remarkable spirit of gentleness, humility, and wisdom on her part. Once again, it was a Gentile who expressed genuine faith in the Savior as opposed to the Jewish leaders who had largely rejected his ministry. Instead of defensiveness or bitterness, she essentially told Jesus, “We may not deserve any consideration from you, but I would be grateful for anything you might do for us.” Jesus could not refuse such a heartfelt petition. With a single command, he banished the demon from her daughter’s life. This woman exhibited the attitude set forth in the first Beatitude Jesus gave in his Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 5:3).