In the period leading up to the stories we heard from Mark’s Gospel this morning, Jesus has been quite busy, with many demands on his time and attention and energy. He had tried to take his disciples aside to what should have been a quiet place, only to be met by a crowd of over 5,000 people, all of whom he had somehow fed. He managed to end that day alone in prayer, but started the next day by walking across a lake on the water to re-join his disciples. Since then, there had been no end of crowds, with everyone bringing their sick to him for healing. There had also been an argument with Pharisees and scribes, which he turned into a teaching moment for the crowd and then for his disciples.
Perhaps Jesus went to Tyre and Sidon in the hope that nobody in that territory would recognize him, and he could have some time and space to himself. If so, it didn’t work. He is met by yet another person who not only knows who he is, but needs his help. He doesn’t seem to respond at all graciously to the disturbance.
This encounter not only thwarts Jesus’ desire for some rest, it challenges his sense of purpose, his understanding of the work God has sent him to do. The parallel passage from Matthew’s Gospel makes this clearer. Up until this point, Jesus had thought his mission was only to bring the lost people of Israel back to God. Gentiles were not his concern.
Mark describes an experience of conversion, this moment of enlarged understanding for Jesus, in an interesting way. Whereas Matthew introduces the woman immediately as a Gentile, and has Jesus react to that, Mark introduces her initially as the concerned mother of a troubled little girl who falls at Jesus’ feet, and only then adds that she is a Gentile as she begs for his help.
Jesus still seems to focus on the Gentile part, however, and responds in a way that, at least to our ears, is quite demeaning and fails to acknowledge her humanity. The woman doesn’t waste time being offended by this, though, but uses Jesus’ own words to press her case and win her daughter’s healing from him.
In this context, the other Scriptures we read together this morning could be taken as something of a rebuke to Jesus. The rich and poor have this in common, says the writer of Proverbs: The LORD is the maker of them all, going on to say that the LORD pleads the cause of the poor and afflicted, and that those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor. Jews and Gentiles have this in common, the writer might say to Jesus: the LORD is the maker of them all, and pleads the cause of any who are afflicted, without making distinctions among them.
There is perhaps something then of an irony in James’ words in his letter: Stop showing favouritism as you live out your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law that brings freedom. Mercy triumphs over judgement. Surely, there is comfort and encouragement for us in our struggles when we consider how even Jesus seemed to struggle at times to discern and do the right thing as he eventually allowed mercy to triumph over judgement.
I suppose we all have times when life is just too busy, with too many demands on our time and attention and energy, times when we expect to be left alone for a while, only to have yet another person asking for something from us, perhaps someone we really don’t want to have to deal with at that moment. Let us ask God for the grace to see such people in all their humanity as those whom God loves and cares about, however different they might be from us, that we might respond with compassionate generosity, with wide mercy from God that triumphs over our sometimes too narrow judgement.
Jesus returns to Galilee after his encounter with that remarkable woman, to be met with some people who bring someone to him from the margins of their society, someone with disabilities that make what we think of as normal human interaction a struggle. Jesus responds with compassionate generosity, giving the man his full attention, engaging with him with wonderful caring intimacy, healing his afflictions and restoring him to his community. This, surely, is the Jesus to whom we come with our various afflictions, the Jesus to whom we bring those we learn to care about in prayer.
Very much comfort indeed thank you…and so comforting and hopeful too is the word ‘eventually’…