Mark 7:24, commentary and pictures

After conflict with the Pharisees, Jesus withdrew from Capernaum across Galilee to the hill country on the borders of Tyre and Sidon, entering a house seeking retirement and to be unknown. He left His field of labor because the scribes and Pharisees refused the salvation offered them, murmured in unbelief and bitterness, and sought His life. He could not be hid, for reports of His healing mercy had gone before Him and drew attention to Him. The only miracle of that journey was the healing of the Gentile Syrophoenician woman's demon-afflicted daughter, who came and fell at His feet crying for help. The journey was made both to relieve her and to leave His disciples an example of mercy toward a despised people, leading them from Jewish exclusiveness to a gospel work unrestricted by custom or nationality.

Journey to Gentile Borders

After His encounter with the Pharisees He withdrew from Capernaum across Galilee to the hill country on the borders of Phenicia, Tyre and Sidon. He hoped there to find the retirement He had failed to secure at Bethsaida and to prepare His disciples for their mission. From those hills He could look down upon the ancient cities of Tyre and Sidon with their heathen temples, magnificent palaces and marts of trade, and harbors filled with shipping, and beyond them the broad Mediterranean over which messengers of the gospel would later bear its glad tidings to the centers of the world's great empire, but the time for that work was not yet.

He departed from His field of labor at Jerusalem and Capernaum because the scribes and Pharisees murmured and complained, manifested unbelief and bitterness, refused the salvation so freely offered them, and sought to take His life. He entered into a house and would have no man know it, seeking privacy and retirement and withdrawing to avoid notice. It was His manner sometimes to leave places where interest in His work was greatest and go privately to more obscure regions after giving instruction and warning, to prevent a dangerous outbreak among enemies and friends and thus preserve His work until the appointed time for it to end.

But He could not be hid, for reports of His healing work had reached that region. His character, words, deeds of mercy, and power drew attention even where He sought seclusion. As His presence then could not remain hidden, so His presence in medical missionary work likewise cannot be concealed.

The healing of the afflicted woman's daughter was the only miracle He wrought on that journey, done for the purpose of relieving her. A Greek, Syrophoenician, Canaanitish, foreign Phoenician woman, whose daughter had an unclean spirit and was grievously afflicted by a demon, heard of Him and came and fell at His feet, crying for help and beseeching Him to cast the devil out of her daughter.

Mercy Beyond Israel

The journey into the borders of Tyre and Sidon was made to relieve the afflicted Gentile woman and at the same time to leave the disciples an example of the work they should do, an example of mercy toward one of a despised people for their benefit when He should no longer be with them. It was meant to lead them away from Jewish exclusiveness to be interested in working for others besides their own people and to open their minds more fully to the labor before them among the Gentiles. The event prepared them to work beyond their own nation without limits imposed by custom or nationality. When the Jews turned still more persistently from the disciples because they declared Jesus to be the Saviour of the world, and the partition wall between Jew and Gentile was broken down by the death of Christ, this lesson pointing to a gospel work unrestricted by custom or nationality brought a powerful influence to bear in directing their labors.

His entering Gentile territory outside the acknowledged people of Israel and working directly among Gentiles, as in the Syrophoenician woman's conversion, was an effort to lead beyond exclusiveness and a sign of the wider, continuing mission to them. This visit showed that Gentiles as well as Jews could receive salvation, and that people regarded as unworthy of salvation could hunger for the light of truth. He had come into this region so His disciples could see the spiritual ignorance and unmet needs of people living near Judea. The encounter there gave opportunity to teach them that those blessed with knowledge of God should serve others, including people from other nations.

The woman belonged to an unfortunate and despised race not favored with the light of God's word, yet she had no national or religious pride, prejudice, or pretense to influence her. She yielded at once to divine influence, trusted completely that Jesus was the Redeemer with power to grant her request, and unconditionally acknowledged Him. Though His heart was moved by her grief and He was a pitying Saviour who knew her heart, He seemed for a time to disregard her plea and received it in a way that reflected the cold treatment Jews would have given someone of her race. His apparent indifference and brief seeming rejection tested her faith, sincerity, and confidence and was meant to teach His disciples how they should respond to people in distress.

The disciples, seeing His indifference, supposed Jewish prejudice against Canaanites pleased Him, so their sympathies were not aroused and they asked Him to send her away. His answer that He was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel sounded like Jewish prejudice but was an implied rebuke to them. It reminded them that He came to the world to save all who would accept Him and that all who seek Him ready to believe are the lost sheep He came to gather into His fold. When her persevering faith was shown, He turned to her with pity and love, commended her great faith, and granted what she asked, declaring it be unto her as she willed, and from that hour her daughter became whole and the demon troubled her no more. Christ Himself had inspired her persistence and did not fail to honor the confidence He had given her.

Her story teaches that persevering prayer is rewarded, that those who ask Christ in faith are not left to perish, and that even the weakest and most struggling soul may find hope and sufficiency in God. The account reveals Christ's great love for suffering humanity in answering earnest, humble supplication. It rebukes selfishness and neglect of the unfortunate, the blind, the lame and afflicted, the widow and the fatherless. It calls for greater missionary effort right at home in families and neighborhoods in caring for the afflicted, the suffering, and the discouraged.