Mark 7:27, commentary and pictures

Jesus told the Syrophoenician mother that Israel as God's favored family must first be filled with its blessings, picturing Gentile outsiders as dogs under the table who eat the fallen crumbs. His cold, rejecting manner echoed Jewish prejudice but hid a pitying heart, and was meant to prove her faith, sincerity and perseverance. He also allowed her plea to wait in order to rebuke the disciples' lack of sympathy and to teach them the compassionate way they must treat such distress after He was gone. She yielded without pride, accepted a dog's place for a dog's crumb, and showed unexampled faith in His power and goodness, so He commended her, ended the test, and by His word freed her demon-vexed daughter from that hour. The encounter thus breaks Jewish exclusiveness and shows the gospel reaching beyond Israel to Gentiles hungering for truth who are welcomed as God's children. In the teaching held by a few, the children's bread is the third angel's message to be given to the children first and not softened and spent upon the churches as dogs.

Encounter and Wording

The saying belongs to the meeting with a foreign woman in a Phoenician town on the borders of Tyre and Sidon, where barriers are broken down. Jesus had withdrawn there to seek retirement and to prepare His disciples for their mission, turning from scribes and Pharisees who sought His life with murmuring and complaint, unbelief and bitterness, and who refused the salvation freely offered them. It was the only miracle on that journey, undertaken for the very purpose of relieving the afflicted woman. Though He sought privacy, He could not be hidden, but heard the mother's appeal for her sick daughter and healed her.

It was spoken to a Canaanitish, Syrophoenician woman of the old Canaanite race of that district, idolaters despised and hated by the Jews. As a heathen she was excluded from the advantages the Jews daily enjoyed and was not favored with the light of God's word, and she knew that Jews rejected contact with Canaanites. She came out from those borders crying for mercy, calling Him Lord, Thou Son of David, for her daughter grievously vexed with a devil and sick. She had heard of the prophet who heals all manner of diseases whether rich or poor, and though she had sought help from heathen gods and obtained no relief and was tempted to think what a Jewish teacher could do for her, hope sprang up in her heart. Inspired by a mother's love she determined with resolute purpose to present her case and not lose her only hope.

The encounter ended with Jesus freeing the grievously afflicted daughter by His word. This gives another instance like the Gadara demoniacs of cruel satanic affliction met by the compassionate Saviour's power and mercy to heal and release captives. As in nearly every such healing, He addressed the demon as an intelligent entity, commanding him to come out of his victim and torment him no more, exercising authority and power over unclean spirits so that they come out.

The children are Israel, the favored people of God, and their bread is the blessings given to Israel. The dogs are strangers and aliens from Israel, Gentiles and Canaanites as members of a despised people not favored with the light of God's word. Let the children first be filled means Israel should first receive the bread. The saying pictures the abundance on which the rightful family feasts while dogs under the table eat the crumbs that fall to the floor. That priority does not deny that a believing outsider may receive help.

Jesus spoke in apparent rejection, according to the unfeeling, cold and heartless prejudice of the Jews that treated those outside Israel as unworthy of Israel's blessings. His apparent indifference hid a pitying heart. His noticing her case enough to remark upon it encouraged her, though His words gave her no definite hope. The repulse was so severe that it would have utterly discouraged a less earnest seeker and sent many away humiliated and abused.

Testing Faith for Mercy

Jesus spoke in this way to prove and test the confidence, faith, sincerity and perseverance of the woman as a representative of a despised race not favored with the light of God's word, after He had left Jerusalem where the scribes and Pharisees were seeking His life. He answered her in the same cold and heartless manner in which the Jews treated Canaanites, setting forth Israel as children to receive the bread first and her people as dogs to whom the children's bread must not be given, reflecting the Jewish prejudice that God's blessings belonged first to Israel. His exclusive words, spoken with apparent indifference hiding a pitying heart, tested her confidence in Him as she followed and pleaded without taking offense.

He allowed her plea to go unanswered for a time and spoke and acted as He did to teach His disciples and to leave an example of mercy toward one of a despised people for them to follow in similar cases when He would no longer be with them. The harsh reception was designed to impress them with the contrast between heartless Jewish treatment of such distress and the compassionate manner in which they should deal with it, as shown when He granted her petition and healed her daughter. It exposed the disciples, who were annoyed at her importunity, felt no sympathy for her distress, and wrongly supposed that Jewish prejudice against Canaanites pleased Him. Like His word about being sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, the saying sounded like Jewish prejudice but was an implied rebuke reminding them that He came to save all who will accept Him, so that everyone who seeks Him ready to believe when He is manifested belongs to the lost sheep He came to gather into His fold.

Her answer showed immediate yielding to divine influence, implicit faith in His ability to grant what she asked, and unconditional acknowledgment of Jesus as Redeemer able to do all she asked, with no national or religious prejudice or pride. Though His words gave her no definite hope, His noticing her case enough to remark upon it pictured the abundance on which the rightful family feasts while dogs watching under the table devour the crumbs that fall to the floor. The repulse was so severe it would have utterly discouraged a less earnest seeker and sent many away humiliated and abused. Yet she accepted a dog's place and was willing to be regarded as a dog if she might have a dog's privilege of crumbs from the Master's table, thankfully taking whatever falls from the Master's hand with no claim on His favor yet pleading for one crumb from His bounty while He favored His people with rich and bountiful gifts. This revealed faith and perseverance unexampled and a higher appreciation of His benevolence and power than few of the favored people of God possessed.

Satisfied by her faith, Jesus ended His testing, finished His lesson to the disciples, and with pity and love commended her and granted her request, so that from that hour her daughter was made whole and the demon troubled her no more. The episode shows the result of persevering prayer and that Christ rewards the persistence and confidence He inspires. It teaches that persevering, faith-filled prayer finds His help and that even the weakest and most troubled soul may find hope and sufficiency in God, for she was not sent away empty but received what she asked.

Gospel Beyond Israel

The encounter stands as a lesson and example of mercy toward a despised people, given to lead the disciples away from Jewish exclusiveness toward interest in working for others besides their own people and to open their minds more fully to the labor before them among the Gentiles. It exposes the barrier created by Jewish pride and prejudice toward Gentiles and the failure of those entrusted with Scripture to understand that their privileges were meant to make them a blessing to other nations in spiritual darkness. After Christ's death broke down the partition wall between Jew and Gentile, when the Jews turned more persistently from the disciples for declaring Jesus to be the Saviour of the world, this lesson directed the labors of His representatives toward a gospel work unrestricted by custom or nationality. Gentiles too were thus recognized as children of God welcomed to receive the gospel.

It belongs to Jesus' direct work among Gentiles and to conversion beyond Israel's acknowledged people, an early sign of His purpose to lead the Jews beyond exclusiveness toward the Gentiles. While acknowledging Israel's prior place in receiving the bread and the gospel, the encounter shows this priority did not exclude Gentiles from receiving Christ's help. It helped show that people among the Gentiles, though often regarded as unworthy of salvation, were hungering for the light of truth and that God's saving message was to reach all nations, not only Israel. The time was coming for continued work among the Gentiles, to whom the gospel welcome was extended.

It also shows Christ's great love for suffering humanity in answering the earnest, humble supplication of the afflicted mother. That love 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, caring for the afflicted, the suffering, and the discouraged.

The children's bread is the third angel's message belonging first to the children, and the dogs are the churches. Taking the children's bread and giving it to dogs means taking that message to the churches and softening, taming it down and changing it to gain entrance there, as Brother Baker had done. That course withholds its proper spiritual food from those it was meant to serve and spends it on outsiders, which is all wrong. The bread must be given to the children first and the message preserved and faithfully proclaimed rather than diluted.