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Scripture Reading: Mark 7:24-30
The Gospel of Mark is a progressive book, a record of the Lord’s life on earth. No doubt, whatever the Lord experienced was sovereign, for God arranged the environment so that the Lord would experience certain things in His earthly life.
Thus far, we have seen the contents of the Slave-Savior’s gospel service, the ways to carry out this service, and the auxiliary acts for the gospel service. We have also seen that, in chapter four, the Lord Jesus gave a strong word concerning the intrinsic element of the kingdom of God. Following this, He exercised His authority, the authority of the kingdom, to deal with man’s outward situation. Concerning this, we have in Mark a picture of human society. We also have a picture showing the attitude of the worldly people toward the Lord’s gospel. Then in chapter seven there is a turn from the dealing with man’s outward situation to the dealing with the inward condition of man’s heart.
In this message we shall consider the case of the Syrophoenician woman (7:24-30). Mark 7:24 tells us that the Lord “went away into the districts of Tyre.” Then a woman, whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, came to Him and fell at His feet (v. 25). “The woman was a Greek, Syrophoenician by race.” She was a Syrian by tongue, Phoenician by race (see Acts 21:2-3), and, the Phoenicians being descendants of the Canaanites, a Canaanite woman (Matt. 15:22). What made her a Greek — religion, marriage, or something else — is difficult to discover. In the New Testament the word “Greek” is used to signify the Gentile world. This woman was a typical Gentile. We may say that she was manifoldly a Gentile, for she was a Greek, a Syrophoenician, and a Canaanite. Nevertheless, she came to ask the Lord to do something for her. She wanted Him to cast a demon out of her daughter (v. 26).
Because this Syrophoenician woman was such a Gentile, the Lord Jesus said to her, “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs” (v. 27). Here the Lord seemed to be saying to her, “As a Gentile, you are a little dog, and I cannot throw the children’s bread to you. You are not qualified to be one of the children. You are qualified only to be a Gentile. Because I must satisfy the children first, I should not take the children’s bread and throw it to you.”
In chapter six of the Gospel of John the Lord clearly told the Jews that He is the bread of life (John 6:35). He indicated to them that He is the bread of God, the One who “comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:33). He came down from heaven to be the bread of life to satisfy the hunger of the world. Although a word concerning this was clearly given in John 6, there is not such a word in the synoptic Gospels, in Matthew, Mark, or Luke. But in Mark 7:27 the Lord Jesus used the word “bread.” He said that the bread should first be given to the children.
What the Lord says concerning the children’s bread in verse 27 indicates that He did not come simply to do miracles. The Lord Jesus came to feed the hungry children. The Lord’s word here definitely indicates that in the previous chapters the Lord was feeding the people.
Feeding is a matter of dispensing. In my study of the Greek word for “dispensation” (oikonomia), I have learned that this word comes from a root that means to distribute food. An example of a person distributing food is Joseph in Egypt. As one who distributed food to the people, he was a good steward carrying out a stewardship. That stewardship was an oikonomia, a dispensing of the supply of food.
We may say that the real Joseph is the Lord Jesus, the Slave-Savior. In chapter seven of the Gospel of Mark we see Him dispensing Himself as bread, as nourishing food. He is dispensing Himself as the element of the life supply to satisfy the hungry ones.
When a Syrophoenician, a typical Gentile, came to Him and asked Him to cast a demon out of her daughter, He opened Himself to let her know what He was. He revealed Himself to her as bread. He caused her to realize that He was bread for the feeding of the hungry children, that He was distributing Himself to people as their life supply.
Many of those who received benefit from the Lord’s ministry did not realize that, as He was ministering to them, He was feeding them. In a similar way, many of today’s Christians do not realize that the Lord desires to distribute Himself as bread. Some Christians appreciate healings and miracles. But have you ever heard that genuine healings and miracles are for the Lord’s feeding of hungry people? Nevertheless, this is the very matter revealed by the Lord Jesus to the Syrophoenician woman.
In His conversation with this woman, the Lord revealed that what He was doing was not merely the performing of miracles — it was a feeding. Actually, He was not doing miracles; He was dispensing Himself as bread, as the supply of food.
In the preceding sections of the Gospel of Mark, we have the contents of the gospel service, the ways to carry out the gospel service, actions that are helpful in the gospel service, the word concerning the intrinsic element of the kingdom, a picture of human society, a picture of the attitude of worldly people toward the gospel, and the exposure of the condition of man’s heart. Having seen all this, now we need to see in 7:24-30 that the Lord is distributing Himself as the food supply needed by us all. Actually, we do not need a miracle, and we do not even need healing. Our real need is for bread, for the life supply. Therefore, the Lord Jesus is dispensing Himself to us as food.
In 7:24-30 the Slave-Savior takes a further step in the carrying out of His gospel service. We have seen that in 7:1-23 the Lord uses the Ten Commandments to expose the condition of man’s heart. That also was a further step in His gospel service. After taking that step, the Lord goes on to indicate that in His gospel service He was not merely doing miracles. That was not the inner significance of His gospel service. The inner significance of this service is that He was distributing Himself as food.
The Lord Jesus seemed to be saying to the Syrophoenician woman, “You think that you need Me to heal your daughter. Actually, your need is for Me to be your bread. Also, I must let you know what your position is. Your position is that of a little Gentile dog. Since you are such a dog, you do not have the right to enjoy the children’s portion. I am the children’s portion, and the children are the Israelites, the chosen people. I came from the Father to feed His children.”
Have you ever realized that the Gospel of Mark unveils the Lord Jesus as our bread? As the record of this Gospel progresses, going on step by step and going up level by level, it eventually brings us to the crucial matter of the Lord Jesus being our bread.
If we did not have the Lord’s word about Himself as the children’s bread, we would not realize that in His gospel service He was distributing Himself as our bread. It is not very difficult for us to understand how the Lord is the Physician, the Bridegroom, and the Emancipator. It is easy for us to know Him in these ways. But who would ever imagine that the Lord is bread? Yes, as the God-man, He is the Physician, the Bridegroom, and the Emancipator. But now we see, through His answer to the Syrophoenician woman, that He is the children’s bread. How marvelous!
Let us read verse 27 again: “And He said to her, Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” In Greek “little dogs” are pet dogs, dogs that are kept in the house.
In verse 28 we have the answer of the Syrophoenician woman: “Yes, Lord, but even the little dogs under the table eat of the little children’s crumbs.” In her answer she seemed to be saying, “Yes, Lord, You are right. I don’t deny the fact that I am a little dog. But even the little dogs under the table have the right to eat of the children’s crumbs.”
Her answer indicates that she took the Lord’s word as her standing to claim something from Him. What was her standing? Her standing was that she was a little dog, a pet dog, under the table. According to the Greek word used, she was not a wild dog; she was a pet dog. This indicates that as a Gentile she was one of God’s “pets.” We may say that the Gentiles today also are God’s “pet dogs.”
The Syrophoenician woman, taking the proper standing, might have been saying, “Lord, I may be a little dog, but I am not a wild dog, a dog outside the house. Rather, I am a pet dog, a dog who stays under the table while the Master is feeding the children. Since I am Your pet dog, You have pleasure in me. Yes, You love Your children, but You also have pleasure in me. While Your children are eating at the table, Your pet dog is moving about under the table. Lord, am I not Your pet dog? Am I not pleasing to You? I don’t have a position at the table, but I surely have a position under the table.”
We may say that the Syrophoenician woman caught the Lord by His own word. He used the expression “little dogs.” Immediately, it was as if she seized upon this word to say, “Very good, Lord! You have said that I am a pet dog. This is good enough for me. I don’t need to be a child at the table. As long as I am a pet dog under the table, I have the position to eat the crumbs that drop down from the table.”
In a very real sense, in 7:24-30, the Lord Jesus Himself was not the bread on the table. Instead, He was under the table. We need to remember that this incident took place in the districts of Tyre, north of the holy land, a region that may be called “under the table.” The holy land was the “table.” But the Jews, as “naughty children,” cast the bread off the table, and it fell under the table. As the crumbs under the table, the Lord could now be the portion of the little Gentile dogs.
We know from 7:29 that the Lord Jesus said to the Syrophoenician woman, “Because of this word, go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.” When she returned to her house, “she found the little child lying on the couch and the demon gone out” (v. 30). However, the crucial point here is not the casting out of the demon from the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman. The crucial point is that in His gospel service the Lord Jesus is distributing Himself to people as their bread, as their inner supply.
A lack of the realization of the need for the Lord Jesus as bread, as life supply, may be the greatest shortage in today’s Pentecostal or charismatic movement. Those in this movement may appreciate outward healings and miracles, but they may not appreciate the Lord as bread to be their inner life supply. Even if we receive a healing from the Lord, we still need Him as our life supply. To experience a miracle without receiving the Lord as our inner life supply is vain. Among those who emphasize miraculous things, there may be some genuine healings or miracles, but there is very little realization of the inward feeding on the Lord as our life supply. We need to realize that even when He is our Healer, the Lord Jesus is our bread.
In chapter seven of the Gospel of Mark the Lord opened Himself to the Syrophoenician woman to let her know that He was her food. She needed Him not only as the One to heal her daughter; she especially needed Him to be her food, her bread.
The revelation in 7:24-30 is deeper than that in 7:1-23. In the step of the gospel service recorded in 7:1-23 the Lord exposes the real condition of the human heart in order that we may know what our need is. Our need is not outward; it is inward. We do not need an outward washing; we need an inward cleansing, a cleansing of our heart. Then in 7:24-30 the Lord takes a further step to cause us to see that if what we have is only inward cleansing, we shall still be empty. It is not sufficient for our heart to be cleansed, purified. A clean heart may still be an empty heart. Therefore, in addition to the cleansing of our heart on the negative side, we need the supply of bread on the positive side. Even more than cleansing, we need the Lord Jesus to be our bread. This revelation concerning Himself as our bread is a further step taken by the Lord in the carrying out of His gospel service.
