Moving to Tyre - The Syro-phoenician Woman (7:24-30).
That this incident was a turning point in the ministry of Jesus cannot be denied, and there are good grounds for arguing that Matthew's Gospel revolves around it. For from this point onwards Jesus ceased ministering only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and engaged in a wider all-inclusive ministry.
That it was deliberate we need have no doubt. It was a recognition by Jesus that He had now received a message from His Father that there was a Gentile world waiting to be incorporated into the house of Israel who in God's eyes were an essential part of it. It had now been made apparent to Him that while a multitude of Jews were ready to respond to His teaching, a limit was being placed on this by the intransigence of the religious authorities, while outside in the wider world there was a welcome waiting for His message. And He acted accordingly. That He had previously had this in mind comes out in His earlier words to the Gadarene ex-demoniac when He had told him not to join Him in Galilee, but to go out among his fellow-countrymen and proclaim what great things the Lord had done for Him and how He had had mercy on Him (Mark 5:19). That could surely only have been with the expectancy that one day He would be following up that witness by Himself returning to Dalmanutia.
Yet at the same time it was not an outright ministry among the Gentiles, for in the areas that He visited were many Jews who flocked to hear Him, but the idea that no Gentiles did flock to Him is beyond belief, for whatever other motive they may have had in mind, a successful healer and exorcist could hardly be ignored. Thus was He able to commence His ministry among Gentiles while at the same time preserving the recognition that His prime ministry at this time was to the Jews.
This explains why His Apostles after His death took so long to recognise that what He had done was also open to them. It was quite understandable that with their rigid backgrounds they found it difficult to recognise that the Gentile world awaited their ministrations. They had no doubt seen the ‘conversions' of Gentiles under Jesus' ministry as a prelude to them becoming proselytes (Gentiles officially welcomed into the Jewish faith by being circumcised and committing themselves to observance to the Law, a position recognised as early as Exodus 12:48-49). But they were to learn that it went further than that.
The sequence of events from here to Mark 8:38 is revealing. First the Syro-phoenician woman is offered a taste of ‘bread', because of what Jesus is going to do (Mark 7:24-30), then the ears of the deaf man are very vividly unstopped and the dumb speaks (Mark 7:31-37), then the mixed crowd of Jews and Gentiles are offered abundant bread which symbolises what He will do for them (Mark 8:1-10), their ears are being opened, then the Pharisees are revealed as virtually deaf and blind because they require signs (Mark 8:11-13), then the disciples are depicted as short of bread and as both deaf and blind in their understanding of what bread they should receive, (Mark 8:14-21) then a blind man is healed, at first partially and then wholly (Mark 8:22-26), and then comes the self-revelation of Jesus as He draws from His disciples that He is the Messiah. At last their eyes are partially opened and they are no longer deaf, and they can feed on Him (Mark 8:27-38), and the inference is that one day they too will see clearly, as will especially Peter, James and John on the mount of transfiguration (Mark 9:1-8).
And all this follows the fact that Jesus had been criticised because His disciples had eaten bread with defiled hands. As Jesus had pointed out such bread eaten in His presence was not defiled. If only the Pharisees had reached out and taken His bread they too would not have been defiled, just as those who were spoken of subsequently, who did reach out, were not defiled. But they were blind to His bread and would not take it because they saw it as defiled. And so paradoxically His bread was now going in earnest to those whom the Pharisees saw as defiled, and who would not be, because they would receive it, while in contrast His disciples must avoid the defiled bread of the Pharisees (Mark 8:15) and receive the true bread. The whole section is a mass of vivid illustration, with the bread of God central, the Pharisees depicted as blind and hardened, the mixed peoples of Decapolis being abundantly fed, and the disciples being led from darkness to light. It was a period of amazing change.
Analysis.
a And He arose from there and went away to the borders of Tyre and Sidon. And He went into a house and would have no one know it (Mark 7:24).
b But He could not be hidden, for immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, having heard of Him, came and fell down at his feet (Mark 7:25).
c Now the woman was a Greek, a Syro-phoenician by race. And she pleaded with Him that He would cast out the demon from her daughter (Mark 7:26).
d And He said to her, “Let the children first be filled, for it is not the right thing to do to take the children's bread and toss it to the little dogs” (Mark 7:27).
c But she answered and says to him, “Yes, Lord. Even the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs” (Mark 7:28).
b And He said to her, “For this saying go your way. The devil has left your daughter” (Mark 7:29).
a And she went her way to her house, and found the child laid on the bed and the devil gone out (Mark 7:30).
Note that in ‘a' Jesus went into a house, and in the parallel the woman returns to her house. In ‘b' her child has an unclean spirit, and in the parallel the demon has left her daughter. In ‘c' she is a Syro-phoenician and seeks help from the God of Israel, and in the parallel the dogs under the table may eat of the children's crumbs. Centrally in ‘d' the children have first right to be filled.