And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well - reminding us, says Trench, of the words of the first creation (Genesis 1:31, Septuagint), upon which we are thus not unsuitably thrown back, because Christ's work is in the truest sense "a new creation."
He maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak - "and they glorified the God of Israel" (Matthew 15:31). See the note at Mark 7:31 of this chapter.
Remarks:
(1) The Syrophoenician woman had never witnessed any of Christ's miracles, nor seen His face, but she had "heard of Him." Like the woman with the issue of blood (Mark 5:27), she had heard of His wondrous cures, particularly how He cast out devils; and she probably said within herself, O that He would but come here, or I could come to Him-which her circumstances did not permit. But now He is within reach, and though desiring concealment, she finds Him out, and implores a cure for her grievously demonized daughter. Instead of immediately meeting her faith, He keeps a mysterious silence; nay, leaves her, and suffers her to cry after Him without uttering a word. Does she now give it up, muttering to herself as she leaves Him, 'It's a false report-He can't do it?' Nay, His silence only redoubles her entreaties, and His withdrawal does but draw her after Him. The disciples-ever studying their Master's ease, rather than penetrating into His deep designs-suggest whether, as she was "troubling Him," it might not be better to throw a cure to her, so to speak, and get rid of her, lest, like the importunate widow, "by her continual coming she weary" Him. His reply seemed to extinguish all hope. "I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Is not this very like breaking the bruised reed, and quenching the smoking flax? But the bruised reed shall not break, the smoking flax shall not go out. There is a tenacity in her faith which refuses to give up. It seems to hear a voice saying to her:
`Know the darkest part of night Is before the dawn of light; Press along, you're going, right,
Try, try again.'
At His feet she casts herself, with a despairing cry, "Lord, help me!" - as strong in the confidence of His power, as now, at the very weakest, of His willingness, to give relief. But even as to that willingness, while she clings to hope against hope, what a word does He at length utter - "Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs." Worse and worse. But her faith is too keen not to see her advantage. That faith of hers is ingenious. 'The children's bread! Ah, yes! that is too good for me. Thou art right, Lord. To take the children's bread, and cast it to a pagan dog like me, is what I dare not ask. It is the dogs' portion only that I ask-the crumbs that fall from the Master's table-from Thy fullness even a crumb is more than sufficient.' Who can wonder at the wonder even of Jesus at this, and His inability any longer to hold out against her? The woman with the issue of blood heard of Jesus, as did this Syrophenician woman, and from the mere report conceived a noble faith in His power to heal her. But that woman was a Jewess, nursed amid religious opportunities and fed on the oracles of God. This woman was born a pagan, and reared under all the disadvantages of a pagan creed. With that woman it was short work: with this one it was tough and trying. Like Jacob of old, she wept and made supplication unto Him; yea, she had power over the Angel, and prevailed. And this has been written for the generations following, that men may say, "I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me." (2) We have in this case an example of that cross procedure which Jesus was accustomed to observe when He only wished to train and draw forth and be gained over by persevering faith. And certainly, never was the invincible tenacity of living faith more touchingly and beautifully educed than here. But for His knowledge where it would all end, that tender, great Heart would never have stood such a melting importunity of true faith, nor have endured to speak to her as He did. And shall we not learn from such cases how to interpret His procedure, when our Joseph "speaks roughly" to His brethren, and seems to treat them so, and yet all the while it is if He would seek where to weep, and He only waits for the right moment for making Himself known unto them?
(3) When we read that Jesus sighed over the case of this deaf and dumb man, and groaned and wept over the grave of Lazarus, we have faint glimpses of feelings the depth of which we shall never fathom, and the whole meaning of which it is hard to take in, but of which we know enough to assure us that all the ills that flesh is heir to, and the one root of them-sin-He made His own. And now that He has put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and so provided for the rolling away of the complicated ills that have some in its train, He sits in heaven to reap the fruits of Redemption, with all His rich experience of human ill. Shall we not, then, "come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need? For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched by the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."