In looking at this passage, I have already had much to say about the example this woman sets for us. However, I do want to consider her story one last time. It is a story we are given only the briefest glimpse of. What we know is that she was born in this region, that she has a daughter, and that she has some understanding of the Jewish religion.

We know she is a Gentile, a Hellenist, if you will. To the Jewish mind, the two terms have become synonymous. You are either Jewish or a Hellenist. There is nothing else. In this region, that probably wasn’t all that far from the truth! True, the Romans had their own names for the gods they served, yet anybody who has looked into their mythologies must note the parallels. Well, then, has she simply been thinking of God as one more member of that pantheon? It’s not impossible. This is the situation with many a Hindu today. Sure, they accept that Jesus is a god, but what’s one more? This admission costs them nothing. Neither does it confess anything of value.

I think, given what we see of this woman that however she may have been enculturated, she has learned enough of Judaism to see that there is a True God. She has learned enough that the expectations of Messiah have become, in some degree, her own expectations. This is hardly unique to her. The evidence would show that expectation of Israel’s Messiah was widespread. It was for this cause that the magi had come to witness His arrival, after all. This did not, I would note, make them adherents to Judaism. It just meant they recognized a true prophecy when they heard it. Perhaps for her it was nothing more than that. She had heard the prophecies and the truth of them struck her.

Of course, she’s heard the news from Galilee, too. She has heard what this Jesus has been doing amongst His people. One might ask, though, how she recognized Him when He came up to Tyre. If, as Mark says, He was trying to escape notice, then what has drawn Him to her notice? It’s entirely possible that rumor has outpaced His own travels. It’s possible that news of His movements traveled the trade routes. It’s also possible that the same Spirit which has moved this woman from mere knowledge of the prophecies to faith in the Messiah announced in those prophecies has pointed her to Messiah.

This is more in keeping with what we saw in the earliest days of Jesus’ earthly life. Who pointed Him out to Anna or Simon there in the Temple, for instance? No human agency had the wherewithal. Who pointed Him out to John, or for that matter, to these disciples that traveled with Him? Sure, some of them had been called over by companions, but the majority case is simply that they were in His presence and He called. Can the same be said for those earliest meetings? Though His body did not yet have the power of speaking words, isn’t it just as true that He called those two in the Temple to come see the fulfillment of their desires? Isn’t it true that He called to John, though both were still in the womb? Why should we think anything is different about this scene? This woman has come because He called.

There is a foundation for faith. She had understanding, it seems clear. She knows enough to speak of Him as the Son of David. She knows enough of His activities to recognize that He has the power to do something about her daughter’s affliction. But it is the reality that He called that gives her the faith to make this approach. Faith, after all, is a gift given by God.

As I have already explored at some length, the faith she displays is a work of art. She makes no demand, only supplication. She does not come reminding Him of promises, for she has no promise to remind Him of. She is, as it were, outside the promise. Yet, she comes given Him honor, and giving Him worship. She is making a request of an acknowledged superior and in such fashion as makes clear that she does not in any way feel she deserves this boon. No pride. No presumption. Just an earnest compassion for the suffering of her daughter. She says this daughter is ‘cruelly possessed’. There is something in that phrasing that hints at a certain unfairness about the situation. One might almost hear her saying that if this possession had befallen herself she could understand it, but this daughter had done nothing to deserve demonic attention.

Now, we might take theological exception to such an assessment. We might point to the issue of original sin and say that everybody deserves such attention, and it is only by God’s grace and mercy that some of us don’t. That would, however, be beside the point. The point is compassion that joins with the faith God has implanted in her to produce a beautiful fruit. Her prayer, then, as expressed in her worshipful petition of Jesus’ favor, has nothing of self in it. It is, in this way, an expression of God’s own love. She is willing to suffer this public humiliation, this being called a worthless dog before so many witnesses, if only He will help her daughter.

It’s no wonder that He responds to her so positively! He is Himself the Suffering Servant. He, too, will suffer a very terrible public humiliation, and far worse! And, He shall do so for the sole purpose that the suffering of others might be eliminated.

I have looked at the persistence she displays in her faith, and I have looked at her lack of any presumption. I have looked at the humility she manifests in accepting the assessment Jesus makes of her standing. All of these are necessary ingredients of true worship and true faith. Yet, I see now that it is her taking upon herself something of His own role that really turns His attention. It is because in her own small way she has taken up the role of servant to her daughter, willing to suffer that her daughter might be saved, that He Who will suffer so much to save a people is moved.

Well, now. However one may view matters of predestination and the like, I suppose it must be accepted that Jesus knew from the start how this was going to play out. If the call of faith was His call, if He knew why He had come up to Tyre, then He knew as well that this woman would indeed provide His disciples with a beautiful parable of His own mission.

Perhaps that is enough to know of this woman. She had a faith not her own, but given her by God. But, the compassion she displays, the selflessness she displays; these are her own. They are now watered by faith, fertilized by grace, but they were there in her already. So, she is able to stand as a manifestation of God’s own selfless love for this fallen humanity He had come to rescue. While He could not make legal claim that the fall of this people was unfair, yet, He could have compassion for their helplessness. Yet, He could so manage the way of Justice that their rescue would be fair indeed.

So, let us rejoice that this woman found the crumbs that Israel rejected. Let us rejoice that she is there amongst the first fruits of those who would come from every tribe and nation. For, if she is the first, we are at least counted amongst that great number who have come to the God of Mercy, who have confessed our total lack of standing in His presence and laid ourselves upon His mercy. Yes, and like this woman, we have obtained mercy! Blessed be His name, and may His righteousness soon raise its standard to rule this world. Amen.