Three times Mark records Jesus leaving Galilee under mysterious circumstances. The first is recorded in Mark 4:35-36 immediately following the Beelzebub Controversy (cp. Mark 3:22-35), where the Jewish authorities from Jerusalem set themselves against Jesus and even his own family trusted the authorities’ conclusions rather than Jesus. The second time Jesus left Galilee under mysterious circumstances immediately followed the death of John the Baptist (Mark 6:25, 28-32), whose disciples first came to Jesus (Matthew 14:12), but ended in rejecting him (John 6:66). Yet, Herod wanted to see him (Luke 9:9), implying Jesus was in danger of the same fate. Now, for a third time Jesus left Galilee suddenly and without Mark specifically saying why. We are left to draw our own conclusions from the hints he gives us in the text.
It seems like such an such insignificant controversy to us, today, to see Jesus’ disagreement with the scribes and Pharisees over a small thing like washing one’s hands. Yet, Matthew tells us that Jesus’ disciples warned him they were offended by his remarks about their traditions (Matthew 15:12-14). The Greek word Matthew used is skandalizo (G4624), which, according to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, means to “to put a stumbling block or impediment in the way…” We get our English word scandalize from this word. So, the scribes and Pharisees felt scandalized by Jesus’ remarks, saying they weren’t followers of Moses (meaning the word of God), but of men. These were men of some authority who came to Galilee from Jerusalem. It wouldn’t be surprising, if they sought to destroy Jesus, as they had tried to do at the beginning of his public ministry (cp. Mark 3:6). So, is this why Jesus left Galilee? The text really doesn’t make any firm conclusions one way or another, but it is interesting to understand that rejection by the Jews in Galilee brought forth a record of a gentile believing and receiving Jesus as a prophet (Mark 7:24-26).
When it became known that Jesus was in Phoenicia of Syria, not a Jewish town, a gentile woman there came to Jesus and begged him to have mercy upon her daughter, and cast out the unclean spirit who had possessed her. According to some authorities, distinguishing this woman as Syro-Phoenician shows she wasn’t a Libyan Phoenician of Carthage, but, rather, she was a descendant of the Canaanites of the seven nations the Lord had driven out of the Promised Land. If true, the scriptures tell us this woman’s ancestors were driven from the Lord’s grace and mercy and their destruction was ordered by him in judgment of their behavior. In this context, then, the woman came to Jesus seeking mercy for her young (little – G2364) daughter (Mark 7:25-26).
Mark doesn’t describe her daughter’s state beyond saying she was a little girl possessed of an unclean spirit or demon. However, it may be surprising to some to see how Jesus responded to the woman, referring to her and her daughter as dogs (Mark 7:27). Interestingly, the woman, if offended, didn’t express it, but rather agreed with the Lord’s judgment and noted that even dogs under a table eat what the children drop on the floor (Mark 7:28).
Looking at this passage with a view of understanding what’s behind it all, one cannot help but recall two other incidents, one involving gentiles and the other involving Jews. The first is the centurion whose beloved servant was at the point of death, and he sent other servants to Jesus, pleading for mercy on behalf of the young man in his service. Jesus complied healing the centurion’s servant over a distance, and the same was done here (Mark 7:29), as Jesus treated the woman as though she had great faith (cp. Matthew 8:10).
The other occasion that is recalled here concerns the Beelzebub Controversy (cp. Mark 3:22), at which time Jesus left Capernaum and went across the Sea of Galilee “into the country of the Gadarenes” (Mark 5:1) , but here he left for the borders of Tyre and Sidon (Mark 7:24). Jesus’ compassion for the little (G2364) girl seems to be drawn from his personal experience of being accused of being possessed of a demon, something which even his family believed (Mark 3:21, 31-35).
The woman’s daughter, of course, was healed (Mark 7:30), but Mark places this in contrast to what occurred immediately before (Mark 7:5-13). The scribes and Pharisees took offense at Jesus’ words about them choosing doctrines of men over the word of God (cp. Matthew 15:12-14). However, the woman, rather than taking offense to Jesus words (Mark 7:27), agreed with him and pleaded for mercy despite what he claimed (Mark 7:28)! At the end of the day, the woman, a descendant of those who were cast out of the Promised Land was blessed, while the scribes and Pharisees, descendants of the folks who were given the Promised Land, were left to be destroyed in judgment (cp. Matthew 15:12-14).
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