Mark 7: In God's Eyes, You Are Not Unclean

Introduction

Mark Foley continues his series in the Gospel of Mark with Mark 7:24-30. The story follows directly after the confrontation with the scribes and Pharisees, who criticized the disciples for eating without washing their hands. Jesus had just explained that it is not what is outside that makes a person unclean, but what comes out of the heart. According to the preacher, Mark deliberately places the story of a woman everyone considered unclean right after that discussion.

The passage is unsettling: Jesus seems to call this mother a "dog." Mark Foley admits it from his opening prayer: the text is "really confronting." Yet he starts with a broader question: how does our story shape the way we see ourselves, the way we see others, and the way we think God sees us?

In this encounter, Jesus names four things: what the woman thinks of herself, what others think of her, the fact that God makes no distinction, and the fact that she is deeply loved. This message speaks to you too.

Outline of the Message

1. Your Story Shapes How You See

The preacher starts from a book he is reading: our story, our experiences and our values influence not only what we do, but also how we listen to others.
Someone tells you about their trip to Melbourne, and your thoughts immediately drift back to your own stay, with its emotions. Other people's stories are interrupted and interpreted by our own.
It is even stronger for what works on us without our knowing it. Mark Foley describes a man who grew up in a home where his father came back from work, was brought his slippers and his newspaper, while his mother prepared dinner, served at exactly 6:30 p.m. Years later, married and the father of two young children, he comes home one evening to a messy house, finds his wife sitting in an armchair with a book, and explodes.
He does not know that his wife has just sat down three minutes ago, that the baby has finally fallen asleep after being carried all day. "Your reaction was largely shaped by what you had known growing up."
Another example: a child locked outside or punished for hours over a broken vase, a small lie or a spilled glass of water. Guilt turns into shame: "I did a bad thing" becomes "I am bad." That is how we see ourselves, how we think others see us, and even how we think God sees us.
For many people, "the die is cast" simply because of where they were born, the color of their skin or their nationality. It is so deeply rooted that they know nothing else and act accordingly.

2. Jesus Names What the Woman Thinks of Herself

In one word: unclean. Gentile women were treated worse than dogs, and Syrophoenicians lived on the margins of the Jewish community. Simply being in the presence of a non-Jew could make someone ritually unclean.
The text does not even give her name. She knew she was worthless in her own eyes and in the eyes of God's people. She had come to believe that in God's own eyes, she deserved neither his attention nor his intervention.
But her daughter was sick, and what parent would not do anything for their child? Setting her shame aside, she comes and throws herself at Jesus' feet.
Jesus answers: "Let the children be filled first, for it is not appropriate to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." To our ears, it is brutal. For her, it was exactly what she expected.
The Jews often called Gentiles dogs, using the Greek word kuôn: a stray dog, big, shaggy, dirty and sick. Jesus uses a different word, kunarion: a little dog, a pet dog. He takes up what she thinks of herself, softens it, and begins to open her eyes, perhaps even to make her dream of being something more.
The first step when a past has made you feel unworthy is to see it for what it is: acknowledge its impact, bring it into the light, then ask yourself: "Is it true?"

3. Jesus Names What Others Think of Her

Jesus brings into the open what everyone is thinking without saying it: how dare this nobody come and ask our rabbi for help?
For the disciples, the scene was shocking: "Who does she think she is? She has no place among us. We are Jews, God's people, a holy people, set apart." Jesus rejects that.
He names the prejudice and the sectarianism, and exposes them to the light. At the same time, he softens the way the woman hears it. He shames the disciples by naming their prejudice, while gently inviting them to see this woman differently: she is not a kuôn, but a kunarion.
Mark Foley sees a responsibility here for Christians and churches today. In a country that, in his view, increasingly marginalizes minorities, makes scapegoats of migrants, does not listen to or honor the culture and heritage of Indigenous brothers and sisters, and amplifies division between those who think differently, we need to name what does not reflect God's view.
The disciples of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, the friend of sinners and outcasts, should call everyone to treat one another with the worth and respect God gives them.

4. Jesus Names a Reality: God Makes No Distinction

According to commentators, this passage marks a turning point in Jesus' ministry. Until then, people thought that Israel alone deserved God's attention and that Jesus had come only for them. Mark begins to lift our eyes to other peoples: Jesus came to save all people, even the unclean, because "God so loved the world".
Jesus makes it explicit before returning to the Father: at the end of Matthew, he sends his disciples into the whole world; in Acts 1, he promises the Spirit so that they will be his witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
When Peter is sent to Cornelius, in Acts 10, the Spirit also falls on the Gentiles, and those present are astonished.
In Revelation 7, John sees "a great multitude, which no man could count, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and languages," crying out: "Salvation to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"
Yet we tend to be partisan: to judge that those who are like us are smarter, more cultured, less offensive. A young American woman, who came to spend a few months in the church, found it unbearable how Australian Christians constantly put each other down. The pastor, for his part, struggled with her attitude toward guns and her nationalism. Who is right? "Both of us, and neither of us."
"There is no such thing as a Christian country." Every people has traits that reflect God's nature and others that do not. When we try to make a nation Christian, faith is weakened and Jesus becomes the servant of politics, even of nationalism.
Mark Foley loves one thing about being Baptist: the separation of church and state. Our role is not to make the nation more Christian, but to call everyone to put their trust in Jesus, while standing up for the marginalized, the discriminated against and those who have no voice, whoever they are and whatever they believe.
That is what Jesus does and what he asks of us: "Love your enemies, ... and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust."

5. Jesus Names a Reality: You Are Deeply Loved

Speaking to this woman is one thing. Calling her a "little dog" is almost tolerable. But what Jesus does next is beyond comprehension: he grants her request and her daughter is set free. "She went away to her house, and found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone out."
By intervening miraculously, Jesus shows that God makes no distinction. In spite of what she thinks of herself, in spite of those who disparage and push her aside, she is in God's eyes a precious child, created in his image, worthy of honor, respect, blessing and even his intervention.
Mark Foley tells a story about Tony Campolo, which deeply marked him in his youth. In Honolulu, unable to sleep because of jet lag, Tony Campolo walks into a bar open all night, where prostitutes gather between shifts. He hears one of them say that tomorrow she will be 39, and that no one has ever noticed or celebrated her birthday: "Why would they?"
The next evening, she walks into a packed room decorated for her birthday. Everyone sings, a cake is brought in, and she collapses in tears. She was a child of God, precious and deeply loved, and Tony Campolo showed it through a simple and profound gesture.
"It is the same for you. God delights in you, he wants to honor you and restore you." Perhaps deep down you believe you are not worthy of his love. Perhaps what you have done, or what has been done to you, leaves you feeling permanently unclean.
Today, Jesus says to you: "You are my child. I love you, and I would do anything to help you. Just ask. Trust me. Come, be healed. Come, be cleansed."
As Paul says: "you were washed, ... you were sanctified, ... you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God."

Key Takeaways

Your story, your wounds and what has been said about you shape how you see yourself and how you think God sees you.
Jesus brings to light what the woman believes about herself and softens it: the first step toward healing is to acknowledge the impact of the past and to ask "is it true?"
Jesus names the disciples' prejudices. Christians have a responsibility to name what does not reflect God's view of people.
God makes no distinction: Jesus came for all nations, even for those called unclean.
In God's eyes, you are a precious child, created in his image and deeply loved. In Jesus, you have been washed.

Personal Application

What experience from your past still influences how you react to others, without you realizing it?
Is there a conviction about yourself ("I am bad," "I don't matter") that you need to bring into the light by asking yourself: "Is it true?"
Which people or groups do you tend to judge because they are not like you?
How can you, this week, stand up for or honor someone who is pushed aside around you?
Do you dare come to Jesus, like this mother, with your request, believing that he sees you as his child?

Verses Quoted

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Jesus speak of "little dogs" to the Syrophoenician woman?

At the time, Jews often called Gentiles dogs, using a Greek word that means a stray, dirty, sick dog. Mark Foley points out that Jesus uses a different, gentler word, meaning a little dog, a pet dog. By taking up what the woman thought of herself, he softens it and begins to open her eyes to her true worth.

What does the story of the Syrophoenician woman show about God's view of us?

According to Mark Foley, Jesus names four things: what the woman thinks of herself, what others think of her, the fact that God makes no distinction between peoples, and the fact that she is deeply loved. By healing her daughter, he shows that in God's eyes she is a precious child, created in his image.

How can you stop feeling unclean before God?

The first step is to acknowledge the impact of your past on how you see yourself, then to ask yourself whether it is true. Mark Foley recalls 1 Corinthians 6:11: in Jesus, you have been washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Jesus invites you to come to him to be cleansed.