The Syrophoenician Woman
037 The Syrophoenician Woman
Mark 7:24-30
May 10, 2026
The last time we met we listened as the Pharisees confronted Jesus
Condemning Him as a man of defilement
Only to have Jesus silence them and then teach His disciples.
You’ll remember the scenario.
· Some of the disciples were eating with unwashed hands and the Pharisees
confronted Jesus for it.
· Jesus didn’t even acknowledge their accusation, for eating with unwashed
hands was not against the Mosaic Law.
· Instead Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites who were perfect fulfillments
of Isaiah’s prophecy.
Mark 7:6-7 “And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. ‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’”
They were not men who loved God’s Law.
They were men who loved tradition and what men thought.
And Jesus condemned them.
However, their accusation did lead to
A very important conversation between Jesus and His disciples.
They did not understand what it meant to be defiled.
They didn’t know what it was and they didn’t know what caused it.
So Jesus gave them a very important theology lesson.
He clarified their “Doctrine of Sin”.
Mark 7:20-23 “And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. “All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”
We learned a very important lesson on sin.
· Man does not become a sinner after he sins.
· Man sins because he is a sinner.
· You don’t become a thief by stealing, you steal because you are a thief.
It starts in the heart.
That’s the problem.
The defilement of man is not because he ate something unclean,
It is because his heart is corrupt and fallen.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds.”
When man is born
· It should NOT be his objective simply to avoid becoming defiled by his surroundings.
· it should be his objective to be cleansed of the sin stain he was born with.
Man doesn’t need to be kept in a protective bubble
Away from all the evil of the world,
Man needs to be cleansed of the evil that is already inside of him.
And Jesus explained that.
He gave a list.
(21-22) “evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.”
The reason we commit those sins
Is because our heart is predisposed to them.
AND IF YOU’LL REMEMBER,
When Jesus spoke of the heart, He did so with a Jewish perspective.
To Jews the heart was NOT the seat of the emotions, like it is with us.
For them, that was the gut or the bowels.
To the Jews the heart was the seat of reason or the will.
That is the point.
Man has a fallen and broken will.
Perhaps you’ve heard all the debates and arguments about whether or not man has “free will”.
· The answer is both “yes” and “no”.
Man DOES have a free will in that he is free to do what he wills.
That is true.
· From the time you were born, you were free to do whatever you willed to do.
· You made those decisions to follow what you wanted.
· In that sense you are correct to say that you have “free will”.
But what you DO NOT have is a will that is free.
· Your will (your heart) is fallen and enslaved to sin.
So a man is free to do what he wills,
But in that freedom all he will ever do is sin
Because his will is fallen and corrupted.
THAT IS WHAT WE MUST BE SAVED FROM.
We need a new heart.
We need a new will.
We need a new disposition.
We must be born again, as Jesus told Nicodemus.
And of course Jesus is the One who gives us that new heart.
He works the miracle of regeneration in us
He causes what is dead and enslaved to be made alive and free.
Romans 6:16-19 “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.”
Well that’s what we learned the LAST TIME in Mark’s gospel.
We saw religious men, puffed up in their religion and ceremony.
· They meticulously manicured and protected their outward appearance.
· They refused to eat with unwashed hands.
· They thought themselves to be undefiled.
And yet Jesus exposed them as having dirty, evil, hypocritical hearts.
Even though they were meticulous about what they put in their mouth,
It is what came out of their mouth that proved their hearts to be evil.
Well that is interesting that we learned that lesson,
Because THIS MORNING we are going to get AN OPPOSITE EXAMPLE.
· We are going to see a woman who externally would check every box of outward defilement you can imagine,
· And yet Jesus is going to hear what comes out of her mouth and praise her for it.
(29) “And He said to her, “Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”
You may be more familiar with this woman’s story in Matthew’s gospel.
Matthew records the statement a little differently.
Matthew 15:28 “Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once.”
· Clearly Matthew used the story to highlight what true faith looks like.
· Matthew wanted you to see a genuine example of saving faith.
· Certainly this woman had that.
But when Mark records the story, he DOES NOT mention her faith,
(though it is undeniably present.)
· Mark focuses on her “answer”.
· Mark focuses on what comes out of her mouth.
SO THE PURPOSE BECOMES CLEAR.
Having shown you a defiled heart,
Mark now wants you to see what an undefiled heart looks like.
In this story Jesus will put her heart on full display.
At the same time, God’s timing is always remarkable,
As it is also Mother’s Day.
This passage is NOT about motherhood,
Though this woman demonstrates motherly devotion in fine fashion.
· This woman has tremendous love for her daughter.
· This woman endures for the sake of her daughter.
· This woman has many admirable attributes that any mother could learn from.
And so we are glad to examine this story about her.
But ultimately this text is still not about motherhood.
This text is about an undefiled heart.
I want to break this text down into 4 points.
#1 A FOREIGN ROUTE
Mark 7:24
By foreign here I mean “Outside of Israel”.
As in a foreign country.
We may talk about this more in a later sermon,
But you’re going to notice in the next few weeks
That it almost appears like Jesus is on the run.
Clearly here He leaves Galilee “to the region of Tyre”
But as soon as He heals this woman, He’s going to leave here too.
(7:31) “Again He went out from the region of Tyre, and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of Decapolis.”
· So He’ll stay out of Galilee and go all the way around the sea of Galilee to the east side to the Decapolis (Where the demoniac was from)
· But there He’ll be detected again and will heal a deaf man.
· Word will spread and a crowd of 4,000 men will gather and He’ll feed them too.
So He’ll have to flee again.
(8:10) “And immediately He entered the boat with His disciples and came to the district of Dalmanutha.”
· Because the crowd in the Decapolis got so big He jumps in a boat and crosses back to the west side of the sea of Galilee, but stay swell south of Capernaum and even Gennesaret where He was spotted at the end of chapter 6.
· But that does not good either for the Pharisees will spot Him and try to force Him to perform a sign, so He’ll flee again.
He’ll get back into the boat and cross the sea again, this time to sort of the north east corner of the sea to Bethsaida.
(8:13) “Leaving them, He again embarked and went away to the other side.”
(8:22) “And they came to Bethsaida. And they brought a blind man to Jesus and implored Him to touch him.”
· But as you see a blind man is brought for Jesus to heal Him,
· Again inducing the threat of a giant crowd
Jesus will flee again, north to Caesarea Philippi.
It kind of looks like Jesus is on the run.
He’s not, but He is pulling away from the public ministry limelight
That He might correctly instruct His disciples.
It is time to make sure the disciples rightly understand
Who He is and what He came to do.
THAT’S WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE:
Jesus is pulling the disciples away from Galilee into to a foreign land
He is looking for seclusion and a break from the crowds
That He might instruct them.
“Jesus got up and went away from there to the region of Tyre. And when He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know of it; yet He could not escape notice.”
· The goal here is seclusion.
· The goal is to where the crowds won’t recognize Him.
· The goal is to have a moment to teach the 12.
But Matthew Henry said it best:
“though a candle may be hid under a bushel, the sun cannot. Christ was too well known to be long hid, anywhere.”
(Henry, Matthew [Matthew Henry’s Commentary; Zondervan; Grand Rapids, MI; 1960] pg. 1381)
So even though Jesus was seeking seclusion in a foreign land,
We see that, “He could not escape notice.”
And yet, that is also according to His plan,
For through this woman there is a lesson for the disciples to learn.
A Foreign Route
#2 A FOREIGN RESIDENT
Mark 7:25-26
By foreign here I mean “unworthy”
As in an unworthy foreigner.
There is nothing accidental about this.
Don’t think for a second that Jesus’ plan is being thwarted.
He came for seclusion, He sought to avoid publicity,
But it was well within His sovereign plan that this woman show up.
She is the perfect candidate for the lesson Jesus is about to teach.
Let’s just take here scenario in order.
First, “a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit”
This is a woman whose personal family is suffering
From the very real presence of evil in their midst.
It is horrific even to think that in a family the little girl might be filled with a demon.
And don’t miss the intentional use of the word “unclean” there.
Defilement is in the very core of this woman’s world.
Her own little daughter is possessed by such a spirit.
No doubt one would wonder
· What kind of a home this woman has provided.
· What kind of evil this mother had exposed her child to.
· What kind of impure and unclean practices go on in that home.
This woman would have been instantly judged by the disciples
As an unclean, defiled, unfit, godless mother.
She is raising a demon-possessed child.
And that’s not all. (26) “Now the woman was a Gentile”
I’ve told you that Mark most likely penned his gospel for Gentiles
So it’s easy to see his attraction to this story.
But in the setting here this is simply another mark against this woman.
She is not of Israel.
She is genetically and nationally unclean.
Even if her daughter wasn’t possessed with an unclean spirit,
According to the Law, this woman is an unclean woman.
Paul described such people in Ephesians 2:
Ephesians 2:12b “…excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”
This is an unclean woman with an unclean child.
This encounter has defiled written all over it.
And still that is not all.
We find out that she is “of the Syrophoenician race”
Matthew simply calls her a Canaanite.
But she is from Syria.
She is an ancient and lifelong enemy of Israel.
She is to the Jews of the same equivalent as a Philistine or an Ammonite,
Or a Moabite in the Old Testament.
She is a pagan.
She worships pagan gods.
John MacArthur noted:
“she came from an area that was engulfed in pagan idolatry and was undoubtedly an idol worshiper herself. Tyre and Sidon were major centers of worship for the fertility goddess Astarte, known as Ashtaroth in the Old Testament . In the minds of the Jews, no self-respecting rabbi would ever allow a Gentile, especially an idolatrous woman, to remain in his presence.”
(MacArthur, John [The MacArthur New Testament Commentary; Mark 1-8; Moody Publisher; Chicago, IL;2015] pg.366)
And now it all adds up.
· This woman most likely led her daughter into some sort of pagan idol worship.
· She may have even sought the fertility goddess to conceive the child and
thus ended up with a demon possessed child.
From an outer examination this woman is as defiled as she can be.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more defiled candidate than her.
SO LET THE CONTRAST BUILD IN YOUR MIND.
On one hand view the PHARISEES and chief priests that approached Jesus back in Galilee and rebuked Him for letting His disciples eat with unwashed hands.
· Can you see how clean and pristine they are?
· Can you see how devout and pious they look?
· Can you see their garments?
· Can you hear them praying?
Now look at THIS WOMAN.
Can you imagine where she’s been or what she’s done?
· She’s not a Jew.
· She’s not from Israel.
· She’s not devout.
· She’s pagan, unclean, and she’s got a demon-possessed daughter as evidence of her lifestyle.
YOU COULDN’T GET TWO EXAMPLES MORE OPPOSITE.
And here we find out that she “immediately came and fell at His feet.”
“And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.”
Pay attention to WHO has approached and WHAT she wants.
It is an unclean foreign woman who has come to Jesus
Asking Him to fix a problem that her sinful worship has likely caused.
A Foreign Route, A Foreign Resident
#3 A FOREIGN RESPONSE
Mark 7:27
By foreign here I mean “strange”.
The response that Jesus gives this woman is NOT the type of response we have grown accustomed to at all.
· We’ve seen Jesus eat with tax collectors and sinners.
· We’ve seen Jesus announce paralytics to be forgiven.
· We’ve seen Jesus cast demons out of pagans before, like the demoniac.
Jesus response to this woman is initially unlike any one of those.
In fact in verse 26 we read, “she kept asking”
Mark doesn’t explain beyond that, but Matthew makes it clear.
Matthew 15:22-23 “And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.” But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, “Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us.”
This woman came and bowed down and asked Jesus to heal her daughter
And He flat out ignored her.
Matthew said, “He did not answer her a word”
But Mark said, “she kept asking”
So much so that according to Matthew, “His disciples came and implored Him, saying, “Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us.”
DO YOU GET THAT SCENE?
Jesus has entered this house alone with His disciples,
Hoping to escape notice so that He can teach His disciples.
· He’s in the middle of the sermon.
· He’s in the middle of the lesson.
This woman comes in the back door, approaches Him, bows down,
And asks for Him to show her mercy by healing her daughter.
And Jesus just continues on with the sermon.
· He’s preaching and she keeps asking.
· He’s teaching and she’s getting louder and louder.
The disciples are sort of watching this with wide eyes
And in the midst of the chaos ask Jesus to kick her out of the room
Because she’s too much of a distraction.
Based on what we’ve read about Jesus, that is a strange response.
That seems foreign to His character.
But then, when He finally does answer,
His response is just as shocking to us as His silence.
(27) “And He was saying to her, “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
Jesus, in effect, tells her to wait until He is finished with His disciples.
The “children” here would be the 12.
· He is in the process of feeding them the bread of truth.
· He is in the process of ministering to them.
And He says, it would not be a good thing to stop instructing them
And to turn and give His attention to Her request.
In some ways, it reminds of Peter’s response when the widows are being overlooked in the distribution of food.
Acts 6:2 “So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables.”
That’s pretty much what Jesus says here.
It would not be good for Me to stop teaching in order to go and help you.
But what He said sounds a little more harsh.
He said, “it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
Now, I will say, that it’s NOT as harsh as it may sound.
It is true that Jews viewed Gentiles as ravaging dogs.
· Jews viewed Gentiles as unclean mongrels who roamed loose and scavenged
for food.
Like when Jesus said:
Matthew 7:6 “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”
That is how Jews viewed Gentiles.
But Jesus here uses a diminutive term for “dogs”.
· It is the same as when you read “little daughter” in verse 25.
Jesus doesn’t speak of her as a mangy mongrels eating out of dumpsters.
He speaks of her more like the family pet that lives in the house.
That is certainly better, but it doesn’t change the fact that
He still referred to her as a dog.
And she was not the focus of the feeding.
She was NOT the first in line.
She was NOT the priority.
“Let Me finish giving My disciples everything I have for them
And then I’ll deal with you.”
I think you would agree that the response of Jesus
Is somewhat foreign to what we are accustomed to.
· We saw Him following Jairus to heal his daughter and then stop to recognize
the hemorrhaging woman who touched His garment.
· We saw Him interrupt a synagogue meeting on the Sabbath to heal a man
with a withered hand.
· We saw Him forgive a paralytic who interrupted a preaching service after His
friends tore a hole in the roof and lowered him down.
In each of those cases Jesus immediately dealt with the need at hand.
But this time, He tells this woman to wait her turn.
NOW, THERE’S A REASON.
Jesus is NOT being cruel,
He’s pulling out what is inside this woman and putting it on display.
He is putting her in a tight situation
That you might get a look at what is inside her.
He is about to show you her heart or her will.
And to do that He has to squeeze her a little.
A Foreign Route, A Foreign Resident, A Foreign Response
#4 A FOREIGN REACTION
Mark 7:28
By foreign here I mean “unexpected”.
Let’s bring this story into a MODERN-DAY setting.
If during our sermon this morning a woman came bursting in here wanting food for groceries because her daughter was starving at home.
And she just stood down front begging for food, and I just kept on preaching and ignoring her requests.
First of all, you’d be really uncomfortable just like the disciples were.
One of you might even raise your hand and say,
“Preacher, do something about this woman.”
And then I looked at her and said.
“I’m preaching to the children of God right now, I’ll feed the little dogs when the sermon is over.”
What sort of response do you think I might get?
I think it’s fair to say it would be of the type that could not be repeated.
· “You can’t talk to me like that!”
· “What gives you the right?”
· “Who do you think you are!”
It would get real ugly, real fast.
But look at this woman.
(28) “But she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children’s crumbs.”
Now before we talk about her response make sure you understand
Drawing out this response is what Jesus has been working toward.
Jesus already knows the heart.
He already knew the condition of this woman’s heart when she entered.
· He is the Lord, and He sees the heart.
But the disciples didn’t.
All they could see was the outside.
TO THEM,
· The Pharisees would have looked totally undefiled while their hearts were as
evil as could be.
· This woman would have looked totally unclean, and yet Jesus is about to
reveal that this is not the case.
Now, certainly this woman had a pagan past.
Certainly this woman had been sinful.
We don’t know what transpired to lead her to faith in Jesus.
We don’t know when it happened.
· Maybe she had been in Galilee and heard Him?
· Maybe she had heard of Him second-hand?
· We don’t know.
What we DO KNOW however is that this woman was NOW A BELIEVER.
She was still dealing with consequences obtained from her pagan past,
But she was a believer in Christ.
The Pharisees had cleaned the outside of the cup and of the dish,
But inside were full of robbery and self-indulgence.
This woman outwardly still appeared pretty unclean,
But inwardly her defilement has been washed away.
So do you want to see what an undefiled heart looks like?
We know what A DEFILED HEART looks like.
It spews out “evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.”
That’s what a defiled heart produces.
What does an undefiled heart produce?
HUMILITY
“Yes…” – What a way to answer!
· I am what You say.
· I am a dog.
· I am unworthy.
· I’m not a Jew, not an Israelite.
· I have been a pagan.
· I am not as important as any of these men in this room.
“Yes, Lord…”
· You have every right to talk to me however you choose.
· You are the potter, I am the clay.
· If You say I am a dog, then that’s what I am.
· If You say get out, then that’s what I must do.
· You are Lord, I am not.
“Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children’s crumbs.”
· It is not my desire to pull You away from Your ministry.
· It is not my wish to stop what You are doing for Your disciples.
· I am only asking for a crumb.
· Just a crumb.
I am not worthy.
You have all authority.
I am not as important as them, and would not pretend to be.
But if in the midst of teaching o Your men, if You could just drop me a crumb on the floor, I will pick it up cheerfully like the dog below the table.
That’s humility isn’t it!
That type of humility does not come from a defiled heart.
That type of humility is evidence of a cleaned heart.
That woman has been cleaned.
That woman has been regenerated.
That woman has been born again.
Outwardly she still looks the same.
Outwardly she’s still dealing with old consequences.
BUT SHE IS NO LONGER DEFILED.
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
And that is precisely what Jesus was drawing out of her.
He wasn’t putting her off, He was putting her on display.
(29) “And He said to her, “Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”
“Because of this answer…”
That’s what He was looking for.
“That which proceeds out of the man…”
And what came out of her was pure glory.
And Jesus tossed her the crumb she asked for.
· He didn’t go with her.
· He didn’t stop the sermon.
· He put her on display and tossed her the crumb.
“go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”
· And notice she didn’t doubt Him.
· She didn’t insist He come.
· She didn’t question.
She just left, believing He did what He said.
(30) “And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having left.”
That word “lying” is literally “thrown”.
It indicates that the demon must have thrown her down,
Like the often do, upon leaving her.
There had been a battle, but Jesus won it.
That demon, even remotely, was no match for Jesus.
It was gone.
But the point of the story is not only Jesus authority over demons,
But what a redeemed and undefiled heart looks like.
THIS MORNING, we use that to evaluate our own hearts and will.
What comes out of the mouth?
As Adrian Rogers liked to say, “What’s down in the well comes up in the bucket.”
When pressed. When pushed. When free to respond.
· Is there humility there?
· Is there faith there?
· Is there worship there?
Or is there anger and bitterness and jealousy and wrath and evil thoughts?
And this morning it is important that you know:
Only Jesus cleans that which is defiled.
You’ve got to go to Him in genuine humility.
You see the answer that He responds to.
· You can’t justify your sin.
· You can’t excuse your sin.
· You can’t deny your sin.
· You must humbly confess your sin, and He will wash you clean.
1 John 1:5-10 “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.”
· Don’t be a phony like the Pharisees and say you’re not sinning when you are.
· Don’t deny that you have sin at all.
· Don’t act like what you did wasn’t’ sin.
Own your sin, confess your sin, and cry out to God,
For in Christ, God forgives sin.
He will cleanses us from it.
Defilement is not of the hands, it is of the heart,
And it is only cleansed by Jesus.
Humble yourself and ask Him for it.