Perspective: Jesus' Bad Day

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Jesus' Bad Day

Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin.  She begged [Jesus] to cast the demon out of her daughter.  He said to her, "Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs."

Mark 7:26-27 (NRSV)

I can take so much

'Til I've had enough

'Cause I'm only human

And I bleed when I fall down

I'm only human

And I crash, and I break down

Your words in my head, knives in my heart

You build me up, and then I fall apart

'Cause I'm only human

From "Human" by Christina Perri

One day, Jesus travels to the region of Tyre, hoping to lay low for a while.  In that same area, there is a woman from Syria Phoenicia whose daughter is being tormented by a demon.  When she hears that Jesus is in the area, she goes to the house where He is staying, throws herself down at His feet, and begs Him to heal her daughter.  Jesus says to her, "Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs."¹  The "children" of which He speaks are His fellow Jews, on whom He has been focusing His ministry, and the "dogs" are non-Jewish people, like the Syrophoenician woman.

I would wager a bet that this episode is not many people's favorite story about Jesus.  We expect Jesus to be more than happy to help people in need, but, in this particular story, He comes across as unkind, bigoted, and rude - or, one might say, unchristlike.  Why would Jesus act like this?

I suspect that a lot of people who encounter this story try to come up with a explanation that makes Jesus seem nicer.  I have done this very thing in the past.  Seven years ago, I suggested that Jesus is mirroring His disciples' prejudice against the woman in order to provoke her to demonstrate her faith in front of them.  This explanation works just fine for the version of the story in Matthew's Gospel, in which the Disciples are the ones who want Jesus to make the woman go away.²  It doesn't work so well when it comes to Mark's version of the story, in which the Disciples aren't even mentioned.

When I encountered this story again recently, I read it a bit differently.  Instead of trying to explain away Jesus' initial unwillingness to help the woman and his apparent rudeness toward her, I started wondering if maybe Jesus is simply having a bad day or if maybe He is not in a particularly good place at the time.

Consider what has been going on in Jesus' life.

No matter where Jesus goes, people flock to Him in multitudes.  Most of the people who come to Him are not interested in following Him or learning from Him; they only care about His ability to heal people.³  He can barely find a moment to spend by Himself or with the Disciples, yet He is too compassionate to turn away people in need of healing.⁴

At the same time, Jesus' main detractors, a group of religious leaders and scholars, keep giving Jesus grief over petty matters.  Most recently, they confronted Him because the Disciples do not ritually wash their hands before eating.  Jesus went off on them, calling them hypocrites, suggesting that they have little more to offer God than lip service, and arguing that they use their traditions to create loopholes to get themselves out of doing what God really wants them to do.  He went on to explain that it is not any contaminants that enter a person's body that make a person impure but rather the sins that come out of a person's heart.⁵

To make matters even worse for Jesus, the Disciples just cannot seem to wrap their minds around His teachings.  After His altercation with the religious leaders, He had to spell out to the Disciples His teaching about what makes someone impure.⁶

I think that maybe Jesus was feeling frustrated or even burned out.  Everywhere He goes, He is met by people who want something from Him; His detractors keep zeroing in on what they think He is doing wrong; and the Disciples just can't seem to get the picture.  He just wants to get away from everything and everyone for a while.  He heads into the region of Tyre, away from the people on whom He has been focusing His ministry, and He is met by yet another person who wants something from Him.

Can you see why Jesus might be a bit short with the woman?

As an early Christian hymn teaches us, the Son of God divested Himself of all heavenly power and glory, took on human flesh and blood, and dwelt among us as a servant.⁷  At Christmas, we marvel over this miracle, which we call the Incarnation, yet we find ourselves disturbed when we are actually confronted with Jesus' humanity.  I'm not suggesting that, because Jesus was a human, He was a sinner.  I'm suggesting that, if Jesus really was a human, then He had human needs and human limitations.  Some of these needs and limitations would have been emotional in nature.  A person can only put up with so much discouragement before he or she has had enough.

When Jesus tells the woman that "it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs," she replies, "Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."⁸  This statement shows that this non-Jewish woman has great faith in the God of Israel, the God whom Jesus serves.  She believes that the God of Israel is so great that the miraculous healing she seeks for her daughter is like a mere crumb from God's table, and she believes that the God of Israel is so gracious that God has a place for even a "dog" like her.

Jesus is apparently encouraged by what the woman says to Him, for He is motivated to heal her daughter from afar.  Jesus says to the woman, "For saying that, you may go - the demon has left your daughter."⁹

Perhaps you're thinking that I'm reading myself into the story, that I'm superimposing my own feelings onto Jesus, that my latest reading of this story really says more about me than it says about Jesus.

You would be right.

Sometimes I feel that people only care that I exist when they want something from me.  Sometimes I feel that everybody wants something from me.  Sometimes I feel that my work, especially the work I enjoy doing, goes unappreciated.  Sometimes I feel that people focus on my faults and ignore my good qualities.  Sometimes I feel like I cannot get through to people.  Sometimes I just want to get away from everything and everyone.  Sometimes I need a word of encouragement and some inspiration.

I'm human, and, if Jesus really was human, then He must have felt at least some of the feelings I've felt.

I hated this story in the past, but now I find it strangely comforting.  Jesus is not at His best in this story, so we know that He understands us when we are not at our best.  If even the Son of God knows what it is like to feel discouraged, frustrated, burnt out, and fed up, then maybe we should show ourselves some grace when we experience such feelings.


Notes:

1. Mark 7:24-27 (NRSV)
2. Matthew 15:21-28
3. William Barclay.  The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Mark.  2001, Saint Andrew Press.  p. 187
4. Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
5. Mark 7:1-15
6. Mark 7:16-23
7. Philippians 2:6-8
8. Mark 7:28 (NRSV)
9. Mark 7:29 (NRSV)

Jesus and the Woman of Canaan was painted by Michael Angelo Immenraet in the 1670s.