The Agency of Humanity

Jesus can't hide. But he can learn.

Mark portrays a very powerful Jesus. All the gospels do, but Jesus’ exorcising, miracling posture is front and center here. And yet… Mark is also the gospel that isn’t afraid to show us Jesus’ limits — when he can’t do miracles in Nazareth, or, as in today’s passage, when he can’t even remain hidden.

This says something about a suffering humanity, doesn’t it? Humans have great capacity. Yes, God is God — Jesus is victorious over death, evil, and sin. But that doesn’t mean we are powerless players in a divine script.

This woman — unnamed, uninvited, unfavored by social or religious status — acts. She speaks. She pushes past silence and insult. She insists that grace cannot be limited to just one people group. She doesn’t wait to be handed mercy — she claims it as her right, not because of entitlement, but because she sees the breadth of God’s table even in its crumbs.

And Jesus listens. He adjusts. This is one of the most remarkable moments in the gospels: a human being, a Gentile woman, shifting the trajectory of the divine-human encounter through sheer faith, love, and clarity. This is a story about faith that argues back. About grace that stretches beyond expectation. About a Jesus who listens and learns — and who heals because someone wouldn’t take silence for an answer.

Mark 7:24-30

Jesus left that place and went into the region of Tyre. He didn’t want anyone to know that he had entered a house, but he couldn’t hide. In fact, a woman whose young daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit heard about him right away. She came and fell at his feet. The woman was Greek, Syrophoenician by birth. She begged Jesus to throw the demon out of her daughter. He responded, “The children have to be fed first. It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

But she answered, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

“Good answer!” he said. “Go on home. The demon has already left your daughter.” When she returned to her house, she found the child lying on the bed and the demon gone.

Psalm 86:8-10

Teach me your way, Lord, so that I can walk in your truth. Make my heart focused only on honoring your name. I give thanks to you, my Lord, my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify your name forever, because your faithful love toward me is awesome and because you’ve rescued my life from the lowest part of hell.

Prayer

God,

Thank you for showing us your power, not simply as a display for notoriety or saber-rattling, but for the benefit of all creation. Even so, help us to live into our own agency with the power of compassion and grace.

We humans have taken great liberty with our liberties. Help those of us who want to be like Jesus to do so with his righteousness and justice.

Holy Father of all creation, we see your loving justice in Jesus of Nazareth. By your Spirit and in Christ, make us more like him.

Amen.