Stories to journey with
The gospel reading this week offers us an interesting conversation and two healing stories.
I know it’s more usual to read a passage once, glean something new from it if possible, and then move on to another passage. There is a lot of Bible to cover, and going slowly is not a ‘normal’ way to approach scripture.
But I find that when I slow my pace and re-read the same passage (most days) for a week, I notice all kinds of things – both in the text and in my own life and relationships – that I would have missed if I’d rushed on to tomorrow’s reading.
So once again, I invite you to slow down with me and to let scripture have a proper conversation with your life.
As you listen and reflect over the week, watch for thoughts, feelings and sensations that rise in response. This may give you plenty to reflect on, but you might also consider:
What have you been told or taught about the conversation between Jesus and the Syrian woman? Might there be more to consider here? How would you feel in the woman’s shoes, bowing down and begging? How would you feel in Jesus’ shoes?
What do the healing stories say to you? How do you understand what is happening with the differences in the way that healing is facilitated in these two stories?
If you prefer to read the text, here it is:
Mark 7:24-37
From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin.She begged him 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.”
But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go–the demon has left your daughter.” So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue.
Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”
And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”
