Some people say that demons don’t exist, that the mention of them in Scripture proves that the Scriptures are full of myth and folly, that they are certainly not worth believing. I disagree with this belief, but I will entertain it for a few moments as I write.
We have a woman who believes her young daughter has a demon. Her behavior is unexplainable by any other diagnosis known at the time of this mom’s living. But let’s just say that there is another explanation other than demon possession. It doesn’t change the truth of our text at all. This mother is desperate to find a cure for her daughter, and Jesus provides that cure, in an instant, from a distance, seemingly without any intervention other than His word to this desperate woman. Doesn’t this warrant a second look? Doesn’t this qualify as miraculous?
What medical or psychiatric cure can be done without any intervention, any interaction between practitioner and patient? None! And yet Jesus does this very thing. Maybe there is an explanation that fits better with these facts. The perfect fit is demon possession.
So let’s look at this woman. She is a non-Jew, a Greek by birth, not one of the chosen people. She was not chosen to bring the message of God’s care and provision to the world. That is what means to be a Jew, and she wasn’t one. So her background probably doesn’t know the Old Testament Scriptures.
She probably hasn’t heard any Sunday School lessons about Moses or Jonah and the whale. She might have heard small bits about what Jews believe, but would not have had the full picture, kind of like hearing what the Amish believe. We know bits and pieces, what we pick up from movies and seeing pictures of the buggies and the distinctive clothing, but not the substance of their beliefs.
It also seems as if she is displaced. She was born outside the immediate area. We don’t know the exact location, but we know it wasn’t in the territory that Jesus has travelled. If she were born in Tyre where Jesus is, they would have just said that. But the distinction places her outside the normal bounds of Israel. Her native language was probably not Hebrew, but one of the other Semitic languages. It states she was Greek, so perhaps she spoke Greek as well.
I wonder if she has had to flee her birthplace because of some tragedy. No mention of her husband. No mention of relatives. It sounds as if she was in witness protection or hiding from domestic violence. (Just speculating.)
And yet she hears about Jesus and she seeks Him out. Her desperation drives her to look beyond her normal resources, since they have failed. And yet, she begs Jesus. We don’t beg from equals. We beg from someone who has more power, more authority. When was the last time you begged?
The Arnold Journey 