A Midsummer's Reflection Series

Monday, June 15, 2026

Meditation 15: Mark 7:17 and 24-30

Sunflowers, Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Arles, January 1889

The Gospel of Mark presents us with two implicit lessons on hospitality in a very short span of time in its seventh chapter. 

In Mark 7:17 we hear Jesus entered “the” house, though we do not know which house, along with his disciples, immediately following a controversial encounter with some scribes and Pharisees. We do not know whose house they are in, but Jesus and His disciples were welcomed in, and it is in this context of someone’s hospitality that Jesus explained His teachings more clearly to His disciples. Jesus thus chose a context of hospitality in which He could clearly explain what He had been teaching to His closest followers. 

Closely connected to this passage is when Jesus entered another house. Mark’s Gospel tells us that, “from there,” from that house, “he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house, and would not have any one know it; yet he could not be hid” (7:24). We find again someone opening their home to Jesus and His disciples, and this is in a primarily Gentile region.

It is in this context that a Gentile woman, “a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth” (7:26), entered the home and Jesus extended to her hospitality, after He set her up to show her faith by an apparently insulting remark. He implicitly compared her to a dog (7:27)—or at least appeared to compare Gentiles to dogs—something that would have been common in the Judaism of His day.  

The apostles, throughout the Gospels, seemed to want Jesus to themselves and avoid the crowds. Jesus, by eliciting her response of faith, showed them how much faith even some of the Gentiles in the crowds have, and was also teaching His disciples that He had come to save everyone.  

The woman’s request to have her daughter healed was thus granted. The disciples were shown one more example to help them understand that Jesus’ mission was not just for them but also for the crowds, and that His message was not just for Israel but also for the Gentiles—something that wouldn’t be abundantly clear to them until the Acts of the Apostles.

Lord, may we, too, facilitate Jesus’ work of reaching everyone in need. May we learn to extend hospitality to those who are in need, even if they are not among the social groups we normally inhabit. In this way, may we continue to extend the work of your kingdom in the world. 

Dr. Jeffrey Morrow, Ph.D. is a professor of theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville and the Director of the St. Paul Studies Center at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. He spent 15 years as a professor of theology at Seton Hall University’s Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology. In his final year in that role, Dr. Morrow worked on the Preaching as Hospitality Formation Program, writing these reflections on Scripture through a lens of hospitality. 

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