At first sight, Jesus did not appear sympathetic to the Syro-Phoenician woman.  She had come with an uncontrollable, demonised daughter, begging for her healing and for the unclean spirit to be exorcised (Mark 7:26).  Jesus has come all the way from Galilee to the Mediterranean coastal town of Tyre, especially for this encounter.  All the time His disciples were watching everything He said and did – Peter's eye witness account is recorded by Mark in this passage.  Every episode of ministry was a tutorial in how the apostles were to lead the church in the future.

It must have seemed strange to the disciples to travel so far for Jesus to rebuff a woman of faith.  He said that His time and ministry was first to be given to the Jews.  But why did He go there in the first place?  He was testing her.  She was not proud to resent His use of the word 'dogs' to include her; and she did not argue with that description - she was indeed begging!  And that was the point: because even dogs were given the left-over food from the table – in the same way that the disciples had each collected a basket of left-overs for their own meal after the five thousand families had been fed. Three times in three chapters Jesus reminds the disciples that there is plenty of grace for everybody (Mark 6:43; 7:28; 8:17-19).

What a stunningly insightful comment, "even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs".  It was a statement of gracious logic.  She may not have been an Old Testament theologian, but there was no doubt that she understood the purpose of God's mission to the world: His grace and mercy were for the Jews first, but also for the Gentiles (Romans 1:16).  God's love for the Jews does not mean He loves the Gentiles less; indeed He was the Light to the Gentiles (Isaiah 42:6; Luke 2:32); and so is the church (Acts 13:42). The grace of God in Jesus was for all, and it included the Gentile woman and her child.  In simple terms, she was a believer in the only One who could send Satan away.  And that was enough.  The woman's daughter was found quietly lying on her bed, and the demon had gone.

Desperate but disciplined, unworthy but undeterred: that kind of prayer always reached God's heart.  It was no tepid plea; it pursued the loving Jesus to act in accordance with His character.  It offered no business, religious or cultural bargaining tool - but accepted her utter unworthiness and trusted His mercy and grace.  The prayer simply begged Jesus to fulfil His role ... to dispossess Satan of his assumed right to terrorise the little girl (1 John 3:8).  It is time we all started praying like that.  If you are in desperate circumstances - remember that desperation and unworthiness are a good starting point for prayer, when mixed with the confidence that the Lord has the power to deliver us from evil!