Mark 7:24-8:10 - Dogs and Dinner and the Deaf
Happy Independence Day, and hope that you're enjoying. If you're one of those that gets time off today, that you're enjoying the time maybe with family, or friends, or planning on doing so later.
And for those of you that are still working today, as I will likely be doing at some point during the day, depends on how much Samantha allows me to do.
But I know it's going to be a good time, and looking forward to enjoying some of the fireworks with my in-laws. They've got nice little spot that they're able to view.
And I think my son B will really, really enjoy those this year, though he may need some headphones or something to block out some of the loudness of the noise.
But we are in Mark chapter seven, and we ended yesterday looking at Jesus' really strong rebuke of the religious leaders and of him saying, you guys have embraced so many human commands and you have neglected God's like, inner change that he wants to
make in you, and you guys are completely missing the point. Then in verse number 24, what we'll see today is Jesus' great compassion and love and care for those that would normally have been completely ignored and rejected by the Pharisees.
He goes out of his way, or Mark in writing the gospel, goes out of his way to highlight these stories next to each other to say the Pharisees didn't really care about people and their needs, they just cared about being right, and Jesus, he really
cared about people. So Mark 7 in verse number 24, he got up and departed from there to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know about it, but he could not escape notice.
Instead, immediately after hearing about him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, came and fell at his feet. This is an act of worship. Verse 26, the woman was a Gentile.
This was not a Jew. This was not one of, if you will, God's chosen people. I'm putting air quotes on there for you.
And it says that she was a Syrophoenician by birth. That is, she was a descendant of the Canaanites. She was from, she was a Phoenician from the area of Syria.
And so she was by all accounts from a condemned people group, not one of the Jews. She would not be someone that the Jewish Messiah would care for. And it says she was asking him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
Wow, this is a statement of faith. She has worshiped him. She has believed him.
And verse number 27, Jesus said to her, let the children be fed first because it isn't right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. Here there is a statement that would have been very jarring.
There's been several explanations of this particular event. I want to reinforce some things that would guide us in how we interpret this. Okay, is Jesus like belittling her or demeaning her or perhaps racially insulting her as some have insinuated?
Well, we know that Jesus was perfect. He did everything right. He never did anything wrong.
So therefore, he did not racially insult her by calling her this. He did not demean or insult or belittle her. There's something else that's happening.
So a couple of different ways that I've heard it phrased before, frankly, I haven't delved into it enough to come to absolute certainty on which version of these I think it was. One way is that here the word dogs that is used is like a puppy.
And he says, hey, it's not right to feed the puppies before you feed the kids. He's saying, my mission right now is to the House of Israel, to the Jews. And eventually, there will also be food for the Gentiles as well.
He says, my reign, my rule will benefit them as well. He says, but right now, I'm supposed to be taking care of Israel.
And so there's that kind of endearing phrase that he's saying that, like, you're a puppy and I realize that you are a part of this family and you are in need of some things and you will get them, but you will get them in the appropriate time.
There's also another way that I've heard it phrased that Jesus, almost in wanting to make emphatically clear to this woman, Kate, do you realize who I am? Do you realize perhaps with your background, do you know who you're dealing with?
So he perhaps tees up a thing that says, okay, here's what the Pharisees would say about a Gentile, especially a Gentile woman, especially one that would have a demon-filled daughter. They would say, oh, one of the Gentile dogs.
And so perhaps Jesus is saying, all right, are you able to, like, do you understand that these flawed people, that I'm their Messiah, I'm the one that's meant to bring new life and everything to them?
Are you willing to forgive these wrongs that they have done against you, the sinful ways in which they view the Gentiles, in which they view women?
He basically goes, are you willing to press on through prejudice to be able to say, no, like, I know who you are, and it doesn't matter what the other people have called me. I know that you can make a difference and I believe in you.
So those are some different options that have been put forward for this particular set of circumstances. So I'm going to read verse 27 again.
Jesus said to her, let the children be fed first, because it isn't right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. But she replied to him, Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.
She says, listen, Lord, here, Master, this is Kurios. It would be the word that was used to translate the Old Testament word Yahweh, the Lord, Y-H-W-H, the Tetragrammaton. She says, Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.
She says, hey, and it could also very well have been Jesus is teeing it up. In his omniscience, he knew exactly what would happen and he knew, hey, if I say this, she's going to say, hey, Lord, you still have goodness.
You still have grace that can be given to me. Like, yes, I understand your mission is for Israel at this time, but you still have care and goodness that you want to give to me. Verse number 29, then he told her, because of this reply, you may go.
The demon has left your daughter. I can imagine the smile on Jesus' face as he goes, man, what great faith that this woman has, that she's not taking no for an answer. She's going to God and she's saying, Lord, I need what only you can do.
No one else can provide this for my daughter, only you. Verse number 30, when she went back to her home, she found her child lying on the bed and the demon was gone.
That Jesus provides healing to someone that would have been rejected, would have been looked down on, would have been racially demeaned by others, but Jesus loves her and he cares for her and provides for her needs.
Verse number 31, again, leaving the region of Tyre, he went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee through the region of the Decapolis.
Okay, so now he's back in the area where the demon possessed man from chapter five, where he had told him, hey, preach the gospel, tell people what God has done for you, and the man went through all the Decapolis.
Okay, so now we're back in, let's find out what Jesus finds there. Verse number 32, they brought to him a deaf man who had difficulty speaking and begged Jesus to lay his hand on him.
Okay, so here we have already several people that know about the healing work of Jesus, and here they use the exact same word that we read about so many times in chapter five, that begging Jesus to lay his hand on him.
Verse 33, so he took him away from the crowd, so there's a crowd of people. He took him away in private. After putting his fingers in the man's ears and spitting, he touched his tongue.
Looking up to heaven, he sighed deeply and said to him, Ephthatha, that is, be opened. Immediately his ears were opened that Jesus had touched.
His tongue was loosened and he began to speak clearly that Jesus, through this very unconventional means, he had healed this person. Verse number 36, Jesus ordered them to tell no one.
Again, Jesus didn't want people to just follow him because he was the instant fix. He wanted them to know and fall in love him because he was the Messiah, because of the message that he preached.
But, verse 36, the more Jesus ordered them, the more they proclaimed it. They were extremely astonished and said, he has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.
And here, Jesus does everything well. You can even think about Genesis 1, 31. God saw all that he had made and it was very good indeed.
And here, Jesus, through new creation, makes these new ears, these new tongues, and it benefits people. Chapter 8 and verse 1, In those days there was again a large crowd and they had nothing to eat.
He called the disciples and said to them, I have compassion on the crowd, because they've already stayed with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way and some of them have come a long distance.
Okay, now there's a crowd that have followed Jesus for days and hearing him speak and seeing his miracles. All this is happening over in the region that before the people were telling Jesus, hey, get out of here. We don't want you here.
They begged him to leave. And now this area that has been told about Jesus and what he has done for the demoniac, now they're staying for days to hear him and to see what he's done.
Verse number four, his disciples answered him, where can anyone get enough bread here in this desolate place to feed these people? How many loaves do you have? He asked them.
Seven, they said. I can almost think that in that moment, they laughed and they remembered, oh yeah, we know what Jesus has done before with this. Jesus commanded the crowd to sit down on the ground.
Taking the seven loaves, he gave thanks, broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people. So they served them to the crowd. They also had a few small fish.
And after he had blessed them, he said these were to be served as well. They ate and were satisfied. There is satisfaction to be found in what Jesus provides for you.
Then they collected seven large baskets of leftover pieces, started with seven loaves and with seven baskets. About 4,000 were there. He dismissed them and he immediately got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.
That would be kind of the same area as Magdala, where Mary Magdalene was from. So as we look at these stories, what do we take away from it? Jesus, he heals a Gentile daughter that had a demon.
He heals this deaf and mute man. He cares for these people that were on the wrong side of the Sea of Galilee.
And he does basically just as big a miracle as he did over on the other side with where all the regular Israelites that would often follow God and follow his law, where they were at.
I want us to see that God really cares about the people that would be rejected. The people neglected by spiritual leaders, perhaps by religious or political leaders. God really cares for them.
And maybe you have felt like you've been neglected, maybe gone under some racial difficulties or other prejudices that people had against you.
And you wonder why did God allow me to be born, perhaps with this skin color or with this ethnicity, or maybe with this physical malady, like the man that was born deaf and mute, or that had acquired being deaf and mute at some point.
The truth is that God wants to show his love and his care for you.
That he loves you, that he made you, and that though this world has problems and deals with prejudices and sicknesses and diseases and things that harm us physically, that it doesn't mean that God doesn't love us.
Instead, in our circumstances, we can find the grace and the love that God has for us that are stronger than circumstances.
That if we continue to press in and seek him and go to him and ask him, we can find that with the mother that Jesus will say, hey, great response. Absolutely, I will cast that demon out of your daughter from far away.
It might be the crowd that bring this man to Jesus that Jesus, he takes him apart and he says, hey, I want you to know this isn't just for everyone out there to see, you're not some spectacle. I particularly care about you.
It might be for the 4,000 that Jesus communicates his heart to the disciples.
He says, I've got compassion on them because they have gone after me for three days and they have stayed and they have heard and they have watched and I want to care for them and meet their needs.
Today, I don't know what situation you're in, but I want you to know that Jesus cares. He sees and he wants to provide for what you need.
Go to him in prayer, ask him, talk to him, and as you do so, realize that there will be other people in those same situations.
That like the demoniac that he went out and declared in his region what God had done for him and so then others that were in need came to Jesus.
You might be able to care for and love and provide for someone like you wish that someone would maybe do for you. You can be that light to others. Thanks for tuning in today.
Tomorrow, we're going to be going over just 15 verses. And I know it's going to be a great time as we continue in Mark, Chapter 8, looking at the Pharisees saying some more things and seeing what Jesus' response is to that.
