Mark 7:24–8:10
This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.
My own father, a 94-year-old father, is here with us this morning. I'm grateful for him, especially. So I lived in Dubai for 16 years with my family. Dubai is a crossroads of the world with people from all backgrounds living together. And there I formed a friendship with a white South African named Basi. He grew up in South Africa during the days of apartheid.
During those days, Basi believed the white leadership of apartheid to be good and right. He and his family benefited from apartheid, grew rich from apartheid. Basi even fought in the apartheid's wars in Angola. But the Basi I knew in Dubai was very different. It was clear he had rejected apartheid, loved all people, he treated everyone with equal respect. And as I probed about his past, Bossy said something I've never forgotten.
Mac, you cannot imagine how horrible it was to wake up one day and realize that everything you believed, everything you knew, everything you had staked your life on was a lie. Apartheid was a lie. Have you come to a time in life where the truth becomes crystal clear?
Maybe it comes alongside a stunning realization that you've been in the dark. I came to Christ in a run-down youth hostel over a bar in Zermatt, Switzerland. It was June 1972. I was born again, in the words of Jesus. And suddenly I saw the world with new and different eyes. It was like someone had switched on the lights that I'd been groping around in the dark. And suddenly I could see, mind-blowing, life-changing.
Eye-opening light. Jesus said in John 8, 12, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. I've loved our sermon series that Greg's walking us through in Isaiah. And I thought it would be good to look at a New Testament passage where we see some of the fulfillments of the prophecies that we've been reading about in Isaiah.
And one of the big prophecies in Isaiah 9 is the promise that the Gentiles would see a great light. Those who walk in darkness would see a great light. We sing about that in Handel's Messiah. Perhaps you know the refrain. Our text today in Mark looks at a place where that happened, Where Jesus, as it were, flipped on the lights to fulfill the prophecies of Isaiah.
So turn with me to Mark chapter 7. There's a pew Bible in front of you. Mark chapter 7 is the second gospel in the New Testament. We're going to start in verse 24. As you find your place there, let me tell you where we're going. Mark tells three stories here. We'll look at each in turn. These stories are from, if you read them, just seem like just ongoing repetitions of healings and feedings.
But it's very different because this is with Gentiles. So, a desperate Gentile woman is the first story, Mark 7, 24 through 30. A healing of a Gentile man, verse 31 through 37. and a table set for the Gentiles, the feeding of the 4,000, Mark 8, 1 through 10. So let's read our first story, and then we'll talk about it. A desperate Gentile woman.
So Jesus leaves Israel, and he travels north. It's a short-term mission trip to the Gentiles. Starting in verse 24. And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to cast out the demon out of her daughter.
And he said to her, Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. But she answered him, yes, Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs. And he said to her, for this statement, you may go your way. The demon has left your daughter. She went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone. Well, Tyre and Sidon are in modern-day Lebanon, very near the Syrian border.
Many of the people we ministered to for the 20 years that we lived in the Middle East were descendants of this people group. Often when I asked an Arab friend what city he was from or she was from, they would open up my study Bible to the maps in the back and point to their home city. I never ceased to be amazed by that. In the days of Jesus. Thank you, Isaac.
In the days of Jesus, the Gentiles of Tyre and Sidon were the ancient enemies of Israel. Idol worshipers. They were the ones that introduced the pagan child sacrifice to Israel. The Baal worshipers. Tyre was the home of the wicked queen Jezebel. Now careful readers of this passage notice a strong parallel between the journey of Jesus and the path of the prophet Elijah, hundreds of years before this trip.
Jesus even stayed at the home not far from the widow of Zarephath who gave Elijah refuge after King Ahab had called for Elijah's death. Death is in the air for Jesus as well. He knows his time is short, only weeks away from his crucifixion. And Jesus knows it. So Jesus wants to teach his disciples alone. But then there is this interruption from this Syrophoenician woman.
Syro-Syrian Phoenician is the ancient Phoenician peoples. And we'll talk about this interruption here in a minute. But let's deal first with what most people notice about this passage. Jesus seems to call this woman a dog. Maybe that's why hearing a sermon on this passage is rare. Given our modern sensibilities, it's easy to take offense at how Jesus talks to her. Especially because she's so vulnerable and humble.
She falls at his feet. There is no indication that she ever stood up as they talked. She's desperate. She begs in verse 26. Anyone with a sick child, a child with a disability, a child in danger knows her feelings of gut-wrenching desperation. She makes a simple request. She knows Jesus can do it.
She begs for Jesus to cast out the demon from her little girl. We would guess this little girl's age between five or six. But Jesus gives what seems to be a cold-hearted parable in verse 27. It's not right, he says. There's an order to his work. She's a Gentile, a Canaanite woman. The prophecies are clear. The good news must be preached to the Jews first and then the Gentiles.
And the analogies of the parable are easy to understand. The work of Jesus is the bread. The people of Israel are the children. And the Gentiles, they're the dogs who come later. Easy to understand, hard to swallow. Now, when you turn to commentaries, it's a little sad. They worked so hard to make this parable nicer.
They say the Greek word here is the word for a pet dog, not a mongrel or a jackal. Mongrels were wild dogs that licked the blood of Jezebel when she fell to her death from the Tower of Jerusalem. I guess it's a little better to be called a pet dog than a mongrel, but Gentiles, they had pet dogs. Jews saw any dog is unclean, pet or mongrel. So let's face it, even if Jesus calls her the family pet dog, it's hardly a compliment.
But he's making a point for us, for us, to make sure that we see her status in the eyes of the world. Jesus speaks to this woman as the Jews would have seen her. she is an unclean woman in an unclean town in a home that accepts unclean animals at their table while an unclean spirit inhabits her daughter what could be more unclean she's certainly not the person the pharisees or the disciples would have thought could ever approach God and she is us. In our natural state we're all unclean before a holy God and yet God accepts all who come humbly to him in faith. What could make a bigger statement
about the fantastic good news that nobody is too unclean for the grace of God? We may take offense in modern sensibilities, but she does not because she sees Jesus for who he is. It's mind-boggling how clearly she sees Jesus. Jesus speaks to her in a parable. He's been teaching parables in Israel to deaf, dumb, and blind religious leaders who never seem to get it.
Even his disciples are puzzled over these parables. Just as we saw in the prophecy of Isaiah 6, they don't believe, they don't see, they don't have ears to hear. She is the first person in the book of Mark who understands a parable immediately. And she is the only person in the Bible who responds to Jesus with a parable. She acknowledges that the bread of the teaching of Jesus must come to the Jews first.
But, she says, if we can have crumbs, we can eat at the same time. She has ears to hear and eyes to see. Now, notice Jesus does not say the bread will never come. He's only talking of order, first to the Jews. So, we read in Luke 24, the gospel will be preached to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. Romans 1.16, first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles. Jesus is so pleased with her answer in verse 29, maybe even undone by her wit and her response of faith. Her little daughter is healed immediately remotely in Mark. Remote healings only happen when someone shows great faith. She goes home, her daughter is healed, but we suspect she knew it was true before she got there in verse 30. And thousands of years later, get this, Thousands of years later, think of the honor.
We still speak of her and talk of her and remember her as a hero of faith. She's one of my heroes. Jesus picks this unnamed, unexpected Syrophoenician woman to show us that Jesus and the gospel are for all people. And though this woman doesn't know it, she becomes one of the first fulfillments of what was promised by Isaiah about the Gentiles, to see Jesus as a great light. Her story foreshadows what the future holds for the world, for you and me.
Jesus had really thought she was a dog. She would not have received what she asked for. That's for us. Hundreds of years before Jesus, a prophecy of Isaiah points to this moment in Tyre. It's from Isaiah 35 that we read before the service. During the service. It's a prophecy of this very hour and very tour that Jesus has taken through the Gentile lands. The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad.
It shall blossom. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it. They shall see the glory of the Lord. The majesty of God. Strengthen weak hands. Make firm, feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, be strong, fear not. You know, the Bible says don't despise small beginnings. Because it's like God to use common things, small things of the world.
A manger. Fisherman. Criminal's death on a Roman cross. This unnamed Syrophoenician woman. that do amazing, great things. Well, there are many things to learn from this woman and this passage, but here are three things. Humility, knowledge, and great faith. Number one, humility, the bent knee. She knows how to approach God, and it is with humility.
She doesn't argue with Jesus like the Pharisees. She doesn't act like he's unreasonable like the disciples. She doesn't take offense. You know, there's far greater offenses in the gospel than Jesus' words to this woman. I can pick an example. You're a sinner through and through. You are. Your life deserves hell, despite what the world tells you, that there's compulsory heaven for everyone.
That's the Christian understanding of our condition. You weren't born good and then go bad. We're born under the judgment of God because we've inherited a sin nature. Jesus says that. This is not Mack's word. This is what Jesus tells us. And that offends many. And many Christians shy away from that truth. But if you want to follow Jesus, it's his condition. One of the many doctrines of grace is called total depravity.
It says, no part of you remains untouched by sin. The doctrine of total depravity does not say we can't do good things. Of course we can do good things. It's just even the good things we do is tainted by sin. So, for example, you do something. Say you give some money generously to the down and out. But then you're proud of it. Such that the sin of pride is worse than the good deed of generosity. So, you see, the stain of sin covers us totally.
That's total depravity. And sin cuts us off from God. And moreover, in John chapter 8, Jesus says we're slaves to sin. There's nothing we can do about it in and of ourselves. We can't work our way out. We can't buy our way out. We can't be born into the right family. It's not our skin color, our culture. We can't educate our way out of it. We can't get out. what's called for is not for us to try harder to make ourselves clean but to be humble before Jesus. Fall at his feet like this woman. Acknowledge him as Lord. Lay down your pride.
That means you trust him with your very life. You let him order your ways and your thoughts. You stop doing things in your traditions, your culture, your thinking, your pragmatic solutions and you do things his way. Trust that the Lord knows the way. I was studying this passage with a group of students and a young woman who had lived a pretty rough life said it pretty well. If Jesus is willing to forgive my sins and heal my life, he can call me whatever he wants.
I'll call him Lord. Humility is the start of the path to forgiveness and being made clean. If you want to come to Jesus, first bend the knee. Second, knowledge. Some knowledge is required. We have to understand the gospel. This woman doesn't understand everything, but she had enough understanding. She knows that Jesus is Lord. She accepts that Jesus gives the bread of life in verse 28.
She knows that Jesus is the life giver. Within three miles of where Jesus was in this home, most likely sat a pagan place of healing. She passed it by. She left her tradition to come to Jesus. She gave up pagan religion to seek the healing of Christ. Where we expect the Pharisees to understand Jesus, given their great knowledge. And the disciples to understand Jesus because of the close connection and even extra explanations.
this unclean Gentile woman, understands. You know, the best thing about this woman is not that she gets the parable. As astonishing as that is, it's that she gets Jesus. She sees him. She calls him Lord in verse 28. You know, she's the only person in the book of Mark in verse 28 who addresses Jesus directly as Lord. The only one. Well, it begs the question of us, doesn't it?
Will you follow him as Lord? That means you give up your ways, as we've said, and follow him as teachings in the scripture. Maybe it's to love those who you would typically reject or despise or truly forgive someone who's trespassed against you or even committed an evil act. Leanne and I are working through that last one.
As someone we knew and loved was murdered, we were at the conviction, the trial that sentenced his murderer to jail on Monday. felt the strong call of God to forgive. It makes all the other slights in my life seem very small. Thirdly, faith.
This woman shows that anybody, no matter who you are, can approach Jesus and be accepted by Jesus If they come with a sincere heart of faith. If you know you're not a Christian here with us today, this morning. You are so welcome. You are more than welcome. And while you're here, it would be good to ask yourself some questions about the truth claims of Jesus.
is it true that out of his love God sent his son Jesus into the world to offer sinners like us a way back to fellowship with God as a good father is it true is it possible that the death of Jesus on the cross was payment for our sin debt the one we can't pay and that Jesus proved that he was Lord through his resurrection? Is it true? And that all we need to do to gain the forgiveness of God is to turn from our disobedience and disbelief and put our faith in Jesus.
And if you say it's true, if you say, I believe in faith that those things are true, You step from darkness to light. Let's look at the second story, the healing of the Gentile man. Starting in verse 31. Jesus travels to a Gentile area of Decapolis. And this is Jesus' second trip to Decapolis with a very different reception. Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the region of the Decapolis.
And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears and after spitting, touched his tongue. and looking up to heaven he sighed and said to him that is be opened and his ears were opened and his tongue was released and he spoke plainly and Jesus charged them to tell no one but the more he charged them the more they zealously they proclaimed it and they were astonished beyond measure saying he has done all things well he even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak In chapter 5 of Mark, Decapolis, Jesus goes to the area of Decapolis and he healed a man or cast out the demons from a man called Legion.
He lived in the tomb filled with demons. And his healing was so frightened to the locals there, they begged Jesus to get out of town. That took one day, maybe less. But he left the man, formerly called Legion, as the first evangelist sent by Jesus. He tells him, go back to your family and friends and tell them what the Lord has done for you. And it seems that Legion did his work well because the entire region of Decapolis now knows about Jesus, most likely from this man's witness.
This evangelist was a type of Gentile John the Baptist. So they once begged Jesus to leave. Now they beg him to heal a deaf man in verse 32. It's a strange healing, isn't it? This man with multiple disabilities needs multiple touches and spitting. And Jesus speaks in Aramaic in verse 34 saying, be opened. And Jesus heaves a deep sigh. And the man is healed.
What joy. Have you guys seen the video shorts of people who have been deaf receiving cochlear implants and suddenly being able to hear for the first time? I can't watch those things without crying when I see them. They're astonishing. What joy when people receive their healing. And then Jesus tells them not to spread the news. Jesus often does that in the Gospels. If that puzzles you, I have a simple explanation. They don't have the whole picture.
Jesus wants to be known as more than a healer. He's a God who must die on the cross and be raised from the dead. He wants them not to talk about it until their understanding of the gospel is complete. Remember that when you see that in the gospels and Jesus tells them not to talk about something. But it doesn't matter here. They spread the news far and wide. And I have personally great sympathy for that. Because if I were healed of a speech problem, I wouldn't want to talk about it. The man is a joyful fulfillment of the prophecy from Isaiah 35.
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. Well, there's much to be learned from this healing. It's strange. And Mark doesn't give us any narration on this. We don't know why this stuff is happening. Anything we say about this healing is speculation. and think how radical this was not not the healing but that jesus loves the gentiles he's walking their roads he stays in their places he eats with them he heals their disabled as i read this text my big question is why does he sigh what is that There are two times when Jesus sighs in Mark.
It's in desperation with the Pharisees. And when he deals with the sad brokenness of the world. So hard-heartedness creates Jesus' sighs and physical brokenness. How hard was it for Jesus to come from his throne and glory and live with us in our muck? To see the pain and heartache and brokenness of the world. But aren't you glad that we follow a God who knows our pain?
For those of you suffering from disabilities or loss and pain. Jesus knows your pain. He's walked among us. He cares for us. Go to him. The parables and the miracles of Jesus always point to a bigger picture. And Mark, the miracles are messages in many ways to the disciples about something coming up.
And this healing is no different. Jesus wants the disciples to hear and to speak clearly about who he is. Something they're sort of still working on, as we'll see in the following story. Mark 8, 1 through 10, Jesus sets the table for the Gentiles. In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.
And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away. And his disciples answered him, how can we feed these people with bread here in this desolate place? And he said to them, how many loaves do you have? They said, seven. And he directed the crowd to sit on the ground, sit down on the ground. and he took the seven loaves and having given thanks he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people and they set them before the crowd and they had a few small fish and having blessed them he said that these also should be set before them and they ate and were satisfied and they took up the broken pieces left over seven baskets full and there were about 4,000 people and he sent them away and immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.
Now as we read this section, we recognize straight away the obvious parallels with the feeding of the 5,000. That happens in the book of Mark back in Israel in Mark chapter 6. There are many parallels here. Both have people rush to him. They rush out to the wilderness to hear Jesus. We see another prophecy from Isaiah fulfilled in Isaiah 55. Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you because of the Lord your God and of the Holy One of Israel, for he glorified you.
So these Gentiles are rushing forward. There are many parallels, as I said, of the feeding of the 5,000, But the noticeable difference, of course, is that the feeding of the 5,000 was a Jewish crowd. And this is a meal for a great crowd of Gentiles. And their servers are the Jewish disciples of Jesus. The Syrophoenician woman saw it coming, didn't she? We can eat together at the same time. Well, let me highlight three important things for us to know and remember.
First, remember, brothers and sisters, the super abundance of Jesus. He feeds a crowd of 4,000 Gentiles. Not little communion wafers like we get here. Not those things. Bread, a meal of fish and bread. They eat till they're full. And they end up with more than they started with. Do you notice that? There's food left over seven baskets full. The same number of loaves they started with. but it's far more than loaves.
It's a whole basket full of food. Remember in the first story of the Syrophoenician woman in verse 28, where the woman says that as a Gentile, she could eat crumbs. In God's superabundance, in God's economy, seven baskets of bread are crumbs. That's the crumbs. So if you're still wondering if Jesus thinks Gentiles are dogs, this section should dispel any further concern. God's superabundance is available to those near and far off.
Jews and Gentiles eat together. It's not just food. The lavish provision of Christ springs from his compassion for us beyond the physical. He's even more compassionate about our spiritual needs, more caring about that. He gives us forgiveness in superabundance, His mercy in superabundance, His acceptance and His love in superabundance.
Never forget the superabundance of God in His care for you. You know, I think there's a tendency, I don't know why this is, but there's this tendency to think of God as miserly. But He's a generous God, filled with compassion. As a parent caring for a child, it's just sometimes we don't see it. We can't see that what he gives us is far better than what we want. Reminded of a friend's story from his childhood in Canada around third grade.
And, you know, when you got through third grade, there's not much else to learn, right? You know how that is. Around third grade, as a young boy, he'd had enough of working for free on his Albertan farm. And so in the morning, next to his mother's plate of pancakes, he slipped a little piece of paper under her plate. And on this piece of paper, there was a ledger, making up my bed, 10 cents.
Getting ready for school by myself, five cents. Doing my chores, 25 cents. Going to bed on time, 15 cents. Total cost, 55 cents. His mother smiled, tucked the piece of paper in her pocket. The next morning, next to his plate of pancakes, there was 55 cents on top of a piece of paper, a ledger.
Making you pancakes, zero. Reading to you your favorite books, zero. Feeding you when you were a baby and hungry and all the world was asleep, zero. anxiously staying up with you all night when you were sick with fever. Zero. Pleading with God that you would follow Jesus.
Zero. Total cost. Zero. This is how Isaiah said it. Come, everyone who thirsts. Come to the waters, and he who has no money, come by and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money, without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me.
Eat what is good. Delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me here that your soul may live. Don't ever forget Christ's lavish superabundance to us. Secondly, remember Christ's call to follow his example. The disciples completely forgot how Jesus fed the 5,000 in a similar situation, not long before this event.
Jesus is graciously trying to involve his disciples in ministry. He wants feet to their understanding. let me tell you how to read these two verses here in the request of Jesus verse 2 I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat and if I send them away hungry to their homes they will faint on the way and some of them have come from far away wink wink the feeding of the 4,000 was an opportunity for the disciples Jesus wants them to remember what he did with the 5,000 wants to learn compassion from him when he gets his blank stares how could we do that
it's a desolate place they're so pragmatic aren't they so pragmatic. We look at the disciples and think, how in the world could they have forgotten what happened with the 5,000? But when we think, and every time we think, I can't do what God has called me to do, or how could I ever overcome those obstacles? We're them. That's us. We become them every time we forget the Lord's gracious hand in the past. We become them every time our pragmatic objections and thoughts get in the way of obedience. We become them when our fears keep us from sharing our faith. We are so forgetful. I journal pretty much every day. I write up prayers.
I pray for you guys. And you know, the thing that the journal has done for me mostly is when I go back and look even months ago. I'm astonished at how bad my memory is, how easy it is to forget. This helps to write stuff down. It helps me remember God's faithfulness. Try it. You might find it helpful to remember God's gracious hand, but however it happens, don't forget Jesus wants us to put feet to our knowledge based on what we've seen him do as a faithful God in our lives. Well, thirdly and finally, we need to remember God's heart for the world. Now, of course, it's written all over these three stories. In many ways, these are the stories of missions.
One of the reasons that the disciples had a hard time seeing God and his compassion for the Syrophoenician woman or the man who was deaf or this great crowd that was hungry was because their prejudices, the prejudicial state of the Jewish nation had blinded them. Jewish nation had believed a lie. They had twisted the doctrine of election to a racist system.
Not all that different than apartheid. Not long ago in South Africa. You would have thought that they would have seen Jesus' obvious statement in this tour through the Gentile lands that Jesus loves the world, all people. After all, he sets the table for Gentiles in the wilderness, much like Moses had done for the children of Israel. But the disciples, they couldn't see it. The light switch hadn't been thrown on.
They're still working it out. Even after the resurrection, even after the resurrection, after Jesus had issued his great command to go into all the world, the Great Commission, to go into all the world. They didn't see it. It took them a while to figure out that Jesus was missions-minded, that he had a global concern. And he's patient with us about that. You know, at the start of the sermon, I mentioned that for Jews and Gentiles to be together was unthinkable.
Well, here they are, eating together. And here you are, unless you come from a Jewish background, most of us here are Gentiles. And aren't we glad that this gospel is for all of us, for all people? Jesus is showing the way of love for all people. If you want to know Jesus better, if you want to know God's heart better, remember that Jesus is missions-minded to grow your heart for the world. It doesn't mean you pack up your bags and leave.
not at all but you must have a awareness that god loves the world the best way to do that is to reach out from different groups than you don't don't just stay in your own people group i was with a group of folks last night 50 years and older my people group oh my people group it was wonderful don't stay in your own groups get to know each other and you'll develop more of a heart of jesus if you do it will open your eyes well there it is three stories showing the fulfillment of prophecies from isaiah that jesus is the great light to the gentiles and here's how here's how it ends here's what is said in Isaiah.
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap like a deer and the tongues of the mute sing for joy. Let's pray. Lord, we see, we see how you brought light from darkness to the hearts and lives of the least expected.
And we are grateful that that same light comes to us today in your gospel. Oh, God, we see you invite those who are the least, the least expected to your table. And in that, we see your love and compassion for the world. And us, oh God, we are grateful that we can be included in their number. And Lord, we see your call to the disciples to serve others, and we're grateful for the privilege of service. Following your example, include us.
Lord, we see it as a great privilege. We thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen.