Jesus Helps the Forgeiner

Good morning. Here we seek to have the practice of walking through books of the Bible, chapter by chapter, section by section, verse by verse, as much as possible. And so we choose a book so that we don't skip difficult passages or teachings that might be uncomfortable. And every book always has that one story or section that intimidates me as I'm planning from the very beginning. So in Genesis, it was Judah and Tamar. Judges, well, kind of all of them. And Ruth, you know, what is she doing sitting on his feet again? I'm not quite sure what's going on there. We're getting to that story in Mark today. So every story, every book always has some kind of, what am I gonna do with that? I'm not quite sure. And so here we get there this morning, especially with this response of Jesus to the Syrophoenician woman. It's interesting that I've never seen a children's Bible with this story in it. It'd be pretty difficult to moralize this particular story. Even the ones that are more faithful in the gospel with children's Bibles, it would be difficult to explain this. Also, I have to admit, the worst paper I have ever written in college or seminary was on this story. So it's personal. This morning I'm going to spend most of our time in the story of the Syrophoenician woman, maybe selfishly to redeem that paper that I still really remember too much, but really because it has more texture, it requires more explanation. These two stories come together because, as I hope you've seen in the theme of our service, God is the Savior, Jesus Christ is the Savior of all nations. Specifically here. He's going out and getting the foreigner. Yes. He was born of the Jews He came and was promised to a particular nation and an ethnic people But but he's the Savior of all people then we see him going out of his way into the regions of the Gentiles and the Greeks to to be their Savior to I believe he's teaching his disciples. You're going to have to go into the nations and the peoples, and the Greeks, to proclaim the gospel. So, this morning, the outline basically follows the Syrophoenician woman's story. Our message this morning, Jesus confronts our sin so that his grace will abound. Jesus confronts our sin so that his grace will abound. We begin with a humble request humble request. And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon, and he went and entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden." So there's our setting. He's tried to already get away once in the desolate place, and 5,000 men came out and found him, so he didn't really, he couldn't get away. His reputation is growing as a wonder worker, a healer, a teacher, and the crowds are going after him in Galilee. And so he, it appears he's trying to get away now in a different place where he might not have such a reputation. And these are Gentile areas. He's going into the place of the foreigners. And he goes into a house and he's trying to be hidden, but he cannot because even there they've heard of him. Look at verse 25. If you've been with us, we keep seeing this in Mark. Mark draws our attention with this particular phrase, but immediately. This is a key transition, it's a key way of highlighting something or someone being introduced that's going to be significant. Here, it's a woman. Now, she's not just a woman, she's a mom. She has a little daughter, verse 25. A woman who has a little daughter, so she's a mom, and she's not just a mom, she's a mom with a sick child. Her daughter has had an unclean spirit. For however long, it seems like this has been going on for some time, she's been watching her child, her own daughter, go through torment, spiritual torture. Satan. He seeks to destroy. He accuses. He lies. He confuses. And she's watching her daughter go through this kind of destruction within and is burdened. It's said there's these different kind of categories of people. You have cowards. You have regular folks. You have the courageous. And then you have a parent with a sick child. And that person will not take no for an answer. You do not get in front of a mama bear when it comes to her child needing help. And we see this woman, she's heard of Jesus. Verse 25, a woman who's a mom with a sick child, she's heard of him, she comes and falls down at his feet. Most likely she's tried to find help. She's prayed to her gods. She's gone to her doctors and the wise men and the elders of her society, and yet her daughter remains sick. But then, in God's grace, she's heard of Jesus. She's heard of this one who has cast out demons. He's already fed 5,000 people. Maybe she's heard of that great miracle. Maybe she's heard of his authoritative teaching, and how many deaf are hearing, and blind are seeing, and the lame walk because of him. So desperate, she comes and falls down at his feet. The posture reveals a lot about her. She's desperate. She needs Jesus. She's convinced of this. Now, Mark wants to make sure we get the full picture. He gives us even more background. It's not just a woman who's a mom with a sick child. This woman is a Gentile, just to be very clear. He's in the land of the Gentiles, but he wants to be very clear. And actually, the word here is more Helen, a Greek. The Greeks conquered the Jews under Alexander the Great centuries before. They defiled the temple. They murdered innocent people. The Syrophoenicians, notice it says she's Syrophoenician by birth. They're coastal people. They were very involved in this attack. They haven't just had trade disputes. There is a bitter history between the Syrophoenicians and Jews. And so you see here, she's not just a foreigner, but she's somebody who should not be approaching Jesus. A woman, a Jewish woman, would not just go up to a rabbi and make a request like this, according to cultural customs. Much less a Gentile woman. Now, if we just pause here for a second, this is usually where we really see the compassion and power of Jesus. You know, all the cultural norms say, this woman should not be able to come to God, this woman has no business coming towards Jesus Christ in this way because of how unclean she is. This is normally where we see Jesus shine with compassion. Our first point was a humble request. The second is a rude rejection. This is unlike other stories. Look at verse 27. And Jesus said to her, coming and begging for her daughter to be healed, Jesus responds, let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. I label this as a rude rejection because I have no other way of describing this. It appears Jesus is actually intentionally being rude in this rejection. Normally this is where you see, get up and go your way, and your child is healed, but Jesus is doing something very different here, and we have to really wrestle with why. Even more than the rejection, There's the derogatory dig of referencing her as a dog. And even in our own culture, this is something you don't say. But we also remember that they actually view dogs very differently than we did. In our day, we have specialty stores for dogs. I was recently on a plane, and a passenger brought a dog in on a baby carrier. sat down, the passenger fell asleep, the dog fell asleep, putting the dog's head on the passenger next to that didn't know her. I mean, that's how far we've gone with a love for the canine. And I don't mind you loving your dog, but if your dog's head hits me or touches me in an airplane, that's going too far. The Jews, they would have seen dogs as gross. They eat trash. They have a different perspective than many would have today. They're filthy animals. And the Jews would oftentimes reference Gentiles as dogs in a derogatory way. And it appears Jesus is putting her in that category with what he says. Now let's walk through and let's be very careful with what Jesus says in this statement. That first phrase, let's stay there for a moment. Let the children be fed first. All right, so here in this phrase, we just simply say there's a prioritization. Jesus is simply saying the children should be fed first. Now, now first to, to what or how the children are being prioritized, we're going to see that a little bit more in the next phrase. But, but right now Jesus is simply saying there's a prioritization. There's a, my time commitment, my, my ministry commitment, there's a priority. And there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with that necessarily. Everyone has priorities. Jesus has a priority in his mission. He says the children should be fed first. Children immediately seem to be the disciples. The most direct connection there is that He is going away. You know, He's tried to go on retreat with them many times to get away to pray, to teach them. They need to be trained up to carry on His mission after He goes away, and well, after He dies, rises, and ascends to the heavens. He needs to train them. And when they tried to go out in the desolate place for this training in Galilee, 5,000 men and their families came out. So now he's going away, he's found a house, he's trying to hide, and he's saying, I need to spend time with these guys. I do think it goes beyond just the disciples, though, because the disciples here represent Israel. Israel, the people and nation, are over and over again referred to as God's child. Exodus 4 verse 22, when God is telling Moses instruction on how to deliver God's child from Pharaoh. Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, let my son go that he may serve me. Or Hosea 11 1-2, when Israel was a child, I loved him. Out of Egypt I called my son. The more they were called, the more they went away. They kept sacrificing the Baals and burnt offerings to idols. God has taken on Israel and a father-son kind of relationship that we know more richly in Jesus Christ, but the child here, I do believe, is referring to Israel. Israel has a privileged position as the children of God. They clearly have a priority in the plan of God, and there's no really questioning that. What is their privilege? Or as Paul asks in Romans over and over again, what is the advantage of the Jew? Well, first, they were entrusted with the oracles of God, Paul says. Israel, the people and nation, they were given the words of God directly. Secondly, they were the promised people. They were the people through whom God was going to deliver the one son who was going to save all peoples. They're the first to receive the promise in Abraham. And they were the promised people throughout history. Third, Israel is the first to see and hear that the Savior's come. Jesus is born into the tribe of Judah. He is there with his nation and the promised people. Now even in the Christmas narrative, well it's in his later years we believe, but the nations come to him and the Magi. There's always this focus on Israel as God's child, a privileged position, but there's always this, you are blessed to be a blessing to the nations, and there's always this other nations and peoples coming alongside. The first to receive the blessing and fulfillment. Now, what I believe is happening here is Israel is being prioritized But what Jesus is teaching his disciples is that in no way makes Israel superior. They are prioritized, they have an advantage, but that in no way makes them superior. Even in Paul's letter to the Romans, to the Jew first and the Gentile, there's a priority of how the message goes out. Not a superiority, there's a priority. In John, Jesus comes to his own and yet they did not receive him. In Genesis 12, one and two, Abraham was given a blessing so that all nations would be blessed. The privilege and the blessing, the grace coming down is supposed to flow over to the nations. So I believe here we can at least take what he's saying in this first phrase, that the children be fed first, and see that there is a clear pattern that the Jew or the Israelite, they receive the word first, but it is supposed to go out to the nations. Okay, the second phrase makes it more complicated. For it is not right, it is inappropriate, it is wrong to take the children's bread Clearly, going back here to the reference, the children be fed first, don't take the children's bread, and throw it to the dogs. Okay, this is startling. She's putting the woman in the category of the dog. Some have tried to soften this, well, in numerous ways. Jesus is just quoting a proverb of the day, and that's all he's doing here. There's no proverb known that he's quoting. So let's try to avoid the hardness of this, but we really do embrace this is what Jesus says. It is good for us. It is the words of our Savior. It seems harsh. I want to make it very clear, this is an abnormal teaching of Jesus. Like I said before, every time someone comes to Jesus humbly and begging, by faith, they walk away full. Anytime somebody comes begging, empty, we need you Jesus, they always walk away full. And I want to make it very clear, so does this woman. Why is this so different? Why does Jesus first respond in this way? Because at face value, it looks like he blows off a humble request. It looks like Jesus is corrected by a Syrophoenician woman. Okay, the God-man being corrected by the great rabbi who teaches authoritatively, who makes the scribes and Pharisees look foolish. He's being corrected by a Syrophoenician woman. He's consistent in his character of having compassion. This seems off. It's gonna require us to wrestle a bit. Here's the big question. Did Jesus just reject someone referring to a woman in a desperate need as a dog and then get outwitted by her? That seems unlikely. That is the face value of what's taking place But I believe we can actually look at this from another angle, and I believe we need to do some hard work to do so. The first thing as we reason through this passage, I believe Jesus here is teaching in a parable. He is presenting a parable. If you go back to Mark 4, he gives us a number of parables, and he even explains what a parable is. A parable is a way of testing if you have eyes to see and ears to hear. A parable is a way of testing, do you have the faith to receive the Word of God? And he's saying something that is very difficult and hard as a test. I believe there's three people being tested. The woman, his disciples, us. This is presented as a test. A way of seeing who has faith and who will be refined. Second, we need to see this in its context. Mark has been building up a key theme. If we go back to Mark chapter 2, Jesus has come to forgive sinners. He's eating with tax collectors, and when challenged, he makes it very clear, I've come to save sinners. I come and I spend time with those you say are unclean so that I can make them clean. He is not made unclean by touching them and being with them. No, he's the one who cleanses them of true sin. We saw him with 5,000 men and their families, and all ate. The clean and the unclean together. He's challenging the cultural teachings of the Pharisees or the traditions of men regarding what is clean and what is washed. It was subtle with the feeding of the 5,000, but in chapter seven it was very direct. That's last week. Why do your disciples eat with unwashed hands? Your hypocrisy, Jesus says, has been prophesied in Isaiah. He challenges the very traditions of the Pharisees and the scribes, and makes it very clear. It is not what you eat that makes you unclean. Therefore making all food clean. Declaring all food clean. No, it's what comes from your heart. It's a sin that comes from within. Jesus is making it very clear. What makes you unclean is your own sinful heart. Jew and Gentile. Now he's going immediately into Tyre, the land of the Gentiles. He appears to be teaching on clean and unclean here. I believe what he is focused here on is making it clear it is not a person's birth, where they're born, to whom they're born, that makes them clean or unclean. Here's my interpretation of what Jesus is doing here with these appearing, rude, rejecting words, response. He is responding to her in the very way the disciples might. He's putting their thoughts, their sin, their prejudice on His own lips in order to confront it for them. He is indeed teaching them, you're going to go out and you're going to proclaim the gospel to all peoples like this woman that I am the Savior of them as well. It is a harsh rejection But the whole point here is he's taking the opportunity to teach the disciples with this woman for the purpose of teaching the disciples that they're going to go out and proclaim the gospel to her children, and her relatives, and her neighbors. The other reason I want to make this interpretation clear, all of Scripture really points to Jesus being on the mission of God, to going to the Jew first and the Gentile, not rejecting. This is very similar to what happens at Peter. When the vision of what animals are clean and unclean up here, well, they're all clean now. And then he has to go and proclaim the gospel to Cornelius, someone who they would have thought was unclean. God's Word does not contradict itself. Jesus here is not rejecting something he wants to happen. He's making a clear object lesson. He's making it very clear. The way you look at this woman, disciples, is wrong. Now he's actually prioritizing the disciples here of this teaching. Think about it. He's teaching them their prejudice is wrong. He's teaching them that there are no peoples unworthy of the gospel. And we can see this is a hard lesson because the book of Acts presents this as something the church really had to wrestle with. Are we gonna accept those kind of people too? You can see that throughout church history. You can see this in our own city very recently. You can see this in most churches where we have a hard time accepting and praising God that he saves all different kinds of people and all different kinds of rascals. But that's what he does. He's correcting, I believe here, a superiority problem among the Jewish people, his own followers. What we see here is Jesus actually teaching as he has before. All are unclean because of the same basic problem we all have. We all have sinful hearts that are wicked and make us unclean. As we pause here and just reflect upon who Jesus is, first, I do not believe he ever rejects someone who comes humbly, and I do not believe he ultimately rejects her. He promises, come to me and I will give you rest. When you come to Jesus humbly, you will leave full. Second, he's not corrected by anyone. He is God who's the master teacher here. I believe he's actually correcting the disciples. Third, he is on a mission to save all peoples in his proper time, in his proper way. What we ultimately see is Jesus is the savior of the nations, but to the Jew first and then the Gentiles. So if that's difficult, I appreciate that. Let's look at the next section, which is also challenging in another way. Verse 26. A humble response. Verse 27. I'm sorry, verse 28. But she answered, she responds, she gives her declaration. The first two words are, quite frankly, just amazing. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. She doesn't argue. She accepts what he says, and I'm quite certain that if I'm in this position, I am not starting with the word yes. But. But that's not fair. But you helped others. But I've heard of how you've helped other Gentiles even. But my daughter's sick. That's not fair. She doesn't claim any rights. She accepts what Jesus has said is true, and acknowledge He has a right to do so. Yes, Lord. This is incredible humility. She submits herself in the proper relationship to Jesus, Lord. And that is a rare designation of Jesus in Mark. She simply recognizes authority and power. He is right. She does not go on what we often see as adult tantrum about something not being fair, where I deserve better. Now, Jesus teaches us, we didn't have because we didn't ask. Well, she is asking and he's given her a response. But notice how she further models humility and faith. Yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs. She's obviously still working within his own parable. There's children there to have the bread first. You don't throw the bread to the dogs. Yeah, but... I've heard, maybe, she's heard, of how you had 5,000 people with only a few loaves of bread, and afterwards you had 12 baskets of food left over. What we saw in that miracle of feeding 5,000 is how His grace abounds, and I believe that's what she is pleading for. That's actually what she's claiming. Yes, I know, but Your grace, it overflows. Even the dogs get the crumbs. Even the crumbs would be enough. Even whatever would overflow from Your generous giving of kindness and mercy and power would be enough. She's appealing to the very fact that God's grace abounds. Yes, Lord, I'll take the position of second. Take the position of dog. I'll be under the table. But I also know that you are so generous, your grace abounds to where if I just get a crumb of whatever you're giving, it will be sufficient to heal and make well again. She's right. Notice Jesus' response. A faith that heals. He said to her, for this statement, you may go your way. She's humbly accepted the position, and she's humbly declared with great confidence, the grace of God abounds. It is sufficient, whatever you give me, it is enough. The demon has left. And that is a past tense there. He's already healed her. And notice her faith. She gets up and leaves fully satisfied that what he has said he has done is enough. She has great faith. As we continue to go on with the story, we see Jesus entering into the land further of the Gentiles, a different land. There's a deaf man, Jesus touches him, his ears and his tongue. This is supposed to make him unclean in every way based upon the traditions of man, but he's touching him in the most close, personal way. And he looks up to heaven, be open, and immediately his eyes were open and he can speak as he's speaking for his whole life. He has come to save all people. Now, I want to ask the questions we have always been asking through Mark, because Mark wants us to first ask, who is Jesus? First, I believe Jesus here confronts our sin of prejudice. I do believe Jesus is confronting the sin of prejudice in his disciples. He's putting their prejudice thoughts about this woman in his own words, so that they would be corrected. And it's not racial here, or just racial here. It's, it's religious. Again, they're, they're committed to being God's special privileged people. The, the, the, the, the problem here is, is that they're, they're, they're, they're, they have a religious aspect of this prejudice. We are God's special people. We, we deserve God's grace. We have a special place at the table. They're convinced they have a superiority when God's only give them a privileged position. Now, I believe we need to ask, is there a way Jesus would confront our sin of prejudice? This has been on the hearts and minds, I'm thankful for, especially Christians in our city for some time, ever since the August 12th event. It's sad that when I travel, people call that Charlottesville, whereas we refer that to as a date in Charlottesville. It's sad to me that that is what our city has been known for now. But as we think about our own prejudice and religious prejudice, I want to focus on our own religious prejudice. Here's a few questions to ask. Do we have a religious prejudice? Do we make derogatory remarks about other religions? Do we say things that are unhealthily demeaning in a way that it isn't showing compassion, right? We're Christians. We believe Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He's the only way. Other religions are wrong. But do we talk about them in a way that has compassion, that they're blinded, and that that sin is going to lead them to eternal destruction if they don't hear about Jesus? Maybe a little more close to home. Do we make derogatory remarks about our own, about other denominations? About other kinds of Christians? About other Christian groups? I can personally say I'm actually guilty of insulting my own denomination more than others. And it's wrong. To insult our brothers and sisters with a posture of superiority, that's sin. It is not maintaining the unity of Christ. We need to be careful with our posture. Maturity shows an ability to charitably disagree. The scariest prejudice is refusing to think God could save those kinds of sinners, which is exactly what is being confronted here. To think that God's grace is not sufficient, that God could not save that kind of sinner. What that means is that we think we were better or easier to be saved. No, the story of Jonah is remarkable. He doesn't want to go to Nineveh because he doesn't want God to save them. They're so wicked, he knows God is so gracious, he will save them. I fear we oftentimes have the opposite problem. No, they're so wicked, God could not save them. And that is a self-righteousness that is dangerous. If you're a child of this church, I want to be clear about something. You have a privileged position. If you're a child of a Christian family, you have a privileged position. You get to hear about the things of God at an early age. That is a privileged position. You have the opportunity to believe in God before making significant mistakes, like many of your parents, like myself, have done, in a way that can protect you. That is a privileged position. You can believe in Christ at an early age and pursue Him and have your mind put on the things of God. That is a privileged position. Do not take it for granted. Do not think you can put off the calling of God some other time. Believe in Him today. So Jesus confronts our prejudice. I also want us to see that Jesus is abounding in grace. His grace abounds to us. He is compassionate towards this woman. He cares for her. He sees her faith. He sees her humility. And He grants her the healing of her daughter. One of the most remarkable declarations in Scripture, He gives more grace from the book of James. He does not run out. He is the generous God who always gives good things. He is always abounding in grace. And what we have to realize is that we're all coming humbly and receiving that grace that abounds. This morning we actually have a real opportunity of the Lord's Supper, the ordinance of Christ, to reflect upon the grace abounding to all people. So in just a few moments, we're all going to reflect upon the grace of Christ and that His body was crushed on our behalf. His blood was poured out to wash us of our sin. And there is a real me and Jesus reflection that has to take place there. But it doesn't stop because we're all doing it together. We believe the Lord's Supper is not something you take at home. The Lord's Supper is something we do as a church. And if you look around, praise God, there's all kinds of different people here. We're all gonna do the Lord's Supper together. We're going to celebrate that God has saved me and you and them. When we take it together, there's a thinking of Christ together, that God saves all kinds of people. He's the Savior of all kinds of rascals and all kinds of sinners. And it's also a reflection. It's not just that I've received great forgiveness, it's that I get to show great forgiveness. The Lord's Supper is a great continual lesson that Christ has given to the church that we do regularly, that every first Sunday of the month as we practice. We think about the fact that we have received great grace. All brothers and sisters have received great grace, and we're to be gracious together. I say that especially because I've heard members say they avoid coming to church on the first Sunday when they don't feel like they're ready to the Lord's Supper. Maybe there's a sin between them and God or a sin between them and another member. That's kind of missing the point of the Lord's Supper is it says there's an urgency. There's an urgency of the gospel to go and repent, to go and reconcile. There's an urgency with irregular practice that you don't avoid it to hold on to the sin. No, you repent of the sin so that you can rejoice together in the Lord's Supper. What about us? How do we respond? We see Jesus here, I believe, as confronting prejudice. I believe he is abounding in grace to overcome that sin. He's also teaching us we need to come humbly. It's amazing over and over again how a woman is used as a model of how to respond. I believe you saw this with the woman who had the congenital bleeding. Right, Jairus, the great, powerful leader of the synagogue, he's asked for his daughter to be healed, but in the middle of that, the woman just touches Jesus' cloak. She's the model of what faith is. Here, I believe this woman is teaching us what true humility is. Humility is one of those concepts that easily get confused. You know, I Googled it. What does the dictionary say? Well, it's a modest or low view of yourself. I'm not sure that's a very accurate definition. Humility is oftentimes seen that way as like a weakness or kind of just somebody who doesn't know how to not beat themselves up. No, true humility is courageous and confident. Humility is in no way a weakness, but a strength. C.S. Lewis describes it this way or defines it. Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It's thinking of yourself less. Humility is not saying I'm not somebody I'm not. Humility is not lying about yourself. Humility is simply not boasting of yourself. John Dixon wrote a book called Humilitas, highly recommend it. He defines humility as thus, a noble choice to forego your status, deploy your resources, or use your influence for the good of others before yourself. Humility is active. Let me read that again. The noble choice to forgo your status. Yes, Lord. Wherever you put me, Lord, that's the status I will have. Deploy your resources to use your influence for the good of others. Heal my daughter before yourself. That's humility. It's willing to forego whatever status we might think we have and realize wherever God puts us is the best place. It's saying, I'm not giving these gifts for myself, but for the good of others. She falls down, she begs, she responds, yes, Lord. You know, most people can be self-deprecating. You know, I told you about the bad paper, because I was eventually a pretty good student That didn't really bother me. That's self-deprecating in a way that shows false humility at some level. We really see humility whenever somebody else says something about you. When somebody else corrects you or says something derogatory. That's where we see real humility. Because that might be that one thing like, yeah, I had a bad paper, not a big deal. But I have some insecurities that if you address, I'm gonna get really upset. I'm gonna have my feelings really hurt. It's one thing to be able to be self-deprecating. It's another thing to be able to receive somebody else saying something negative like this woman does when Jesus puts her in the category of the dog and to say, yes, Lord. She understands her place. She understands that even in her place, wherever that position is, if it's under God and His grace is being given, it will abound and it will be well. As we just reflect upon what's happening here, D.L. Moody says this well. Jesus sends no one away empty except those who are full of themselves. We see how he speaks to the arrogant Pharisees. We also see how he always cares for those who come in humility. We must come to Jesus this same way. We come with trust that what He says is right and good. We come with trust that our biggest problem is our heart problem. It's from within. And that the solution comes from outside. That Jesus came, He died for our sins. He rose again. He's now the reign of the Father. So if we believe in Him, we can be saved. And then He puts us on mission. If Jesus is, as I understand it, putting, teaching His disciples to be on mission, there's a real challenge here. Are we on the same mission? Are we repenting of our own prejudice? Are we seeking to make more of Christ with the kind of humility that this woman has? Are we on mission? Which means we're living humbly. Are we setting aside our priorities to prioritize the purposes of Christ?