Mark 7:24-37
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.The last few weeks we have heard Jesus criticize the Pharisees because their actions don't match their words. This week we encounter two healings that have nothing to do with actions and much more to do with words and communication. Jesus communicates with a woman from Tyre that had a demon posed daughter and with a deaf and mute man of Decapolis. Tyre was in Phoenicia north of Galilee and Decapolis is to the southeast of the Sea of Galilee. The two are separated by a great distance for travelers of those days, but do have something in common.
The man and the woman are Gentiles living outside of Galilee and Judea. If we trace the route Jesus took from Tyre to Decapolis we find He went around Galilee rather than the shorter route through Galilee. His purpose was to avoid the opposition in Galilee and to have an opportunity to teach his disciples privately without interference from the Jewish authorities. On this journey they taught many in Gentile territory.
What happens with this woman and man are important Jesus is reaching across cultural barriers. As you know the Jews did not associate with Gentiles, these interactions made them unclean. But here the Son of God shows very clearly the Gospel is not just for the Jews.
The discourse between the Syro-Phonecian woman and Jesus is an interesting study in metaphors. The woman herself would be looked on as the lowest of the low by the Jews. This territory was where Elijah confronted four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who ate at Jezebel's table. The people of this region had a past of idol worship and temple prostitutes. The Jews considered them dogs and spoke of themselves as children of God.
The woman must have had great faith in Jesus' divine nature to even approach Him. In her anguish over her daughter she asks Jesus to free her daughter from an evil spirit. The conversation takes on a new meaning as Jesus draws the faith in the woman's heart to her lips.
Reading again:
26 … She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
27 "First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."
28 "Yes, Lord," she replied, "but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."
29 Then he told her, "For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter."
We find that Jesus tells her I have come to bring the Gospel to the Jews it's not right to take the Word from God's people and give it to the Gentiles. The cleanliness of her heart comes to light in her response. Lord we are not the chosen people but whatever is given to His people trickles down to us. She grasps the understanding that the message of the Gospel is for the Gentiles as well as the Jews. She has not come to Jesus just to ask a favor she knows in her heart Jesus is the Messiah.
Let's turn our attention to the poor deaf and mute man. What would it be like to be deaf in the first century? Very few people could read or write so virtually all forms of communication are lost. Only by sight and touch could he interact with anyone. Jesus didn't even need to interact with the man to heal him. He didn't have any interaction with the little girl but her demon was cast out. As with the woman Jesus does want to communicate with this man and draw out the faith that resides in his heart. Jesus puts His fingers in the man's ears and touches his tongue. Probably much more importantly although not mentioned He must have looked the man in the eyes. We have all experienced communication through eye contact, imagine how much more profound it must have been to gaze into Jesus' eyes.
As we have seen before faith in Jesus brings about healing. Jesus draws on this man's faith, to return his hearing and speech. It's highly probable the man's first clearly spoken words were praises to the glory of God.
Jesus draws us all closer to Him as He did with the two individuals in this reading. He wants to communicate with every one of us. He brought his gospel of healing to people of all nations. It begs the question as His followers, how are we involved in doing the same?
Perhaps James said it best," What good is it if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?" Although we are saved by faith in grace, is it possible to have a firm faith and it not to be apparent in our deeds?
For me I would say its not. Sure I make mistakes like everyone else. I hope that most of the time it is apparent that I am at peace. That hurts have been healed in a way that only the grace and mercy of Jesus can heal them. A wise person would look at the track record and recognize the trends of an individual not focus on isolated events. A tree either bears good fruit or bad fruit. However every tree occasionally produces a bad piece of fruit but what does the entire harvest from the tree show?
Doesn't it really come down to who we identify ourselves to be? We can identify ourselves as sinners or saints. We are truly both but if we identify ourselves as sinners then we leave the door open to sin. Our expectation is to continue on the same path. If we identify with Jesus and His saving grace then we push the door closed to sin. We try very hard walk a different path one that Jesus walked.
Individually and collectively we all make it apparent where our faith really is. We have sent out congregation tithes to assist the poor and other ministries. We have contributed food for the Lord's Pantry. We have donated our time to help others. And we are looking for more opportunities to share with our community.
We are doing what Jesus asked us to do and as long as we look to Him for guidance He will richly bless us.
In the name of our risen Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
