Crossing The Line with Jesus. (Mark 7:24-37)

 Introduction. 

 Every village town and city in this country has a line of social separation. People in one town might consider themselves better than those who live in another town. Deferent parts of cities are seen as very different particularly by those who live within the different areas. But if you drill down into those localities, you’ll find that even a street can be a dividing line. You might live on either the right or the wrong side of the street, or the wrong postcode.

Just out of interest when I worked was involved in a social research project which meant visiting and interviewing people who live on a trailer park. The people at the front of the park definitely though they were better than those who lived at the back of the park. There were two concrete steps that divided the people who lived at the frount of the park and from the people at the back and the people at the front, called the area at the back of the park the ghetto. Like I say there are lines across all areas of society that socially separate people but that is only one type of dividing line.

When Jesus walked this earth, he too encountered lines of social separation, only in his day the most clearly seen lines were religious ones and the people who followed those societies rules never crossed those lines. One of the most radical things that Jesus did was to confront attitudes and prejudices of His day by crossing the lines. Doing that was both important and dramatic, and it remains significant to this day. 

So, what were the lines that Jesus crossed and what was the significance of His crossing them. To answer those question, we will again be looking again at the Gospel according to Mark.  You cannot but fail to notice that today we will straddle two chapters of Mark, the second half of chapter seven and the beginning of Chapter 8. You might well ask, why have I crossed the line of a chapter break? The reason for this is that all of these events happened in a particular geographical area.

The crowds here and the people Jesus meets are different to those gone before. I want to use this passage as an illustration of the lines that Jesus crossed on these days and it for this reason, I want to consider the three event we witness is passage.

The first is an exorcism, where he casts out a demon.

The second is the healing of a deaf person who also had a speech impediment.

And the third is the feeding of the 4000. (A different event to the feeding of the 5000 just in case you didn’t know that already).

These stories appear fairly straightforward until you understand the significance of what is going on here between and across the lines. In all three of these cases Jesus has crossed a social barrier, and that I believe is what’s important about these three stories.

“From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.”

(Mark 7: 24)

Now the minute you see that Jesus is in Tyre and Sidon we should Note that he has now left Israel. Tyre and Sidon where part of an area called Phoenicia and that was gentile territory. This is the one and only time in all of the gospels where Jesus is seen to leave Israel and go into non-Jewish territories. The people in Phoenicia were not only gentiles, but they were anti-Jewish gentiles. This is what we would today call hostile territory in religious terms. There is a radical divide being crossed here, primarily religious but also culturally and socially. Josephus a Jewish historian of the 1st century said the Jews of Jesus’ day, “considered the people of Phoenicia as their most bitter enemies”. Jesus has crossed a line, a line of separation specifically constructed between two groups of people and Jesus has crossed that line.

Now it seems he went there to rest but the text says, “he could not be hidden”. Why not?  The next verses tell us.

For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet.The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

(Mark 7: 25-26)

His presence could not be hidden because his fame had gone before him, and everybody knew he was there. This woman had all kind of things going against her when it came to trying to get this family problem sorted out. In the first place she was a woman and in the Jewish society men didn’t speak to woman and less that woman was his mother, or his wife, or Sister living as a child under the same roof as him. The very fact Jesus spoke to her in public meant he had already crossed a line. Furthermore, she was a gentile and Jews didn’t speak to non-Jews especially those of Greek extraction. So, she wasn’t exactly in pole position when it came to getting in front of Jesus. She did have a demon possessed daughter and she come to Jesus and says will you please cast the demon out of my daughter? Jesus’ reply is very interesting.

But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”

(Mark 7: 27)

So, what does he mean by that? Most commentators agree Jesus is using a metaphor here and the Children referred to here are the Jewish people and the gentile nations are the little dogs, not just dogs but a term with slightly more affection. (Puppies) Jesus is saying, look I’ve got to feed the Jews first. I must feed the children before I can slip leftovers to the little dogs under the table.

And she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.”

(Mark 7: 28)

Yes, I accept that Lord, but even the little dogs’ benefits from some crumbs that fall their way. What a picture of humility. She accepted her place in all of this, yet she still believed that the Lord could help her, could offer her something to heal her daughter. The Lord is moved by compassion.

Then He said to her, “For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter. And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.

(Mark 7: 29-30)

I want you to particularly notice that he responded even though she was a woman and a gentile, he still crossed the line, and he did that because she had faith. Before we go to the next episode, I just want to pause for a second and have you look at this. What do you see going on here? Do you see the desperation of a mother? Yes maybe. Do you see the determination of a feisty woman? Yes, that too. But I think what we need to focus on is the humility and the dependence on the Lord of someone who is an outsider. Here is a gentile woman, who trusted the Lord. and Jesus had crossed the line to meet her needs. He had crossed the social and religious barriers in order to minister to someone in need who simply trusted and had faith in him. What this tells me is Jesus doesn’t care what barriers exist to exclude you in society.

Jesus doesn’t care what race your heritage originates from. He doesn’t care what religious background you come from. He doesn’t care how much your previous lifestyle or habits have pushed you to the margins of society. He doesn’t care if you are rich or poor. He crossed the line to come and get you, and to save you. All you have to do is trust in him and have faith in Him to do it. God is saying I am here to offer forgiveness to anybody who will simply trust in my son. Furthermore, whatever needs you have beyond salvation, even something as dramatic as a demon possession, trust me and do as I tell you and I can even sort that out as well.

Other might consider you the lowest of the low, some groups in society may consider you not much better than a little dog, but Jesus crossed the line for you. Jesus crossed the line, and Jesus will always cross the line when it comes to rescuing and saving people. That’s the first episode, there is another.

Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee.

(Mark 7: 31)

He is again ministering to Gentiles, only this time Romans, not Greeks. Let’s see who he meets this time.

Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him. And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue. Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.

(Mark 7: 32-35)

Now normally when Jesus healed people he spoke, however, he does it differently this time? Why? Simply because this man couldn’t hear. So, he puts his finger in his ear and then he touches his tongue and then looking to heaven he says, “be opened”. So a visual representation of what is going on so this deaf man cn see what he is doing and immediately the man is healed.

Then He commanded them that they should tell no one but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

(Mark 7: 36-37)

Again, Jesus crosses a social barrier and heals somebody who is in need I have said before that as we go together through the Gospel of Mark, we will see Jesus perform miracles for three reasons.

To confirm his message.

To have compassion on people.

However, another reason was so he could communicate spiritual truths. In other words, physical healings can have spiritual meanings. For example, he just healed someone who could not hear, and He also is seen to enable the blind to see. It perhaps obvious to say, but people who do not know the Lord are spiritually deaf. They don’t hear his message, or they don’t see his truth even when it is laid out before them. Please recognise that when we trust in Jesus and have faith in him, He will spiritually open your ears so that you can hear what he is saying to you and he will open your eyes to see things first in your life and then in the world, not as other see them but as he sees the. 

Finally, there is a third episode here as we cross the bridge into chapter 8.

In those days, the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said to them, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way; for some of them have come from afar.”

(Mark 8: 1-3)

Do you see what he is doing here? If you have you been following me through the Life of Christ these last few weeks you will know He has encountered this problem before? That’s right he is testing the disciples again in exactly the same way for the second time. This time they should have got it. He fed 5000 people and there were 12 basket full left over. They should have got it then, they might even have had a huge basket in the yard at home reminding them of what the lord had done that day when they trusted in Him. How do they get on this time, let me tell you.

Then His disciples answered Him, “How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?”

(Mark 8: 4)

They still didn’t get it.

He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?”(Good news, this time they have more loaves that they had last time, last time they just had 5, now they’ve got 7, and this time there is only 4000 to feed. And they said, “Seven”. So, He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. And He took the seven loaves and gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and they set them before the multitude. They also had a few small fish; and having blessed them, He said to set them also before them. So, they ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets of leftover fragments.

(Mark 8: 5-8)

How large do you think those large baskets were? If you familiar with the story in acts where Paul is let down in a large basket to escape from Damascus. The word here use for basket is the same word used for the type of basket that was used to lower a man down the outside of a city wall. These are enormous baskets. Not the same word used to describe the baskets last time which was bread baskets, hamper sized baskets these are huge hammock sized baskets. Jesus really wants them grasp hold of this truth for once and for all. He is saying I want to meet your needs “in abundance”.

The sum total of these three episodes put together is simply this,  Jesus will cross any line of religious or personal, or moral separation in order to minister to anyone in need, who has faith. That my friends is the big spiritual truth here Just in case you missed this, because you might. (After all, even the disciple missed it. I am going to try and break down and put it in very straightforward terms.

Jesus loves everyone –Jesus loves the world, for “God so loved the world… etc”. He loves demon possessed pagans and demon possessed Jews. He loves everyone and will minister to anyone and everyone who trust in him. The point is because he loves everyone that mean’s He loves you. Let me put it like this, the Lord loves you if you have a drinking problem. The Lord loves you if you are a single parent, if you are divorced separated, married, or unmarried. He even loves couples living together outside of wedlock. He loves people who are in hospital, he loves people who are in prison. He loves woman who have never had a relationship, he loves woman who have had an abortion. He loves men who are addicted to football, he loves men who are addicted to porn. Get the message, Jesus loves YOU. He doesn’t care what you have done, or how many times you have done it. However, He will cross that line, to come and get you, to rescue you and bring you back to his side of the line when your life lies beyond that line. He loves you, he died for you, and he will forgive you. He will come get you, and he will even clean you up when he does it. Jesus loves everyone.

Some people feel unlovable, unworthy and unwanted. Good news, Jesus loves the unlovable, the unworthy and the unwanted. If you have ever felt excluded, if you have ever felt kicked out, locked out, you need to know that Jesus loves you and wants you in. Get it, Jesus loves everyone, including you and me.

My Favourite Child

The closest thing I can think of in describing to you the love of Jesus Christ in human terms is to say it is like the love of a parent who desire is to pour out His love and favour upon His child “in abundance”. I have two now grown-up children, but I too have a favourite child. But I have a favourite child for whom I feel a special closeness and with whom I share a special love that no-one else could possibly understand. My favourite child is the one who was too sick to get out of bed on their birthday. The one who has measles on their Sports Day. My favourite child is the one who has a fever in the middle of the night and acute abdominal pain, just were his appendix should be. My favourite Child was the one lying in my arms in A&E in pain waiting for her x-ray. My favourite child is the one who was really nervous before his nursery nativity play. My favourite child is the one who had his tooth chipped by the school bully. My favourite child is the one I grounded for playing on the computer when I told them to switch it off.  My favourite child is the one I chastised for lying. My favourite child is the one who is alone away from the family at a special time. The one who messed up in an important exam. My favourite child is the one who has just made a catastrophic wrong choice. My favourite child is the one who had all her money stolen on holiday. The one who got into a destructive friendship. My favourite child is the one slammed the bedroom door on me in frustration or cried when they didn’t think I knew they cried. My favourite child is the one who shut themselves in their room and wouldn’t talk to me. My favourite child is one, who needs picking up in the middle of the night because they didn’t plan their transport properly. My favourite child is the one who failed their driving test. My favourite child is the one who is angry, vulnerable, lonely, and has no idea of  what they were going to do in the future. I have my favourite child it’s true.

However, my favourite is the one who needs my favour pouring out on them at any given moment. My favourite child is the one who needs me to hug them. The one who needs me to cling to them.

He one who needs me to believe it will be all right in the end, and everything will be OK. His favourite child is the one who needs him most. The one who needs his favour pouring into their life. So much so, that He will cross the line to bring them back to where you need to be. And all you have to do, is trust that he can and will do that.