16- The Other Side of the Tracks: Mark 7:24-30

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

You're listening to audio from Meadows Church in Langley, BC. For more information about Meadows Church, go to Meadowschurch.ca. How are we doing? How's good? Well, as we continue our Encountering Jesus series, it hit me. And I gotta say that it if you've noticed anything about our series, we're not picking and choosing the scripture that we're going through. I believe that we go scripture by scripture, passage by passage. Some scripture is hard, some scripture is joy-filled. Today we have one of those harder passages that we'll get into. It's a little more theologically rich, and I think it's great that we're gonna uh get through that, but there's something else. There's a little Mother's Day Easter egg built into our story. And know that I didn't plan it for this Sunday because of Mother's Day. It's just the way we worked out. And I love that we can dive into that. So you can turn in your Bibles if you have them. You if you have the Bible app, you can look at that. It's Mark 7, verse 24. That's where we'll be today. Uh, over the last couple weeks, we have looked at Jesus calling out the Pharisees for leading the people astray. The Pharisees were all about outward appearance, as we found out, and they follow a crazy amount of extra rules so that they could separate themselves, make sure to be clean, and then on top of that, maybe God will be okay with them. In other words, follow the rules, and God might love you. And that makes me sick. It is not what Jesus is all about. And it made Jesus sick too. And he laid into them for that. You know, these guys are making thousands of extra laws for people to follow that weren't in the Bible. Because we have the word of God. There is enough awesome in here that you don't need to add 2,000 plus rules for people to follow. What this book is, is the way to have best relationships with each other and best relationships with God. That is what the Bible entails. It's the instruction book to an awesome life, what Jesus calls life to the full. And so Jesus, we found over the last couple weeks, is not about the rules. He's about the heart. And when we renew and when we change our hearts, that's when our lives change. Enter Jesus into the mix. And so if you miss one or both of those past discussions, I encourage you stay, stay in the mix at Meadows and go to meadowschurch.ca slash messages and check that out. Today, Jesus goes from having a theological boxing match where he TKOs the religious leaders, metaphorically, of course, to then practicing. I love this. He practices what he preaches. And we're gonna get in that today, and we're starting at verse 24. Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyr. And I gotta say, uh, we didn't get very far. We got a half a verse in. But we need to take a moment here. Because this one verse would have taken the breath away of first century Jewish people. It would be like, you know, if you had that moment when a joke is told and you have uh something in your mouth like water in your mouth. You know what I'm talking about? Or like that, you're suddenly shocked and suddenly out the water comes. That moment, they'd be like, what just happened? You see, Mark is presenting Jesus as the Jewish Messiah to all of his audiences. Jews and the people of Sidon's higher, they detested each other. They were these people from Tyre and Sidon, they were people who worship detestable gods. They have a long and sorted out history. If you're familiar with the Old Testament, these are the Canaanites and the Israelites, and they go to battle often. And then, of course, Elijah and Zachariah prophesy against these two cities, and it's not good. But more than just the country infighting, can we talk about another thing? The actual city of Tyre is the home of the least likely to ever win Mother of the Year, Queen Jezebel. Her name became the quintessential offensive slur to women in North America, in England, in Europe, and Africa. You might have heard it, it's it's an older expression, but you Jezebel, which means a woman who lacks morals and dignity. That's her. She's from Tyre. Jezebel was a queen of Israel from 1874 to 1853 BC, and her husband and king was King Ahab, and she is credited with many detestable things, but most of all, she polluted Israel by introducing for the first time Baal and Ashrel worship. She was bad news for Israel. So it is understandable that Tyre had a particularly disdainful taste in the mouth of Jews. And this city is on the other side of the other side of the tracks. Are you getting what I'm laying down here? It's a bad city in Jewish eyes. For a Pharisee, Tyre and Sidon were the most unclean cities you would never go to. Never. So my question is, why did Jesus choose to go to this awful place? Well, both Matthew and Mark's account include the story of Jesus' journey, both when he lambasted the Pharisees, and then also then when he goes up out of the town, out of Galilee, and into Syrophoenician territory to Tyre. And in the midst of this, the Pharisees would never, ever, ever go to this place. They wouldn't even go outside. Their route was where they lived, to Jerusalem and back. They would never go outside and go into an unclean city. And I love it. Jesus taught and then he lived out what he taught. And it's actually kind of humorous because if you're following with us in the story, Jesus and his disciples needed a break. From Mark 4 to Mark 7, they are just going, going, going every day. At one point, Jesus is like, you need to take a break. And so they go to the other side, and if you remember, the whole crowd follows them across the Sea of Galilee and meets them there, and then they do more ministry. And then they get back in the boat, it's a big storm. Jesus walks on water, calms a storm, they're back in Genesera, where they continue to do ministry. It's been a long haul of ministry and they're tired. So where do they end up for this quiet venue for a spiritual retreat? Sin City. See, Jesus was living out that it is about the heart. And it is not these unclean policies and practices. He met with Gentiles. He hung out in unclean places because this uncleanness wasn't unclean this way to the Bible. It was all the extra crazy rules that the Pharisees were putting on people. You see, God wouldn't walk away from you because you walked into an unclean house. Actually, he would walk into it. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it. Yet he could not keep his presence secret. Man, he wanted alone time, just him and his bros. And they go to this place, and and his fame and his notoriety had spread even to this unclean place. And now, enter our Mother's Day Easter egg. Verse 25. In fact, as soon as she had heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an imperial spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. This person took the cake as the one the most unclean person that a Pharisee would never get caught dead with. Ever. I mean, she's a woman from Tyre. She was constantly touching her daughter who was demon-possessed. Jesus didn't lunge away and go, stay away from me, unclean woman. She comes. And this woman falls at the feet of Jesus. And I can just experience, like, can you see it? Just like grabbing onto him. She is desperate for her daughter who has a demon inside of her and she wants it out. And she's wanted it out for a while, and now the healer, the person that can do it, is in the room. Well, Matthew's gospel says, Before she ever got into the house, the woman actually shouts outside the house. Matthew is tells a little elongated story. It is, they're both truth. We know that Mark is a little more concise. Matthew sheds light on this, and I love it. She's outside the house and she's shouting again and again, Lord, son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly again and again and again until the disciples, Matthew's gospel says, says to Jesus, Jesus, you gotta send her away. How are we supposed to have a spiritual retreat if this woman's yelling outside our door? And a mother's love for her child. She's doing everything and anything she can do for her precious daughter. Jesus' response is a bit of a head scratcher, actually. This is the part that's going to be tough, and we're going to work through it together. Does that sound good? Let's do it. Verse 27. He says to her, first let the little children eat all they want, he told her. For it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to dogs. You see, Jesus is using the metaphor of a family eating a meal and dogs patiently waiting. And as I read up on this, most commentators agree that Jesus is saying that that his meal is his ministry to the Jewish people, which is the children sitting at the table, and that he can't minister to her, she is a dog. How many of you have dogs? I want to take a break for a second. Because if you love your little Poochie, which I do, Bailey, this is not what we're talking about here. In Israelite culture, dogs were unclean. And Mark is using this to parallel the story that's just happened and bring it into the current context. So know that there's a little nuance coming in. The Pharisees cannot touch unclean things. And so note that there's more to this going on. And are you okay if we dig in? You good? Okay. I look at this and there's kind of a what? You didn't just heal her, Jesus? Day after day, Jesus is patient and he's loving, and now his response seems like a backhanded insult. No. Is Jesus saying that his entire ministry, his, his teaching, uh, his miracles, his life, his death, and resurrection, it's actually not for us. It's only for Jewish people. Is that what he's saying here? Are we all wrong? Should we get out of this building and shut down Meadows Church because it's actually not for us, it's only for Jewish people. Jesus is only only going out for his children. Is that what's happening here? And the answer is no. And we're gonna get into it. And that's why I say there's a little bit of wrestling that has to happen with this passage. And the first reason I know this is because it's, friends, is quite frankly not my experience. Jesus radically changed my life, friends. I have received his freedom. I have been filled with love and joy in times when I don't like how? How can I feel love and joy in this situation? And yet I feel it. Because the Holy Spirit is with me. I'm experiencing that. Now, when we have an experience that is different than what we're reading in Scripture, two things. Either our experience might be a little jaded, or maybe we need to look a little deeper into what that biblical passage is saying, and what is the best way to do that? We use other pieces of scripture to help us understand what we're reading. And so we're gonna look at the Bible, what it tells us, and time and time again, what does it say? The Bible is for everyone, Jesus is for everyone. I want you to take a look at a couple of references, and the first one is actually in Acts 9, verse 15. If God was only for the Jews, then why did Jesus radically change Paul's heart in an instant? A Pharisee, no less, going to kill Christians, totally changed around his life, and then sent him off as a chosen minister, as a chosen instrument to the Gentiles. Why would he do that if he was only for the Jews? Let's continue. We'll keep getting into it. Romans and Galatians, two books of the Bible, both tell us that through Jesus' death and resurrection, when we embrace Jesus as King of our life, we are adopted as sons and daughters into God's big old family. Gentiles and Jews alike. So in Christ Jesus, you are all children of God through faith. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, Abraham's descendants, and heirs according to the promise. Let's continue. Romans 10. For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. It is clear in Scripture, and I can give you scripture after scripture that talks about this. You might be saying, Now, I know that Paul wrote those letters, and Paul is a minister to the Gentiles, so of course he would say this in Scripture. And what we need to understand is when we read the Bible, the Bible is the truth. It is what happens. It doesn't contradict itself. And so let's look to more than just Paul, because Jesus actually talks about what is important, who the disciples are supposed to minister to in the Great Commission. Let's check it out. Matthew 28, 19. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations that have Jews pocketed throughout the community so those Jewish people can come to know Jesus. No. It says, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Do you see? Jesus is for everyone. And I'm not saying that the Jews aren't God's special people because it's clear in Scripture He has an important place in his heart for those people. Yet we are grafted into that family. We are now sons and daughters of the kingdom of God. It's clear that God clearly cares for us. He has purposed us. So what is Jesus saying here? We are reading the Bible and it's true, and there is no contradictions in it. So let's wrestle through it a bit more. Because it is so tempting to just take the easy way out of this passage that we don't understand. But friends, the reason I'm digging in a little deeper with you guys too is that this isn't just an exercise that I should do. Every single one of us should be at the place where if we don't understand something in scripture or if it rubs up against our experience or the other things we know about scripture, we go deeper. We pray through it. We read other scripture, we talk to other people, we have curious minds and we question things, and then we prayerfully search. The easy way out was in a commentary I read, which I won't be reading again. And it says this was an immediate reality. That Jesus, when he said that, is basically saying, Listen, woman, we paid good money to be at this retreat center. Okay? Right now I'm focused on my disciples and not other people, and you're gonna have to wait. That is callused, but it's a little easier to interpret there, isn't it? He went off grid, fine. But Matthew 15, 24, in the bigger extended account, it actually says this. Jesus is inside and she is shouting outside, save my daughter. I need you to save my daughter. Finally, the disciples say, You gotta say something. And this is his response. I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. And so you cannot use that other easy answer to deal with this. There must be something else going on. Well, the comicators didn't understand and they shied away from the fact that for three years Jesus had a very precision-focused ministry from 30 AD to 33 AD. Jesus needed to come and reset his covenant people. They were wayward and they were lost. We talked about uh how this over the past couple weeks. Jesus was being misrepresented by the people that are in charge of his holy temple. The system was so broken and the view of God so slandered by the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Jesus had to reset this. It is not God saying, throw out the Gentiles, they are my people. Jesus' earthly ministry was all about a recalibration, a resetting of Jewish understanding. And then he sent the disciples to everyone. Oh, and by the way, he did die on the cross and rise from the dead and conquered sin, Satan, and death once and for all. Praise God. Amazing. You know what's sad about this? Is that the very people that he focused his ministry in for three years were the same ones in Jerusalem that got drummed up into shouting, Crucify you, crucify him, crucify him. Sad, but not sad. Not sad? Because it was through that injustice that we gained absolutely everything. Freedom. Okay. We did a little bit of theological work there. How you guys doing? You okay? That's good? Okay, let's let's keep going because uh I don't want to get lost in the weeds, but I think it's really important to walk through again scripture verse by verse. We don't skip on things because it's hard. And I will be transparent from the front. What you get up here, there's nothing in the background. I'm gonna tell you what I found. And I am a sojourner looking to have a better relationship with Jesus day by day. That that's what we are together. We're a big holy mess of awesomeness. Is a hospital, Jesus is the healer, and it's amazing. What's awesome though is in the end, Jesus would give her a challenge, she would meet that challenge, and he would end up blessing her. Let's read. Back to the Mother's Day Easter egg. Verse 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 the dogs. Lord, by the way, it's the only person in Mark who uses the word Lord. Lord, she replied, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs. So humble, so determined. She was doing all she could for her daughter. And she had faith. And verse 29 says, Then he told her, Jesus told her, for just such a reply, you may go. The demon has left your daughter. In Matthew's gospel, Matthew 15, verse 28 says, Woman, you have great faith. How contrary to anything the Pharisees would ever say about that woman. But you know what also gets me going here? Do you know the only two people who God says have great faith? Both Gentiles, this woman and this Roman centurion. Those are the people that have such great faith in Jesus' words. And I love this. And this loving mom has this perfect balance of courage and humbleness to use Jesus' metaphor to beg for her daughter to be healed, to be freed from her demonic oppression. Jesus answers it. And verse 30 says, She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon was gone. Can I just say as a side note, that that is absolutely incredible? Jesus doesn't just like snap his fingers. He doesn't do any, he speaks it, and it is done. Jesus said, Let there be light in the beginning, and it and light came. God spoke creation into existence, and he just speaks, and this demon comes out of the girl, not even in the same room. And I'm like, Good night! How powerful is that? We have an amazing God, Messiah, Savior. We're gonna close in a couple minutes, and let's get back to the mom for a sec. Timothy Keller, a pastor and theologian, he talks about her in his book, King's Cross, and I love the way he said it talks about parents, but I think we can put this just to moms today, because that's how he meant that when he was referencing this passage. Timothy Keller says, There are cowards, there are regular people, there are heroes, and then there are parents, moms. Parents are not really on the spectrum from cowardice to courage, because if your child is in jeopardy, you simply do what it takes to save her. I love the audacity of that woman. This mom bears it all in humility and courage for her child. This woman shouting outside the door, we're on the other side of the story. She could have shouted all day, and the men could have told her to go home, and she would be embarrassed in her town. And yet she did it for her kid. She drops to her knees. She has the courage to be unrelenting. What a mother wouldn't do for her child. I think there's a great challenge here. And for all of us, and maybe I'll get the worship team up for this. I just want to celebrate. I think it's a great time to celebrate moms, to celebrate our Savior. And so the challenge, I think, can be very universal for each of us here, not just for moms. We are called to stand up for those that cannot stand up for themselves. In this case, it was the demon-possessed daughter. But in our world, there are so many down and out. There are widows and orphans, there are the poor. There are people that need us to be the hands and feet of Jesus. And we are called to do this all over Scripture. Isaiah and Micah and Psalms and Luke. The only place that it isn't written is actually in the Pharisees' hearts, which Jesus calls out in Luke 11, 42. So I think the challenge for us is who is God calling you to take courage and stand in the gap for? Who is God calling you to take courage and stand in the gap for? We are called to be ministers of reconciliation. Where are you to be stationed in our community? Or in those you rub shoulders with. God, I thank you that you have given us freedom. I thank you that every single one of us has the ability through you to be a minister of reconciliation in our community. And Holy Spirit, would you activate that? You already are. But I just pray for more. God, help us to be courageous. Help us to have the audacity to love people radically and to stand up for people who are down and out. God, I thank you for this story. I thank you that we could just dive into scripture and deal with a tough issue together, and that you give us wisdom when we ask for it. I pray for more wisdom. I pray for more knowledge of who you are and what you mean to us. You are so good, God. And I praise you that you died on the cross, that you rose from the dead, and that you sent your Holy Spirit to fill us up and to live a life that's amazingly full. Praise you, O King.

unknown 27:59

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

We're so glad you chose to join us today. To find out more about Meadows Church and how you can get involved, connect with the pastor or how you can partner with us in ministry. Go to Meadowschurch.ca.