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March 24/25, 2018
Jason Meyer | Mark 7:24-30
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 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.” And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.—Mark 7:24–30
Introduction: Unclean People?
Mark 7 has raised the issue of unclean hands or food. But underneath the surface, the uglier question is whether there are unclean people. People must wash their hands when they get something from the marketplace because the Gentiles are there. If the shadow of a Gentile passed over a plate, it would become unclean. We are confronted with that very question now in this next story, which is why Mark places it here. Will Jesus reject an unclean Gentile woman who has a daughter with an unclean spirit?
Outline
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.
Jesus is trying to get away from the crushing weight of the crowds and all of their needs. He has tried to escape the crowds many times in Mark’s Gospel (6:30–34; 53–56), but the people ran to him and he had compassion on them. One instance of this in Mark’s Gospel is especially noteworthy for our story.
Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, 1for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.”—Mark 3:7–11
Now Jesus has left Gennesaret and traveled this region of Tyre (at least 20 miles northwest of Capernaum). Tyre is significant because it is a Gentile region and this seems to be the one time he goes outside the ancient boundaries of Israel. He has entered a house and is trying to keep his presence quiet. But he cannot remain hidden. People everywhere have heard of him.
So a woman brings heart-wrenching need to Jesus. She has a little daughter with an unclean spirit. She is like others throughout Jesus’ ministry who have come to him to have demons cast out. But she is unlike the rest. This is a gutsy move.
Here is someone who is a definite outsider. She is a Gentile, a woman, and her daughter has an unclean spirit. Jewish women did not approach Jewish rabbis. It is even more true that Gentiles were not supposed to approach Jewish rabbis—how much more a Gentile woman with a daughter with an unclean spirit! This woman has three strikes against her. And (just when you thought the situation could not be more bleak for her) Jesus is taking some time off and getting away from the crushing needs of the Jewish crowds. The situation does not look promising for her.
And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
This is a simple request. Her daughter has a demon and she wants it gone. She wants her daughter back. The language of the request communicates persistence and urgency: “she kept begging him” (present-continuous tense).
We should not be surprised that she pushed past all of these cultural boundaries. She is a mother. This is not a request for herself, but for her little daughter. I like what Tim Keller says here: “You know why she has this burst of boldness, don’t you? There are cowards, there are regular people, there are heroes, and then there are parents. 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” (King’s Cross, p. 86).
I have referenced this study once before but I need to mention it again here: I read about a study where researchers observed the different responses of a father and mother when an alligator attacked their child. The reactions showed a consistent pattern. The father would usually look around for a weapon before attempting a rescue. The mother, however, did not hesitate for a moment. She didn’t look for a weapon; she became a weapon and went right after the alligator with fists of fury.
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.”
This seems like an offensive thing to say. It looks like a racial insult. The Jewish people are the children. The Gentiles are the dogs. There are some cultural realities that would make this parable even more offensive at first glance. The Jews called Gentiles “dogs” because they were “unclean.” They were not the cute and cuddly pets that come to mind when we hear the word “dogs.” They were scavengers, they ate an unclean diet (undiscriminating in what they ate), and they were wild and dirty.
But this is not an insult. It is a parable. In the parable, there is a family meal. There are children and there are pets. Jesus uses the diminutive form of the word for dogs, which means “puppies.” These are beloved pets. They will be fed. But there is an order. They are not fed first.
Matthew’s version of this story offers a further explanation. Jesus says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” There is an order to Jesus’ mission. Salvation is to the Jews first, then the Gentiles. Jesus came to show Israel that he is the fulfillment of all that God promised to Israel. After his resurrection, Jesus will send his disciples to make disciples of all the nations. But not yet—right now the Gentiles have to wait their turn. How will she respond?
But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
Look at this woman. Wow! She answered him, “Yes, Lord.” Wait a minute. She heard the parable and understood it? She is not in the category of Isaiah 6. She is not hardened or blind or deaf. Stop the music. And she said “yes”! No one else has really understood Jesus’ mission. She understood it after hearing one sentence in the form of a parable. She not only understood the order of Jesus’ mission to Israel first—she did not argue against it.
She says, “I recognize that I do not have a place at the table yet because I am not from Israel. I accept that. But I see something else. There is an abundance on the table. It is a feast. There is more than enough on the table for Israel. If I am a puppy in your story, I know that puppies also eat from the table when crumbs fall. I will take mine now.”
And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.”
She received the answer to her request. The demon left her daughter. She received her request because of her response.
And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.
Jesus’ words proved true. The demon is out of the picture. There is way more going on here than just the demon leaving. Let’s try to tease out the significance of this story, especially in the light of where Mark places it.
Significance and Main Point
Let’s start with its placement right after Mark 7:1–23. How is the woman different from the Pharisees? Her faith is a remarkable contrast from the hardened unbelief of the Pharisees!
How is she different than the disciples? Do you remember this quotation from last week?
“A parable cannot be understood from the outside but only by entering into it and seeing the reality that it depicts from within. The disciples are like a dog looking at the pointed finger of its master rather than the object to which the finger points” (James Edwards, The Gospel of Mark, p. 212).
Do you see the difference? She heard a parable just like them, but she understands the parable. She enters the world of the parable. She does not find the answer she wants there. But she refuses to leave. She stays and says, “Yes, Lord.” Then she reasons from within the world of that parable and finds hope there. That is faith. Everyone else gets the parable handed to them and fumbles it. They drop the ball. This is the first person to get the ball and run with it. We also see a kind of trust in Jesus and understanding of his mission that we have not seen in the entire Gospel of Mark yet.
This commentator gets this dynamic just right:
She appears to understand the purpose of Israel’s Messiah better than Israel does. Her pluck and persistence are a testimony to her trust in the sufficiency and surplus of Jesus: his provisions will be abundant enough to provide for one such as herself. … What an irony! Jesus seeks desperately to teach his chosen disciples—yet they are dull and uncomprehending; Jesus is reluctant to even speak to a walk-on pagan woman-and after one sentence she understands his mission and receives his unambiguous commendation .… How is this possible? The answer is that she is the first person in Mark to hear and understand a parable of Jesus. …That she answers Jesus from “within” the parable, that is, in the terms by which Jesus addressed her, indicates that she is the first person in the Gospel to hear the word of Jesus to her (James Edwards, The Gospel of Mark, p. 221).
What does this story have to teach us about what makes someone clean or unclean? Everyone would have regarded this Gentile woman as an unclean dog. Yet this story turns the tables on all that. Look what was inside of her: faith/understanding! According to what is on the inside, she is clean indeed!
Main Point: Faith in Jesus makes people clean.
This text has a lesson that the disciples would have to learn again in the book of Acts.
And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.—Acts 10:28
They believed the gospel and the Holy Spirit fell upon them and they were received into the body of Christ. Later there was a debate in Acts 15 about whether Gentiles could really be considered to be full members in the body without taking on Jewish culture.
And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.—Acts 15:7–9
You may be asking yourself how the disciples could make that mistake after all that Jesus taught them? Why was this still an issue for them?
Morgan Godwyn, a graduate of Oxford University, came to Virginia around 1665 and served parishes there and on the island of Barbados. He met resistance from slave owners when he tried to encourage the conversion of the slaves. He wrote that they commonly protested: “What, such as they? What, those black Dogs be made Christians? What, shall they be like us?” (Quoted by David Garland in Mark NIVAC, p. 295.)
There is much more to say about this woman’s faith and understanding and I will return to that point at the end of the sermon. Let me first say a word about how this story connects so well with what we are celebrating today.
Application: Connection to Palm Sunday
I am going to connect this story to the story of Palm Sunday. Some of you are wondering how these two stories would have any connection at all. They share profound connections.
On Palm Sunday, we remember how Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey (not a war horse). The people waved their palm branches and laid them on the road as he came. Then they started a chant.
And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”
And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.—Mark 11:9–11
The word “Hosanna” means “O, Save us now!” This is what they were looking for. The Messiah, the King in David’s line, would come and save them. They still did not understand “the coming kingdom of our father David!” Jesus came to a people that believed salvation meant the Messiah would come and destroy the people oppressing them. They would be saved (liberated from political oppression) and the oppressors would be destroyed. They did not view the Gentiles as those that would receive salvation, but destruction.
Jesus entered Jerusalem. Where did he go and what did he do?
And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.—Mark 11:11
Why did he go to the temple? Because that is what prophecy said he would do.
Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me [Elijah – i.e., John the Baptist]. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple [that is Jesus] and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?—Malachi 3:1–2
Why did he go? Answer: to fulfill prophecy. But what was he looking for? The previous story gives us the answer.
On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, “May no one ever eat from you again.” And his disciples heard it.—Mark 11:12–14
He was looking for fruit or figs. The point of this story is not that Jesus was looking for literal fruit or figs. Some miss this point and thus miss everything. One commentator says, “It is a tale of miraculous power wasted in the service of ill-temper (for the supernatural energy employed to blast the unfortunate tree might have been more usefully expended in forcing a crop of figs out of season); and as it stands is simply incredible.” One commentator even called it a gross injustice on a tree which was guilty of no wrong and had but performed its natural function.” This was not irrational, ill-temper on the part of Jesus. Jesus knew it was not the season for figs. This knowledge causes the reader to read more deeply into what it signifies.
Therefore, the biggest problem with all these views, however, was that Jesus was not trying to reform or “cleanse” the temple—he was cursing the temple. Look at the next story.
When I would gather them, declares the Lord, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them.—Jeremiah 8:13
And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.—Mark 11:21–23
The fig tree is not reformed; it is cursed. Why the next saying about prayer? Some actually thought that the temple was the place where prayer was especially effective. Later rabbis even said that “from the day on which the Temple was destroyed, the gates of prayer have closed … a wall of iron divides between Israel and their Father in heaven” (b. Ber 32b).
Notice that Jesus does not say, “Whoever says to ‘a mountain.’” He says, “this mountain.” He is talking about replacing the earthly Mount Zion. Where have we seen something cast into the sea before in Mark? The things that get cast into the sea are a legion of demons was cast into the pigs, and they drown in the sea (Mark 5:13); and those who caused little ones to stumble are cast into the sea (9:42). Jesus will command the mountain of Zion, which has become unclean like pigs and causes people to stumble, to be cast into the sea.
The tables were set up to receive the annual half-shekel tax that was required of every Jewish male, and that funded the daily sacrifices in the temple for the atonement of sin. One Jewish scholar, Jacob Neusner, catches what was going on here. This was not a mere reform of the temple:
“Only someone who rejected the Torah’s explicit teaching concerning the daily offering could have overturned the tables—or … someone who had in mind setting up a different table, and for a different purpose: for the action carries the entire message, both negative and positive. Indeed, the money-changers presence made possible the cultic participation of every Israelite, and it was not a blemish on the cult but its perfection.”
“If money cannot be exchanged into the holy currency, then monetary support for the temple sacrifices and the priesthood must end. If sacrificial animals cannot be purchased, then sacrifice must end. If no vessel can be carried through the temple, then all cultic activity must cease” (Garland, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, p. 271).
Why would Jesus put all temple activity under a curse?
Jesus gives his reason in Mark 11:17.
And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”
Jesus calls it “my house.” He tells everyone the purpose for his house: a place for the nations to seek God (Isaiah 56). He then tells them how they have perverted that purpose: It is a place where they hide from God (Jeremiah 7).
Let us look at Isaiah 56 and Jeremiah 7 one at a time. Isaiah 56 is one of the greatest texts in the OT to demonstrate that God’s plan of salvation includes the nations. I love the title for this section in the ESV: “Salvation for Foreigners.”
Thus says the Lord:
“Keep justice, and do righteousness,
for soon my salvation will come,
and my righteousness be revealed.
Blessed is the man who does this,
and the son of man who holds it fast,
who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it,
and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say,
“The Lord will surely separate me from his people”;
and let not the eunuch say,
“Behold, I am a dry tree.”
For thus says the Lord:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose the things that please me
and hold fast my covenant,
I will give in my house and within my walls
a monument and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that shall not be cut off.
“And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
and to be his servants,
everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,
and holds fast my covenant—
these I will bring to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples.”—Isaiah 56:1–7
Notice that Isaiah 56 says salvation has come to those typically thought to be excluded: (1) foreigners, (2) eunuchs, and (3) the outcasts of Israel (v. 8). Eunuchs are important as a reference here because they were not allowed to enter the temple, according to Deuteronomy 23:1. It even looks like foreigners will be ministers “to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants” (Isaiah 56:6). Will Gentile foreigners be priests?! Will they be able to go even further into the temple than Jewish males? The barriers will fall someday indeed!
Why does Jesus add that the temple has been made into a “den of robbers?” We have to look at the context of Jeremiah 7. The people in Jeremiah’s day are treating the temple like a talisman—a place to go when they have been wicked to protect themselves from God’s judgment.
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’
“For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.
“Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim.—Jeremiah 7:1–15
In other words, the people were not seeking God; they were hiding from God. They were like the robbers that came into Jerusalem to steal and then hid from the authorities in a den or a cave. Here they were hiding from God in the temple as a place where they did not believe God would judge them.
We have now come full circle. The people were not wanting to welcome the Gentiles into the people of God and they definitely did not think they needed to repent because they were trusting in their religious ritual and the temple and all the rest. The inclusion of the Gentiles becomes even more prominent the further you get to the climax of the story.
“She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”—Mark 14:8–9
A Gentile woman understood a parable and Jesus’ mission when his disciples could not. In the end, a hated Roman centurion (who seemed like the enemy if there ever was one) saw what no chief priest or Jewish ruler or disciple could see: He is the Son of God on the cross!
And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”—Mark 15:39
Conclusion: Faith = Right-Less Assertion
Tim Keller makes a very illuminating observation about this story. He says that Western cultures are not very familiar with the specific type of assertiveness this woman shows. People in Western cultures are assertive in terms of their rights. We say things like, “I have rights, you know.” We are becoming a society that is very familiar with litigation. If I don’t get what I want or what I think should come to me, then I will sue you.
In this scenario, you end up standing on your rights—which is a way of saying standing on our “dignity and our goodness and saying, ‘This is what I’m owed’” (King’s Cross, p. 88).
This woman is not making an assertion on the basis of her rights. She recognizes that she has no rights in this matter. This is a right-less assertion. This means that she is not pleading on the basis of her goodness and what she deserves, but she is pleading for an undeserved answer: Give me what I don’t deserve because you are so good, not because I am so good or deserving. She understands grace!
This woman’s story confronts us with two ditches. We could have too much pride or too much pity.
Too Much Pride
Let’s start with the problem of having too much pride. Are we too proud to accept what the Bible says about our unworthiness? Are we willing to accept that we don’t deserve anything good from God? Are we willing to admit that we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and are guilty in his sight? Dwight Moody is reported to have said that Jesus sent no one away empty except those who were full of themselves. (Quoted in David Garland, Mark NIVAC, p. 296.)
Too Much Self-Pity
On the other hand, you could have too much self-pity. You could be so self-absorbed as you think of your sin and guilty and shame that you say, “I am too awful to love. God would never accept me and love me and receive me.”
Tim Keller quotes from John Newton here who wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace.”
“You say it is hard to understand how a holy God could accept such an awful person as yourself. You then express not only a low opinion of yourself, which is right, but also too low an opinion of the person, work, and promises of the Redeemer, which is wrong. You complain about sin, but when I look at your complaints, they are so full of self-righteousness, unbelief, pride, and impatience that they are little better than the worst evils you complain of (King’s Cross, p. 90).
Whether you say you are too good or too bad—both are wrong.
Accepting Others Into the Family: Faith Is Enough
Achievement is not the reason for your acceptance and lack of achievement cannot keep you from being accepted by God. And in the same way, if you did not achieve acceptance with God, then how you accept others will become a gospel issue. What do they have to achieve to treat them as brothers and sisters in Christ? Do they have to share things in common with you like culture or socioeconomic status or skin color or anything else? Is the gospel enough? Or do we need to add something to Jesus and faith in him?
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.—Galatians 3:28
Outline
Main Point: Faith in Jesus makes people clean.
Discussion Questions
Application Questions
Prayer Focus
Pray for a grace to ask the Lord for what we don’t deserve—and to ask it on the basis of his goodness, not our own.