Scripture: Mark 7:24-37
Video Link: https://youtu.be/CPGMpA-D7v0
Structure:
- Introduction
- Leaving home
- Finding faith
- Sighing deeply
- Conclusion
Introduction:
Good morning everyone.
Some of you may remember a TV show from the 60’s called The Addams Family, more recently made into a movie. One of the members of the Addams Family was a hand that walked around like a spider, separate from a body.
The hand was simply called ‘Thing’.
A hand by itself looks weird and a bit creepy. For a hand to make sense it really needs to be connected to the rest of the body. The Bible is like a body, it has different parts to it. But none of those parts makes sense or looks right if read in isolation from the other parts.
If you read Bible verses out of context you often end up with an interpretation that is weird and creepy. Scripture interprets Scripture.
Last week we started a new series following the lectionary readings.
This morning’s lectionary reading focuses on the gospel of Mark, chapter 7, verses 24-37. This passage doesn’t make a lot of sense if taken in isolation from the verses around it. In fact, if you read Mark 7:24-37 by itself, Jesus appears like ‘Thing’ from the Addams Family.
As you listen to these verses then, keep in mind last week’s reading where Jesus talked about what makes a person clean (or right) before God. And if you can’t remember last week’s message, don’t worry. I will remind you as we work through the passage. From verse 24 of Mark 7 we read…
24 Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret.
25 In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. 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 the dogs.” 28 “Lord,” she replied, “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.” 30 She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. 31 Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. 32 There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him. 33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34 He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). 35 At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. 36 Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. 37 People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.
Leaving home:
In 1987, the rock band U2 released an album called The Joshua Tree.
The opening track on that album is called Where the Streets Have No Name. Some of the lyrics read like this…
I want to run, I want to hide,
I wanna tear down the walls that hold me inside…
I wanna take shelter from the poison rain
Where the streets have no name…
Bono wrote these words in response to the idea that, in Belfast, you can identify a person’s religion and income based on the street they live on.
In other words, the name of your street determines other people’s perception of you. There is a wall between people on Old Kent Rd and people on Mayfair.
Bono wrote the lyrics while in Ethiopia, which is a long way Belfast, Ireland. When you go to a foreign place, the street names don’t carry the same baggage of being rich or poor, protestant or catholic or whatever.
Bono said: “The guy in the song… thinks about a world where there aren’t such divisions, a place where the streets have no name. …Maybe that’s the dream of all art: to break down the barriers and the divisions between people and touch upon the things that matter the most to us all.”
Perhaps you can identify with the feeling Bono is sketching here. It’s the feeling you get when you leave home for a place you don’t know, a place where the streets have no name (no reputation, no prejudice, no barriers). A place where no one really knows you, so you can transcend the baggage of the past.
Where the streets have no name feels like freedom. It feels like a fresh start.
Last week (in verses 1-23 of Mark 7) Jesus talked about what makes a person unclean before God. The Pharisees were convinced the problem was with those dirty Gentiles and the solution was ceremonial washing, to avoid spiritual contamination and maintain holiness.
Jesus was also concerned about holiness, but he made it clear that the Pharisees had the wrong end of the stick. The problem is not external.
The problem is internal.
What you eat and who you come in contact with does not defile you or make you unholy before God. Rather, it is what comes out of a person’s heart that defiles them: evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, and so on.
It is with this conversation fresh in our minds that Jesus (and his disciples) walk 80 kilometres north into the region of Tyre. In doing this they leave the land of Israel behind and cross over into the land of the Gentiles.
In the Old Testament, Tyre and Sidon were renowned as places of evil. Places the Jewish people expected God to destroy, like Sodom and Gomorrah. Tyre and Sidon were the historical enemies of Israel and considered by most Jews to be unholy places. The streets of Tyre and Sidon had a bad name.
For Jesus though, Tyre and Sidon were no more unclean than Galilee or Jerusalem. Because it’s not a person’s race or postal code that makes them unclean. It is what comes out of their heart.
Verse 24 shows us a different side to Jesus. We are used to reading about an extroverted Jesus. A Jesus who is out in the world mixing with people, speaking truth to power, healing the sick and going to parties. Rock on.
But what we see here is a more introverted Jesus. A Jesus who wants to remain anonymous. A Jesus who wants to keep his presence on the down low. This is not a short-term mission trip. This is more like a retreat.
Jesus wants to run and hide. He wants to take shelter from the poison rain. He wants to go where the streets have no name. A place where he could be anonymous and transcend all the politics and divisions of his homeland.
Who could blame him. The religious leaders were actively opposing him.
The crowds wanted to use him for the all the wrong reasons. His own family doubted him and his disciples didn’t really understand him. No wonder Jesus wanted to get away from it all. But he is out of luck.
Finding faith:
As soon as Jesus arrived in town, a mother came to him asking for a favour. Unfortunately, she had three strikes against her. She was a woman. She was a Gentile. And her daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit. You cannot get much worse than that, if you are a Jewish man.
The woman knows what the Jews think of her. She understands full well the prejudice she is up against. I imagine at that moment she wishes she could go where the streets have no name. But she can’t escape the fact that the street she comes from has the worst name, the worst reputation.
It says something about her courage and character that she is willing to approach one of her enemies for help. Or maybe it is an indication of her desperation. ‘A mother is only as happy as her unhappiest child.’
The daughter is described as little. This might mean she was young but (in the original Greek) little can also mean beloved. This mother loves her daughter very much.
The mother falls at Jesus’ feet. Again, there is a double meaning here. To fall at someone’s feet in this context can mean to humble oneself and show respect. But it can also be a sign of overwhelming grief and distress. Falling at Jesus’ feet is both an act of lament and petition.
The daughter has an impure spirit, a demon in other words. Jesus had said previously (in verse 21) that evil comes out of the human heart. If you think of the heart as the well spring of the soul, that place deep within you where life and vitality spring from, then a demon poisons the well so that every thought, motivation and desire is contaminated, making your spirit sick.
The fact that the daughter has an impure spirit shows us that the human heart is not the only source of evil. There are other malicious non-human forces at work in the world which cause all sorts of harm and chaos.
In verse 26 we read that the woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia, roughly where Lebanon is today. This tells us the woman was not a worshipper of Yahweh. She was a pagan. She worshipped idols.
When the woman begged Jesus to deliver her daughter from the demon, Jesus does something a 21st Century audience find offensive. He says to her, “First let the children eat all they want, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
The children, in Jesus’ parable here, are the people of Israel. And their food is the healing and life that Jesus brings. Jesus is the bread of life. Dogs is a reference to Gentiles generally. In ancient Jewish culture a dog was considered unclean. Dogs were despised.
So, what is going on here? Because it sounds like a racial slur, an insult, against this mother and her daughter. Well, Jesus is not being racist.
Jesus’ main point is that his mission is first and foremost to the people of Israel. Jesus cannot afford to take on the Gentile world just yet. Jesus’ outreach to the Gentiles will happen in due course (as we see in the book of Acts). But for now, Jesus must focus on Israel and going to the cross.
Jesus’ second point (by implication) is that the Gentile woman before him is unclean. This is not a racial slur. Jesus is making a theological statement.[1]
Drawing on what Jesus had said earlier in Mark 7, verse 21, (that we are defiled by what comes out of our heart) the woman is not unclean because she is a Gentile. She is unclean because she has worshipped idols and done the immoral things that go with that.
You see, Jesus wants to cleanse the daughter from the demon and the mother from her idolatry. That meant getting the mother to face the truth about herself. Two for the price of one.
At this point the mother has a choice. She can take offence and walk away, insisting on the illusion of her own innocence. Or she can accept the truth that she is not right before God.
To her credit, the mother responds with humility and insight saying, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
The mother accepts Jesus’ point that she is like a dog, unclean, unholy, not right before God. No argument there. But what she won’t accept is that God does not have enough mercy and grace for her.
She is not asking Jesus to deviate from his mission to Israel. She just wants a few crumbs for her daughter. This woman has the faith to believe that God’s goodness and grace is greater than anything she has done wrong.
And for that response of faith, Jesus grants her request, healing her daughter from a distance. The woman returns home to find her daughter on the bed and the demon gone.
Before we move on, let’s pause for a moment and make some observations.
Although this woman came from a pagan background, she was not all bad.
In fact, Jesus found considerable goodness in her heart.
The woman was genuinely humble, she was honest with herself. She was tenacious, she wouldn’t give up. She was motivated by love for her daughter, and she had great faith, she trusted Jesus.
The essence of her faith was this: she believed God was generous enough to extend grace to pagans. She believed God’s mercy was greater than her sin.
Her spiritual dirt was no match for Jesus’ soap. She put no limits on God.
Last week we heard how evil comes from the human heart. This week we see that goodness also comes from the heart. We are complex creatures, fearfully and wonderfully made.
We may think Jesus was a bit rough or rude in the way he spoke to this woman, but Jesus’ approach brought the best out of her.
The woman rose to a place where the streets have no name. She transcended the prejudice, politics and divisions that get in the way of right relationship. She was in touch with the things that matter most to us all.
Sighing deeply:
After this Jesus went further north to Sidon before heading back down the eastern side of the sea of Galilee into the region of the Decapolis. This journey would have taken weeks, if not months. What happened during that time? We are not told.
The Decapolis was mainly occupied by Gentiles. So, it was similar in some ways to Tyre and Sidon, despised by the Jewish establishment.
While in the region of the Decapolis some people brought a man to Jesus who was deaf and could hardly talk. They begged Jesus to place his hand on the man (to heal him).
The laying on of hands was a Jewish thing, so these people are most likely Jewish. They were interceding for the man, similar to the way the mother interceded for her daughter. Neither the man who was deaf nor the daughter who was possessed were able to ask for help themselves.
Is there someone you know who can’t pray for themselves? Who needs you to intercede for them?
As we imagine this man, who was deaf and could hardly talk, standing in the presence of Jesus, we are reminded of some verses in Isaiah 35, which read…
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy…
Isaiah 35 is a message of hope to the Jews in exile. It’s about God redeeming and restoring his people.
Mark is showing us that Jesus is more than a wandering miracle worker. Jesus is not a creepy hand walking around in isolation from the rest of the body. Jesus’ ministry is connected to God’s bigger plan of salvation. Jesus is the Messiah who fulfils the prophecy of Isaiah 35.
Being deaf in a hearing world is isolating. If you can’t communicate well, you tend to be misunderstood more than usual. Life can be very lonely. Jesus’ experience was similar in some ways to this man’s experience. Much of what Jesus said was misunderstood. Jesus knew what it was to be alone in a crowd.
In verses 33-35 we read how Jesus heals the man. There is something quite winsome and personal in Jesus’ approach here. Jesus heals the man in private, away from the crowds. He doesn’t make a spectacle of the man or the miracle.
Jesus communicates with the man using sign language. By putting his fingers into the man’s ears and touching his tongue with spit, Jesus was showing the man what he was about to do. By looking up to heaven Jesus was indicating that the power to perform this healing comes from God.
And with a deep sigh [Jesus]said to him, Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). And the man was healed.
What is the sigh about?
A sigh is when we exhale loudly. A sigh is an emotional response to something we feel deep inside. When we sigh it’s like we are releasing a feeling. Usually, it is a feeling of frustration or sadness. A feeling that things are not right. We sigh when no words will do justice to the feeling. Deep calls to deep.
I am reminded of Paul’s words in Romans 8, where he writes…
Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.
It’s not that Jesus didn’t know how to pray in this situation. Rather, he was praying in the Spirit. He was interceding with sighs too deep for words.
The sigh indicates the level of Jesus’ emotional engagement. This healing (like every healing) cost Jesus something.
What is it that makes you sigh?
There is more than one way to be deaf. When Jesus commanded the people not to tell anyone, they kept talking about it. Apparently, the people did not hear Jesus or weren’t listening. Did they see the connection with Isaiah 35?
Or was this just entertainment for them?
It wasn’t entertainment for the man who was healed, it was freedom and a fresh start.
Conclusion:
Today we have heard how Jesus performed two miracles. Although Jesus’ approach in each case was quite different, both signs show us a God of creative power and love. Both signs show us what God intends for his creation. They give us a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven.
Can you imagine a place where the streets have no name? Jesus wants to lift us above the parochial concerns and prejudices that divide us. Will we go there with him?
Questions for discussion or reflection:
- What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
- What does it mean to go where the streets have no name? What is this song describing?
- Why did Jesus refer to the woman and her daughter as dogs? What made them unclean?
- What does the woman’s response, in verse 28, show us? What can we learn from her?
- Is there someone you know who can’t pray for themselves? Who needs you to intercede for them?
- Discuss / reflect on the way Jesus heals the man in verses 33-34. How is Jesus’ approach similar / different from the miracle in vv. 24-30? What does this show us about Jesus?
- What is it that makes you sigh?
[1] Refer Tim Keller’s comment in a sermon he preached, December 1996.
Tawa Baptist 