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Aug 04, 2024

Divine Doors

Passage: Mark 7:24-37

Preacher: John Repsold

Series: Gospel of Mark

Keywords: discipleship, ministry, opportunity, success, comfort zones, crises

Summary:

It's sometimes hard to make sense of what God is up to. This passage confronts us with how differently Jesus views success, outsiders, and crises even as he is training his disciples to carry the torch of the Gospel to the nations. See how our crises are really divine doors for deeper encounter with him, whether we are the ones bringing Jesus to others or the ones in the crisis.

Detail:

Divine Doors

Mark 7:24-37

August 4, 2024

Fellowship Question:  For whom have you been asking God to do something in their life but it hasn’t happened yet?

INTRO:  Does it ever seem to you that God does things that don’t make sense? 

ILL:  Pastor’s group we had dinner with this past week: 

  • One of the couples, the wife is facing some life-altering cancer treatment decisions.
  • Another couple’s son-in-law died of cancer in a month just a few months ago leaving their daughter a widow with 3 small children. Her husband was one of those great dads and godly men.  It’s just plain hard to understand why it was him rather than some dead-beat or abusive dad.

The more I look honestly at the life of Jesus, the more it appears to me that Jesus did things that, in the moment and perhaps for many years, didn’t make a whole lot of sense to his close disciples who he was training to carry the torch of Christianity into the future.  Today’s passage is just such a story.

Mark 7:24-37

24 Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre. He didn’t want anyone to know which house he was staying in, but he couldn’t keep it a secret. 25 Right away a woman who had heard about him came and fell at his feet. Her little girl was possessed by an evil spirit, 26 and she begged him to cast out the demon from her daughter.

Since she was a Gentile, born in Syrian Phoenicia, 27 Jesus told her, “First I should feed the children—my own family, the Jews. It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.”

28 She replied, “That’s true, Lord, but even the dogs under the table are allowed to eat the scraps from the children’s plates.”

29 “Good answer!” he said. “Now go home, for the demon has left your daughter.” 30 And when she arrived home, she found her little girl lying quietly in bed, and the demon was gone.

Jesus Heals a Deaf Man

31 Jesus left Tyre and went up to Sidon before going back to the Sea of Galilee and the region of the Ten Towns. 32 A deaf man with a speech impediment was brought to him, and the people begged Jesus to lay his hands on the man to heal him.

33 Jesus led him away from the crowd so they could be alone. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then, spitting on his own fingers, he touched the man’s tongue. 34 Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened!” 35 Instantly the man could hear perfectly, and his tongue was freed so he could speak plainly!

36 Jesus told the crowd not to tell anyone, but the more he told them not to, the more they spread the news. 37 They were completely amazed and said again and again, “Everything he does is wonderful. He even makes the deaf to hear and gives speech to those who cannot speak.”

What, when, where, how, why and with whom God does things in His Kingdom will often surprise and perplex us.  Get used to it!

For starters, let’s focus on the WHERE and WHO of these two snapshot stories. 

WHERE:  Jesus is with his disciples in Galilee.  That was Jewish territory.  Ministry seems to be going fine.  People are responding.  Crowds are coming.  If this was today, no pastor in his right mind would abandon such a rowing ministry with such record-breaking developments. 

            But Jesus does.  And he doesn’t just move to the next town and pick up the work there.  No, he heads to a notoriously spiritually bankrupt city that is completely out of the realm of the Jewish people to whom he has been sent.  That’s not to say that Tyre, Sidon and the Decapolis weren’t part of the Promised Land God had granted the Jews centuries before. 

We know from history that the people of God never really took control of Tyre or Sidon like they could have.  Furthermore, the region of the Decapolis on the east side of the Sea of Galilee, had, by this time, pretty much reverted to Gentile domination and majority population.  Jesus is very clearly leaving a flourishing ministry with his Jewish brethren, and deliberately going places where no good Rabbi would choose to go.  In fact, there is a good chance that, going where he is going and staying where he stayed, he and his disciples at best risked ceremonial defilement according to Jewish customs.  (Remember the dust-up we saw him get into last week simply about hand-washing???  The Pharisees must have really loved this move!)

Mark is careful to tell us exactly where Jesus went—Tyre and later Sidon.  Tyre and Sidon had a long history as Gentile commercial centers.  Originally, Tyre was to be part of the tribe of Asher’s divine inheritance (Joshua 19:24-31).  It’s first mentioned by name in Joshua 13:3-4 as a “strong” or “fortified” city that Joshua attempted to capture but apparently never did (2 Sam. 24:7). 

By the time of King David’s reign, Israel had formed a friendly alliance with Hiram, King of Tyre.  In fact, David used stonemasons and carpenters from Tyre, along with cedars from that region to build his palace (2 Samuel 5:11). Those peaceful relations with King Hiram continued into Solomon’s reign, with the construction of the temple in Jerusalem relying heavily on supplies, laborers, and skilled artisans from Tyre (1 Kings 5:1–14; 9:11; 2 Chronicles 2:3).

Those close relations became way too close when King Ahab married infamous Jazabell, daughter of the king of Sidon.  She, of course, important a whole new level of idolatry and paganism into Israel ( 1 Kings 16:31).  Both Tyre and Sidon were notorious for their wickedness and idolatry, which resulted in numerous denouncements by a number of Israel’s prophets, who predicted Tyre’s ultimate destruction (Isaiah 23:1; Jeremiah 25:22; Ezekiel 28:1–19; Joel 3:4; Amos 1:9–10; Zechariah 9:2–4). 

One of the most detailed and historically-verifiable prophecies is of Tyre’s demise prophesied in Ezekiel: “They will destroy the walls of Tyre and pull down her towers; I will scrape away her rubble and make her a bare rock. Out in the sea she will become a place to spread fishnets, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord. She will become plunder for the nations” (Ezekiel 26:4–5).

Tyre literally means “rock”.  Some of the city was built on the main coastline with fortified walls.  Some of it, however, was about 500 yards offshore on a rock island separated by shallow ocean.  Alexander the Great conquered Tyre in 322 B.C., and used the walls of the rubble of the walls of the main city to build a causeway out to the island Tyre and capture it.  But he allowed it to continue to function as a commercial center.  It wasn’t until 1291 A.D. that the Muslim, Saracens, utterly destroyed the city, fulfilling Ezekiel’s prophecy completely.  It remained uninhabited for roughly 300 years. 

Clearly, Tyre and Sidon were pagan, Gentile-dominated cities.  If the disciples thought it was a stretch to spend a few days in half-breed Sychar of Samaria, this move must have really blown their circuits!  Tyre was a full-blown San Francisco of the day.

Mark tells us that, when they arrived, because Jesus wanted to stay incognito, he took up residence in a private home.  It’s possible it was a home of a Jew.  It’s also possible it was the home of a Gentile.  In fact, the fact that this story revolves around a Gentile, Syrian Phoenician woman, who found out where he was staying, I think tends to tilt in the direction of a Gentile home.  I Jew would not normally welcome a Gentile into their home. And if Jesus had told his Jewish host that he was staying with him to stay off the radar, I can imagine that extra effort would have been given to keep his presence hidden.  That doesn’t seem to have happened.

ILL:  I’m sorry, but we really don’t have any comprehension for how radically rule-breaking this would have been for a Jew.  I don’t know what would even compare to this emotionally in our culture except to say that we might begin to get a feel for the awkwardness of this setting if I were to tell you that, say, your pastors had a staff retreat this past week at a brothel in Thailand.  While Jesus actions didn’t have the sort of sexual overtones a move like that would have, it definitely had the same level of cringe/revulsion you probably just had with my illustration. 

            Are you beginning to see how confusing and “off the reservation” this move by Jesus was.  What do you suppose was the question the disciples were at least thinking if not expressing on this little trek to paganville?  By the way, it was a good 75 miles or more of travel…on foot—probably at least 3-4 days of difficult travel out of their schedule.  The question?  “WHY are you doing this, Jesus?”  And the questions just kept piling on the deeper they got into this detour. 

            While they are trying to disengage from ministry for a few days, this story descends upon them in the form of a distressed Gentile woman.  The parallel account in Matthew 15:21-28 adds some clarity to the dialogue that went on between this woman and Jesus.  Matthew calls her “a Canaanite woman.”  Now there’s a loaded identifier for a Jew!  Canaanite is not an ethnic group like Jews or Assyrians.  It was descriptive of any of the pagan peoples who had inhabited that land before the Jews arrived.  The emphasis was on “pagan.”

            But Matthew, who was an eyewitness of this event, quotes the woman (15:22) as saying, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!”  I can just see the disciples turning their heads and looking at her.  “What did she say?  Lord?  Son of David?  This woman clearly doesn’t know what she’s saying!” 

            Or did she?  This is a virtual acclimation of Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ.  We have no record of any of the disciples saying this about Jesus yet.  This is prior to Peter’s declaration in Mt. 16:16.  But here is a Canaanite…a woman…who has demon-possessed relatives living in her home…declaring that Jesus is the promised Lord ‘son of David’!  That’s remarkable. 

            But the plot thickens.  She’s got a demon-possessed daughter.  How do children become possessed by demons?  I don’t know the answer to that.  But I see no evidence that demons just willy-nilly get to prey on children without some sort of close, perhaps family-related opening to the demonic.  Abuse can sometimes open that door.  Immorality in a family can do it.  Occult involvement can do it.  Generational sins of the fathers visited upon the children can do it.  I think it is safe to say, someone in that family had cracked the door to the demonic. 

            The woman informs Jesus that “My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly,” (Mt. 15:22).  Jesus’ reaction makes no sense to us but was probably the first thing to make seemingly make sense to the disciples in a few days.  “Jesus did not answer a word.  So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” (Mt. 15:23). 

            How would you interpret Jesus’ silence in a scene like this?  The disciples took it as a “no” to her request.  “Clearly, he’s not going to answer this woman’s request.  His silence is deafening.  Why can’t she take a hint and move along?” 

            Matthew then tells us something that Mark doesn’t quote but clearly alludes to:  “[Jesus] answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”  This statement would have made a lot more sense to the disciples if they had stayed in Galilee.  I’d have been thinking, “Really?  Then what are we doing in paganville?  If you are called to minister to lost Jews, what on earth are we doing here in Gentile Tyre?” 

APP:  Does God ever ask us to operate outside of our “calling”?  Does he ever take his saints, his prophets, his priests, his people and ask them to step away from what is their normal calling to ministry or career or gifting and do something out of the norm?  You bet He does!

  • Abraham, promised the Promised Land, was led to go to Egypt for a short stay.
  • David, the anointed next king of Israel, was required to spend several years hanging out with “the rabble of Israel” as well as a few Canaanite kings.
  • Elijah, that great prophet sent to Israel, was led to the region of Sidon, to a non-Jewish widow with her son, to live there during the prophesied famine of God’s judgment on wicked king Ahab.
  • Jeremiah, the faithful prophet to Judah in her last days, was taken forcibly into Egypt to live…and die.

I’m not saying that operating outside the norm should become the norm.  But I do think that God will take all of us, from time to time, into places in life that move us beyond our comfort zone, our gifts, even our core-calling. 

            There may be multiple reasons for that.  Let me suggest a couple from this passage:

  1. The disciples needed to expand their practical theology regarding WHO the kingdom of God was to include. They were perfectly content with their parochial ministry mindset.  God wasn’t.  So he took them to a place and a person who, in may ways, prefigured the ministry He was going to ask them to develop in the future—ministry to the Gentile world.  28:19—“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations….”  God is always in the business of expanding our field of vision in ministry.  He may take your concern for lost people from family to friends to coworkers/fellows students to neighbors to strangers to… the ends of the earth!  (That was my journey early on:  my brother’s conversion >> classmates >> Timothy Teams >> prison min. >> overseas.  And I’m no evangelist! 
  2. The future of the Kingdom that Jesus was building would require them to work in WAYS they were not familiar with…and required His intervention. It’s not only about the people and places God will ask us to reach out to; it’s about the new methodologies God will ask as to develop in order to do so and how He wants to meet us in them.
    1. DBS Building Bible Studies
    2. Haven seminar classes in cooking, marriage, parenting, family nights, etc.
    3. Missions outreaches that use our career-choices to get us into countries that will never allow a “missionary” to come in and live among the people.
    4. Doing “church” in ways that develop new styles of delivering God’s word, or discipling God’s people, or training parents to lead their children, or singles how to use their singleness for the Kingdom.

Let’s keep going.

RECAP:  Jesus was sent to “the lost sheep of Israel.”  He’s affirming that to his disciples.  But he’s also breaking the mold of ministry so he can expand the scope of reach. 

            Now we come to this rather perplexing response of Jesus to this desperate woman’s cry.  And she is crying.  Matthew says the woman came and knelt before Jesus, worshiping and crying out, “Lord, help me!”  Mark says, “She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.” 

            Both Matthew and Mark record the same response but Mark’s is more complete (vs. 27): “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.” (Latter phrase repeated in both Gospels.)

            Sounds like an insult to me, doesn’t it?  Well, it wasn’t.  Jesus isn’t calling the woman a “dog”.  He’s just reinforcing to her and the disciples that, yes, the Jews are the chosen children who must get the meal first in order to fulfill the plan of God.  It was like saying to some stranger who comes to your door and asks for dinner, “Well, I’ve got to feed my children first.  They are my first responsibility.”  That’s not a commentary on the stranger.  It’s a commentary on your family.

            In addition, the term for “dog” here is not the pejorative term that would have been used of pagans or as a term of disrespect.  Jesus could have used that like talking about wild, good-for-nothing dogs.  But he chose a word that was used for domesticated house pets.  Essentially he was saying, “You don’t cook a meal and serve your pets before giving it to your kids.” 

            But every parent with kids and pets knows that the kids sometimes don’t want the meal you’ve made.  Who’s next in line when that happens?  The dog, right? 

            This woman knew that too.  She’s not offended by not being a chosen Jew.  She’s not offended by being compared with the house pets in the parable.  She sees an open door, not a closed one.  So she steps forward and wedges her foot in the door.

            “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs,”…not to mention the leftovers!  Where you and I hear a door slamming, this woman sees an invitation to press in.  Her faith in Jesus as Lord trumped her fears that it might not happen.  Her faith in the nature of Jesus trumped her possible confusion about Jesus’ answer.  Her passion and love for her daughter trumped her fear of appearing overbearing or obnoxious or presumptuous. 

APP: What an invitation to us!  Is there someone you’ve been longing to see come to Jesus?  Someone you’ve been asking God to heal?  Someone you’ve been praying for, knowing that God can change them but it hasn’t happened yet? 

            Is it possible that God put them in your life and withheld whatever it is you are longing for them to have or become just so that YOU would go searching and calling and crying out to Jesus more?  Sometimes other people’s problems are meant to change US and reshape our relationship to Jesus as well as them.  The presenting issue is not always the primary issue. 

            Here’s where this message’s title comes in, “Divine Doors.”  Both this story and the next (which we won’t get to today), teach us that our crises are meant to be doors to divine encounters.  God’s silences and delayed responses are there for a reason.  They can build our faith and deepen our experience with Him. And they can be the tools God employs to expand His world-wide kingdom and train His people to press into the unexpected and unpredictable work of God.

            This woman’s fervent faith in Jesus and passionate love for her daughter led to another one of those remarkable Gentile miracles.  Remember the centurion who understood the issue of authority and how Jesus could just command the healing of someone from a distance because He was THE authority over everything in this world?  (See Matthew 8:5-13 & Luke 7:1-10.)  Well, here is a Gentile woman who also believed that Jesus had authority to simply speak something into existence.  She didn’t demand he come to her house.  She took him at his word that the deliverance would happen without him being there, without her hearing him speak to the demon, and without any physical touch from Jesus.  She just believed Jesus and his promise.

            Friends, we need to let the written Word of God produce that kind of confidence in our lives.  No matter how long it takes or how impossible it seems, we need to find the promises of God that speak to our issues and then cling to them.  We need to keep hounding heaven, keep asking, keep dreaming about how God might answer and solve the impossible.  Because that is the kind of life that grows faith God can work with.  And “without faith, it is impossible to please God.”

APP:

  • God has called us as disciples of Jesus to step out into people’s lives and places that may not always make sense or be comfortable.
    • That’s why we ask each of you to support missionaries.
    • That’s why we are not shy about asking you to step into the buildings downtown and around town that have hundreds of people needing Jesus.
    • That’s why we keep looking for and trying new ways to build relational bridges with people in our community who may seem like the last people who would respond to Jesus.

Thank you for being a people who do that in spades.  To have so many of you step up to things like the Haven DVBS or Spokane Family Day or Revival Prayer or Building Bible Studies is an amazing testament to your faith.  Let’s never stop!

  • Speaking of never stopping, we must never stop asking God and waiting on Him to answer. This story is a model for our praying.  Unanswered prayers are not always a “no.”
    • Monthly Revival Prayer
    • Weekly prayer gatherings
    • Prayer Counselor opportunities every Sunday
    • Praying with people we talk with all week long who share a need with us.
  • Let your need or that of someone you love be the divine door to greater faith and possible miracles that you haven’t yet seen. Whether God answer like you want Him to or chooses to answer in a way you wouldn’t choose, allow the process to grow your  

PRAYER:

  • Put your faith in Christ…for the first time?
  • What situation is God asking you to keep praying about and grow faith in? Will you commit to doing both?
  • Where or with whom is the Lord inviting you to follow Him that you normally would not do? Will you say “yes” to Jesus on this?