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Past Ponderings

Sunday, December 10, 2017

PONDERING... Would You Be Happy With Jesus’ Crumbs? (Mark 7:24-30, 8:1-10)

Would You Be Happy With Jesus’ Crumbs? (AM Sermon Notes)
GIST: Though we are unworthy of even His crumbs, Jesus feeds us from His table.
SCRIPTURE: Mark 7:24-30, 8:1-10
24 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. 25 But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 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.” 28 But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.” 29 And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

This morning we’re coming to a passage that seems more like a Sunday night topic. For those of you who have been able to make it out for evening services, you know we tend to hit some hard stuff there. This passage has it’s share of hard stuff. There’s really no way to sugarcoat this. Jesus calls this woman a dog. In fact, in Matthew’s parallel account (Matthew 15:21-28), we know that Jesus ignored her at first, then called her a dog. This doesn’t seem like a good evangelism method! In fact, you’re probably never going to hear anyone tell you, “when you’re trying to share the gospel with someone, be sure to start by ignoring them, and when that doesn’t work, insult them.” This doesn’t even seem like good manners. Yet, we know that Jesus is compassionate and loving. In fact, He is love itself. So, what in the world is going on here?
Think about the context here for a second. Jesus has just been teaching about what is clean and unclean. He declares that it is sin that makes you unclean, not anything external, so external traditions won’t clean you up--only His salvation will. Now, in these next several passages, He demonstrates that for His disciples. They’re in Gentile territory--unclean land--and this happens. Gist? Though we are unworthy of even His crumbs, Jesus feeds us from His table.

I. Unworthy of Crumbs (Test for the woman)
Controversy and Intrigue. As we’ve noted, this passage brings its share of controversy. Let’s look at what’s going on here. After confronting the false teachings of the Pharisees and scribes, Jesus and His disciples go to Tyre and Sidon, predominantly Gentile regions, for what at first appears to be some rest. Of course, as we’ve seen with Jesus before, His rest is never what we’d expect. Despite wanting to stay anonymous at this point, word gets out that Jesus is in town (it always does!), and this woman comes immediately, as soon as she hears. Why? Her daughter is possessed by a demon.
I think we can appreciate her urgency. Nothing spurs a parent to action more than a child in need, and nothing more consumes the attention of a parent than a hurting child. I shared this with some of you last week, but I felt all discombobbled last Sunday. I had a child at home with a spiking fever. Praise the Lord, it’s been several years since a fever actually caused him to have a febrile seizure. We’re hoping he’s outgrown them. Nonetheless, I’m not sure Melissa and I will ever outgrow that gut-wrenching concern. And that’s mild compared with this woman’s situation. Her baby is in dire need, so she comes begging Jesus to heal her child.
Now, this woman is the ultimate example of unclean. She’s a woman, so in this culture she wouldn’t have been permitted to enter a house to speak with a man. She has a demon possessed child so that wouldn’t have helped her social standing. She appears to be a Greek pagan by religion, a Syrian in language (instead of Hebrew or Aramaic), and a Phoenician by race (which were descendants of the Canaanites, the classic, Old Testament enemies of the Israelites). Herschel Hobbs notes it would be hard to find someone more non-Jewish than this woman. She had all the strikes against here.
Expected Response with a Compassionate Purpose. How does Jesus respond to her? Exactly like any self-respected Jewish man would have been expected to. First, He ignores her (see Matthew 15:21-28), then He calls her a dog. The disciples seem all for this response. Again, in Matthew’s recording we see them asking Jesus to send her away. We’ll see in a moment this lesson is as much for them, as for her, but for now, let’s look at Jesus and this woman.
Much has been written about the unknowns here. What was Jesus’ tone of voice? Did He have a twinkle in His eye when He said this? We know that Jews commonly referred to Gentiles as dogs using the word that meant a savage or wild dog, but the word Jesus uses here actually refers to a house-dog, or a pet. Is that significant? Maybe. We can’t see His facial expression or hear His tone of voice here, but we do know this about Jesus: He is compassionate and loving and completely devoted to the truth. Whatever these unknowns, He said and did exactly what this woman needed. Did He love her? Absolutely! Did she deserve this? No. Neither do we.
Test Passed. And His actions and words provoked in her exactly the right response. She got that she was not worthy, but she also seemed to understand a little about Jesus’ identity too. Look that this exchange. Jesus tests her, and she passes the test: . 27 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.” 28 But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.” I love this response, so did Jesus. This isn’t about her wit though; it’s about her faith. Jesus says as much in Matthew 16:28, “28 Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” She knew she wasn’t worthy to be treated like Jesus’ child, but was good with His crumbs because she knew they would be enough. That’s faith! We’ve seen all these people who should have known the Old Testament Scripture and had been sitting under Jesus’ teaching still missing who He was...but here is this woman about as far removed from the “right crowd” as possible and she gets it. She’s ok with crumbs, but she’s given so much more!

II. Fed from His Table (Lesson for the disciples)
Lesson Learned? She didn’t deserve those crumbs, but is fed from Jesus’ table. Man, that’s a picture of salvation, right? And that’s what Jesus has been trying to show His disciples. Remember He’d just been teaching them about what is clean and unclean. Here, in dramatic fashion, He shows them what He meant. This woman, from the outside, was all kinds of messed up, but she trusted in the One who could fix that. At this point, even the disciples would have thought salvation was for the Jews only. Here, Jesus shows them it’s not… and He’s not done yet.
Let the Children be Fed! Let’s skip over tonight’s passage real quick and look at Mark 8:1-10.
8 In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, 2 “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. 3 And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” 4 And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” 5 And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” 6 And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. 7 And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. 8 And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. 9 And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. 10 And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.
Sound familiar? Didn’t we just cover this a couple weeks ago? Mark and Matthew both record two accounts of Jesus feeding a multitude. These are similar accounts, but not identical. The biggest difference? The makeup of the crowd. Here we have 4,000+ people who have chosen to come to Jesus. They’ve been with Him for three days, and Jesus has compassion on them because He knows they need something to eat. If you remember, that’s not how the feeding got started last time. Last time, the disciples initiated the conversation in an attempt to get rid of the crowd. Now, Jesus says, ‘these people have left everything to come to Me, let’s feed them.’ And He does. Taking seven loaves and a few small fish, He feeds everyone...and there are seven baskets left over.
Now, it’s no coincidence that the feeding of the 4,000 is recorded in this context. Remember, we’ve been looking at this whole clean and unclean picture--getting to the heart of what it means to really be saved. Then, Jesus asks the woman if it is right to feed the dogs before the children. Then, we have this picture of a great multitude being fed. Any connection? When you look at the area where this takes place, and even some of the words being used to describe this group, it becomes pretty clear that unlike the last crowd, this is a crowd of Gentiles. (For example, before the word used to describe the leftover baskets was that of a Jewish lunchbox of sorts. Here, it’s a much larger bag which was carried by Gentiles in this region.)
The connection is awesome! Even though His crumbs are enough, when He calls us, He feeds us as children. Consider the opening remarks from John’s recording of the Gospel.
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:9-13)
And that’s exactly what’s happening here. Those who should have known better rejected Him, but those who seemed like outsiders were made children!

TAKEAWAYS (...For us ☺)
1.  We should approach Jesus like this woman: Unworthy, but in need. This woman demonstrated both humility and desire. She knew she didn’t deserve to be treated as His child, but also knew His crumbs were enough. We come to Jesus knowing we need Him, knowing even His crumbs are enough, knowing we don’t even deserve those, but also knowing He’s our compassionate Savior who died that we could be called His children.
2. Put all your loaves in His basket.☺(See what I did there?) I don’t want to miss this point. This woman risked public ridicule and outright rejection because she knew Jesus was her only hope. Then, this crowd left everything and followed after Him. There’s a lesson for us here. Before we’re saved, we try to do everything in our own strength, but it’s never enough. Sometimes, even those of us who have come to know Him as our Savior still try to take control of our lives. We claim to trust Him, but in practice we’re trusting our well-laid plans. Give Him everything.

3. Rejoice in His universal compassion. Not everyone will be saved, but His salvation is offered for all who will believe. This woman was about as non-Jewish as possible, yet she’s blessed like a child. This should be especially sweet for us to hear as we’re a church populated by Gentiles. Praise Him!

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