Sunday September 6, 2009 Mark 7: 24-37

Welcome, it’s hard to believe Labor Day is already here. The summer just flew by, at least for me. Our text for Sunday is still in Mark and it encompasses two events of healing. Previous to this Jesus has taught on ritual cleanliness. This is what we covered last week.

V24 After teaching Jesus traveled north to Tyre and Sidon. These cities were on the sea coast and Gentiles lived there. Today we know the area as Lebanon. He entered a house and didn’t want anyone to see him doing so. Why? Because it would have been a gentile house which would have been ritually unclean. Jews and Gentiles didn’t mix at all. However he is seen going into the house by people observing him.

V25-26 A mother who had a sick daughter heard that he was in the area and visiting a house so she went to him to see if he could heal her daughter. This would have been a gentile woman. A Syrophoenician woman would have been called a Canaanite in the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy, Canaanites were one of the seven nations they were told to hate and show no mercy to. (Deut 7:1, 2) She begs Jesus to heal her daughter from demons. The news that a Jewish man capable of casting out demons must have reached up here and she is desperate to get help for her daughter as would any parent be.

V27 Jesus responds with a statement that sounds to us like an insult and is an insult to her. He calls her a dog, indirectly. The Jewish people did call the gentiles dogs and that is how they thought of them, in contempt. He taunts her with a slur. It is hard to understand why Jesus would have treated her this way as he is compassionate about everyone but maybe he is voicing what his disciples are thinking. Sometimes when we hear our thoughts spoken we can see the hurt they inflict and feel the sting of guilt. Remember he had just taught in the previous verses that what was unclean came out of a persons mouth from their heart and wasn’t what they ate. Is he giving voice to the disciple’s evil (unclean) thoughts? He is saying “I have come for the children (people) of Israel, why should I give their food to you a gentile dog?”

V28 She ignores the slur but it probably stung and continues to plead for her daughter just as anyone of us would have done for our child. She responds that even the dogs get a few scraps that the children have dropped during the meal, could she possibly be one to get a scrap of healing for her daughter? Could she, a gentile dog, receive the healing that was being given to the Jews, the children of God?

V29 Jesus understands her deep faith in him to heal her daughter. She may not understand that he is the Messiah but she does understand there is something unique and special about this man and instead of destroying her as instructed to do so by the Old Testament he instead shows her mercy. The Jewish people had referred to the gentiles as “those far off”, now Jesus heals her daughter from “far off”. He instructs the woman that the child is healed and she may go. She has so much faith in what he has said that she leaves without any proof that the girl is healed. When she arrives home the girl has been healed. Jewish men were not to speak to women and in this incident Jesus not only speaks to a woman but he helps her daughter showing mercy to two women. He is breaking the gender stereotypes as well.

“In this incident, Jesus stretches the borderlines of His ministry far to the north and away from the Jewish center of Jerusalem. In His dealings with the Syrophoenician woman, He pushes the new communal identity to its limits geographically, ethnically and gender-wise. Although Jesus raises the issue of Jewish priority over Gentiles, He defies and rejects that notion. The woman surpasses the disciples in perception and determination.” Harry Wendt

V31 Jesus then leaves that area and travels south to the Sea of Galilee, probably around the east side and on down to the Decapolis. Decapolis means ten towns and was an area of ten gentile towns by the sea.

V32 Upon reaching the area a deaf, mute man is brought to him by some people, maybe his family, and they beg Jesus to heal the man. Again a gentile is begging for healing, something that was thought to be reserved for the Jewish children of God.

V33 Jesus took the man aside. He touched his ears and spat and touched his tongue. In the ancient near east saliva was thought to have healing powers. So did Jesus need the help of saliva? No, he was showing the man by signs how he was being healed. Remember the man couldn’t speak or hear so he had no way of understanding what was happening.

V34 Jesus looks up to heaven to illustrate to the man his divinely given power and heals him.

V35 Immediately the man is healed in three ways. He can now hear, he can now speak and he spoke plainly meaning he had language. If you can’t hear or speak you don’t have spoken language to communicate with. Now he does.

V36 Jesus orders him to keep it quiet but the man and his companions proclaim it zealously. After all who could keep such a thing quiet? This man has been healed and it is a miracle. Jesus probably wanted it kept quiet so he would have time to teach the people what kind of Messiah he was and not to draw people to him just for what he could do for them.

V37 The people are astounded and comment “he has done everything well”. This is similar to “it is good” in Genesis one. This is the start of a new creation just as Genesis was the start of creation. In the book of Isaiah in chapter 35 the Jewish people had been told by the prophet the signs to look for when the Messiah came. Now those signs are being fulfilled. The dumb are speaking, the blind are seeing, the lame are leaping like deer and the deaf are hearing. If this is so then this man must be the Messiah but Jesus needs time to teach them what kind of a Messiah he is and it isn’t at all what they were expecting or wanting. They want a Messiah (King) who is going to overthrow Rome and allow them to rule the world. The Gentiles who have ruled them for so long will then bring their wealth to the Jewish people and be subservient to them. Jesus wasn’t this kind of Messiah. Do we want Jesus for what he can do for us or do we follow him to continue his work in the world?