Pride and Prejudice
Mark 7:24-30
5/11/08 (Mother’s Day)
PSCOC
Intro: 41/41 cent stamps.
I went into the post office on Friday to mail off some fundraising letters. I needed 41 stamps. So, I asked the cashier for 41 stamps. She thought I had asked if they had 41 cent stamps, which of course, is the price of a 1st class stamp. Well, an amusing exchange followed, because neither of us knew the other was confused. I said, “I need 41 stamps.” She said, “Yes, we have 41 stamps.” I said, “Can I have 41 stamps?” She said, “Yes, we have 41 stamps, how many do you need?” I answered, “41.” She pulls out two sheets of stamps and says, “They come in sheets of twenty.” To which I replied, “Can I have 41 exactly?” She is about to ask me how many again, when I finally figured out what was happening. So, I interrupted and with my best smile said, “I need 41…41 cent stamps!” Success!
We have these glitches in communication and sometimes the stakes are far more serious. Sometimes when Jesus speaks in the Bible, we get the communication all mixed up. He’s supposed to be the nicest guy in the world! So, we have a hard time with the moments in scripture where Jesus calls the Pharisees “brood of vipers” and other such insults. Well, we tell ourselves, “They had it coming!” But our nice guy image of Jesus falls completely apart when we read a story of a desperate mother coming to Jesus for help on behalf of her demon possessed daughter and Jesus turns her away by calling her a dog!
Yeah, we don’t really like to spend much time on that story. But just like me and the lady at the post office we need to stop and make sure we are hearing right. There is a message for every desperate mother out there who has a child in danger and wonders where to turn. There is a message for every one of us who believes we know what it means to seek Jesus in faith. A woman Jesus calls a dog shows us we might not know as much as we think we do. Let’s read.
Trouble in the Text: The Phoenician woman’s race limits her from the grace of Jesus.
Jesus has just finished an intense discussion about what makes a man clean. The Pharisees sought cleanliness in their purity laws through the washing of hands before eating. Jesus tells them it isn’t what goes into the body that makes a man unclean, but rather what comes from his heart. As if to prove he wasn’t afraid to live the point out, he goes from that discussion directly into Gentile territory. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he goes into a Gentile home! This was supposed to automatically make a Jew unclean. Jesus has no regard for their manmade purity laws that bring barriers between people.
Yet Jesus’ action is also very practical. He needs a break and knows that he will not be followed into a Gentile home. So, he is trying to keep his presence in the vicinity of Tyre a secret. Yet the people of Tyre already knew about Jesus. Earlier in Mark there are people that come from Tyre to meet him. Jesus simply cannot go unnoticed no matter how hard he tries. A woman, whose Gentile identity is emphasized seeks Jesus out and throws herself at his feet on behalf of her demon-possessed daughter.
The term “Syrian Phoenicia” describes a people that were considered wealthy and those that looked down their noses at their Galilean poor neighbors. You would expect this woman to come to Jesus with an air of superiority and demand he drop what he is doing and come over to her house and heal her daughter. Our first surprise in this story is that isn’t what she does at all. She prostrates herself in front of Jesus and begs for him to cast a demon out of her daughter.
Now that sounds like a reasonable request from any mother. Demon possession was rough on a child, usually involving violent actions and convulsions. We don’t know how this child came to be possessed, but we take the story as it is. We know Jesus has power over demons and we expect he is going to be eager to help this desperate mother. That’s what a nice guy like Jesus does! That’s where we come to our next surprise!
Not only does Jesus decline to help her, he implies she is a dog! Read v. 27. Now there are a lot of things we wish Jesus wouldn’t have said, and most of them for selfish reasons. Yet on this one we are just downright embarrassed. If we were sitting in the room, we would probably whisper under hushed voices; “Did he say what I think he said?”
What Jesus did say was that the children had not eaten all they wanted. IOW, the ministry of Jesus was primarily to the Jews and he didn’t feel it appropriate for non-Jews to be the beneficiaries of his ministry until after his time on earth. Jesus gives priority to the Jews for they were the chosen people. The reference to dogs is not likely the idea that all Gentiles were dogs as some Jews taught, but rather pictures a scene where children are enjoying the food and the dogs (literally little dogs or puppies) are under the table. You would not take the food from the children’s plate and toss it to the dogs. Jesus is saying that it is not time for his ministry to extend to the Gentiles. Still, a dog is a dog, and we cannot soften what Jesus has said. Jesus came to fulfill a mission and not just be the miracle working nice guy. His comment amounts to a refusal, but as we will see it turns into an opportunity for the woman.
Trouble in our world: Our pride and prejudices threaten to limit us from the grace of Jesus.
When we take offense at this story, it reveals more about us than it does about Jesus. It reveals that we often create a “nice-guy” Jesus who waits upon our next most urgent request. If we ask nicely, then Jesus has to do it. We are not all that different from Josiah. We taught him to ask nicely, and if we tell him no, he says, “but I asked nicely.”
When we approach Jesus we often do so with our pride leading the way. We come with brazen confidence that our nice-guy Jesus is like a genie in a bottle…just rub it and make your three wishes and he is obliged to our service. We don’t want to come before Jesus as we truly are. We don’t want to be vulnerable or risk criticism or a cutting remark he may have for us.
This story reveals our prejudices also. We have no problem with Jesus letting people have it that we think have it coming. The Jews that read this story probably enjoyed it when Jesus implied she was a dog and they were the children of God. Yet, we find we identify with this desperate woman and so we don’t like his response, but we don’t mind if he sticks to those Pharisees and Sadducees. We just don’t want him to stick it to anyone who might be remotely like us.
Who’s it for you? Who do you want to see Jesus stick it to? Immigrants, legal or otherwise? Black, Hispanic, White? Homosexuals and drug addicts. Men or women? Politicians or athletes? Who’s it for you? I imagine it isn’t someone like you and certainly not yourself?
I am telling you this story reveals a lot about our pride and our prejudices. This woman’s access to Jesus is threatened by her pride and prejudices. What will she do now that Jesus has rebuffed her and insulted her? Will she walk away with her pride intact? Will she refuse to believe that Jews had a privileged position in the ministry of Jesus? Her response provides the third surprise of our story. She responds differently than anyone, maybe including Jesus, could have imagined.
Grace in the text: Jesus came to eradicate such barriers in response to humble faith (28-30).
What is expected from a Phoenecian woman, who is likely wealthy being insulted by an itinerant Jewish preacher, is for her to huff and puff and walk out of their indignant or to return the insult to say that the Jews are the dogs. Instead this woman, desperate to help her child and knowing no one can help her but Jesus accepts his designation and turns it for her advantage. She takes Jesus’ analogy and points out that even the puppies underneath the table eat the crumbs that fall to floor as the children dine. IOW, Jesus you don’t have to stop your ministry to the Jews to help me. I just need a crumb of your power and it will not rob the purpose or timing of your ministry.
Now we might be surprised to find someone playing a little give-and-take with Jesus, but there is more going on here than her wit. Jesus has already fed the 5,000 and the disciples didn’t get the meaning. The Pharisees are even more lost than they are. So, here’s a woman described by Jesus as a puppy and Israel described as the children. The irony is the children don’t get who Jesus is and this puppy dog does! Do not think for a moment that this irony would have been lost on Mark’s audience or Jesus himself.
Finally, a fourth surprise. Jesus changes his mind and exorcises the demon. He doesn’t even have to go there, but because of her bold and courageous faith, evidenced in her reply, he does what she came for. And again, her faith is demonstrated that she takes Jesus at his word and finds her daughter free of the demon.
Jesus came to eliminate the barriers that limited all people from the grace of God. Yet what Jesus does not do is allow a person to demand anything from God based on position or status. Jesus humbles the woman and she humbles herself even more. It is audacious faith that allows this woman to press through the barriers to receive the grace of God for her daughter. She accepts the title dog, if it means deliverance for her daughter. There are no more pretenses before Jesus. Just a desperate woman with only one place to turn. When she demonstrates this humble faith he will not turn her away.
Grace in our world: Jesus rewards humble and unpresumptuous faith in him.
Katie is at home today with a very sick child. It is mother’s day and she is at home being a mother. Yesterday, we had a hard time getting Micah’s fever down and his cough had become very painful for him. You know how a child’s tears can break a mom’s heart. So, she gathered him up and took him to someone who could help him, the doctor at urgent care. Earlier in the week, Katie was being Mom again and took Josiah all the way to UCLA for an important eye appointment. There was a problem with the insurance and the usual lady wasn’t there. Through her tears and pleading, Katie would not be turned away. She pressed through until the issue was resolved. What I see in the spirit of this woman in our story today is what I see in the heart of Katie and the heart of most mothers. When their child is in need, they will lay aside their pride and prejudice and go to someone who can help their children. Mothers are not easily turned aside.
Sometimes what ails our children is not something a doctor can fix. Sometimes our children are living dangerous lives. I think of my own mother and the prayers and tears she offered up for my brother during this cocaine days. There was no one else that could help but Jesus and she turned to him again and again, seeking the help only he could give. My brother who is now highly successful in the military and married with a child, and gradually coming back to his faith, would tell you that he knows those prayers are exactly the reason he is alive today.
This story tells us Jesus isn’t interested in just being a nice guy. He’s interested in getting through our pride and prejudice. He’s interesting in seeing the faith in us that claims nothing beyond needing only him. Such a faith will not shrink away when we are corrected by Jesus or put in our place, if we need to be. We simply say, “Yes, Lord, and I still need you.”
This is a story about a desperate mom, but her example is for all of us. Jesus rewards humble and unpresumptuous faith in him. But when we show up thinking Jesus needs to stick it everyone else, but he has to give in to our demands, then we can expect we are not ready for the help of Jesus. When we constantly want to argue with him instead of accepting him on his terms, we are not ready. When we think that we can find our help in other sources and Jesus remains only one egg in the basket among many, then we are not ready for his help.
So, I hope this story of this exemplary mother encourages us all. She would not be turned away and Jesus would not turn away a woman who knew that he was her only help. Whatever our station in our life, that is the greatest news of all!
Invitation: Come to Jesus with your sins.
No doctor can heal you of your sins, except the Great Physician, who is Jesus Christ. Christians need to be reminded of this, but non-Christians must first see that only Jesus can eradicate what ails them the most. If you want to give your life to Jesus, today, we ask that you make it known, as we stand and sing.
