In Jesus Holy Name September 2, 2018
Text Mark 7:24,34 Pentecost 15
“Watch Jesus Poke the Bear”
Last Sunday we did a little experiment with “hand washing”. I you missed last week the Gospel of Mark was telling us why Jesus was challenging the “traditions” of the Pharisees, and thus the Jewish religion. One of the major concerns of the Jewish religion was ritual cleanliness. Over the centuries the Jewish religion developed a number of rules designed to help people worship a holy God. These extra rules were meant to help people keep the Ten Commandments. (they were concerned about how to keep the Sabbath day holy.)
For example: When the Jerusalem temple was built, before the first stone was laid on the temple mount, great crowds gathered, on their hands and knees to pick up any tiny piece of litter, rock, anything that would make the site unholy for God’s new temple. Then when the temple was built most every entrance had a small pool of water running so that you would not enter the temple with defiled shoes or dirty feet.
Today some people will take their shoes off went entering a house as a sign of respect for the owner. Some service companies will require their employee when entering a house to put on some kind of covering over the shoe so as not to carry dirt from the out side into the customers home. So maybe the practice of what the Jews were trying to accomplish when approaching God’s temple is not so unfamiliar.
Their rules eventually lead them to make lists of people with whom you could and could not associate. Jesus challenged their extra rules and traditions because they were 1) replacing God’s commandments with manmade rules 2) Eventually they believed that keeping the rules earned them a blessing from God, even heaven. 3) The Jews were trying to pigeonhole Jesus into their box of rules, & traditions. They were amazed at His miracles but wanted Him to be a geographical King of Israel and kick out the Romans.
When the smart, Jewish educated lawyer, an expert in the Old Testament laws came to Jesus he asked: “What must I do to have eternal life?” Jesus asked him… “How then do you read the bible?” He answered: “To love the lord our God with all our heart soul and mind, and love your neighbor as your self.” Jesus you have answered correctly. “Do this and you will live.” In other words, your life will find spiritual peace. You will find fulfillment as you love God and your neighbor. But that did not answer his question about eternal life.
The problem for the Jewish lawyer was “who is my neighbor?” The Jewish religion of the 1st century not only had rules about ritual purity, it was also a very racially segregated theology and society. Let’s be honest. 1st century Judaism was racially prejudice. That’s why Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan who showed mercy.
You and I know that eternal life is a gift of God through faith in Jesus Christ. You and know why Jesus’ was born in Bethlehem. You and I know that it was God’s plan to come to His created earth and restore the lost friendship and love He had with human beings before Adam and Eve got suckered into believing the words of a fake god. The Apostle Paul wrote: “We have peace with God by faith in Jesus Christ.”
In the 1st century both the Pharisees and the crowds tried to pigeonhole Jesus. Sociologist and marketers have pigeonholed you. Depending on your birth year you have been pigeonholed as being part of a “generation.” For example, those born from 1901 to 1924 are part of the GI Generation. After that there is the Silent Generation, The Baby Boomers (that’s me); The Generation Xers; the Millennials and the Generation Z, also known as the iGeneration.
Jesus, God’s Son and our Savior, has also been pigeonholed. Already in His lifetime, He was being pigeonholed. If you need some examples, all you need to do is turn in your Bible to watch the Pharisees and crowds who knew Jesus healed thousands of people. He fed thousands with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread. The crowd was elated. (the pigeonhole theme is from Rev. Ken Klaas)
Before this, they had already heard Him speak as no man had ever spoken. They watched Him heal the sick and deliver those who were possessed. They had waited to see what He would do next. They pigeonholed Him as the Prophet Moses had promised would come. In Deuteronomy 18 Moses had said, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers it is to him you shall listen.”
They had been listening to this new pigeonholed prophet and they wanted to make Him king. “He must be our King,” they said. “We will demand He lead us
as our King.” And why not? If you or I ever encountered an individual who could wipe out hunger by blessing a few loaves and fish, we would make him president for life. If we ever met someone wo, without costly medicine or risky surgery could heal every illness known to humankind and bring back to life our loved ones who have died, well, that person could ask whatever he wanted of us, and we would gladly give it to him. Of course we would never want that person to leave us.
Jesus refused to stay put in that pigeonhole. The crowd couldn’t have known it, but the truth of the matter is, Jesus can never be confined by human kind’s boxes. They are too small, too confining and most of the time, just plain wrong. You see, Jesus did not come into this world to be a political or military leader. He had not been born so He could provide every physical convenience people could imagine and deliver every time saving device they could dream up.
It is no different in our own day and age. All around us are people, who, like that ancient crowd, believe they can pigeonhole the Savior and force Him to provide an on demand miracle, unlimited financial bail outs, and a bottomless barrel of stuff. They will some day find that the Lord, not their desires, is in control and they will be disappointed. Not because Jesus has let them down, but because they tried to pigeonhole the Savior and put Him in a very small box.
You see, as God’s sinless son, and Mary’s Child, Jesus was born in Bethlehem to carry our sins to the cross and destroy Satan’s ability to accuse us of breaking God’s rules. Faith in Christ provides forgiveness, and that forgiveness means we have eternal security about our final destination, when our brain waves cease on this earth. No longer are we out siders looking for heaven; no longer are we destined for an eternity in Hell. With Jesus as our Savior, we are saved. With Jesus as our Savior we can be at peace; we can be filled with hope; we can live in happiness.
Yes, you and I know that Jesus was later betrayed by one of his disciples. You and I know that Jesus was arrested. He was put on trial before the Roman Governor. Crucified on the cross with two other criminals. You and I also know that two of his friends Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea took his bruised, battered and dead body down of the cross. They hurriedly wrapped his body in linen and placed his body in a a very small box with a big stone rolled across the entrance and guarded by Roman Soldiers. We know what happened to that box. It could not contain His resurrected body. By the power of the Holy Spirit Jesus was raised from death and grave. He is now seated at the right hand of our Creator. We look forward to His return. That small box in Joseph’s Garden could not hold Him. Nor will any 6 foot concrete box, or small brass urn contain your body when Jesus returns.
I’m sure you are familiar with the phrase: “Don’t poke the bear”? It is a phrase that is used of you don’t want something bad to happen to you.
Suppose you are hiking in Yellowstone or Glacier National Park. As you are hiking along you see a grizzly bear off to the side eating berries. Would you go over with your walking stick and poke the bear? Of course not! That would be foolish. If you poke a grizzly bear, who can out run a horse; who when standing up can be more than ten feet tall…. You’ve got a problem. If you poke that bear it might just claim your life.
Well, Jesus is poking the Jewish Bear. It will cost Him his life. Watch how he pokes the Jewish Bear.
Jesus has already called the Pharisees hypocrites who have fake worship. Jesus knows that the Jewish religion is racially prejudice. You simply did not associate with other races. It is another “box” that was very important to the Uppity Jewish Pharisees and their religion. Association boxes. Who you could talk too, associate with or not. The Jews always accused Jesus of bad associations, Samaritans, Tax Collectors like Zacchaeus.
God is not prejudice, nor can those who claim to be followers of Jesus be prejudice.
Watch Jesus poke the Bear. (Read Mark 7:24ff) What is Jesus doing in Non Jewish territory? Why is he going into a non Jewish house in non Jewish territory. A true Jewish Rabbi would never do that. (see Acts 10:27-28) Then on top of that: “A Canaanite woman came to Jesus crying out; “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on my daughter…” Jesus did not answer a word… She did not stop pleading. “Lord don’t you care?”
His silence did not intimidate her. She perceived what very few people have the faith to perceive that the silence of God does not mean the indifference of God. This woman did not lose heart in the face of silence.
In fact, He ignored her for so long the disciples thought they had finally received His blessing to get rid of her. That’s why they encouraged Jesus: “Lord, send her away, for she is crying out after us.” Jesus did act, but not in the way the disciples had hoped, or you might expect. The Disciples thought Jesus was going to shoo her away like He might a bothersome fly.
Jesus said: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” She knelt before him right in his path. Pleading “Lord help me.” “Don’t you care.” He could have walked around her. He could have asked the burley fisherman to move her out of his way.
Jesus said: “it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” Maybe Jesus had a smile on his face…. I don’t know…Maybe the woman could see his eyes …that he was not meaning to be offensive. As William Barclay has noted, “The tone and the look with which a thing is said makes all the difference. Even a thing which seems hard can be said with a disarming smile. We can call a friend…. “a rascal” with a smile and a tone which takes all the sting out of it, which then fills the word with affection. We can be quite sure that the smile on Jesus’ face and the compassion in his eyes, robbed the words of all insult and bitterness.”
She in turn said: “Yes, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Touché! You weren’t going to dismiss this worried mother with a casual off handed remark. She knew who she was. She might be a Canaanite… She might be a woman… but she had a place in the world. She had rights as a child of God. And besides, she knew she was in the presence of the messiah. If she knew anything at all about the arrival of the long expected Messiah, as prophesied by the Jews, she knew it would usher in an age of peace and justice and acceptance. If Jesus was who He said He was, He could not turn her away, for God is not prejudice. It would be unjust. And of course, He didn’t. Jesus told
Her: “Woman you have great faith! God your request is granted.”: And her daughter was healed at the moment.
Why is Jesus poking the Jewish Bear? He knows it will cost Him his life.
Mark later writes: The chief priests and teachers of the law heard these things, saw these miracles, and began looking for a way to kill Him.
Jesus knew His destiny. Jesus knew why He had come to earth. His purpose was to live an absolute “holy” life, without blemish, and carry our broken commandments to the cross and leave them there. Then in the moment of our belief in Him as Savior God the Creator transfers to each believer the righteousness of Jesus and the sins of the sinner to Jesus on the cross.
Jesus knew that the “stone box” could not hold his resurrected body, nor will it hold the bodies of all who place their trust in Him.
