COME AND GO!--MARK 7:24-30
--by R. David Reynolds
I do not know for certain who this Syrophoenician woman was, but somehow I picture her as a single parent with a real problem. Her encounter with Jesus is told here by Mark and by Matthew in Chapter fifteen of his Gospel. The fact that the various translations call her “woman” leads me to believe she may have been a single parent, for the term in the original text could just as easily have been translated “wife,” but as far as I know, none of the translations ever choose that rendition. The difference between using wife or woman always depends on the context. Perhaps her husband remained at home to watch their little girl while she came to Jesus, but perhaps too she was a widow or a single Mom for another reason.
At any rate, I truly admire her faith that brought her to Jesus that day in the region of Tyre. Being a disciple of Jesus is a process of “coming and going;” and, therefore, the title of today’s message is “Come and Go.” In fact, many of the words in Scripture can be translated by either of these words in English.
Forms of the words “come” and “go” appear three times in our text this morning: (1.) Verse 25, “a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet.” (2.) Verse 29, “And He said to her, ‘Because of this answer, go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.’” (3.) Verse 30, “And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having left.” When we are obedient to Jesus, we can bring our greatest need, hurt, and pain to Him and go in peace. How is this woman an example of that truth for us to follow today?
First of all, like each of us, this woman had a hurt. Her “little daughter had and unclean spirit,” a demon. She was possessed by a satanic force. Now the signs of demon possession include: abnormal behavior; speaking in a different voice; sometimes the powers of telepathy and clairvoyance. Oftentimes the possessed person would become violent and out of control.
When Jesus, Peter, James, and John came down from the Mount of Transfiguration in Mark, Chapter nine, they found a father seeking help for his son who was demon possessed; the desperate father cries out in Mark 9:18, “. . . and whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth and stiffens out. I told Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it.” Sometimes demon possession could cause blindness and dumbness.
Many cultures have looked to epilepsy as demon possession, but the Bible never equates epilepsy with demon possession. Indeed the young man’s symptoms in Mark, Chapter nine appear much more violent than epilepsy, an illness whose nature is still not full understood. Is demon possession still a real phenomenon, missionaries especially would say a resounding, “Yes,” but that subject is for another sermon or Bible Study. Suffice it to say, this Mother had a real concern for her daughter, and both of them were hurting.
This Mother had a hurt, but she had also heard about Jesus, the One on Whom Peter invites us all, “Casting all your anxiety on Him, because He care for you (I Peter 5:7).” Having heard of Him, she “immediately came and fell at His feet.” What does it really mean to hear Jesus? Many of us have heard of Him since our days in the Sunday School “Cradle Roll.” We can give you a pretty good idea of Who this Jesus is. Although we have heard about Him, have we really heard Him? In the Old Testament hearing God meant seeking Him by obedient action. One had truly heard God who committed his or her life to Him in total surrender according to Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek me and find Me when you search for me with all your heart.” To hear God in the Old Testament meant seeking and searching for Him with all one’s heart.
In the New Testament hearing Jesus is related to obeying His Word; hearing Jesus means we accept Him for Who He Is, “the One Who has the words of eternal life and is the Holy One of God” as Peter confessed in our text a couple of weeks ago. To hear Jesus is to receive His grace and obey His call to repentance. This Mom “after hearing of Him . . . came and fell at His feet.”
She came in obedience, without delay; she came “immediately.” Coming to Jesus is an individual commitment; it is standing out above the crowd, not following the crowd. In Mark Chapter Five, Jesus asked the crowd who were present when the woman with the issue of blood touched His garment and was healed, “Who touched me.” Mark tells us she made that individual step of coming to Jesus, she stepped out of the crowd: “But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell before Him and told Him the whole truth (Mark 5:33).” This is the same step of faith this Mother took when she came to Jesus. When we truly hear Jesus, we come to Him with our burden, our hurt, our pain, and our need.
This hurting Mother next humbled herself in prayer. First, she fell at His feet. In Scripture to “Fall at the feet of someone” means that you place yourself into that person’s care and charge. When she fell at the feet of Jesus, this was a true act of homage and reverence, “falling at the feet of Jesus” is literally a picture of kneeling in humble prayer. It was a testimony, “Lord, I’m helpless, but You are all powerful, there is nothing You can not do. Please help my little girl.”
The humility of this Mom is also seen in verse 26, “And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.” The King James says, “She besought Him.” To keep asking or beseeching Jesus means to ask Him earnestly; it suggests real fervor and passion in the asking and implies anxiety over the outcome.” This Mother was anxious for her child; Jesus was the One who could relieve her anxiety. Her beseeching spirit at His feet was true humility.
Almost humiliated, she did not loose her faith. Now on the surface it would appear that Jesus prejudice and discriminated against this Gentile woman. At appears He calls her and her daughter “dogs.” If that isn’t an insult and humiliation, what is it? In New Testament times this was the attitude of your average Jew toward the Gentile nations, everyone who was not a Jew. It was the epitome racial prejudice. The great Roman historian Tacitus (“tas’-i-tus”) in his HISTORIES describes the typical Jewish attitude, “They regard the rest of mankind with all the hatred of enemies.” The typical Jew of Jesus day looked upon Gentiles disparagingly as “despicable street dogs.”
But the word Jesus uses for dogs is not the degrading one for “despicable street dogs.” Both Jesus and the woman use the term meaning, “little dog, puppy,” and it is found only here and in the parallel passage of Matthew, chapter fifteen. This is a term for a beloved family pet. Still these words seem harsh coming from Jesus: “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs (Mark 7:27).” Matthew adds these words to His account: “But He (Jesus) answered and said, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’” The key to understanding is sequence. Jesus came to be the Saviour of the World, for whosoever will; but He offered Himself first to His own nation, the Jews. After Calvary, the Resurrection, and Pentecost, the Gospel of Jesus went into all the world: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth (Acts 1:8).” Paul is on the same wave length with Jesus when he says in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
The hurting Mother’s faith is never daunted. She replies, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs, the family pets, under the table feed on the children’s crumbs (verse 28).” She understands Jesus and Paul’s plan for spreading the Gospel, “To the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” Her faith has not wavered; she is still humble; she testifies that even a small crumb from under the table will be sufficient to meet her daughter’s need, and Jesus honors her faith, “Because of this answer, go; the demon has gone out of your daughter (verse 29).”
There is nothing left for Mom to do but to heed the commandment of Jesus. On hearing of Jesus, she had come to Him immediately; she continues to obey the Master without question by “Going back to her home.” Jesus tells her to “go back home,” and she does just that. From start to finish, she has walked the pathway of obedience, and she receives grace. In verse 29 Jesus assured her, “The demon has gone out of your daughter,” and verse 30 takes up on that, “. . . she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having left.” Again the original text does justice to this miracle to a greater extent than does our English translation. The words of Jesus in verse 29, “has gone out” and the affirmation in verse 30, “the demon having left” are in the same tense in the Greek. The meaning is that “a process that took place in the past has results that continue in the present.” In other words, the instant that Jesus spoke His words, the child was healed; and her Mother found that it was so when she returned home. The healing by Jesus was a lasting healing.
The Greek word that Jesus uses in verse 29 for “Go” also affirms the woman’s obedience and faith. You notice He commands her to “”go” before He grants her request. The request is granted in His words, “. . . the demon has gone out of your daughter.” In commanding the woman to “Go” before He granted her request, Jesus was telling Mom that her daughter’s cure depended on her trusting His Word. Her trip home was her testimony that did indeed trust His Word.
The same holds true for us today. Jesus cares deeply for each one of us. He will not leave us alone to bear our pain, our burden, our sorrow, your hurt. His grace is sufficient to meet every need, but you and I must trust His Word.
Come to Jesus and to His Table today. Bring all your hurt, all your burdens, all your pain. “Cast all your anxiety on Him, for He cares for you, and trust in His Word.” He does care for you, and He will never let you down.
