Waiting On Your Faith

Illustration

Mamie Adams always went to a branch post office in her town because the postal employees there were friendly. She went there to buy stamps just before Christmas one year and the lines were particularly long. Someone pointed out that there was no need to wait in line because there was a stamp machine in the lobby. “I know,” said Mamie, ‘but the machine won’t ask me about my arthritis.”

Jesus leaves Capernaum and travels north forty or fifty miles to the borders of Tyre and Sidon which is modern Lebanon.

Although these cities were a part of Syria they were all independent with their own kings, their own money system and their own gods.

This is Gentile country.

It is here that we see a woman coming to Jesus to ask help for her daughter. She asked Jesus to cast a demon out of her daughter. Her language was Greek but she was a Canaanite (mark 7:24).

His answer was that it was not right to take the children’s bread and give it to dogs. The term "dog" was what the Jews called the Gentiles.

They refused to have contact with what they called the unclean Gentile dogs.

It is hard to know for sure why He used this term, but perhaps it was to show his disciples that their attitude toward the Gentiles was wrong. It seems that they were not pleased to have her bothering them (Mt. 15:23).

Her reply was, "I know the children (Jews) are fed first but can’t I (a Gentile) even get the scraps the children throw away?" (V. 28)

1. The Foundation of Great Faith (7:25-26)

The text tells that Jesus not went outside of the region of Galilee but that he went to distinctly Gentile area. After a time of intense ministry with the multi-tudes and the conflict with the religious leadership, Jesus and his disciples seek a place where they might rest for a while away from the demands of the ministry. But even there Jesus could not escape notice.

•The Woman Acted Out of Desperation vv.25-26

“For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet. (26) The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.”

The source of her desperation is her “young daughter” - this is a tender term meaning “my darling little girl.” She says that her daughter had an “unclean spirit” - “unclean” here means unclean in a moral sense. This mother knew that her daughter was demon possessed. Somehow she knew what the problem was.

2. The Cultivation of Great Faith (7:27)

“But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs."

The response of Jesus may at first seem strange and insensitive to us as we read this passage. Typically we find Jesus responding promptly to desperate cries. But here her faith is being tested, not that Jesus might know but in order that this woman might know the power of her faith. She in fact has a series of discour-aging events that will test her resolve.

a) she is discouraged by the Lord’s silence.

b) she is discouraged by the frustration of the Disciples (Matt. 15:23b).

c) she is discouraged by the Lord’s Words (Mk:7:27)

3. The Demonstration of Great Faith (7:28)

“And she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs."

She does not argue against the fact that God may have a certain purpose for a certain group (as he did with the Jews). She readily admitted that she and her people were outsiders - “dogs” and therefore had no claim to a child’s portion. She did not ask that the children be deprived of any part of their rightful portion, but indicated that she confidence that that God’s heart was big enough to include even the most humble of his creatures.

Conclusion :

Keep in mind that Jesus had walked over 100 miles and all that is recorded is this one miracle for an outcast. How is He still doing things like this today? I need to show concern for missionaries who have gone to unpopular parts of the world that I can pray for or send support. Also, I need to think of some unpopular person that perhaps I could witness to this week.