These are the Sermon Notes for May 24, 2020. Watch our livestream service every Sunday at 9:37 am on our facebook page or watch the livestream recordings any time.
Mark 7:24-30 The Faith of Little Pet Puppies
Good morning! I ‘d like to say, welcome back, to all of those who are brave enough to return after the beating we all took in last week’s sermon!
We are returning once again to the Gospel of Mark, chapter seven, verses twenty four through thirty.
To some it may seem as if Mark had turned the page and changed the subject in his Gospel account here in our text, but that isn’t really the case. Jesus didn’t move on from this teaching about what defiles, or doesn’t defile a person.
In this chapter Jesus has shown us that it is not the keeping or breaking of tradition that defiles a person or makes them clean, it is not what a person eats or avoids eating that make a person clean or unclean, and now, in this morning’s text, He shows that it is not a person’s race that makes them clean or unclean.
This is a very important text for us to consider this morning and there is a lot for us to learn here from Jesus, from the Gentile woman, and about the expansion of the Gospel. So let’s read the text together.
24 And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. 25 But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29 And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone. Let’s pray.
Jesus and the disciples had been near Capernaum in Galilee previous to this account and now traveled to the Northwestern border of the District of Galilee. The cities of Tyre and Sidon were Gentile cities on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, today this is Lebanon. In going to this region Jesus hoped to avoid the crowds and be able to teach His disciples, and on its face, this account shows, once again, that Jesus could never be hidden, people always found Him and brought their troubles to Him. But that isn’t to say that He wasn’t able to teach His disciples. This account teaches a great deal and we would do well not to miss it.
So what do we know about this woman? She was a Gentile, Matthew calls her a Canaanite, and she was. She was born in Phoenicia which was in the province of Syria, and she had a little daughter that was possessed by a demon.
In Matthew’s account of this event it shows how she initially tried to play by the Jewish rules in order to get Jesus to meet her need. Matthew 15:22-24 says,
22 And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” 23 But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
She calls Jesus, “Lord, Son of David.” This is the Jewish reference to the Messiah. But Jesus did not answer her a word, He kept silent. The disciples tried to get Jesus to grant her request so she would go away but He said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
It was only after she dropped the pretense and simply said, in Matthew 15:25 “Lord, help me,” that Jesus responded.
Mark skipped those details but we don’t have to, I think that they’re very important.
What’s also important is that this was the first act of salvation in the Gentile world, this was a prophetic and symbolic representation of the future progress of the gospel from Jews to Gentiles. Those of us that are not descendants of Abraham can have saving faith in Jesus Christ and it started right here!
Now all through this chapter of Mark we have been dealing with cleanness and uncleanness, uncleanness due to the lack of following traditions and washing your hands correctly, uncleanness due to eating the wrong kinds of food and drink, but as we saw last week, defilement comes from within a person, not from without. Jesus goes to the region of Tyre and Sidon to continue to teach this point to His disciples and to you and me.
The Jews taught that uncleanness came from breaking tradition, from touching the wrong thing, from eating the wrong thing, and from being born of the wrong people. The Jews were not allowed to interact with Gentiles, they couldn’t eat a meal with them, they weren’t even allowed to go into their homes or use a dish that a Gentile had used without being considered ceremonially unclean and disqualified from worship until they were ritually washed.
But Jesus shows us here that a person’s race has nothing to do with whether or not that they could come to Him in faith, sin remains condemned but faith is available to all.
Now, I don’t know if this lady was trying to trick Jesus into thinking that she was Jewish by referring to Him as the Son of David, but I do know that Jesus knew that she wasn’t and He made that pretty clear in Matthew.
So she dropped the pretense and humbly said, “Lord, help me.”
This woman crossed the lines of race and social stigma and looked with longing to the Savior. She begged Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
Jesus’ response at first looks pretty harsh but it did offer a glimmer of hope.
27 And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
Yikes!
Some of the Jews, in their pride, referred to all Gentiles as dogs, but not the same type of dog that Jesus meant here. Jesus used the diminutive form of the word to mean more like little pet puppies, not dirty, scavenging street dogs that are common in Palestine even today.
Let the children be fed first, for it’s not right to take your children’s bread and throw it to your puppy.
So where is the kernel of hope? Let the children be fed first, meaning, the pets will get their chance later.
Notice how the woman responds. She doesn’t say, “How could a loving God allow bad things to happen to my daughter? God is love, now give me what I want!” These are demands of pride, demands we hear far too often today.
Instead she responds in humility.
27 And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
1 Peter 5:5 says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” And that’s exactly what is happening here. The woman recognized that she wasn’t owed anything, another lesson we all could learn, She didn’t want the children’s meal, she didn’t want the children’s bread, she only wanted a crumb of God’s grace to heal her daughter.
She looked longingly to the Savior, she waited in humility for help, she persisted though she recognized that she was owed nothing, and when Jesus granted her request she held fast to that hope with confidence.
29 And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.
Notice that she had no evidence that Jesus had done what He said. This was one of two miracles performed by Jesus from a distance. She left with no evidence that her daughter had been healed, just hope. But her hope was not just a wish, she held fast in confidence that Jesus did what he said He did.
She didn’t leave there saying, “I hope He really healed my daughter.” That’s not hope, that’s wishful thinking. She left with a confident expectation that Jesus did what he said he would do. That’s what hope is. 30 And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.
I’ve said before that what is recorded in Scripture is strategic and is put there on purpose, it’s not just a collection of random stories. So why did Mark record this account?
First of all, this account was the glimmer of hope that salvation through faith in Jesus Christ would not be for the Jews only but for the whole world, Gentiles included.
Secondly, this account shows just exactly how people should come to Christ for salvation and help in times of trouble.
Like this Syrophoenician woman, we should look with longing to the Savior, bringing to Him our needs, whether it’s for forgiveness and salvation, or for help in times of trial and trouble.
We should come to Him humbly and persevere in our prayers recognizing that we are not owed anything but are totally dependent on His grace.
And we should hold fast our hope with firm confidence in Jesus, not that we will always get what we ask for, but that He will always do as He said.
I hope this has been an encouragement to you today, and if there is anyone watching that hasn’t put their trust in Jesus that you would come to Him just like this woman did, humbly, confessing your sin to Him, confessing your need for forgiveness, and accepting His death on the cross was for you.
Let’s pray.
