2024-09-08 - Covenant CRC - Sermon Only - Joel Kok

Mark 7:24ff

 Transcript

So our gospel reading this morning, which is being read all over the world, is from the gospel of Mark chapter 7.

We read from Mark 7 last Sunday as well, and now we'll pick it up at verse 24. So you may remember that last Sunday, Jesus was working in Galilee, but also signaling that he's going to be heading into, uh, dealing with Gentiles with non Jews. So when it says that Jesus left that place, it means he's living in a predominantly Jewish place in Galilee.

He's going to a predominantly Gentile place, and, um, with that kind of thing in mind, we can begin the reading at Mark 7, verse 24, and read through the end of the chapter. Here are God's words. Jesus left that place, Galilee, and went into the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it, yet he could not keep his presence secret.

In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. That woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. First, let the children eat all they want, he told her. For it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs.

Yes, Lord, she replied, but even the dogs under the table, eat the children's crumbs. Then he told her for such a reply, you may go. The demon has left your daughter. She went home and found her child lying on the bed. And the demon gone. Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through sight down to the sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis there.

Some people brought him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk. And they begged him to place his hand on the man. After he took him aside away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears and he spit. and touched the man's tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, if a Father, which means be opened at this, the man's ears were opened.

His tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone, but the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. People were overwhelmed with amazement. He has done everything well, they said. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God. Well friends, I think you would agree with the crowd when they say that Jesus does everything well. And as we hear that description of Jesus in our reading, we can add in our worship that Jesus not only does everything well, Jesus does more than we can ask or imagine. And you may recognize here that when we speak of Jesus doing more than we can ask or imagine, we're connecting our gospel reading.

Paul's epistle to the Ephesians. And we're going to make a few more connections along those lines a little bit later in this message, but to begin with, trying to hear our Lord through his words today, to begin to try to understand our savior doing more than we can ask or imagine, we can begin with this question.

How would you feel if our loving savior, Paul, Pretty much called you a dog. Would that make you feel loved? And of course we ask that question because that comes out of our gospel reading. As our Savior is doing everything well as he's doing more than we can ask or imagine, it's a little bit perplexing, it certainly is for me anyway, that when this woman, this woman who is a mother whose daughter is suffering from affliction from evil spirits when she prays, falls at Jesus feet, even begs him for his healing power. Jesus responds in a perplexing way. He says, well, first let the children have all they eat all they want, because it's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. And in that That word picture and that it's almost like a parable.

That woman, that mother knows that she is in effect one of the dogs. And even if we've heard that passage countless times, we can still wonder what is our loving savior saying and doing here by describing this woman and her daughter as dogs. Well, at this point, we can observe that various Bible teachers have offered various explanations, and probably all of them are having at least some insight into what Jesus is doing here.

We know that he is not wanting to simply insult this woman. Some say that Jesus here, when he uses the word dogs, he's using a special particular word. Word for dogs that everyone would have heard not as an insult, but as a gentle word and others imagine. Well, Jesus must have been smiling when he said this saying about dogs.

He must have been signaling with his body language that again, he wasn't insulting. He was maybe just joking in a humorous, gentle way. And yet these are still difficult words. And so other teachers, and this is where I find most helpful, other teachers emphasize that even when Jesus speaks sharp words, he does so with a saving purpose.

And I think we see that saving purpose in Jesus sharp words about dogs to this woman. Because we can observe that when this woman hears our loving Savior. talk about dogs. She doesn't, so to speak, run away. She doesn't run away with her tail between her legs. Instead, she just prays all the more. She's gotten some kind of signal from Jesus that she can keep praying.

And so she takes Jesus words and she brings those words back to Jesus, which is a way we learn to pray in the Psalms. What she does is takes that word about dogs And she brings that word back to Jesus. She enters into what we call the story of Jesus so that her story can receive the help that she needs.

And as she brings Jesus words back to Jesus, as she enters into Jesus story and prays, well, even the dogs can eat the bread under, the crumbs under the table. How does Jesus respond to that prayer? Well, that's where we see his saving purpose even more explicitly, because Jesus is able to announce to this passionate mother that the demon has gone out of her daughter.

And now when she hears those words from Jesus, now she does not run away. She goes back to her daughter and she experiences the gospel truth. The saving power that comes from Jesus words, because when she gets back to her home, she finds the demon is gone and her daughter is, in the words of the Lord's Prayer, her daughter has been delivered from the evil one and she is entering into the story of Jesus, which ultimately is a saving story about peace.

So that's a little bit about how we can deal with that specific word, dogs. We could look at many other theories, but one truth we can take away just in our worship service this morning is again to realize that when Jesus speaks sharp words, when Jesus says and does things that can perplex us, that we don't quite understand what he's saying or doing, what Jesus is doing in those situations is, he is.

strengthening us. Some people say he's testing us here. He's training us to keep wrestling with his words, to keep following him, even when we don't know exactly what's going on, because that's how he's going to strengthen our faith and expand our obedience. And I think that is a gospel truth. We can take away that as we realize is Jesus does everything well as he does more than we can ask or imagine.

Thank you. We're going to need to wrestle with his words. We're going to need to follow him even when we're not sure what is going on, because that's how he's going to deepen our faith and expand our obedience and to get a little bit more of that transforming, saving power from the words of Jesus and from his words in the scriptures, we can move on to another word so we can move from the word dogs and now we can go to the word.

sigh, as in Jesus sigh deeply as he looks up to heaven and prays for the man who is deaf and can hardly talk. Now, what we can notice right away here, what we mentioned earlier, is that as Jesus leads us into that second part of our gospel reading for this morning, Jesus is leading us further into his dealing with.

Gentiles, that place called Decapolis, that would have been a place of 10 cities that was mostly a Gentile type setting. And so as Jesus goes into that setting, what he clearly wants, both what is said explicitly in the first part and what we can get from the second part, he wants to be able to be by himself or have private time.

with his disciples. He doesn't want crowds all coming to him, but they keep coming to him. And what seems to be going on here is Jesus. Well, first of all, he's as fully human as we are. So he could certainly use some rest sometime from people always wanting his help. But Jesus also, and we're going to see this a little bit later, he's wanting to teach his disciples.

personal disciples there in a pretty specific way. And this all relates to, as Jesus goes out to Gentiles, as he does all these different things, Jesus is bringing the kingdom. Jesus is bringing, bringing being the Christ in a way that people don't understand. And a lot of people are going to reject. And so Jesus does need some time away from the crowds.

He does need some personal time. And yet in this gospel scene. We see Jesus so compassionate that he does reach out to heal, as requested, this deaf man who can hardly speak. And here again, it's kind of interesting that Jesus does things that we wouldn't necessarily predict that he would do. Like, uh, if we knew Jesus was going to heal someone, would we predict that he would put his fingers in the man's ears?

Would we predict that he's going to spit? That he's going to use his saliva to bring healing into this man's life. So again, Jesus is doing everything well, but in a way that goes beyond what we can fully understand. And I think we can even feel that way when we read that when Jesus looks up to heaven, and when he knows his Father and he have a power to do anything they want to do, Why does Jesus sigh?

Why does Jesus offer what can also be translated as a deep groan as he looks to heaven to share in the saving power that he shares with his father? Well, we can think about that and we can just observe that the gospel writer Mark tells us that when Jesus looks up to heaven and groans, he's In a very Gentile place, we don't know for sure about this man who's deaf and mute, but he could be a Gentile, who knows, but in either case, Jesus speaks Aramaic.

Jesus says a word that I'll mispronounce, because I don't know Aramaic, but, He's saying, be open. And with that particular language, the Aramaic language that he shares with his fellow Jews, Jesus is sending a signal. That's what miracles are. They are signs. They are signals of Jesus bringing a whole new world.

And so he's signaling, I'm going to bring healing power to the Gentiles. I'm going to bring healing power to all the nations of the earth. I'm starting first with my fellow Jews, the lost sheep of the children of Israel, the children who need the bread, the children of Abraham, but I'm also going to expand.

That kind of thing. And we get that double truth when he speaks Aramaic as a devout practicing Jew. And when he does it in a way that continues to expand the family of God, the family of faith, to bring people from all kinds of different backgrounds. And that is related to the truth that we hear the word grown in this setting.

Amen. Because Jesus groans, even as, again, he knows he has healing power with his father, he groans. And when we read about Jesus groaning, I think what our Lord would want us to do there is think about that word, too. What comes to your mind when you hear the word groan? And specifically, what comes to your mind biblically when you hear about groan and pain?

And maybe your mind goes to Paul's epistle to the Romans in chapter 8. Which I think is a connection our Lord wants us to make. Because when we go to the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 8, as Paul is describing our Lord in a way of suffering love, bringing a glorious salvation in all kinds of ways, what Paul recognizes is that as Jesus brings that kingdom, there's still lots of other kingdoms and forces working against it.

And so what Paul says there is, you know what's going on? As Jesus brings a whole new creation. The whole creation as it is, is groaning, as in the pains of childbirth. Because it is not easy or automatic to bring this world into this broken world. So there is the groaning of a whole creation, as in a time of childbirth.

And then Paul asks, and you know who else groans? We do. Believers in Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit. And so what do we do? We come alongside all their creatures. And we groan. And now we know that creation is groaning as in the birth of a child as a whole new creation is coming. And Paul goes on to say we're groaning because there's a process of adoption that can be painful and complicated.

There's a process towards maturity that can include all kinds of pain and suffering. So all creation is groaning. We are groaning. Do you remember from Romans eight who else is groaning? The Holy Spirit is groaning. Paul says. As we pray. And sometimes we don't know what to pray because things are so complicated.

Things are so painful. How is the kingdom coming amid all the chaos that's going on? What's going on here? Well, the Holy spirit prays with us. And Paul says the Holy spirit prays with groans, with size. It's the same word in Greek size and groans that are too deep for words. And so that is what Jesus is pointing to.

That is what we are participating in. When we hear this gospel story of Jesus growing and when we come alongside Jesus to follow him in a way of life, a way of discipleship that includes groaning. And again, this is going to happen. It does happen to Jesus. It happens to his people because as we seek to bring God's new world into a broken world, there is going to be resistance, and that is going to include then some groaning.

And still, amid that, again, Jesus is doing more than we can ask or imagine. And that, again, to go to this theme in Mark, as we saw last Sunday in our reading from the first half of Mark 7. Jesus, in an unexpected way, declares all food to be clean, even though in Leviticus it says that a lot of words are unclean.

Jesus fulfills that by making all food clean so that he can work with all people to make all people clean and holy. So already in Mark 7, Mark 7, he's doing more than we can ask or imagine by making all food so that he can make all people clean. And then in Mark 8, uh, which is gonna be next Sunday evening, we're gonna look at this.

Jesus, again, is gonna be doing all this in a way that people don't expect, in a way that goes beyond what they can ask or imagine. Because in Mark chapter 8, Jesus, who is groaning here, he's going to have some time to talk privately to his disciples. And he's going to lead them. He's going to inspire them to confess that you are the Christ.

You're the anointed King. You're the Messiah we've been waiting for to make everything right. And what does Jesus say to them? You're right on the Christ. And here's the kind of Christ Messiah I am. I'm going to be handed over in Jerusalem. I'm going to be killed. I'm going to be crucified. And after that, after that suffering, that's when I'm going to rise from the dead.

Jesus says, in effect. But Peter and the other disciples, they can't hear the good news about the resurrection. They are just stunned by the sight of Christ getting crucified. Peter takes him aside and says, No, Lord, no. And that's when Jesus has to rebuke Peter. And he speaks some pretty sharp words. He says, Get behind me, Satan.

And he says that to the whole group of disciples there because he wants all disciples to know That we don't fully understand. We can get things seriously wrong. Our thoughts are not the same as God's thoughts. That's what he says to Peter and the other disciples. You're thinking in an all too human and worldly way.

You need to learn to think in godly ways. And that is what Jesus is doing with us. When he knows that we're groaning. When we read about Him groaning, when we join the Holy Spirit in groaning, Jesus is saying, I'm the kind of Christ, the kind of King, who brings this new world in the way of the cross, the way of suffering love.

And as you follow me, that will include groaning. But you know where it's going to lead? It is going to lead to glory. Because as you follow me in that way of suffering love, the suffering is going to be overcome. The love will ever expand. And that's the kind of glory to which I'm leading you, Jesus says, when you follow me in a way of life, in a way of praying, that includes groaning.

So, those are a couple words then that we've looked at. The dogs, a sharp word that can help us grow in faith and obedience. The groaning, which means that we're following Jesus in the way of suffering love that leads to glory. And so by way of conclusion, we can just go back to the crowd at the end of our reading saying, He does everything well, and they're right about that.

But again, they're so limited in what they understand because he has asked them to keep his messianic secret to know that he doesn't want to go to the cross too soon. You know, they're disobeying him by talking in that way. And they're understanding only in part because as they say, he's doing everything well.

They say he can heal a man who is deaf and a man who is mute. And of course that's true, but there is so much more. That Jesus means by healing, which leads to holiness, which leads to a whole new creation. And that's what Jesus wants the crowd to learn. That's what Jesus wants the disciples to learn.

That's what Jesus wants us to learn and to explore and to practice in our worship service this morning. Jesus wants us to know that as the Apostle Paul says, We know things only in part. That's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, where he's describing love in that beautiful way. He says, well, we can know it's wonderful, but we know we understand that we understand Jesus.

We understand things only in part. And so to grow, we can keep thinking about words like dogs and other sharp words. We can think praying, we keep praying in a way that includes groaning. And even though we won't groan literally. We're going to experience and participate that right now as we join in a prayer that will be built around the words that we've been hearing from our Lord today.

So let's join in that prayer now.

Lord Jesus, we praise and thank you as the Savior who does all things well. And Lord, as we praise and thank you, we also confess. That is, you do all things. Well, you do more than we can ask or even imagine. And so we have so much more to learn in order to follow you and obey you with a strong, obedient faith.

And so, Lord, we pray that we can experience and express your saving purpose Even in perplexing words like dogs, we pray that we can grow in faith and obedience by wrestling with words like that until they lead us into the blessing that you want to give us. And Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, Father in heaven and Holy Spirit, we thank you that even as we sigh and groan with feelings that are too deep for words, we thank you that we can trust.

That you are leading us in the way of the cross that leads to glory. We thank you that we can trust the work with us in all things for good and even for a salvation beyond again what we can ask or imagine. And so try in God as we ponder the kind of spiritual powers of evil that we see in your gospel reading and how those powers are still at work around us.

We pray for your true strength As we ponder countless ways in which we need your healing holiness, as we see in the man who was deaf and could hardly talk, we too need your feeling in all kinds of ways. So we thank you for revealing to us that we can participate in your healing holiness and in your story of salvation.

And so mighty, merciful, and mysterious God, we offer this prayer with both thanksgiving and trust. Because we offer this prayer in the name of a Christ who was crucified so that he could defeat death and the devil and raise us into new life and glory. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.