Humbled by the Healer

Find Mark 7. Our text today is one that shows us the scene of Jesus telling a sort of parable. As a pastor, this is not a passage that you look forward to preaching because it is a very unique text that can be very hard to understand. But we are going to dive in and use cultural context to understand what is going on. And we are going to take it and apply it to our lives today.

Mark 7:24–30 ESV

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.

Introduction

Yesterday morning, I went to my go to spot to get some food and some coffee. And I was disturbed by a shirt that a lady was wearing that I saw from a distance. Her shirt said, “No desire to be humble”. This really took me back. But then I got to thinking how true this is for the world we live in. Our world is made up of people who have no desire for humility. And this includes many people who would call themselves Christians.

If you read scripture though, you find that true Christianity requires humility. We must all humble ourselves before God. We must all bow at the feet of Jesus. We must all fall down in worship before God.

The goal of Immanuel Baptist is to build the kingdom and impact our community. The main requirement for this to be able to happen is humility. Arrogance and pride will never help us to build the kingdom. Arrogance and pride will never help us to impact our community. Humility is the way for this to work

Main Point - Humility is required in the Kingdom of God

In scripture, we have a call to be humble. This passage displays for us the humility of a woman who is in need who approaches Jesus. As we will see, she clearly has no place to be standing before him, yet, she is bold enough to do so because she has humbled herself to him.

We are going to go through this passage and I am going to have 4 very practical points for us to help us to grow in our humility.

Be Humbled in our Actions

Our actions towards Christ is reflective of our heart towards Christ. In our passage, this woman seeks out Jesus because she is desperate to help her daughter. We will see just how desperate she is. But desperation is not the only reason to seek Jesus. We should be drawn to Jesus in all situations. Good or bad.

Often, it takes people going through a rough situation for them to even acknowledge God, must less seek out God. Maybe it is the loss of a loved one, or a job, or a marriage. These things are on the extreme end of reasons to seek out God. We should seek him out on a daily basis. As people who claim to serve Jesus as Lord, he should be our lord 24/7, 365. Not just in times of crisis.

In our passage, we have this woman here who seeks out Jesus. Her daughter needs healing. So let’s dive in.

Mark 7:24 ESV

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.

Our setting has now changed. We go from the region at Gennesaret to the region of Tyre and Sidon. So this is about another 40-50 miles into Gentile territory. There are a few theories as to why he left the region. I would say that the Pharisees becoming more hostile to him would probably be at the top of the list. So he leaves.

And he tries to isolate himself. Previously, Jesus had taught about needing rest. Now we see once again that he tries to get alone. But, he could not get away. He had gained such a following that he could not escape people seeking him out.

Mark 7:25 ESV

25 But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet.

Immediately, this woman finds him. We all know what it feels like to want some peace and quiet and not be able to find it. Mom’s here, you know. Maybe you have that hiding spot. You come home from a long day at work and you just need 5 minutes. And then you hear it. “Momma”. Everyone knows this feeling. The feeling of being needed.

This is a little different than a child trying to irritate a parent though. This is a woman who was desperate. Her daughter had an unclean spirit in her and she knew that Jesus was the one who could fix it. This woman was setting aside cultural norms to get to Jesus. She was not supposed to be there, but she still went.

And with her actions, we see the beginning of her heart tuning itself to Jesus. She fell down at his feet. With her actions, she is acknowledging her need for the help of Jesus. With her actions, she is acknowledging that Jesus is Lord, something that she will acknowledge with her words very soon. With her actions, she is humbling herself before Jesus.

Humility is never something that is easy or enjoyable. But it is necessary. Being arrogant and proud have no place in the kingdom of God. You cannot be proud and submit yourself to Christ at the same time. When you are humble, you are saying that you are subservient to Christ, that what he says goes. No matter how you feel about it. We see this woman do this.

James 4:6 “6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.””

This woman, in her actions, humbled herself before Jesus. She knelt before him to show him that she believes he is her only hope. We don’t have Jesus in front of us. We cannot walk up to him and kneel before him. So how do we show our humility in our actions?

First, we must think about our actions towards God. Do obey his commands? Do we do what he wants us to do and avoid what he wants us to avoid. And secondly, we must think about our actions towards others. Are we displaying ourselves to be people of Christ to those around us. Are we humbling ourselves towards God and towards others?

Be Humbled by our Background

I could go around the room and each and every one of us would have different backgrounds. We have all had different experiences, different upbringings, different educations and jobs, and such things as that. All of these things help make us the person that we are today. But, we can be arrogant about our background or we could be humbled by our background. Even if someone had a smooth upbringing and never had to struggle with much, they could still be humbled by their background.

Mark 7:26 ESV

26 Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

There are a couple of things to unpack about this woman’s background. First, Mark tells us that she is a Gentile. This means that she is not a Jew simply put. She is Syrophoenician. This means that she is Sirian(syro) and Lebanese(pheonician). Jesus had ventured into Gentile territory. In the time of Jesus, Gentiles were not accepted by the Jewish community as people who were clean. Chapter 7 so far has dealt with defining who is clean and who is not. Gentiles were considered impure just because they are Gentiles. So we have strike one.

Also, she is a woman. Yes, in our culture today, a woman can talk to a man. But even Jewish women were not permitted to speak to Jewish Rabbi’s. Much less a Gentile woman. Strike 2.

And then we come to the issue of the woman’s daughter. Her daughter had an unclean spirit, a demon. We don’t know much about this demon. What we do know is that this woman was from a pagan people and her daughter was demon possessed, likely by a false god that they worshipped. The woman’s daughter was unclean. Strike 3.

So we have a Gentile, woman, who’s daughter is demon possessed, who approaches Jesus. This was wild for her to do this. All of the rules tell her that she should not approach Jesus, yet she does. People will shun her and judge her for breaking these rules. She will be looked at differently because she is doing something that is deemed wrong. But, she does not let cultural issues keep her from getting to Christ. She knew that Jesus was the one who could heal her daughter. So she begged him to do so. This word begged implies that she was persistent about this. That she was not going to give up until he did it.

This woman had a background that should have kept her from Jesus. Today, people often think that because of who they are and things that they have done, that Jesus is too far from them. This is not true. Jesus is within reach. And when we come to him in humility, and we set aside our background, we will get to experience what Jesus has in store for us.

Our background cannot define who we are in Christ. Good, bad, or indifferent. We are new creations in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

Let us be humbled by the fact that even though Jesus knows our backgrounds, that he is still willing to help us.

Be Humbled in our Understanding

Mark 7:27–28 ESV

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.”

Yes, be humbled in our understanding. Or sometimes, lack of understanding. Because if we come to this part of the passage at face value, we won’t have very much understanding at all. We have this parable that Jesus gives this woman. Clearly, he was very blunt towards her. She could have jumped back at Jesus for what he said. She could have said, “how dare you say that to me”. What Jesus said would have been considered offensive.

We cannot dance around this. Jesus said something that would have been offensive to someone of a different culture. I am not saying that it was his intention to be offensive. But he did not sugar coat something at the expense of truth. The truth will often times be offensive. We cannot neglect the truth to avoid offending people.

Like I said, the statement that Jesus made would have offended a Gentile woman. He is comparing Gentiles to dogs. There is no way to lighten this up. What Jesus is saying is that the children will be fed first. The children representing the Jews and the dogs representing the Gentiles. Jesus came first, for the jews and then for the Gentiles. This is what he is saying to her.

As people who are not Jewish, this is hard to wrap our heads around. Jesus came first for the Jews. Romans 1:16 “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.” As Gentiles, we must realize that God has had a special love for the Jewish people.

Matthew 23:37 ESV

37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

But they reject Jesus. God had circled back around so many times to give them chance after chance to submit themselves to him, but they continued to reject him. They have been offered the feast at the table. The Jews are the ones sitting at the table in this parable, while the Gentiles are the dogs wanting the crumbs.

What should we focus on with this parable? We should see that the feast is so bountiful, that we, as begging dogs, can fill up on the overflow. While at the same time, knowing that we do not deserve even the scraps. This woman understood that. She knew that she had no right to feast at the table and didn’t deserve it and yet, she was willing to take the crumbs of the children. This is faith.

So much faith that she is the only person in the entire book of Mark that is recorded as calling Jesus Lord. Yes, Lord. I will take the crumbs of the children if that is what you are willing to let me have. How often do we turn down the scraps because we think we deserve the feast? How often do we ignore the undeserving grace that is given to us while we try to look for things that are greater?

But this woman, who should not have approached Jesus, who was the first person we see in the book of Mark to understand a parable of Jesus, was willing to take the crumbs off the table so that her daughter would be healed. Amen. I want to have the faith of the Syrophoenician woman. I want to have the crumbs off the table because that is much more than I deserve.

She understood the teaching of Jesus, yet she was humbled to take the crumbs off the table.

Be Humbled by God’s Mercy

Mercy is defined as showing someone compassion who is in need when they do not deserve it. I could probably sit here and list a very long list of times that I have been shown mercy by my wife and others in the room. But I don’t think that I could possibly begin to list off the times that God has shown me mercy. Because it is constant mercy that God shows me.

Mark 7:29–30 ESV

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.

This woman, goes up to Jesus, and asks him to heal her daughter who has a demon in her. He tells her a parable about who deserves the mercy of God, and she understands what he says. She submits herself to Jesus as lord. So, Jesus heals her daughter.

This is the first long distance healing that we have seen Jesus do. We don’t know when he did it or how he did it. We just know that he did it. Because of this woman’s understanding of God’s grace and mercy, her daughter was healed. The demon was gone. And she went home to find that what Jesus had said, actually happened.

Jesus showed this woman’s daughter mercy. Yes, he showed the woman mercy as well. But I want us to see the mercy that he had shown the daughter. See, the daughter was not even present for the exchange. But yet she received God’s mercy.

This is our story too. We were not there at the cross of calvary, yet we receive the mercy of God. We do not deserve it, yet we receive the mercy of God.

This is what makes it mercy. It is undeserved. We deserve hell and damnation, yet, we receive the mercy of God.

Why do we deserve hell? The gospel explains that to us. God created. Adam and Eve broke God’s law. We have inherited this rebellion called sin. We sin against God. Jesus came and died in our place. We repent and believe.

The gospel is a gospel of mercy. How does humility fit in with this. It is humbling to receive the exact opposite of what we deserve. Imagine being a murderer. And you go to trial. All the evidence is given. There is no shred of doubt that you are a murderer. The jury goes into session to discuss and 5 minutes later, they come back with the verdict. Guilty of all charges. The judge comes with the sentence. Death.

You are prepared to sit in the chair to pay for what you have done. And then, there is this man who stands up and says that he will take the punishment for you. You are the one who deserves it, yet he will sit in the chair and take the needle for you. This is what has actually happened already.

Instead of a chair and needles though, it was a cross and nails. Jesus is the one who took the punishment for your crimes. This is mercy. And we should be humbled that Jesus would do that for us. The same people whose sin sent him there.

Conclusion

Humility is required for the kingdom of God. As I close, I want to speak to the ones who would call themselves believers and the ones who would not consider themselves believers.

First, if you are a believer, it is our job to work at building the kingdom of God. This is 2 fold, sharing the gospel with unbelievers and making disciples. Both of these require humility. We must set ourselves aside to do these things. So my challenge to you is to make sure you are doing these things for the right reasons. Are you doing it for yourself? Or are you doing it for the kingdom of God?

Maybe you are here and would not consider yourself a believer. But you have heard this message about the mercy of Jesus and you are drawn to it. You know that Jesus is Lord and you want to give your life to him. You are humbled by the fact that he went to the cross for you. And you don’t know what to do with this. It is simple. The bible tells us that we are to repent and believe. To turn from our old life but more importantly, to turn to Jesus. And we keep doing this. Every time we slip into sin, we turn back to Jesus. We are always seeking to be like Jesus.

And if you believe that Jesus died for you, and you turn to him, you are saved. You are a new creation in Christ, the old is gone the new has come. If you have done this, I want to talk to you. Come and grab me after the service.

To God be the glory