I Just Want a Crumb

I Just Want a Crumb

Mark 7:24-30

Does anybody have a need in your life?

Most of us have needs. I’d go a step farther and say that most of us have some major needs in our lives and may not see how that need can be met.

· Some people are looking at family problems.

· Some are looking at financial difficulty.

· Some are looking at a problem with a child.

· Some see their own condition and realize they’re lost.

· Some are looking at disease and wondering what lies ahead.

· Some are looking at their loved ones and realizing they won’t be here forever.

I could stand here all day and never get through the things many of you are facing today.

In the midst of your problems, you need someone to help you. You need someone you can turn to. You need God to work in your life.

· You don’t need Him to lift every burden, just the heaviest.

· You don’t need Him to move every mountain, just the highest.

· You don’t need Him to give you the whole loaf, just a crumb.

That’s the situation we’re looking at today. Jesus is approached by a mother who’s in a desperate situation. She needs something in her life. So, she comes to Him and doesn’t ask for the whole meal, she’s just asking for the crumbs. She’s just asking Jesus to move in her situation.

Jesus has just told the Pharisees, the scribes, His disciples and the crowds that nothing in itself is unclean. He told them that defilement is from inside.

His message was simple: What a man is in his heart is what he really is!

As soon as that encounter is over, Jesus and His men go to Tyre and Sidon, which is in the heart of Gentile territory. Once again, they try to get some rest from the pressures of the ministry. But we’re told He couldn’t be hidden.

That’s always the case! When Jesus is in a person, a family, a church, a community, or wherever, He cannot be hidden! Word will get out that He’s in the house.

In this text, a burdened mother finds Jesus. She asks Him for the help she needs. She faces several challenges, but she persists and she gets what she came for.

Today, understand that there’s hope for you. God has the solution to your problem. As we look at this passage, maybe we’ll find what we need in our lives today.

Let’s pray and then we’ll read our text.

Pray!

Mark 7:24–30 ESV

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. But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 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.” But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

The first thing we notice is:

Her Request

So, let’s think about why she decided to turn to Jesus.

This woman came to Christ because she was concerned about her daughter. The child had an unclean spirit and was probably acting out violently, possibly causing physical harm to the girl and those around her. This mom needed help in a desperate way.

Matthew tells us that she’s crying out to Jesus. She was shouting out to Christ for the help she needed

Why was she so frantic?

She was heartbroken over the condition of her child and she was determined to get her little girl the help she needed.

We’re told that she had “heard of Him.”

Maybe she’d heard about how Jesus had healed all manner of diseases; about how He had opened the eyes of the blind and unstopped the ears of the deaf; about how He had driven demons from other people.

She may have heard about how Jesus had delivered the man possessed by a legion of demons. She may have said, “If He can deliver a man from so many, surely He can deliver my daughter from the grip of just one!”

This woman came to Jesus because faith and hope had been awakened in her heart. She needed something that society hadn’t been able to provide. She was looking for something that her dead religion had been powerless to give her. She needed a solution she couldn’t achieve by her own efforts.

She was desperate and she saw Jesus as her only hope!

How many of you can identify with this poor, anxious mother?

· Maybe you’re dealing with a child that’s out of control.

· Maybe you’re at wits end over some situation in your life and you need help.

· Maybe you’ve exhausted every resource and don’t know where to turn for help.

· Maybe what you need is salvation.

· Or, maybe what you need is restoration and forgiveness.

Whatever the need in your life may be today; you should take a lesson from this woman: Get that need to Jesus!

No matter what you’re facing in life today, the answer can be found in Him!

· He can move your mountain

· meet your need

· save your soul

· forgive your sins

· touch your loved ones

· you name it, He can do it!

But you have to get it to Him! You have to put it in His hands! Don’t be afraid to call on Him!

He wants you to come because you don’t have to bear that burden alone. Bring it to Him because He cares and He can help.

We’ve seen this mother’s request and next we see

Her Resolve

This mother came to Jesus for help and when she doesn’t get the answer she desires; she persists until she gets what she wants.

Now, she had to overcome a lot of obstacles in order to get what she wanted. There were

obstacles

It seemed like she met resistance to her request at every turn. Yet, she persisted until she achieved her goal. Let’s look at some of the obstacles she overcame by faith.

Look at some of the obstacles she faced and overcame by faith. First, we see the obstacle of:

race

This mother was from Tyre and Sidon. Matthew’s gospel tells us she was a Canaanite. This tells us two things about her.

First, she was descended from a cursed people who were meant to be destroyed. Second, she was from a region known for despicable religious practices. She had two strikes against her from the very start.

Then there was the obstacle of:

religion

She came and called out, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David.”

She’s a Gentile mother crying out to the Jewish Messiah. She had no right to come to Him through the door of Judaism. She was a Gentile and Jesus didn’t even say a word according to Matthew.

The next obstacle was

racism

When the disciples hear this Gentile calling out to their Messiah, they tell Jesus to send her away! They didn’t want anything to do with her. She wasn’t one of them! She was different and that was enough to justify them not caring about her.

Then we find the obstacle of:

rejection

Jesus’s response might sound harsh to us and must have shaken her to the very core and broke her heart.

At first, it seems like He’s ignoring her cries for help and when He does answer her, Matthew records that His response was that He came to reach the lost sheep of Israel.

When she persists, Jesus basically calls her a dog and doesn’t deserve the children’s bread. The disciples rejected her and it appears that Jesus is rejecting her too.

And finally, there was the obstacle of:

reality

The reality of this situation is bad!

Her daughter was possessed by a spirit. She was a member of a doomed race. These religion men didn’t seem to care about her or her situation at all. It must have seemed that her situation was hopeless.

Some of you are looking at some of these obstacles today.

You might be lost and know you need Jesus but feel like you have no right to come to Him. You know that religion won’t work. You’ve experienced rejection from religious people. Yet, you still want to see your life changed.

Let me tell that you can come and He won’t turn you away.

Others have been praying and seeking God about matters that trouble your heart. You’ve cried out to Him and asked Him to do something in your life and there’s been no answer. You feel like giving up! Let me encourage you today. God’s silence is no sign of His unwillingness to meet your need.

God’s silence help grow our faith and remind us that He works on a different schedule than we do.

What obstacles are you facing today?

Keep seeking Him and in His time, you’ll see every obstacle fall!

There were obstacles but there were also

opportunities

Jesus never slams the door of hope in this woman’s face.

As Jesus speaks with this woman, He never slams the door of hope in her face. He says, “Let the children be fed first.”

That word “first” was exactly what this broken-hearted mother needed to hear! Jesus didn’t say, “You can’t have what you’re looking for!” He said, “I have come to the children of Israel. And, they must be filled first.” She took that to mean that “seconds” were available.

You see, these obstacles weren’t there to discourage and defeat this lady. The obstacles were there to mature her faith.

She calls on Jesus based on His role as the Jewish Messiah. She receives no help there. She has no right to approach Him on that ground.

She hears Jesus say His mission is to the nation of Israel. When she hears this, she moves beyond seeing Him as a Jewish Messiah. She now sees Him as her only hope. She sees Him as being worthy of worship. Matthew tells us kneels before Him and gives Him the worship He deserves.

Then Jesus compares her to a dog. The Jews looked at everyone else as dogs. It’s how they referred to people who were unclean, filthy and dirty.

But the word Jesus uses isn’t for some wild, stray dog. It’s for a domesticated dog, most likely a puppy that is just as much a part of the family as everyone else.

This poor mother immediately catches the meaning. The picture Jesus painted is of a family’s very much-loved puppy sitting under the table while its family eats supper. Sitting there, hoping and expecting someone to slip it just a little bit of food. You know how your pets can sit there while you’re eating and guilt you with those sad little eyes into a handout from the table.

She says, “I know that it isn’t right to take the food from the children’s table and give it to the dogs. But even the dogs get something from the table. All I’m asking for is a crumb.”

She wasn’t asking for everything, just for a puppy’s portion!

Can you see how Jesus took this woman and her small faith and led her along and helped grow her faith? The obstacles of faith almost always turn out to be opportunities in disguise. When we continue to seek Him in spite of every difficulty, we’ll eventually see Him do what needs done.

There were obstacles, opportunities and

obligations

A lot of people would have given up! Jesus ignored her; the disciples played the race card; Jesus even compared her to a dog; yet she persisted.

Most of us would have thrown up our hands in frustration and stormed off saying, “I don’t need this! So much for your God of love; for your message of compassion and your narrow, bigoted religion! I don’t want anything to do with a God or a religion like that!”

That’s the way many react when they don’t get what they want, when they want it. But, not this woman! She persisted in spite of everything that was thrown into her pathway.

Why?

She persisted because too much was at stake! Her little daughter needed to be delivered from her bondage. Her family needed to be saved. She needed help and she was determined to get it! A crumb might have been all she could get; but she knew that a crumb from Him was more than enough! She wouldn’t give up until she got what she needed!

How much does your problem mean to you?

Have obstacles along the way made you throw up your hands and quit seeking God about the answer you need? Have you looked at the hypocrisy and the apathy of the church and decided that since God’s people don’t care, you won’t care either?

Be like this poor mother. Keep bringing that need to Him until He answers. Keep seeking His face until He responds. Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking and in His time, He’ll hand you down a morsel of answered prayer!

We’ve seen this mother’s request, her resolve and finally, we see:

Her Reward

Jesus is amazed by her faith and responds. In fact, this woman is only one of two people Jesus referred to as having “great faith.” The other was a Roman Centurion who came to Jesus to have Jesus heal a sick servant.

Amazingly, both of these people were Gentiles!

Jesus had tested her faith with hard words and her faith had risen to the challenge! Her faith exceeded that of the people he had come to save! Here was a Gentile that had more faith than the Jewish scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees and priests.

So, Jesus rewards her faith by giving her exactly what she asked for. Her daughter was healed!

Her faith was so great that she didn’t ask for proof, but she took Jesus at His word and turned around and went home to her family. When she got there, she found her daughter healed.

I realize that some of you are looking at situation and problems that are every bit as hard and as painful as this woman. I know that many of you have prayed and sought God about your situations and things are the same.

I know that the devil and the flesh are whispering in your ear right now. They’re saying, “It’s no use! God doesn’t care! Go away and don’t bother Him with this anymore. It’s never going to change.” I know some of you are discouraged and defeated and wonder if there’s any use or any help for you.

Take heart! There’s hope!

· Today might be the day when He responds to your cries.

· Today might be the day when you see that mountain moved.

· Today might be the day when you come to Him and are saved.

· Today might be the day when God says, “It’s going to be all right! I’ve taken care of it.”

· Today might be the day when His peace replaces your pain.

Bring that need to Him again. Bring it with faith in your heart that He’ll hear you; that He’ll help you and He’ll fix it. Bring it to Him and put it in His hands.

You say, “Preacher, you don’t understand how big my problem is.” No, I don’t, but He does! Look at what He can do.

· There’s Jairus. He put his daughter in Jesus’s hands and He raised her from the dead.

· There’s Lazarus, four days in the tomb. Mary and Martha placed him in the hands of Jesus and Lazarus lives.

· There’s a multitude that needs to be fed, but have no food. A few loaves and fishes are placed in the hands of Jesus and suddenly everyone had more than enough.

· There’s the disciples, in a boat, in a storm, in the middle of at night. They’re afraid they’re going to die. But Jesus gets them safely to the shore.

· There’s a leper and he’s healed.

· There’s a blind man and he can see.

· There’s a deaf man and he can hear.

· There’s a crippled man and he can walk.

· There’s a man possessed with a demon and he’s freed.

If He can do all this, He can answer your prayers!

· He can save your lost loved one.

· He can save you.

· He can forgive you and restore you to a place of fellowship.

· He can take whatever is wrong in your life and make it right.

He can do all that!

A little crumb from might be all you need today. Others may need Him to drop the whole plate. I don’t know what you need or where you are; but I know a God Who can meet you where you are and help you get what you need.

· Do you need to be saved?

· Do you need a mountain moved in your life?

· Do you need to be restored to faith and fellowship?

· Do you need to see God moving in someone else’s life?

Regardless of what you need today, you can come to Jesus and you can get it. Even if you have sought Him for it in the past and received no answer, today might be the day when He says to you what He said to this mother in Matthew, “Be it done for you as you desire.”

Get to Him and get what you really need.