Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

How many came into church this morning and no one noticed you or spoke to you?

I think we have a very friendly and inviting church.

If you want to slip in unnoticed and avoid people, it’s going to be pretty difficult.

We want everyone to feel welcome and wanted here.

Have you ever had that experience somewhere else?

Maybe at another church, maybe at a school assembly or a party where the one or two people you know haven’t shown up yet.

Maybe you feel unimportant in your own family - everyone else gets the attention and you feel invisible.

It is not a very good feeling is it?

In 32 or 33 AD, women were often ignored in public.

Gentiles were totally avoided by Jews for fear of contamination.

And someone who was deaf, couldn’t speak or had another disability was usually begging on the side of the road.

They were also avoided by most people.

They were unimportant, unwanted.

Cut off from society.

They were marginalized.

If that word is new to you, think about the margins of a book.

They’re empty.

We read the contents and ignore the margins.

Marginalized people are ignored; have no voice or power; they are not valued.

Maybe you feel that way today.

Does God see you?

Does He even think about you?

Does He really care?

We will learn about God’s character as we watch Jesus respond to two marginalized people in Mark 7.

Series

We are continuing our series: The Crown & The Cross sermon.

Mark’s Gospel shows Jesus as a man of decisive action with a clear message and mission, and the reader is called to actively response to the message.

Mark divides Jesus’ life into two parts: his identity as Messiah and King over all things in the first 8 chapters (the crown) and then in the last 8 chapters we see Him fulfilling His life’s purpose in suffering and dying on the cross.

Two weeks ago, in chapter 7, a group of religious leaders came to Jesus looking to discredit Him and his teaching by accusing his disciples of breaking the traditions of the elders.

Jesus responded showing that people can't make themselves clean by outward actions, now matter how hard they try.

God’s Word reveals that only Jesus can clean our hearts.

This morning, as we finish chapter 7, we will see Jesus interacting with two marginalized people.

Spoiler Alert! - Jesus responded with loving mercy and healing, showing that God cares for everyone.

The Gospel is not for the rich and famous, or the bright and beautiful - it is for the humble and needy.

PRAY

READ Mark 7:24-30

Map

After feeding the 5,000, Jesus was last in the Genneserrat region on the west coast of the Sea of Galilee.

Today we find him quite a bit farther north.

To the very edge of Israel.

A place with fewer Jews and a lot more Gentiles.

Map

Tyre and Sidon were seaports on the Mediterranean sea at the northern border of the Promised Land.

Designated for the Tribe of Asher.

Phoenicians were known for sailing and an extensive merchant trade empire.

As you can see they had colonies throughout the Mediterranean and Europe.

The first alphabet is attributed to the Phoenician Empire and our word phonics is clearly related.

Netchev, Simeon.

"The Phoenician Expansion c. 11th to 6th centuries BCE." World History Encyclopedia.

World History Encyclopedia, 09 Nov 2021.

Web.

05 Apr 2022.

v. 24 Jesus entered a house but didn’t want everyone to know he was there.

Maybe again looking for a brief rest from ministry and the crowds.

But it didn’t take long - This amazing man from Nazareth who spoke with authority from God and healed all kinds of people could not be hidden!

This incident follows the teaching about what makes a person holy and acceptable to God.

It is nothing they can do for themselves.

This passage answers the question: So what about Gentiles?

Does God love them?

Woman begged for help

v. 25 Immediately a woman came and fell at his feet begging for help for her daughter who was possessed by a demon.

v. 26 Mark makes a point of identifying her as a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth.

She is from the Phoenician empire now controlled by Syria.

Mark is writing to a mostly Gentile audience in Rome - so he identifies her as a fellow Gentile.

In the parallel passage in Matthew 15 written to a Jewish audience, she is called a Canaanite woman.

Those were the people Joshua was commanded to drive out of the Promised Land.

This woman already had three strikes against her.

She was a woman.

A Rabbi was not supposed to approached or to be touched by women.

She was a Gentile and was not welcomed by the Jews.

Her daughter was demon possessed.

This was commonly blamed on the parents.

She wasn’t welcome in her own community let alone at the weekly play groups.

She was marginalized by her own people and definitely by the Jews.

And yet, she still came to Jesus.

Her only hope!

Jesus' response

Before we get to v. 27, lets look at the parallel passage in Matt 15.

This is hard to believe.

Jesus ignored her! How could our loving Savior do that?

But she kept crying out for help long enough for the disciples to be annoyed and asked Jesus to do something about her.

Don’t you love their compassion?

These passages (including feeding 5,000) contrast Jesus love and compassion with the disciples’ annoyance.

They also compare the Jewish religious leaders and the disciples’ lack of understanding with the faith of gentiles.

Woman's faith

Jesus didn’t ignore her because He didn’t care.

He was testing her resolve and her faith.

Would she quickly give up, or keep trying?

God tells us to be persistent in prayer.

To pray believing he will answer.

v. 27 So Jesus finally spoke to her in parable about bread, kids and puppies.

“Let the children be fed first...”

Notice, he didn’t say the food was not for the gentiles or dogs, but it was first for the children - God’s chosen people the Jews.

Jesus used the symbol of bread as God’s blessing just as he had fed the 5,000 and preached to them about the Kingdom of God.

But the blessing was not only to his own people - following on from this incident, among the Gentiles too.

Just as Jesus had declared all food clean in the previous passage, he is now declaring all people (even Gentiles) are clean and welcome to come to God.

Dogs in Jesus day were either junkyard scavengers like hyenas or guard dogs that helped shepherds herd the flock.

They were not typically household pets.

But Jesus used the word for little dog or puppy - that might be allowed in a house.