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LOVING OUR NEIGHBOURS AND OUR ENEMIES



MARK 7:24-end

The Syrophoenician Woman’s Faith

24 From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, 25 but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29 Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” 30 So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Jesus Cures a Deaf Man

31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32 They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33 He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. 34 Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35 And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36 Then Jesus[c] ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37 They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.


You will remember last week that we saw Jesus exposing the hypocrisy of the pharisees in their religious practices. They would make stricter and stricter rules and regulations in their lives so that they would ‘remain pure’ and not defile themselves. I also spoke about how Jesus said that, that which defiles, comes from within. It’s within us; the human heart. Out of there comes the darkness that exists in the world. Out of the heart comes sin itself.

It was a sobering message, but I ended on the hope that we have in Jesus, how despite our sin he holds out his hand towards us. We take Jesus by the hand, and go on a journey of forgiveness, of change and joy. All we have to do is reach out, take him by the hand and go on that journey.

Yes, out of the heart comes sin and darkness, but so does faith. Faith, through the help of the God’s Holy Spirit, leads us to see Jesus for who he is, just like Peter did when he said that Jesus is the Lord, the Holy One of God. We find salvation through coming to Jesus in faith

It is no coincidence that straight after Jesus speaks of hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the Jews, the next section speaks about the faith of two Gentiles (remember, Gentiles are non-Jews), the Syrophoenician child and the deaf-mute man. We’re going to concentrate on the first healing for the purposes of this sermon.


Let’s look and see what happens.


Jesus has gone to Tyre, on the coast, a Gentile area, probably modern-day Lebanon. Notice that he takes the disciples with him. He’s not doing this by accident, it’s intentional. He wants to teach them something here about what the kingdom of God looks like. He has just shown up the Pharisees and called them hypocrites, now he goes to a Gentile area to show them more about the gospel.


And there he encounters the Syrophoenician woman who had heard that he is there and sought him out. She sought him out in faith that this Jew, this Jesus can heal her daughter from demon possession. She’s a devoted parent, who longs for her child to be well. I’m sure that will resonate with many of us, when we care for another so much and we just want them to be well, and we pray and do all we can, to make them well. Her determination to find this Jew, this Jesus whom she has heard so much about shows the love that she has for her daughter.


She falls at the feet of Jesus and begs him to heal her.

But Jesus says something, to our eyes, profoundly odd here.


“Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”


Now that word ‘food’ can also be translated ‘bread’ Where have we seen that before? Well for the last few weeks that was the focus of our readings from John’s gospel. Remember, Jesus fed five thousand people, Jesus declares that he is the ‘bread of life’, the living bread. Remember, ‘your ancestors ate manna (bread) in the desert and they died.’ ‘But here [in Jesus] is the bread that came down from heaven, which anyone may eat and never die.’


So, we know what the food is. What about the children, they are a synonym for people of Israel, in other words, the Jews. And the dogs, that was a pejorative name for Gentiles. In a household in those times, the pets were the least important, children were more important than pets. The dog doesn’t have the rights and privileges of the child.


Now let’s look at what Jesus says again.


“Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”


Let the people of Israel be fed the bread of life first, the people’s bread shouldn’t be given to gentiles. After all, the Jews are God’s chosen people aren’t they! Now remember, he is here to teach the disciples something of the kingdom. When Jesus said these words, the disciples would have been nodding their heads in agreement. They are the ones who are the people of God. They received the manna, the bread in the desert, they were fed by God. It was not for the Gentiles. Is was their bread. In fact, pious Jews in the first century, because of the kosher regulations, would not come to table with a Gentile at all!


What’s going on? Is the gospel limited to Jews only? Is Jesus doing back on what he has been saying all along? Well no, because notice that he says, ‘let the children be fed first.’ The Gentiles were not to be excluded, the time of their salvation will come. And after Jesus died, was was resurrected and ascended and the Holy Spirit came upon the first disciples, there disciples who were right there with Jesus at the time, mind, would welcome all, both Jew and Gentile, into the faith.


The Syrophoenician women persists, asking Jesus again, verse 28:


“Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”


She persists in her faith that Jesus can help. She knows what Jesus is saying, and yet she knows Jesus can and will help him. Notice too that when Jesus goes to his own people and the, the pharisees that we saw last week, they criticise him not obeying the rules that they have laid down. When a Gentile comes to him, they simply show faith, Remarkable faith in fact. Remember that this woman was an outsider to Jesus and to the people of Israel. Remember the tepid, watered dow faith that his own people show in him.


Jesus, impressed by this, responds to the woman in verses 29 - 30.

Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.


This is a remarkable healing, And it is a great piece of scripture to reflect on. The gospel is for everybody, and especially for the ones who we may consider to be the most unworthy of it. That’s the entire point, none of us are worthy! The grace of God shown through Jesus is shown to all of us. It’s not because we are good, its because, like I said last week, Jesus holds out his hand to us in welcome. And not only our hands, but our neighbours hand, and who is our neighbour? It’s everybody else in the world, including, those people that we don’t like, including those that we hate, including those who have maybe caused us harm.


G K Chesterton said this 'The Bible tells us to love our neighbours, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.'


Can we cope with that? Can we cope with the fact that Jesus loves everybody and wants to bring all of them to repentance? What would our church look like if we prayed for our enemies daily, what would it look like if we truly welcomed everybody. This is the high bar that Jesus sets. This is the opportunity to look at ourselves, really look at ourselves and our attitudes to others. And it’s an opportunity to change.


We can’t do this without God’s help. We need his help. Ask him, God help me love better, help me to love those whom I don’t like, whom I despise, those who have hurt me, those who have wished me harm. And this is scary, because it means that we will have to change. We will need to grow beyond ourselves and enter more and more into the divine life of God and think and do things the way that he does them.


We can’t do this in our own strength. But with the strength of the Spirit, we can. If we ask him, he will help us to to become better than ourselves, and we will be changed. Corrie Ten Boom, a survivor of the concentration camps recounts a story of meeting one of the guards where she was being held. He didn’t know her, but she knew him. Could she forgive? Could she love here enemy? The answer is below:


‘You mentioned Ravensbrück in your talk,” he was saying. “I was a guard in there.” No, he did not remember me.


“But since that time,” he went on, “I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fräulein”–again the hand came out–“will you forgive me?”


And I stood there–I whose sins had every day to be forgiven–and could not. Betsie had died in that place–could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?


It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.


For I had to do it–I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. “If you do not forgive men their trespasses,” Jesus says, “neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”


I knew it not only as a commandment of God, but as a daily experience. Since the end of the war I had had a home in Holland for victims of Nazi brutality.


Those who were able to forgive their former enemies were able also to return to the outside world and rebuild their lives, no matter what the physical scars. Those who nursed their bitterness remained invalids. It was as simple and as horrible as that.


And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion–I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.


“Jesus, help me!” I prayed silently. “I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.”


And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.


“I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart!”’


May we have the strength, and the Spirit, to do likewise!

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