Begging to Get In

October 18, 2009

Background Scripture: Mark 7:24 – 37
Lesson Passage: Mark 7:24 – 37

Today’s lesson demonstrates one of the principal messages that Jesus taught his Jewish detractors. The message was that Gentiles who were not being evangelized would come to Jesus craving what he was offering to the Jews while many Jewish leaders openly rejected it. Furthermore, the Jewish religious leadership made matters worse by condemning other Jews for accepting Jesus. The setting for today’s lesson takes place in the predominantly Gentile populated regions to the Northwest and around to the East of the Sea of Galilee. The scriptures point out that Jesus went into the region and entered a house, supposedly secretly. After innumerable healings among the Jews, Jesus was confronted by fault-finding Pharisees who observed Jesus’ disciples eating without first washing their hands. They accused Jesus of not teaching his disciples to live according to the traditions of their forefathers. Jesus offered his critics a brief lesson on personal hygiene and cleanliness but apparently this was to no avail. Countless people were being healed of various ailments and the religious leaders of the Jews were more concerned about hand washing. Jesus decided to remove himself from this environment for some privacy and probably much needed rest. The Gentiles in that region had also heard about this miracle-working Jew and sought him even as some of the Jews had. What the Jewish leaders were trying to ignore and outright rejected, the Gentiles were eagerly seeking after. In the first instance in our lesson, Jesus is approached by a Syrophenician woman who falls down at his feet and begs him to cast a demon out of her daughter. Matthew’s account of this incident is a little more dramatic in stating that Jesus ignored the woman’s initial request. When his disciples asked that he send the woman away, he responded to them that he was only sent to lost Jews. As he later stated to Zacchaeus, he had come to seek and to save those who were lost. At this statement, the woman fell at his feet and again begged him to help her daughter. Jesus’ direct response to her seemed harsher than his ignoring her initial plea. In essence, his response was that the works he did were to be a testimony to the Jews that they might believe in him and accept the message of the gospel that he preached. Her response to this indicated that she desired only what the Jews despised. To her, what the Jews were rejecting was more than enough to satisfy her request of Jesus. Jesus declared this woman’s faith to be great and rewarded her diligence by granting her request. As Jesus and his disciples moved from the area Northwest and North of the Sea of Galilee to the region to the East, he was again met in this Gentile area by others bringing the lame and afflicted to him including one who was deaf and also had a speech impediment. Jesus healed them that were brought. This caused praises to be offered to the God of Israel because the healed and the witnesses to the healings recognized that this was Israel’s God who did the healing. The irony of all of this is that Jesus went into those regions to remove himself from the religious leaders of the Jews who were rejecting him and he was sought out by those he had not come to look for. While the Jews were rejecting the grace of God offered through Jesus, the Gentiles were begging for the same.

Robert C. Hudson
October 12, 2009