You're a Dog

All right, we are again, we are in week 22 of Mark. And so it's hard to recap everything that's happened and what will continue to happen in the Gospel of Mark. But going back, I've quoted this. This is Mark 1. One that Mark says in the beginning of the good news about Jesus, the Messiah. This is not Mark's gospel. He's talking about the Gospel of Jesus. The gospel means good news. And in a world right now just full of bad news that you can open your phone and just hit news, it's gonna be bad that this is good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the anointed one, the Son of God. And Mark is really trying to get to the question of, who is this guy? Who is Jesus? Who is he claiming to be? What is he doing that highlights who he is? And a thing that Mark is going to highlight over and over is his authority. His authority in teaching, that he is teaching on his own authority and based off of scripture, not of some rabbi that he learned under his authority over demons, as we're gonna see even in this passage that we read today. His authority to forgive sins. He has authority over nature, over the sea a few times that we've already seen, and over food, he's able to multiply food, which we're gonna see again next week. So I have a picture here of a middle school cafeteria. How many of you bring. That brings back, like, warm, fuzzy feelings, right? Just like, man, I miss. Okay, one, one, one. One guy, right? This is when you see this scene of a middle school. Angela and I were even just at a high school basketball game on Friday, and it was like, man, I miss playing competitive sports. Then it was like, but do I miss high school? I don't know, right? Because it's just. It's hard. It was difficult. You just have. Right? There's just all these different groups or cliques. Everyone remembers the cafeteria hierarchy, if you will, that you had the table of athletes and popular kids and band and theater. And unfortunately, there was always one kid who was just off by themselves. And it was just hard. It was difficult. And there were tables that you knew you don't go sit at. You just don't do it, right? There was no rules right there. Most likely. I'm assuming nobody had a piece of paper that said only athletes are allowed to sit at this table. There was no rules, but everyone knew. Everyone knew you do not sit at that table. Everyone knows. And so we're gonna see that in today's sermon. You're a dog. We're gonna see Israel that are known as the children of God and then the Gentiles or all other ethnicities outside of ethnic Israel that they're under the table, they don't have a seat at the table. And everybody knows that. So we're gonna see this and that Jesus and this Gentile woman are gonna flip that script. Usually when someone's called a dog, it's not a compliment. It is an insult. And it's supposed to be an insult. The only time dog that I could think of that is using a positive term is usually in a football field, right? That it's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog. Until you get knocked on the ground by someone twice your size and you go, actually the size of the dog does matter in this situation. So it just doesn't even apply in that sense. So let's look at these and we're gonna go back a little bit to last week. Ben Jones, one of our elders, preached last week on this passage. So I'm not gonna spend a lot of time here. But looking at Mark 7 specifically 1 through 3. Mark specifically puts these two stories next to each other on purpose that we're gonna see the religious leaders, the Pharisees, uber religious, righteous, self righteous people compared to this woman. He does this next to one another for a reason. It says now when the Pharisees, again, this is religious Jews gathered to him with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem. They saw that some of his disciples ate with his hands that were defiled. That is unwashed. And this is not unwashed as in germs. They didn't understand that this was a ceremonial washing, a ritual, a religious ritual for the Pharisees. And all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly. Holding to the traditions of the elders. There's nothing in the Torah or the Old Testament that says you need to wash your hands before you eat. It was added later by religious people to say you need to do these traditions. Jesus also talks to these Pharisees, not specifically in this passage in Mark, but says, it's like you have a, a cup that's clean on the outside, but it's dirty on the inside. Or you're like a whitewashed tomb. That this burial space that they would wash with lime and make it white to make it look clean and pretty. But also then to show any Jew that wasn't allowed to approach anything undead, don't get near this thing. You look nice and clean. On the outside, but you're full of dead man's bones. The expectation or the unwritten cafeteria rule here is that God loves them. These religious people, because of their devotion to him. As we saw last week, they have surrendered everything to God, even parts of their spices that they're going to dedicate to God. So therefore, obviously God must like them a little bit more. God must show them favor than somebody else because of their devotion to him, right? So when a normal person, if you will to use that expression, or maybe a non religious person, looks at these religious elites, they think, what's the point? Why bother? Why even try to have a relationship with God when I'm nowhere near like these people, I will never measure up. They have quiet time or they read their Bible and they pray every day. They're always at church and they're always volunteering and helping. I just can't do that. I can't live up. So what's the point? I don't know if you've ever felt like that. I know I have. I know that I distinctly remember when I was 14 and I was even at that early age, was thinking about entering into ministry and really wanted to do that. And there was my senior pastor at my church who I really looked up to and I had learned a lot from him, that he had disqualified himself from ministry, from sin. And I remember thinking, wow, man, if this guy, who in my mind, right, is just this religious elite, he walked on water in my mind. If he can't do it, what's the point? There's no way I could do that. And we fall into this way of thinking. And this is why Jesus talks to the religious individual the way that he does. And it's also why Mark shows this interaction here. And this is why we need this second interaction in Mark 7:24 says, from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. This is Gentile territory. This is not Jewish territory. Again, gentile is just a word for every other ethnicity, every other race besides gentile or Jewish. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. Mark is saying that Jesus fame is spreading like wildfire, not just among the Jewish population, but among the Gentiles as well. But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and fell down at his feet. And here is kind of her, I don't know, what do you call it? Her, I don't know, her description. It's the only word that popped into my head. Right now, now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrio, Phoenician by birth. We just looked at the previous passage of a man or men who were Jewish, who were extremely religious Pharisees. And now we have this woman, a Greek Gentile, a pagan one. Commentary said this, that even Levi, the tax collector, tax collector was somebody who was a traitor. They were literally collecting taxes from their people to give to the Romans that were occupying their land. They were the scum of the earth. He says this, that even Levi the tax collector must have raised his eyebrows at this woman approaching Jesus. I made this graph. Don't read into it too much. Cause you probably can't even read it anyways. Self righteousness over time. You've got a 0 to 100 on the left side of how people view themselves. I'm in a good standing with God. I think I'm okay with God. But then as time goes on, things change. The religious person thinks that it grows, that they get up to 99% and maybe even in some people's minds 100% I'm good with God, I do know sin. And the non religious person, apparently according to this graph, at the age of two starts to decline, which might be pretty accurate. And they say no, no, I don't measure up. There's no way I could. I just. There's no way I could be righteous. When I think God and when I think of what church is and, and their rules and regulations, I just don't add up. I, I'm at a zero. This is how these individuals view themselves. But I love here again we've been using James Edwards a lot. Only quote I have from him today, I promise. I think despite her notorious credentials, she does not apologize or cower in her obsequiousness. There was also a nerd table in the cafeteria. He could have just said tact. I had to look that one up. I have no idea what that word was. This woman can claim none of the credits that a good Jew might bring to the Prophet of Nazareth. Her only cover letter is her desperate need. Let's look at now the dogs reading this passage again. Jesus says, let the children be fed first, for it's not right to take the children's bread and to throw it to the dogs. But she answered him, yes Lord, not even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs. What's going on here? What just happened? Is Jesus insulting this woman? Is he just saying, no, you're a dog? Is that what's happening? Well, what we do know this is based on the Mishnah and Talmud, these extra biblical teachings that the Pharisees would have adhered to. Part of the cultural aspect of being a Jew at the time. In the rabbitic tradition, dog remained a term of reproach. Referring to quote from the Mishnah, the most despicable, insolent and miserable of creatures. It was this reproachful sense that dog was applied to gentiles. Anyone who is not ethnically Jewish was a dog. Despicable, insolent, miserable creature. That's how that language was used. It's really hard for us to wrap our head around this because when I think of dog, I think of a beautiful golden retriever, right? I think of this soft, cuddly, gentle dum dum. That is just an amazing creature, right? It's just they're amazing and I cuddle with them and they're the best. We don't typically think of dogs in our American culture the way that the rest of the world views dogs. That when you think wild street dog in that sense. And the dog that has won the ugliest dog competition over the last few years. Sorry, I should have given you a warning alert here. That title is justly won. They're for this dog, right? These mangy wild street rats, right? They're what do not. If you have this dog, it is not allowed in my house. I love everyone, but I don't have to love every dog. Someone said, aww, no, no, there's no awe for this next slide. But again 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. What's Jesus saying here? Here's what we do know based on the passage from last week. We saw that objects, even food, there's no such thing as clean and unclean, desirable and undesirable. That's true of objects then. That's also then true and more so. The whole point of what Jesus is getting across is that people and people groups are not unclean or clean. Just because of your ethnicity or your birthright does not make you a better human being than somebody else. There are no defiled objects or people. It would be impossible to arrive based on especially last week's passage that Jesus opposes the Pharisees view on defiled things and then say people are defiled here. We know that that's not what is in Jesus mind here when he uses this phrase, dogs. We also, as I mentioned, we have this view of a street dog versus a pet dog. And this was true even in that time. There were dogs and there were pet dogs. And in this passage in particular, I'm not gonna get into the language of the Greek, but the Greek word used here is for a little house pet. That is the language that's used that they are in the house. So don't think that second mangy dog picture. I don't think golden retrievers were around back then, unfortunately. But they were pets. They were animals that were kept in the house. We feel differently, all of us do, even in our culture, about someone's pet than we would as a wild dog. So then what else is going on? Third, as I even referenced, even within that quote from the Mishnah, it's commonly used to differentiate Jews and Gentiles and maybe not even as necessarily a negative thing to be called a dog, but it's a differentiation to say that there are the Jews and the dogs. It was like another noun that was being used here. Jews were considered the children of God Based on Exodus 4:22, Deuteronomy 14, 1, Isaiah 1, 2. All over the Old Testament, they were part of the covenant people of God in Abraham, the Israelites, the Hebrews, and they possessed the Torah, the first five books of the Bible that God specifically gave to Israel to be their people, that they were the children of God. The issue at stake here in this passage between Jesus and this woman is whether Jesus is only sent for the children or also and the dogs, all other people. That's what's happening here is the Messiah, Jesus, you, you seem to be powerful and in control. You seem to be different. And I think that you are the Savior, but I don't think that you're only for the children of Israel. I think that you are for all people. That's what's at stake. That's what's happening. But she answered him, yes, Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs. Now, here we do have a different word that we don't see in the English language. And again, I don't want to get all into the Greek, but the word that Jesus uses for children, for it is not right for the children's bread to be thrown to the dogs. That word is specifically for biological children. But the word she uses here, that even the yet Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs, that's a different word. That word isn't just biological children. It is also servants and foreigners who are who happen to be eating at the Table it is a broader view of what a child is that she uses. This is a parable. Usually a lot of parables of teachings of Jesus are a little bit longer. We might know them of the Good Samaritan and different parables that he teaches. But this too is a parable. It is to throw alongside something else. This is what the kingdom of God is like. The kingdom of God is not just Israel. It is all people. And she sees it, she hears it. This woman understands that the mercy of God extends beyond only ethnic Israel. In verse 27 there the NIV, a different translation says, let them eat all they want. It's the same wording that we read just a few weeks ago. In the feeding of the 5,000, they were satisfied and ate all that they wanted. When the dogs eat from the table, they do not rob the children of their fill. They get their fill. And there's plenty more to go around. We've been seeing this week after week. And this gentile woman gets it. She gets it. In Matthew, in the same account, Jesus says, oh woman of great faith, this woman has ears to hear. She's the first person to see and to understand. Even those closest to Jesus. The disciples look at him after a miracle and he goes and they say, what manner of man is this after he feeds the 5,000? Says, they just don't understand. And yet this woman gets it. Jesus is for all people. She gets this, that this graph, you can't even see the line because now they're both at zero. That the self righteousness of the religious and irreligious is always at zero. She gets it. There's none righteous, no, not one. I can do nothing to help myself. My cover letter is only one of desperation. She understands that she needs a savior. There are two types of people even in this room. There are those of us who think more highly of ourselves than we ought. That we think that based on our spirituality, we think that God owes us, that we're due something from him, that he should show us some kind of favor because we've been devoted to God. We pray and we think, God, I thank you I'm not like that person. I know. I think I thank you that I'm not like that pastor. Thank you that I'm not liberal like them. I thank you that I'm not legalistic like them. God, I thank you I'm not like that mom. My kids aren't wild. I actually show some discipline, not raising soft kids. God, I thank you that I don't have a marriage like that. I would never talk about my spouse like that. I thank you that I'm not like this fake social media couple. God, I thank you that I'm not addicted like that guy. God, I thank you that I don't struggle with that sin. It's gross. God, I thank you that I don't believe in these wild conspiracy theories. I thank you that I'm. I thank you that I'm more balanced in my politics. God, I thank you that I'm self aware. God, I thank you that I'm not a sinner. And then there are others, like this Gentile woman or tax collector in another parable of Jesus who can't even lift up his head towards heaven, but he beats his chest in humility and says, God, be merciful to me, sinner. Neither can help themselves, the religious or the irreligious, but only one admits their need for help. Moving on here, a little bit of time we have left. Isaiah 35. I'm not going to quote the passage in particular, but we see that in verse 31 it says, Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through the Sidon, the Sea of Galilee, to the region of the Decapolis, again Gentile area. They brought him to a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay a hand on him. Mark is writing to a Gentile Roman group constituent and Peter is telling him what to write. And Mark is writing this down. And so he is writing this down, but he doesn't use a lot of Old Testament language because the people listening and reading wouldn't know the stories. But Mark here specifically uses a word that the only other time is used In Isaiah, chapter 35. This idea of a speech impediment. In Isaiah 35, when you read that chapter, it's looking forward to a day when the Messiah saves his people. In that passage, Gentile Lebanon joins the ransomed of the Lord and enters Zion singing and rejoicing. It's not by accident that Mark says this phrase that Jesus is doing is for all people. We see also the captive is set free and taking him aside from the crowd, privately put his fingers into his ears and after spitting touched his tongue. That seems a little odd. But according to the Old Testament, anything that is inside of your body, any fluid that comes out of your body is deemed unclean. Jesus here takes something that would be deemed unclean and make someone clean with it. That his cleanliness makes an unclean clean and whole. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to Him Ephafatha. Again, that's just this transliteration from Greek into Aramaic, which is what Jesus spoke. Again, Peter, just saying. I remember exactly what he said. He said this. If ephathatha, that is, be opened and his ears were opened and his tongue was released, or literally the chains of his tongue were broken. Jesus is the one who sets the captive free and makes things right. And so we can look at this graph and it's no longer our self righteousness, it is God's imputed righteousness. It is him that's doing it. We just sang, not by works my hands have done, but only to you that I can cling. That is his righteousness that is given to us. And instantly we go from 0 to 100 in God's eyes. Not by my works, but by the works and finished works of Jesus. There's no gradual climb, there's no moral improvement, there's no religious advantage, there's no secular deficit, just imputation, just broken chains. We all. I don't care how you grew up, I don't care who your dad was. We need this today. Because even though you might know this theological truth like the back of your hand, we still think, I might be bondage in my own way, I might have my own vices, but God, I thank you. It's not like them. Then we see this phrase, it is good, just skipping down to verse 37. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, he has done all things well. Jesus is fulfilling prophecies that the Gentiles don't even realize. They don't even know about this year of jubilee under the Messiah of ultimate freedom, of breaking, of bondage, of setting the slaves free. He does do that, just physically. He does that for spiritually, for people. I can make you right before God. You cannot do it. You need me. And this is reminiscent of Genesis, chapter 1, verse 31. And God saw everything and made and behold, it was very good. The Son's work in redemption is likened here to the Father's work in creation. It is done well and it leaves nothing to be desired. So in Gospel application this morning, as our time is up, we see that it is done well. That is good news. We need this. We need this. There's wars and rumors of wars and all the things going on right now. This is good news. This should put a smile on your face that as you sit there, there's nothing that you can do to earn a right place with God. And even if you've been imputed with the righteousness of Jesus, there's nothing that you can do to earn more favor with God. He's done it. There was this phrase growing up and it's kind of cheesy, but it's true. I don't know who said it, I didn't look it up. But someone said that the biggest difference between Christianity and every other religion or non religion is two letters and that is do and done that so often we just want to do and do. And I want to. No, no. I want to earn my place. I want to feel valuable because of me and what I've accomplished. But Christianity is just emptied in ourselves that we bring nothing to the table except desperation and need. Need for a Savior. Some of us have been Christians a long time and so we start to think that we don't need Jesus anymore. Some of you might be in here and you might have been taught that Christianity is just about obeying rules and regulations and laws and being a good person. No, that is completely the opposite of what Jesus teaches. Jesus says on the cross and he cries out on the cross, it is finished. You can't add to this. I can't love you any more than dying for you. It's finished. And so if you're not a follower of Christ, today can be the day you go from 0 to 100 when it comes to Jesus and God's view of you. We have a communion every week here at Hope Lowertown and we take these elements and the cracker that represents the body of Christ that was broken, the juice that represents his blood that was poured out for us, he did that for you. We don't add this, we don't add our own bread, we don't add our own juice. We don't add our own righteousness, our own works, our own good behaviors. It's Jesus and we get to come to that and we get to repent of our sin and he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. And we take these elements to remember his cry. Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. It is finished for all people. You don't need to be a member of this church or any church, but if you're a follower of Jesus and maybe that's just today, and maybe today you said, yeah, that's the kind of Jesus I want to follow, then I would love for you to take these elements with us, to share this meal of communion with us in the memory of Jesus and what he did for us on the cross thousands of years ago. There's a gluten free option here on my left. If that's a dietary need. And the worship team's gonna come and they're gonna sing two songs. Feel free to grab those elements as you see fit, as we take these elements together in remembrance of him until he returns. Let me pray, and then we will continue with communion. Father, you are so, so good. There is nothing in who you are that said you had to save us. You gave us that choice. You continually give us that. And we continually choose ourselves. We continually choose our vices. We continually choose idolatry. But you chose before the foundations of the earth to send your son to die for our sins. There's nothing that we add. Only you and I pray that those of us who maybe our religion or our Christianity and our walk with Jesus has become stale, that we would just look at this afresh, that this is good news. God, we love you. We thank you. We do all these things in the name of Jesus, the Messiah. Amen.