Mark 7:24-37 "Crossing Barriers with the Gospel"

Mark 7:29   " . . . such a reply . . . "

When one one of my grandchildren hops into my lap and says, "Knock, Knock," I know exactly how to respond. I say, "Who's there?" They will respond with one of the set ups they've learned, such as, "Boo." I will go along with the game and ask, "Boo Who?" To which they will gleefully respond, "Oh, I'm sorry you feel bad." Then they will giggle with delight because they have successfully effected their knock knock joke and pun.

When I read Mark 7:24-29 I recognize a set up. Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman are sharing a learned repartee. They both know the formula for this exchange just as my grandchildren know what unfolds from the introductory statement, "Knock, Knock." Jesus and the woman both know how the exchange will conclude. One says, it is not right to toss the children's bread to the dogs. The other responds, even the dogs under the table eat the crumbs. In this passage we have a wise saying. Probably, it circulated among people who lived along the border and sought ways to connect. This wise saying describes how people with compassion are willing to cross barriers to find and help each other.

The woman came to Jesus in hope of help for her daughter. She understood the barrier between Jews and Gentiles. Many Jews referred to Gentiles as dogs while they saw themselves as the children of God. The Syrophoenician community would have seen themselves as elites and the Jews as peasants. Jesus and this unnamed Gentile woman crossed the barrier and connected through their common humanity and shared compassion for a child in distress.

Jesus opened his ministry to Gentiles. He did not allow the Jewish understanding of themselves as children of God to keep him from caring for a person who was on the other side of the ethnic and religious boundary. The Gentile woman did not allow her status as part of an elite community keep her from humbling herself before Jesus so that she could find help for her child.

This encounter between Jesus and the woman recalls the visit of a Syrian commander named Naaman to the home of the Jewish prophet Elisha. When Naaman was told to wash in the Jordan river in order to be cleansed of his disease he almost left without being healed. He thought how the rivers of Syria were larger, cleaner and more beautiful than the humble Jordan. In pride he took steps to depart, but one of his advisors pleaded with him to reconsider. Naaman humbled himself, washed in the Jordan, was healed and became a follower of the Lord (2 Kings 5:15). Elisha and Naaman crossed the ethnic, political and religious divide that separated them just as centuries later Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman would cross similar boundaries to bring relief to a desperate child and parent.

How we need wise sayings! We need words that will help us show compassion to one another across the boundaries that separate us. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is for all people. We want our thoughts, our words and our actions to bring people to Jesus. We do not want to build barriers that keep people away from him.

Jesus went to the vicinity of Tyre. He left the territory where Jews predominated. He sought a place of anonymity; perhaps, he went to rest. Yet, it was inevitable that he would encounter the needy of that place even though they were not Jews. It was the providence of God. When we have our own providential appointments with those who are different, we want to have our attitude right and our words prepared so that we can, like Jesus, cross every barrier with the Gospel.

Mark 7 Diet Debate

Mark 7:19   “Jesus declared all foods clean.” (NIV)

Mark 7 reports a debate on food. The critics of Jesus charged him with a failure to observe the traditional rules about food and food handling. Jesus answered his critics with the idea that all foods are clean. All foods are eatable. This teaching shocked people. Most folks thought that what you ate and how you ate it were important to one’s relationship to God. Jesus taught that what goes into a person--food--is not so important as what comes out of a person, that is, their thoughts and words and actions.

People today have an obsession with food, too. Americans spend forty billion dollars annually on diet plans. Cooking shows and fine restaurants and gourmet kitchens, as well as the fast food industry, are part of the food world that makes the 21st century just as food conscious as those first century critics of Jesus. People give food a value beyond the simple need to eat to live. Food has an emotional, psychological, intellectual and spiritual meaning to people, now, just as it did when the debate between Jesus and his critics was first recorded.

Nutrition is important. Exercise is important. The Bible teaches the value of both. (See the story of Daniel or take note of 1 Timothy 4:8). The teachings of Jesus do not obviate the value of nutrition and exercise. We are called to be good stewards of our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). 

Still, rules about food or exercise or any other external behavior can become an obstacle to spiritual formation. Rule keepers can be filled with anger, lust, envy--all sorts of evil thoughts. Jesus identified a dozen sins that arise from one’s thoughts (verses 21-23) No rule has the power to uproot and remove the source of this evil. Jesus quoted the prophets who made clear that such rule keeping was far from the purposes of God and true worship (verses 6-8).

The Gospel uproots the evil within a person by creating a transformed mind (Romans 12:1-2). This transformation is an ongoing process. As one weeds a garden week by week, so one confesses, repents and receives forgiveness in order to experience transformation of the evil heart. When the Holy Spirit changes the heart then one’s behavior will gradually change, too.

Of course, one danger is that people will hear the critique Jesus made of rules but not hear the Gospel. To abandon rules does not make one spiritual. Licentiousness fails us even more than rule keeping. We want our behavior to change. The issue is how to change, and this change begins in the heart, in the mind, in the spirit. Day by day confession, repentance and the grace of God create a new heart and a new life.

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Grandchildren. Sweetie Pie begins first grade this week.We are going to have much to talk about in the days ahead. I remember my own first grade class and teacher. My remembrances of school are happy. I am eager to talk with Sweetie Pie about her impressions of this coming adventure as she grows and learns and makes new friends. 

John 6:56-71 Leaving Jesus

John 6:67 “Do you, also, wish, to go away?” (RSV)

Jesus had thousands of followers as indicated in John 6. They had seen his miraculous power at work and wanted to make him their king, by force if necessary (6:15). At the end of the chapter the thousands of followers dissolved to just a few, to just twelve, and one of those twelve was a “devil” (6:70). Jesus turned to them, and asked them, “Do you, also, wish to go away?” (6:67)

When I was still in my 20’s, just out of seminary, I served on a committee at a church with a pastor whom I greatly admired, but my admiration was being tested. He had called a meeting in downtown Wash., D.C. for 7:00 pm. My wife was away from home, and I had the care of our preschooler. So, at rush hour in bumper to bumper traffic I had to go into the urban center with my child for this meeting. What’s more we were in the middle of a thunderstorm. When I arrived at the meeting place, there was no parking. I drove round and round looking for a place. When I finally found one I had to run to make the meeting on time, baby in one arm, umbrella in the other. Both of us were soaked by the time we reached the door. I practically collapsed upon entering the building, and then I got mad. No one was there! Out of a committee of eight only the pastor and one other person had arrived. We waited for a just a moment or two and then the pastor started the meeting. He smiled and looked at the two of us, plus my preschool son, and said, “Now, we’ll get something done; the people who want to serve are here.” My anger dissipated as I realized that he felt no anger at all. He was eager to get started with those who shared his passion enough to face rush hour and come out in a thunderstorm to get the work done. I have never forgotten that meeting or the indomitable spirit of that pastor.

In Zechariah 4:10 we read, “Who dares despise the day of small things . . . ?” Also in that chapter we read, “‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.” (4:6) Throughout the Bible the same message comes multiple times. Gideon was told to reduce his armed force (Judges 7:2) so that the people would understand that the victory did not come by the strength of their numbers but by God’s presence with them. So, David faced Goliath alone and said, “All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s.” (1 Samuel 17:47) Jesus said, “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:20) Jesus was prepared to see the thousands melt away. He was prepared to give his last twelve disciples the freedom also to depart.

They stayed. Peter asked, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68) Peter had it just right even though later, when faced with crucifixion, he would falter and fail Jesus, as would all the disciples. Jesus would go forward alone to the cross.

After the resurrection of Jesus from the dead Peter and the disciples and all of us who have come to believe post-resurrection, find strength in the presence and power of God’s Spirit to go forward in discipleship. With God’s grace we are able, following Jesus, to have confidence because of our conviction that the Lord is with us, and that the battle is the Lord’s. We do not despise small things. We do not depend on numbers of people for assurance or encouragement or boldness. We are not looking to the popular culture for affirmation. We are happy to be among the few who choose to remain because we believe that Jesus has the words of eternal life and he is the holy one of God.

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Grandchildren. This week I was driving Mr. Happy, almost four years old, to Darden Towe Park. I mentioned in our conversation the name of the park, and he quickly corrected my pronunciation. I was amused because I can remember a time when Mr. Happy couldn’t even talk; now, he is able not only to talk but to help his grandfather correctly pronounce names!

John 6:51-61 God's Hyperbole: the Church

John 6:61 “ . . . Does this offend you? . . .”

Jesus offended the people who had witnessed the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000.  In words most shocking he said that he was giving his flesh for the world to consume. Going further he said, “ . . . unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” (6:53) Later in history the enemies of the church would use the words of Jesus and reports on the observance of the Lord’s Supper in order to charge Christians with human sacrifice and cannibalism.

Hyperbole shocks. By definition hyperbole is not meant to be taken literally. For Jews the idea of eating blood was unthinkable, just as cannibalism was. They knew that Jesus, a Jew, did not intend to be taken literally. Thoughtful people, then and now, even if they are adverse to Christian faith, understand the use of hyperbole. By taking offense at his language the people around Jesus were able to avoid facing the authentic challenge in those words. It was easier to be shocked at his words than it was to engage with him on the meaning of salvation and the claim of Jesus to be God’s redemption.

The church is God’s hyperbole. The church often shocks and offends the world. Perhaps, the world takes offense at the pious language of an evangelical preacher or the exuberance of a Pentecostal. Perhaps, the world finds Catholicism too ritualistic or the Anglican way too self-important.  In the eyes of the world all churches are equally subject to the charge of hypocrisy, and it is true that seldom does the church live up to the message it preaches. The church is flesh and blood. It is human. Being shocked at its failed humanity is to miss the point of hyperbole. It is to avoid the real offense of the Gospel. 

The claim of Jesus to be the incarnate God and the means of salvation does offend. His claim shocks us with the seriousness of sin; in order to remove sin the shedding of blood is necessary. God comes in Christ to give that blood. The offense of the Gospel is the message of the cross, the impossibility of human works bringing us to God and the realization and acceptance that salvation comes only by the grace of God’s work in Christ.

As the church, the body of Christ, and the hyperbole of God we will always offend. All our efforts in ministry are shockingly human. Yet, it pleased God to entrust to the church the message of the cross, and the real offense to the world is the cross. Foolishness to the world but to all who have heard and answered his call it is the power and wisdom of God.

John 6:35, 41-51 Church Growth

John 6:44  “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them . . .”

Many years ago when I was a young minister who had only recently arrived in San Francisco to take up my first pastoral assignment, I went to a state wide meeting of Baptists that was being held in Southern California. This meeting attracted me because I hoped to gain information and insight on pastoral ministry from the people I met in the workshops and conferences. In particular I felt the need to learn all I could about church leadership. 

I remember sitting in a diner in Oxnard where the meeting was being held. It was breakfast time, and many pastors were gathering at this diner. In walked one of the more prominent ministers. He sat down beside me at the counter. I took the opportunity to introduce myself and to ask him how he had been successful in leading his church to grow so large. He looked at me with what I took to be a measure of disdain, and he said, “I suppose we pray a lot.” 

His remark ended our conversation, and at the time I felt rebuked, but I wasn’t sure why. I had asked in all innocence and sincerity for his insight, but I felt I had said something wrong and that I had offended him. Looking back, now, after many years in the ministry I understand better his “disdain” if that’s what he meant to communicate; his abrupt answer made me think, and it helped me to reflect on what I was asking. It came to me that, perhaps, I was approaching the subject of leadership and church growth in the wrong way. I was asking the wrong question.

In the passage from John 6 the people who followed Jesus to the other side of the lake after the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 were, like me, asking the wrong question. In their case the wrong question led them to grumble among themselves and eventually to complain about Jesus and to depart the circle of discipleship. The miracle attracted them to Jesus. They liked the easy access to food and drink and the possibility that such a miracle worker could lead their nation as a king who would insure prosperity for the people. However, as Jesus pointed out to them, the most important attraction was not prosperity but the pull of God’s Spirit into relationship with the Father and Son. 

New pastors, or at least new pastors like me, are often caught up in the desire to see the institution of the church expand. That desire is understandable. Numerical growth for a church, like food and water for an individual, is necessary. If a church never replaces its membership then the institution of the church will die. However, putting emphasis on institutional survival is the same mistake that the people in John 6 made; it is the mistake that brought a rebuke from Jesus. It is the mistake that caused me to earn the pastor’s disdain in that Oxnard cafe. 

When we put our mission first then institutional growth will come as it should. Even if a church does not grow numerically it can still be used of God for purposes that we may not see. Prayer, faithful witness to the Gospel as revealed in Scripture, worship, giving and service will produce the food that lasts forever. The churches Paul served no longer exist institutionally, but their witness continues. God still draws people to himself through the witness of these churches. No church faithful to God ever dies. Individually and as churches we live in Christ, and our witness continues beyond our historical moment and brief life on earth because the work--the true work of the Gospel--belongs to God. He is the one who draws people to himself.

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Grandchildren. This week has been momentous--the birth of a third child to our son and daughter-in-law. Sweetie Pie and Mr. Happy have given the new addition his nickname (which he will no doubt insist on changing as he gets older.) The temporary nickname is “Squeaker.” He is a healthy boy of more than eight pounds, but he does squeak to signal his needs and wants. For the Fiona and Freddy stories the new addition will go by the name, Frazer; however, Fiona and Freddy have decided that Frazer does not get to go on any adventures until he is old enough to sit in Pal’s lap and listen to the stories. Until then he is “Squeaker.”