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He Has Done All Things Well
Mark 7:24-30,37
Today’s New Testament Scripture Lessons portrays the accounts of the last things in the public ministry of Jesus. This two part story suggests beforehand that Jesus and his small ban of disciples were now doing something very different which was new, and of course startling to the then disciples, and to others as well.
- Jesus was sent first to his very own people, the Jews.
- However, thanks be to God, Jesus’ ministry did not stop there.
- In fact, the very last six months of Jesus’ public ministry; Jesus spent these months in the Gentile territory of Tyre and Sidon.
- Why had he come to Tyre? Verse 24 – give the answer. To rest! Yes to rest, but this is only part of the reason he came!
- Jesus sought this time to train and intensify the preparation of the disciples learning. He wanted them to know that their callings were not only to the Jews, but to all people everywhere.
Thus in this intensive preparation period Jesus taught those that were with him the steps to caring for the rejected.
Step 1: Allowing interruptions of one’s seclusion by the rejected (v. 25).
- Notice in verse 24, Jesus came there to rest. But, the woman’s needs became more important than his need for rest.
Step 2: Conversing with the rejected (v. 26-28).
- This mother had two strikes against her. First, “She had a daughter with an evil spirit, the whole family was shunned, sometimes feared and ostracized. Both the daughters and the mother knew rejection and the deep emotions of it.”
- Second, the mother was a Greek, a Syrophenian or Canaanite by race. She was from one of the seven nations driven out of Canaan in the Old Testament. They and the Jews were bitter enemies, ancestral enemies. They despised and hated each other. In approaching Jesus, she knew that she was coming to a Jew who was assumed to be her enemy. Remember, “He had done all things well.”
- However, Jesus allowed her to come; He did not turn her away. Others rejected her and her daughter, having nothing to do with them. This mother and daughter stood alone in the world, rejected by all. Even Jesus’ disciples rejected her, too (Mt. 15:23). This mother stood alone in the world as rejected as a person could be, but Jesus received her.
The Bible is emphatic: “Jesus, the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matt. 20:28)
Thanks, Jesus.
- Jesus taught prejudice and rejection are wrong.
- Jesus taught by his very own example that the rejected are to be reached out to and helped.
- Jesus taught the disciples that the rejected were always cut off by society, excluded from walking in the midst of society.
- He explained to them that society wraps its acceptable behavior around itself and secludes itself from those who act differently.
Jesus led the woman to persist and believe. Incisively and with great spiritual insight, she saw and confessed that she was nothing spiritually. She was a dog. However, being a dog of the family, she had the right to eat the crumbs that fell from His table. As fellow Gentiles, we too have the same right.
Finally, Jesus taught, above all what mission is, “To care for the rejected is to meet their needs.” This mother believed Jesus could meet her needs. Here belief was so strong, she would not quit despite being met with silence, irritation, opposition, apparent rebuff, and being told that she was undeserving. She would not take no for her answer. There isn’t any other way to say it except, “Woman, you have great faith.”
“So, I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will open to you.” (Lk. 11:9)
Do you know what caused Jesus to answer this mother’s prayer? It was not her faith, but her humility (surrender) and worship of Him as Lord.
Are ye able today to surrender and to worship Him as Lord?
For indeed, “He has done all things well.”
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