Jesus the Merciful, Pt. 2

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Ask anyone who’s worked in customer service, and they’ll tell you animated stories about people getting frustrated because they didn’t things their way. Whether we acknowledge it or not, most of us feel entitled to get what we want, when we want it. Pastor Nick Gatzke delivers a powerful lesson about what we deserve.

Mark chapter seven, starting at verse 24, this is what it says. “It says, from there he, Jesus, arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and he did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile. a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And 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.’ But she answered him, ‘yes, Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’ And he said to her, ‘For this statement, you may go your way. The demon has left your daughter.’ And she went home and found the child lying in the bed and the demon gone.”

So if you take a step back and you try to recast the whole interaction in contemporary language, something like this. Lord, please cast a demon out of my daughter. Jesus replies, I haven’t come to minister to your type of people. Wouldn’t be right for me to give what the Jewish people deserve to the unclean Gentile dogs. And she replies, I know I don’t deserve it, but I’ll take whatever meager scraps you’ll give me because I believe that that, even that is enough. She knew she didn’t deserve it. She wasn’t Jewish. She wasn’t from Israel. She wasn’t a child of the promise. She wasn’t clean. Her child was possessed by a demon, the very opposite or enemy of God. She didn’t deserve a single thing from Jesus. She had no claim over him and she knew it. And Jesus knew it.

He knew that she didn’t deserve a thing. And yet he cast the demon out of the child and healed her anyway. This is the posture of faith that leads to salvation because you know who else doesn’t deserve it? Do you know who has no claim over Jesus? Do you know who doesn’t deserve a single thing from him? You and me. You know that, right? That you don’t deserve anything from God. He doesn’t owe you a thing. It’s an important posture to recognize because like you probably, I meet people all the time that have a sense of entitlement when it comes to God.

They think they deserve his favor in their life. And that comes out when they say things like, if God allows this bad thing to happen, then I’m not gonna believe in him. Or I don’t wanna believe in a God that would let me lose my job. I don’t wanna believe or follow a God that allows me to suffer in anxiety. I’m mad at God because he did what I didn’t want him to do or didn’t give me what I thought I wanted. That’s the posture that says, give me what I deserve. But that’s not the posture of faith.

True faith comes humbly and says, “I don’t deserve anything from you. I’m sinful and you’re holy and I, you, to please give me what I need.” The posture is not one that says, why doesn’t God give me what I want? Rather, it asks, why does God give me anything at all? You see, the posture of entitlement says, I deserve this. And underneath that is ultimately the message that is, I deserve this because I’m good enough. I’m special enough. I’ve done enough. And what do we call that? Ultimately, we call that a works-based understanding of God’s favor.

But grace from God is way better than the works that you can engage in because God’s grace is his favor regardless of your works and what you’ve done. That’s why we call grace unmerited favor. And so the posture of faith is a posture that recognizes that Jesus is the king and that he’s in control and that he’s working all things out in this world and in this country and in this state and in this church and in this home and in my life. And I come to him and I ask him for what I need. And if he says no, or not yet, or this but not that, or yes all the way.

I still trust that he cares for me even if I don’t get the answer I want or if that answer will lead to some form of temporary pain. You see, faith desires God. It desires his help and it trusts his provision no matter what he decides. Nobody likes entitled children. We’re at the age in our family where we have other kids that come over to play at our house with some regularity. Maybe you’re in that stage of life too. And nobody likes that one kid who in the first time they come into your house, like they’re there for five minutes and they walk right up to the fridge and open the door without asking. Or they go into the cabinet and they start pulling out chips and cookies as if we have that in my house anyway. But they’re looking for it. Nobody likes a kid that comes in and takes a claim on what is not theirs to have, right? Now, conversely, if that same kid comes into my house and he’s playing with my kids and he says, “hey, Mr. Gatzke, I’m really hungry. Could I have some chips?” Of course you can have some chips or cookies. I’ll give you almost whatever you want.

There’s a difference between entitlement and humility. And if we’re honest, our Western culture has continued to grow us in a sense of entitlement, something we’re almost raised in. And in that entitlement, I think there are at least three predominant realities that fuel the struggle that I have and that you have with entitlement. Things like instant gratification, the desire for entertainment almost incessantly, and Such the high, high, high value that we put on self-esteem in our culture today.

The Washington Post wrote about a study a handful of years ago. And the study concludes that parents are the ones to blame for the growing narcissism in the world. Parents, rather than Facebook or Instagram or selfie sticks or other social media. Parents who overvalue children in the developmental stages. of ages 7 through 11, by telling them that they’re superior to us. that they’re entitled to special treatment, that those types of messages are more likely to produce narcissistic children who then grow up and become narcissistic adults unless something is done about it.

The research continued and said when children are seen by their parents as being more special and more entitled than other children, they may internalize the view that they’re superior individuals, a view that is at the core of narcissism. The research goes on to show that a reversal of the idea that those with narcissistic tendencies were shown little warmth by their parents. In fact, the researcher gets to a middle ground and says, when children are treated by their parents with affection and appreciation and balance, then they may internalize the view that they’re valuable individuals, a view that is at the core of self-esteem.

When we think we are more important than we are, we develop a sense of entitlement with God, like he owes us something. An article in the Boston Globe gets at this issue from another direction. It says that our demand for instant results is seeping into every corner of our lives. The need for instant gratification is not new, but our expectation of instant has become faster. The article states that retailers are jumping into same-day delivery services, and if they don’t, they do so at their own peril. Smartphone apps eliminate the wait times for a cab or a date or a table at a hot restaurant. Movies and TV shows begin streaming in seconds, but experts caution that instant gratification comes at a price. It’s making us less patient. We’ve come to expect things so quickly that researchers found that people can’t wait more than a few seconds for a video to load. One researcher examined the viewing habits of 6.7 million internet users and asked the question, how long were the subjects willing to be patient? Two seconds. After that, they started abandoning the website. After five seconds, the abandonment rate was 25%. And after 10 seconds, half of the users were gone.

And the results offer a glimpse into the future. As internet speeds increase, as people will be even less willing to wait, they won’t be nearly as willing to wait for those cute puppy videos that they look at. The researcher who spent years developing the study worries that someday people will be too impatient to conduct studies on patients. And that study? was published 10 years ago. Think how much faster things have gotten since then. Our impatience and our need for instant gratification contributes to a sense of entitlement with God. I deserve what I want from him right now. So that poses the question, how is your posture? before God in your times of need? Is it one of entitlement or is it a humble, persistent faith?

A humble faith that says, God, I will take even the crumbs that you give because that will be enough. The point of the story is that grace comes to those who don’t deserve it.

And the second story builds on the first. They’re related to each other. Let me remind you of it starting in verse 31. It says that “Jesus returned from the region of Tyre and he went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the region of the Decapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment and they begged him to lay his hand on him. And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears and after spitting, touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said, Ephphatha, that is, be opened.

His ears were opened and his tongue was released and he spoke plainly. And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.”

A couple of things that stick out in this very short interaction between Jesus and the second man. we see that not only is every action of Jesus effective in some way, but it’s also symbolic in its nature. We’ll explain that in a second. And secondly, we see that the healing of the deaf man points to the dynamics of salvation for all of us.

Jesus is still among the dogs. He’s moved to a different town. He’s still with the Gentiles. He’s with the ones who don’t deserve the grace of God. And now he’s in the Decapolis and they bring to him a man who is deaf and dumb. His need is great. Now, most of us probably surmise that blindness would be more terrible for us than deafness. And in some ways that might be true, but you know what? The blind person is spared from the torture of seeing people dismiss him and mock him, or the pain of witnessing situations but not understanding what’s going on?

That’s not so with those who were deaf and dumb. And in the ancient world, it would be assumed that this person was deaf and dumb, either because of a sinful lifestyle choice they had made or because a demon had inflicted this man. So not only was he a Gentile dog, he was a Gentile dog who was considered to be among the worst of the Gentile dogs and even an outcast among the dogs. He was expendable and his need was great and he didn’t deserve a thing. And Jesus pulls him aside and performs a healing upon him. And he does so through a series of symbolic actions. He touches the man by putting his fingers in his ears and on his tongue. It is the touch of the Savior that heals. He looks up to his Father in heaven and he sighs. He shows his dependence on his father in prayer, just as the mother in the previous interaction was persistent in begging the son. Jesus himself relies on this father in prayer, displaying the perfect unity of purpose. And you’re reminded the very simple application. If Jesus prayed to his father for help and dependence, then you probably should too.

If you’re too busy to pray, that means you’re either too busy. You’re too busy not to pray, actually. Our persistent reliance upon God is vital to an ongoing joy and purpose in life. And the sigh of Jesus is really striking because it points to his compassion. This is the Savior. who weeps with those who weep and mourns with those who mourn. This is the one who sympathizes with those in need. This is the one who has gone out of his way in this very moment to be with the dogs. Wasn’t an accident that he was among the Gentiles.

He was there with the ones who don’t deserve it on purpose. People like you, people like me. And he spoke the words, be opened. Again, showing the power and the authority of his word. You know, we share, you and I share in the great need of the deaf man. He was on the outside of society and we are on the outside with God. On his own, he’s unable to hear from anyone. On our own, we are unable to hear from God. He needed a touch from the king. We need a touch from the king.

He deserved nothing, and we deserve nothing. But Jesus healed him anyway, and he can do the same for all of those who don’t deserve it. You see, if the first story displays that Jesus is gracious to the ones who don’t deserve it. The second one shows that he’s exceptionally compassionate in doing so. When you put them together, you see something like the compassionate king gives grace to those who don’t deserve it. Jesus is the compassionate king who gives grace to the ones who don’t deserve it.

Phil Griffin once wrote about a sign that he saw about a lost dog. It says there’s a big cash reward for whoever found this lost dog. And on the sign, there was a description of the dog. “It said, he’s only got three legs. He’s blind in the left eye. He’s missing his right ear. His tail’s been broken off. He was neutered accidentally by a fence. He’s almost deaf. And he answers by the name, Lucky.” That dog isn’t lucky. He’s been through a whole lot of mess, but he’s lucky because he’s got an owner who loves him enough to pay for him to get him back.

And that’s what redemption is all about. The compassionate king gives grace to those who don’t deserve it. Travel back with me 200 years in Christian history to John Newton, the slave trader turned pastor and hymn writer. He would receive almost unbelievable answers to prayer because he believed in what he called large asking. And when explaining what he meant, Newton would often cite the legendary story of a man who had asked Alexander the Great to give him a huge sum of money in exchange for his daughter’s hand in marriage. Alexander agreed and told the man to request of Alexander’s treasurer whatever he wanted. And so the father of the bride went to the treasurer and asked for an enormous amount. And the treasurer was startled at the request and said that he could not give away that kind of money without a direct order from the emperor. And so going to Alexander, the treasurer argued that even a small fraction of the money requested would be more than enough to serve the purpose. “No, replied Alexander, let him have it all. I like that fellow. He does me honor. He treats me like a king and proves by what he asks that he believes me to be both rich and generous.” And Newton concludes, in the same way, we should go to the throne of God’s grace and present petitions that express honorable views of his love, riches, and bounty. of our king. And we do so even though we don’t deserve it. The compassionate king gives grace to those who don’t deserve it. People like you and people like me. And we praise him for it. Let’s pray together.

Lord God, we thank you for the love and the care and the compassion of your son. Father, we pray on the one pole for those of us who have had a sense of entitlement with regard to you and the things of you. Please forgive us for that arrogance and pride and attitude and grow in us the appreciation and the desire that you give to us generously, even though we deserve nothing.

Father, we pray for those on the other side of that spectrum who are so downtrodden in their doubt and their fear. And we thank you for reaching all the way down to those of us who are like that and pulling us out of the miry pit that we would enjoy your compassion and your love forever. Amen.

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This transcript was generated using AI transcription technology and reviewed for accuracy, but may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for precise wording.