Jesus the Merciful, Pt. 1
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We like to think we deserve good things from family, employers, and even from God. In fact we demand, “what we deserve!” But the Bible makes it clear this attitude misses the mark. Pastor Nick Gatzke takes us to an interaction between Jesus and a Gentile woman that reveals what you and I truly deserve.
Please pray with me. Father in heaven, we pray that you would bless the reading and the preaching of your most holy word, that you would encourage us, convict us, and conform us into the likeness of your son, in whose name we pray. Amen.
A dog named Wilson was left feeling under par after gobbling up a staggering seven golf balls. His owner, Tim Norris rushed Wilson to the vet thinking that perhaps his pet had swallowed a single golf ball at the Royal Ashdown Forest Golf Club. But an x-ray revealed that Wilson, a chocolate Labrador, had actually swallowed seven. “Our dog walker let Wilson off the lead,” Norris said. “And we think that he must have found the basket of practice balls somewhere near the golf club. He probably thought they were dog biscuits.” When they rushed Wilson to the vet, they were shocked to discover that he had eaten seven of them. Chocolate labs are incredibly greedy dogs, and Wilson is no different, Norris added. They will eat anything that they think is food. I’ve since bought a muzzle for him because at 18 months, he still has a lot to learn.
Of course, he had to go under surgery to pull the golf balls out. Wilson was released from the vet’s office later that day after the surgery and has since made a speedy recovery, although he’s still in the doghouse. You know, dogs can become wonderful members of the family that give and receive tremendous affection. And yet dogs can also be very greedy and entitled. For many of us, if you have a dog, you might know that to be the case.
You’ve probably heard me mention at some point or another that our family finally got a dog. It’s a Bernese Mountain Dog named Edelweiss von Gatzke. We call her Ada for short. And her head is just at counter height. And so if you turn your back while you’re still in the room, you’re probably okay. But if you leave the room, that steak that’s on the counter… disappear because dogs are greedy and they’re entitled. And Ada is no exception. You know, just yesterday, I think it was, that I was walking through the house and she was kind of scampering through with a blow pop in her mouth. I don’t know how that happened exactly. She broke into one of the kids’ rooms and stole some candy. And just like a kid would, I mean, just the stick of the sucker, it was just sticking right out of the front of her mouth and she’s sucking away in this thing. She couldn’t get the wrapper off, but no matter. Take what she thinks is hers. Dogs are great, but nobody wants to be called a dog. That’s not a compliment. And so it’s surprising when we turn to Mark chapter seven, that we see Jesus calling a Gentile woman a dog. It’s pretty shocking.
And it causes us to ask, why would he say such a thing? And if, He likens people to be of such low status or stature as a dog. Does that mean that he will save those dogs? Let’s find out.
Mark 7, starting at verse 24, this is what it says. “It says, 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. Then he returned from the region of Tyre and 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 to him, be opened. And his ears were opened. 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. And they were astonished beyond measure saying, he has done all things well.
He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
Throughout the gospel of Mark, where Jesus is and who Jesus is speaking to is vital to understanding what we are meant to learn. If Jesus is speaking to the Jews, the nuance or the application will be often different than if he were speaking to the non-Jews, the Gentiles. And if he is engaging with the Pharisees, the religious leaders, that will often carry with it a different thrust than if he were speaking to his disciples. The setting, the people, and the tone all set the stage for meaning.
And so here in Mark chapter seven, we see that Jesus has gone into Tyre and Sidon. He’s back in Gentile territory in what is considered to be modern day Lebanon. Now, he had just traveled 35 miles from Gennesaret where he was engaging with Jewish people. You might remember in the previous chapter, we talked about it a couple of weeks ago, he had just a whole bunch of Jewish people, 5,000 men plus women and children through a miracle. And as he arrives in this region of Tyre and Sidon, he attempts to stay under the radar. But like everywhere, it seems that Jesus goes, that his arrival is preceded by the word of his arrival. People know he’s coming, even all the way up in Lebanon. And Gentiles who were there shouldn’t care. They shouldn’t care that a Jewish rabbi is coming to their town. Jesus is not just a Jewish rabbi.
And so he enters the house and not long after, a woman comes in and she throws herself at Jesus’ feet. It’s a bold approach that would be considered totally inappropriate. The woman’s described as a Syrophoenician, which means that type of woman grew up probably in Tyre. She was a Gentile Arab who had been Hellenized by Greek culture. So for such a person to approach a rabbi in this fashion would be scandalous. I mean, as a pagan Gentile, she was part of the people that the Jewish forefathers had sought to eradicate when they were taking the promised land. There was a great barrier between these two types of people, generational enemies, some might even say. And further, she was a woman who was approaching a man, which doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to us today, but in the ancient world, So in the eyes of the Jews, this woman carried with her the equivalence of an unclean dog.
But what was amazing about her is that her desperation compelled her faith. Her daughter was possessed by a demon. Now, you could only imagine what they had tried up to this point. to try to heal the girl. And we could only imagine what the symptoms of this demon possession might be on a regular basis as she goes throughout her days. And we all know what mothers are willing to do if the safety or health of their children is at risk. They get desperate. But this was more than desperation. This woman did not just come in desperation.
She came in faith. She believed that Jesus could and would heal her daughter. Yes, of course she was desperate, but in her desperation, she turned to him in faith. How do we know? We know that through the interaction that follows and the persistence that she shows. Her persistence is what points to faith. Begs the question, what are you persistent about with God? I know that one of my own struggles or temptations is to ask God for something once or maybe twice, but maybe not have the persistence that God desires.
What are you persistent about? I think of a Chicago company that’s one of the largest magazine fulfillment firms in the nation. And that means that they handle subscription mailings through their computer system. And among other things, they send out those little renewal notices that you might get if you’re subscribed to a magazine that has an expiration notice on it and tries to get you to renew. And one day, the company’s computer malfunctioned. And soon after, a rancher in Powder Bluff, Colorado, got 9,734 of those little renewal notice cards in the mail, letting him know that his subscription to the National Geographic was about to expire.
Now, you might imagine if you receive 9,734 of those little cards in the mail, that’s going to probably get your attention pretty quickly. And it did for this rancher. So he got into his truck. He drove 10 miles down the road to the local post office. He sent in the money for his renewal and he included a little note that said, I give up. Send me the magazine. Because there’s something about multiple requests that bring answers. And for reasons known only to God, that’s also true in prayer. And he tells us to be like the persistent widow who bugs the judge until justice is given.
He tells us to be persistent with him. This woman is persistent, even in her short interaction with Jesus. And this persistence points to her faith. And we know that because of the interaction that follows. So look at it with me, verse 26, 27. It says, “she begged him to cast out the demon. of her daughter, and he said to her, let the children be fed first, for it’s not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” There it is. Jesus just called the woman a dog. In the midst of her desperation and even faith, her begging to cast out the demon, he reminds her of some sort of propriety.
When he says, let the children be fed first, of course, he’s talking about the Jewish people. He’s saying, let the Jewish Messiah minister to and bless the Jewish children of the promise and not throw their blessing in front of Gentile dogs. And why would he say that? Just a bad day? Is he trying to be mean? And that’s not consistent with what we’ve seen of Jesus to this point. I mean, many of the children, the children of God, the Jewish people, the Jews have already rejected Jesus. And in fact, their religious leaders are seeking to destroy him.
Beyond that, he’s actually just fed them. So there’s something going on there, right? I mean, just literally in the previous chapter, he had 5,000 plus women and children right there. And he physically fed them and not just fed them, he fed them bread and not just fed them bread, but fed them in abundance. And now, He’s talking about giving them even more bread, but not the Gentiles. Beyond that, we see that he’s already ministered to the Gentiles in some capacity. He’s done great things for them.
He’s cast out demons. He’s healed sick people among the Gentiles, even in the Decapolis itself. And so in this sense, he’s already blessed the dogs. So why does he say this at this time to this woman? What’s the point? Jesus is not actually being mean here. He has just walked this woman to the edge of vocalizing her response, her response of faith. And he does it for her benefit and for all of ours. And that’s what she gives us. In verse 28, it says that she answered him after being called a dog. “Yes, Lord. Yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
That’s fascinating. She didn’t respond in defensiveness like you would or I would. She didn’t respond at the characterization at all. Her response was akin to saying, yes, Lord, if I’m a dog, that means I have a master, which is you. And as a dog, I roam in the house and pick the crumbs off of the master’s floor. That is a humble response of faith. 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.
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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.
