WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.440 Well, we just read from a few different stories in Mark 7 and 8. 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:12.240 All three of them are fairly strange stories with the spitting and the reference to the 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:15.240 dog, the Syrophoenician woman. 00:00:15.240 --> 00:00:22.679 Jesus at the beginning is in the region of Tyre and Sidon, and he is there because he's 00:00:22.679 --> 00:00:24.640 trying to be on holiday. 00:00:24.640 --> 00:00:30.719 So he leaves Galilee and goes north, it's about 50 miles north of his hometown, and 00:00:30.719 --> 00:00:31.920 he's there to take a break. 00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:35.280 He's trying to stay away from everyone. 00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:37.359 And this woman encounters him. 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:44.320 He wanted to get away because he was encountered with hatred everywhere he went in his own home 00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:45.320 country. 00:00:45.320 --> 00:00:49.600 So the government hated him, Herodantipus was against him, and then last week we saw how 00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:51.280 much the Pharisees hated him. 00:00:51.280 --> 00:00:53.640 And so he's truly looking for a holiday. 00:00:53.640 --> 00:00:55.120 He can't find it. 00:00:55.120 --> 00:00:58.480 He goes north and this woman encounters him. 00:00:58.480 --> 00:01:05.359 Now, if Jesus Christ was on Twitter today and he said what he says to her in this passage, 00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:09.319 he would undoubtedly be canceled very quickly. 00:01:09.319 --> 00:01:13.879 You probably saw verse 27, he calls her a dog. 00:01:13.879 --> 00:01:20.520 And it seems when you read that on the surface, incredibly offensive, she is obviously a different 00:01:20.519 --> 00:01:21.679 gender from him. 00:01:21.679 --> 00:01:23.399 She's a different race. 00:01:23.399 --> 00:01:26.759 She's very different from religious background. 00:01:26.759 --> 00:01:28.119 She's very likely widowed. 00:01:28.119 --> 00:01:31.199 The text doesn't tell us that, but I think it's implied. 00:01:31.199 --> 00:01:33.920 She is totally other from Jesus. 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:38.959 This is maximum intersectionality. 00:01:38.959 --> 00:01:42.000 And he calls her a dog. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:48.079 And when you study this text, you start to peel back the layers. 00:01:48.079 --> 00:01:52.120 You see something profound, something very important. 00:01:52.120 --> 00:01:56.599 And you have to do a little work to see what he's really saying to her. 00:01:56.599 --> 00:01:58.239 And so we need to do that. 00:01:58.239 --> 00:02:01.560 To go through all the details and all the details of all three stories, we would need 00:02:01.560 --> 00:02:05.759 hours, not minutes, but we have minutes, not hours. 00:02:05.759 --> 00:02:10.280 So let's just take a few minutes and think about two things. 00:02:10.280 --> 00:02:13.560 One, how do we approach Jesus? 00:02:13.560 --> 00:02:16.639 And then secondly, how does he approach us? 00:02:16.639 --> 00:02:17.639 That's what we learned here. 00:02:17.639 --> 00:02:20.839 How do we approach Jesus, how he approaches us? 00:02:20.839 --> 00:02:22.639 So first, how do you approach Jesus? 00:02:22.639 --> 00:02:23.639 All right. 00:02:23.639 --> 00:02:27.319 Jesus is here, the region of Tyre and Sidon. 00:02:27.319 --> 00:02:32.639 This is a 20-mile stretch of coast right on the Mediterranean in the present-day country 00:02:32.639 --> 00:02:34.759 of Lebanon. 00:02:34.759 --> 00:02:39.199 And it's very important that it says region, so he's not in Tyre. 00:02:39.199 --> 00:02:40.639 He's not inside him. 00:02:40.639 --> 00:02:42.519 He's somewhere in between Tyre and Sidon. 00:02:42.519 --> 00:02:44.319 He's in the region. 00:02:44.319 --> 00:02:51.719 And in the first century, everybody knew it, Tyre and Sidon in the region, which was formerly 00:02:51.719 --> 00:02:53.219 called Phoenicia. 00:02:53.219 --> 00:02:55.959 That's why she's called the Phoenician. 00:02:55.959 --> 00:03:00.159 These were some of the most absolute enemies of the Jewish people. 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:07.199 So in the century, just prior to Jesus' life, Israel, the Jews were at war with the Phoenicians 00:03:07.199 --> 00:03:08.959 in this region. 00:03:08.959 --> 00:03:10.919 And this goes so far back. 00:03:10.919 --> 00:03:17.359 In Ezekiel 26, we have Ezekiel saying that the people from Tyre and Sidon are the terror 00:03:17.359 --> 00:03:18.359 on the seas. 00:03:18.359 --> 00:03:19.359 That's the phrase he uses. 00:03:19.359 --> 00:03:22.359 I think he's probably talking about piracy. 00:03:22.359 --> 00:03:25.959 So maybe these were largely pirates in Ezekiel's day. 00:03:25.959 --> 00:03:30.560 Josephus, one of the first-century historians that we have, he says that Tyre is the most 00:03:30.560 --> 00:03:33.399 bitter enemy of the Jews. 00:03:33.399 --> 00:03:36.959 There's a book called The Psalms of Solomon. 00:03:36.959 --> 00:03:39.959 This is a book that's not part of the Bible. 00:03:39.960 --> 00:03:43.480 They were not written by Solomon, but they were written just before Jesus was born a 00:03:43.480 --> 00:03:46.680 century or so before, attributed to Solomon. 00:03:46.680 --> 00:03:48.960 And it gives you a flavor for what people of the time thought. 00:03:48.960 --> 00:03:49.960 This is what's written there. 00:03:49.960 --> 00:03:55.719 It says that one day the Messiah would come and cleanse the world of Tyre. 00:03:55.719 --> 00:03:59.840 And one day the Messiah would come, the Psalms of Solomon sing and cleanse the world of all 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:02.800 the Gentiles. 00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:07.240 And the Matthew 15 account of this text doesn't just call her a syrophoenician. 00:04:07.240 --> 00:04:10.719 It says that this woman is Canaanite. 00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:16.040 So she is a descendant, this region, their descendants of the Canaanites, from all the 00:04:16.040 --> 00:04:19.160 way back from the book of Joshua. 00:04:19.160 --> 00:04:24.879 These are the most, this is the most bitter enemy of Israel all the way to the first century. 00:04:24.879 --> 00:04:31.480 So Jesus Christ is very clearly here, is having a cross-cultural experience, as we might say 00:04:31.480 --> 00:04:32.480 today. 00:04:32.480 --> 00:04:38.040 He's in a cross-cultural context, and he wants it to be a secret, verse 24 says. 00:04:38.040 --> 00:04:39.759 He's trying to rest. 00:04:39.759 --> 00:04:42.480 It even tells us he goes to a house. 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:44.120 So he's not out in public. 00:04:44.120 --> 00:04:46.040 He's in a private home. 00:04:46.040 --> 00:04:50.680 And yet this woman sees him and approaches him. 00:04:50.680 --> 00:04:56.120 And we're told in verse 24, he could not be hidden. 00:04:56.120 --> 00:05:05.399 Now maybe that very simply is the first lesson to learn from this story, is that when people 00:05:05.399 --> 00:05:13.759 come to understand a little bit, just a little bit about Jesus, he becomes incredibly attractive. 00:05:13.759 --> 00:05:17.519 Maybe you've seen this experience or this has happened to you that there are people 00:05:17.519 --> 00:05:21.759 in your life or you're one of these people where you weren't interested in Christianity 00:05:21.759 --> 00:05:23.759 at all. 00:05:23.759 --> 00:05:28.000 And somebody asked you simply to read a little bit of the Gospels. 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:33.000 And you encounter the Gospels for the first time, and you read about Jesus and you say, 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:35.959 this is very different than what I expected. 00:05:35.959 --> 00:05:40.039 And all of a sudden you say something like, you start to feel and you're like, you start 00:05:40.039 --> 00:05:44.279 to say something like, I cannot help but come to him. 00:05:44.279 --> 00:05:46.079 And here he's in Syro Phoenicia. 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:50.879 He's up in this enemy territory, and this woman sees him and understands just a little 00:05:50.879 --> 00:05:56.879 bit of him, and yet she cannot help but come to him. 00:05:56.879 --> 00:06:01.199 Maybe today if you're here and you're wrestling with the Christian faith and asking questions 00:06:01.199 --> 00:06:05.600 about it, you're curious about it, one of the questions to ask, very simple, is why is 00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:07.000 Jesus so popular? 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:12.040 So by far and away, Jesus Christ is the most famous man that's ever lived, the most famous 00:06:12.040 --> 00:06:14.439 person that's ever lived. 00:06:14.439 --> 00:06:21.639 And it's an important question to ask yourself, how could a common criminal who was murdered 00:06:21.639 --> 00:06:27.560 like so many others in the backwaters of the Roman Empire become more famous than the emperor 00:06:27.560 --> 00:06:30.560 himself within two centuries? 00:06:30.560 --> 00:06:35.600 And the simple fact is that when you come to encounter a little bit of Jesus and understand 00:06:35.600 --> 00:06:40.600 a little bit of him, you cannot help but want to come to him more and more. 00:06:40.600 --> 00:06:41.720 And that's what's happening with her. 00:06:41.720 --> 00:06:43.519 She wants to come to him. 00:06:43.519 --> 00:06:44.919 He does come to him. 00:06:44.919 --> 00:06:47.439 Why? 00:06:47.439 --> 00:06:49.639 Why does she approach him? 00:06:49.639 --> 00:06:51.279 And that's really the question of the passage. 00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:54.479 And let me tell you two reasons why she approaches him. 00:06:54.479 --> 00:06:59.719 The first reason we're told is it's because she has a little daughter, verse 25. 00:06:59.719 --> 00:07:02.439 You see, it says little daughter. 00:07:02.439 --> 00:07:07.159 So it's not just that she has a daughter, but she has a wee daughter, very little. 00:07:07.159 --> 00:07:12.839 And that daughter has an unclean spirit, a demonic force that's possessed her. 00:07:12.839 --> 00:07:19.279 Now, we read a little bit, I listed a little bit of her CV, of her resume. 00:07:19.279 --> 00:07:25.519 And in the eyes of the disciples, she is completely unqualified to approach Jesus or 00:07:25.519 --> 00:07:29.839 to receive help from God at all. 00:07:29.839 --> 00:07:31.359 She is a Gentile. 00:07:31.359 --> 00:07:32.479 She's a woman. 00:07:32.479 --> 00:07:36.439 And in the eyes of the culture, it's inappropriate for her to even approach Jesus, especially 00:07:36.439 --> 00:07:38.599 in a private house. 00:07:38.599 --> 00:07:40.000 She's a Canaanite. 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:43.600 And if you were with us last week, you saw the previous story of the Pharisees, the Pharisees 00:07:43.600 --> 00:07:46.160 were saying, I can make myself clean. 00:07:46.160 --> 00:07:47.240 You know, I wash my hands. 00:07:47.240 --> 00:07:48.680 I follow all the laws. 00:07:48.680 --> 00:07:52.519 I am entirely qualified to approach the Messiah. 00:07:52.519 --> 00:07:54.879 I'm entirely qualified to stand before God. 00:07:54.879 --> 00:07:58.439 And they were pursuing God in that way under their qualifications. 00:07:58.439 --> 00:08:04.360 Paul will later think about his time as a Pharisee and he'll say, you know, I was a Hebrew among 00:08:04.360 --> 00:08:05.360 Hebrews. 00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:07.680 I was zealous for the law. 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:13.280 You know, if it comes to obedience, checkmark, if it comes to the right ethnicity, checkmark, 00:08:13.280 --> 00:08:19.040 if it comes to zealous for God, zealous for good work, zealous for morality, yes, yes, 00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:20.040 yes. 00:08:20.040 --> 00:08:21.840 And you come to a story like this with this woman. 00:08:21.840 --> 00:08:25.079 Is she a Canaanite, the ultimate enemy of God's people? 00:08:25.079 --> 00:08:26.079 Checkmark. 00:08:26.079 --> 00:08:28.120 Is she from a different religious background? 00:08:28.120 --> 00:08:29.120 Checkmark. 00:08:29.120 --> 00:08:34.519 Is she, she's a woman in a public space approaching a man in a public space, which is not allowed 00:08:34.519 --> 00:08:36.560 in the first century culture. 00:08:36.559 --> 00:08:38.719 Is she disturbing Jesus on his holiday? 00:08:38.719 --> 00:08:39.719 Checkmark. 00:08:39.719 --> 00:08:41.799 In every single level, she's not qualified. 00:08:41.799 --> 00:08:44.039 She's unqualified. 00:08:44.039 --> 00:08:51.319 And we know this very clearly because in Matthew 15, the disciples say to Jesus, send her 00:08:51.319 --> 00:08:55.519 away, dismiss her, do not speak with her. 00:08:55.519 --> 00:08:59.479 And so in the eyes of the disciples, they register very clearly this woman does not 00:08:59.479 --> 00:09:05.399 deserve to be near you or to come and to approach you. 00:09:05.399 --> 00:09:11.519 And so when the culture says no, she comes to Jesus, for her it's yes, I will come to 00:09:11.519 --> 00:09:13.879 him. 00:09:13.879 --> 00:09:19.559 And the reason that we're told first is because you don't try and stop a parent whenever they 00:09:19.559 --> 00:09:22.279 have a child that they're desperate for. 00:09:22.279 --> 00:09:28.079 You know, she's a mother and she, she will, she refuses to be stopped. 00:09:28.079 --> 00:09:34.319 You know, she, she has no rights, no pedigree, but her little daughter, she's coming to Jesus 00:09:34.320 --> 00:09:36.520 because she wants help for her child. 00:09:36.520 --> 00:09:42.200 And you know, maybe one, one simple application to say here is one thing that brings people 00:09:42.200 --> 00:09:48.800 to Jesus Christ quite often is desperation for the lives of their own children. 00:09:48.800 --> 00:09:54.320 And you can even have people in our city today in 2023 that are in their teens and their 00:09:54.320 --> 00:09:55.320 20s. 00:09:55.320 --> 00:09:58.960 Maybe this is an experience you've had or you've seen and they're fully, you're fully, 00:09:58.960 --> 00:10:03.720 maybe you've been fully, you are, you're fully absorbed into secular humanist philosophy, 00:10:03.720 --> 00:10:05.600 way of thinking about the world. 00:10:05.600 --> 00:10:10.240 And then you have a child, your child's born. 00:10:10.240 --> 00:10:13.000 And you start to say things like, you know, I'm not, I'm not so sure anymore that people 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:17.320 are just matter in motion, that we're just bags of bones. 00:10:17.320 --> 00:10:21.220 You look at your child and you say, oh boy, I love this child so much. 00:10:21.220 --> 00:10:23.840 This creature has to have a soul. 00:10:23.840 --> 00:10:28.560 And you start to say, I'm more, people, their children start to bring them more open and 00:10:28.560 --> 00:10:33.639 more close to saying, I'm willing to explore the things of God. 00:10:33.639 --> 00:10:36.879 And this woman here is in utter desperation for her child. 00:10:36.879 --> 00:10:37.879 J.C. 00:10:37.879 --> 00:10:39.080 Ryle says it like this. 00:10:39.080 --> 00:10:45.600 He says, as hopeless as the girl's case may have been, she had a praying mother. 00:10:45.600 --> 00:10:51.199 And Liggen Duncan commenting on that, he says, sometimes, sometimes all you can do is bring 00:10:51.199 --> 00:10:56.039 your children before the Lord and prayer and say, help me. 00:10:56.039 --> 00:10:59.279 Now that's the first reason she approaches Jesus. 00:10:59.279 --> 00:11:00.879 She approaches him as a mother. 00:11:00.879 --> 00:11:06.279 But the second reason she approaches him is because although she's pagan, she's an enemy 00:11:06.279 --> 00:11:11.080 of God's people, a Gentile woman, unqualified in the eyes of the culture. 00:11:11.080 --> 00:11:14.759 The second reason is because she understands something of him. 00:11:14.759 --> 00:11:16.559 And this is really the heart of the passage, I think. 00:11:16.559 --> 00:11:18.279 So here it is. 00:11:18.279 --> 00:11:20.840 This is the heart of it. 00:11:20.840 --> 00:11:27.080 In Matthew 15, the parallel passage, she actually is begging Jesus to respond to her. 00:11:27.080 --> 00:11:28.480 She lays prostrate. 00:11:28.480 --> 00:11:31.600 She lays on the floor in front of him. 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:35.920 And at first, the text tells us that he does not answer at all. 00:11:35.920 --> 00:11:38.639 He ignores her. 00:11:38.639 --> 00:11:42.560 Now when you read Matthew 15 and you see that she's laying prostrate, she's begging for 00:11:42.560 --> 00:11:47.480 the life of her little daughter, and Jesus at first does not speak to her. 00:11:47.480 --> 00:11:54.639 You say, whoa, where's the Jesus that I follow? 00:11:54.639 --> 00:11:59.439 Where's the Jesus that I've been reading about in the Gospel of Mark? 00:11:59.439 --> 00:12:01.720 And then it doesn't get easier. 00:12:01.720 --> 00:12:06.159 It gets harder because in verse 27 of our passage, he turns and says to her, let the 00:12:06.159 --> 00:12:07.960 children be fed first. 00:12:07.960 --> 00:12:13.679 It's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. 00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:20.080 Now he's using the term children and dog to describe what any first century person in 00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:21.399 this area would have done. 00:12:21.399 --> 00:12:26.439 He's talking about the children being the Israelites, Jewish people, so inheritors of 00:12:26.439 --> 00:12:29.000 the covenant from the Old Testament. 00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:35.199 When he uses the language of dog, he's talking about Canaanites, Gentiles, people who are 00:12:35.199 --> 00:12:36.199 outside the covenant. 00:12:36.199 --> 00:12:40.000 This was incredibly popular to use this language, very normal. 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:46.759 We see it in lots of texts that come just prior to Jesus's life and afterwards. 00:12:46.759 --> 00:12:54.279 Even bro, I've learned over the past we while is a Canaan loving city. 00:12:54.279 --> 00:12:56.879 A lot of people here are Canaan lovers. 00:12:56.879 --> 00:13:01.600 We do a lot of work in our city to make it a good place for dogs to live. 00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:04.720 In the first century, that was not the case. 00:13:04.720 --> 00:13:07.600 Dogs generally are not pets. 00:13:07.600 --> 00:13:12.759 And dogs, especially in Jewish households, were unwelcome because dogs were largely wild 00:13:12.759 --> 00:13:18.080 and they would eat the carcasses of dead animal bodies that were left all around the different 00:13:18.080 --> 00:13:19.080 places. 00:13:19.080 --> 00:13:22.399 And so anything that touches an unclean body is unclean. 00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:23.399 Dogs are unclean. 00:13:23.399 --> 00:13:24.399 So you don't touch a dog. 00:13:24.399 --> 00:13:25.679 You don't get near a dog. 00:13:25.679 --> 00:13:29.639 Dogs are vermin in the eyes of a first century Jew. 00:13:29.639 --> 00:13:34.399 And that's exactly why the language of dog gets used to describe a woman like this, a 00:13:34.399 --> 00:13:36.559 Gentile. 00:13:36.559 --> 00:13:39.439 This is the language Jesus uses. 00:13:39.439 --> 00:13:41.080 Now we have to be careful here. 00:13:41.080 --> 00:13:43.160 We have to pull back the layers for just a moment. 00:13:43.160 --> 00:13:47.080 So let me do that with you and for you. 00:13:47.080 --> 00:13:51.720 You've got to see a couple things in order to understand exactly why he uses this language 00:13:51.720 --> 00:13:52.720 in this word. 00:13:52.720 --> 00:13:53.720 The first is this. 00:13:53.720 --> 00:13:59.000 Just a couple of chapters ago in Mark, chapter six, Jesus feeds 5,000 people. 00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:05.800 He feeds 5,000 people with bread and fish that he miraculously makes into many. 00:14:05.800 --> 00:14:08.600 And he does that for a region of Jewish people. 00:14:08.600 --> 00:14:10.160 He's in a Jewish territory. 00:14:10.159 --> 00:14:15.120 So he largely feeds 5,000 people that come from the bloodline of Israel in the feeding 00:14:15.120 --> 00:14:16.839 of the 5,000. 00:14:16.839 --> 00:14:18.319 And just a moment. 00:14:18.319 --> 00:14:22.079 Next week, Hunter's going to preach on the feeding of the 4,000. 00:14:22.079 --> 00:14:24.240 And when he feeds the 4,000, he does the same thing. 00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:25.559 He gives them bread. 00:14:25.559 --> 00:14:28.959 But this time it's largely a Gentile audience. 00:14:28.959 --> 00:14:33.439 And in both instances, when he feeds the 5,000 and later when he feeds the 4,000, there's 00:14:33.439 --> 00:14:38.919 a story about how the disciples don't understand the spiritual meaning of what he had done. 00:14:38.919 --> 00:14:43.439 So he said something to them like, I'm the bread. 00:14:43.439 --> 00:14:45.679 Like he'll say in John, I'm the bread of life. 00:14:45.679 --> 00:14:52.000 But the disciples in both instances fail to understand in both cases anything that he's 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:53.000 saying, they don't get it. 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:57.599 Now last week, if you were here with us, you'll have remembered that the Pharisees completely 00:14:57.599 --> 00:15:00.000 misunderstand what Jesus is trying to say. 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:02.399 He declares all foods clean. 00:15:02.399 --> 00:15:04.919 And he declares with that all people's clean. 00:15:04.919 --> 00:15:07.519 And it says that the Pharisees could not understand it. 00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:09.159 They could not see it. 00:15:09.159 --> 00:15:11.120 All right, so review. 00:15:11.120 --> 00:15:15.919 The disciples don't understand in the previous few stories or the next story what he means 00:15:15.919 --> 00:15:19.120 by being the bread from heaven. 00:15:19.120 --> 00:15:24.079 The Pharisees do not understand and reject him when he says all foods are clean, all 00:15:24.079 --> 00:15:25.720 peoples are clean. 00:15:25.720 --> 00:15:28.319 And then one more layer. 00:15:28.319 --> 00:15:37.159 In the Old Testament in 1 Kings 17, Elijah, the prophet, was starving to death. 00:15:37.159 --> 00:15:39.000 And he needed bread. 00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:40.279 He was under famine. 00:15:40.279 --> 00:15:43.240 And he comes to this exact place. 00:15:43.240 --> 00:15:46.039 He comes to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 00:15:46.039 --> 00:15:48.799 There's a 20 mile stretch right in the middle. 00:15:48.799 --> 00:15:52.299 There's a little town called Zeraphath. 00:15:52.299 --> 00:15:56.500 And Elijah comes and he meets a widow there. 00:15:56.500 --> 00:16:01.919 And this widow in the dead middle of the region of Tyre and Sidon gives him bread to keep him 00:16:01.919 --> 00:16:02.919 alive. 00:16:02.919 --> 00:16:06.679 Now, in this story, Jesus, you see, it didn't say he came to Tyre. 00:16:06.679 --> 00:16:07.679 I didn't say he came to Sidon. 00:16:07.679 --> 00:16:09.839 It says he comes to the region. 00:16:09.839 --> 00:16:11.879 He comes to the middle. 00:16:11.879 --> 00:16:16.399 See Jesus is very likely here coming to Zeraphath or somewhere very near it, just like the 00:16:16.399 --> 00:16:18.519 prophet Elijah had. 00:16:18.519 --> 00:16:23.079 And when he does that, you see Elijah had asked for bread because he needed help from 00:16:23.079 --> 00:16:24.079 the woman. 00:16:24.079 --> 00:16:29.479 But this time, the new Elijah comes and the woman is asking for bread because she needs 00:16:29.479 --> 00:16:31.719 help from Jesus. 00:16:31.719 --> 00:16:34.719 And the whole section of Mark has been about who is this man? 00:16:34.719 --> 00:16:35.719 Who is this man? 00:16:35.720 --> 00:16:36.720 Who is this man? 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:40.480 Next week, two weeks from now, we're going to see Peter say, Jesus is going to say, who 00:16:40.480 --> 00:16:41.480 do people say that I am? 00:16:41.480 --> 00:16:45.519 And Peter is going to say, well, some people say you're Elijah, but I believe you're the 00:16:45.519 --> 00:16:46.519 Christ. 00:16:46.519 --> 00:16:50.399 You see, everybody's saying he's Elijah, but now here he is again, meeting with the widow 00:16:50.399 --> 00:16:52.720 of Zeraphath all over again. 00:16:52.720 --> 00:16:58.560 And instead of getting her bread, she's coming and asking him for bread. 00:16:58.560 --> 00:17:00.399 It's saying, you know, is he like Elijah? 00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:02.440 He's similar, but he's greater. 00:17:02.440 --> 00:17:03.639 He doesn't get it. 00:17:03.639 --> 00:17:05.240 He gives it. 00:17:05.240 --> 00:17:11.079 And now Jesus is here saying this to her and what metaphor does he use? 00:17:11.079 --> 00:17:15.960 He said, I came to give bread to the children first. 00:17:15.960 --> 00:17:17.880 You see, it's bread everywhere. 00:17:17.880 --> 00:17:22.000 Bread in the stories before us, bread in the stories after us, bread in the saying that 00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:25.920 Jesus gives right here in the middle of this story. 00:17:25.920 --> 00:17:27.960 And here's his point. 00:17:27.960 --> 00:17:32.240 He's saying, you see, the children, who are the children? 00:17:32.240 --> 00:17:34.279 The children are the Jews. 00:17:34.279 --> 00:17:36.160 The children at the table are the disciples. 00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:38.359 The children at the table should be the Pharisees. 00:17:38.359 --> 00:17:42.160 The children at the table are the people who grew up with the covenant promises, the people 00:17:42.160 --> 00:17:46.240 who had read the whole Testament, who had memorized the Torah, and none of them can see 00:17:46.240 --> 00:17:50.879 in any of the stories that he is the bread of heaven. 00:17:50.879 --> 00:17:51.960 None of them get it. 00:17:51.960 --> 00:17:52.960 And who are the dogs? 00:17:52.960 --> 00:17:54.720 The dogs are the Gentiles. 00:17:54.720 --> 00:17:55.879 The dogs are the Canaanites. 00:17:55.879 --> 00:18:01.039 The dogs are all the people that should not be able to see Jesus Christ has come to give 00:18:01.039 --> 00:18:05.159 us bread, the bread of heaven. 00:18:05.159 --> 00:18:09.839 And this woman is the only one who sees it. 00:18:09.839 --> 00:18:15.039 She's the only one in the entire Gospel of Mark so far that sees who he really is. 00:18:15.039 --> 00:18:20.680 She's literally the very first one, the Syrophoenician, the Canaanite, the woman who shouldn't have 00:18:20.680 --> 00:18:21.680 approached him. 00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:22.680 She's the only one. 00:18:22.680 --> 00:18:25.480 And you've got to see what he truly says to her to understand. 00:18:25.480 --> 00:18:30.200 You see, he takes a phrase from the culture of the time. 00:18:30.200 --> 00:18:31.720 Canaanites are dogs. 00:18:31.720 --> 00:18:37.080 And he adopts it into his own language to mimic what the culture is saying about her. 00:18:37.080 --> 00:18:42.279 Not to cast her away, not to be offensive, but to say, this is what people say about 00:18:42.279 --> 00:18:43.279 you. 00:18:43.279 --> 00:18:46.360 You know, don't you woman understand that you're just a Canaanite? 00:18:46.360 --> 00:18:47.720 You can't come and approach me? 00:18:47.720 --> 00:18:50.160 This is what everybody, this is what the disciples think. 00:18:50.160 --> 00:18:54.319 This is what the Pharisees think about you, but he changes two little things. 00:18:54.319 --> 00:18:56.519 And if you miss it, you think he's being offensive. 00:18:56.519 --> 00:19:00.440 Here's the two words that he changes from the saying of the culture. 00:19:00.440 --> 00:19:02.200 You see it in verse 27. 00:19:02.200 --> 00:19:07.240 He says, let the children be fed first. 00:19:07.240 --> 00:19:12.279 In the Psalms of Solomon, it says that no one from Tyre and Sidon will ever have the 00:19:12.279 --> 00:19:15.079 grace of the Messiah. 00:19:15.079 --> 00:19:18.879 The Messiah would come and cleanse the world of the Gentiles. 00:19:18.879 --> 00:19:24.759 But here Jesus says, let the children be fed first, and then the dogs can eat from the 00:19:24.759 --> 00:19:25.759 table. 00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:26.759 That's the first thing. 00:19:26.759 --> 00:19:31.200 Now, the second thing that you can't see in our English text, but is really important, 00:19:31.200 --> 00:19:35.879 is that when he uses the word dogs, he does not use the common word for dog. 00:19:35.879 --> 00:19:40.839 So there's a very typical term we see in the first century for dog in the Greek. 00:19:40.839 --> 00:19:45.920 And it refers to dog as a nasty vermin canine. 00:19:45.920 --> 00:19:50.960 But Jesus uses the very rare positive term for dog here. 00:19:50.960 --> 00:19:53.279 He uses the, back to our early grammar. 00:19:53.279 --> 00:19:57.119 He uses the diminutive form, which is like little dog. 00:19:57.119 --> 00:20:00.559 And this is the rare word that would be used for a house pet. 00:20:00.559 --> 00:20:03.680 It's actually, one commentator says the best way to translate it would be simply to say 00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:05.519 puppy. 00:20:05.519 --> 00:20:10.480 So what he actually says is, I've got bread for the children first, and then the puppies 00:20:10.480 --> 00:20:13.119 get to eat the extra bread that falls from the table. 00:20:13.119 --> 00:20:14.359 So he doesn't call her a dog. 00:20:14.359 --> 00:20:17.359 He actually calls her a puppy, a house pet. 00:20:17.359 --> 00:20:18.359 He changes it. 00:20:18.359 --> 00:20:20.240 He twists it just a little bit. 00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:23.480 And you can see that she understands that and how she responds. 00:20:23.480 --> 00:20:24.799 And this is what she said. 00:20:24.799 --> 00:20:31.120 She answered him, yes, Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs. 00:20:31.120 --> 00:20:33.079 Now here it is. 00:20:33.079 --> 00:20:39.519 She heard him when he said, children first, but then the puppies. 00:20:39.519 --> 00:20:41.880 She heard him say something different than the culture. 00:20:41.880 --> 00:20:49.519 She heard him say first, because she responds by saying, yes, even the puppies. 00:20:49.519 --> 00:20:52.400 Even the puppies will get the scraps from the table. 00:20:52.400 --> 00:20:53.400 She realizes it. 00:20:53.400 --> 00:20:54.400 She knows exactly who she is. 00:20:54.400 --> 00:20:56.799 She says, I know I'm not a Jew. 00:20:56.799 --> 00:21:00.920 I know that before you, I don't deserve the covenant promises. 00:21:00.920 --> 00:21:02.519 I know that I don't deserve your mercy. 00:21:02.519 --> 00:21:07.079 I know I don't deserve the healing that you offer, but I come to you anyway because I 00:21:07.079 --> 00:21:12.960 know something of the Old Testament, that the Old Testament had said he's coming for 00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:16.960 the Jews first, and then he will become the light of all the nations. 00:21:16.960 --> 00:21:22.279 And you say, the reason she approaches him is because she's a desperate mother and because 00:21:22.279 --> 00:21:28.480 she knew the Old Testament when the Pharisees and the disciples didn't. 00:21:28.480 --> 00:21:31.759 She's the first one in all the Gospels to truly understand. 00:21:31.759 --> 00:21:35.600 This is what one commentator James Edwards says about her. 00:21:35.600 --> 00:21:38.759 He says, she truly hears him. 00:21:38.759 --> 00:21:41.480 She answers from within the parable. 00:21:41.480 --> 00:21:43.640 How is this possible? 00:21:43.640 --> 00:21:48.160 The answer is that the woman is the first person in all of the Gospels to hear and to 00:21:48.160 --> 00:21:51.040 understand a parable of Jesus Christ. 00:21:51.040 --> 00:21:54.960 She's the first to hear the word of God as he meant it to be heard. 00:21:54.960 --> 00:21:59.440 And then he says this, in verse 26, it reads like a crescendo of demerit. 00:21:59.440 --> 00:22:00.520 She's a woman. 00:22:00.520 --> 00:22:01.520 She's a Greek. 00:22:01.520 --> 00:22:02.520 She's a Gentile. 00:22:02.520 --> 00:22:06.360 She's from an infamous pagan background of Syria, Phoenicia. 00:22:06.360 --> 00:22:10.560 Even Levi the tax collector must have raised his eyebrows at her. 00:22:10.559 --> 00:22:15.799 This woman who has the pluck to beg Jesus to drive a demon out of her daughter. 00:22:15.799 --> 00:22:18.960 Despite her notorious credentials, she does not apologize. 00:22:18.960 --> 00:22:20.359 She does not cower. 00:22:20.359 --> 00:22:24.639 This woman can claim none of the credits that a good Jew might bring to the prophet of Nazareth. 00:22:24.639 --> 00:22:29.519 Her only cover letter is her desperate need. 00:22:29.519 --> 00:22:32.639 And immediately you realize she's the only one in the Gospels who understands that you 00:22:32.639 --> 00:22:39.919 come to Jesus Christ not standing on your rights, but standing in desperate need. 00:22:39.920 --> 00:22:45.920 And if you do that, Jesus Christ will see need, not status. 00:22:45.920 --> 00:22:47.680 She's the only one so far who gets it. 00:22:47.680 --> 00:22:49.640 She's the only one so far who understands it. 00:22:49.640 --> 00:22:54.800 In other words, she has eyes to see and ears to hear that when you come before Jesus without 00:22:54.800 --> 00:23:02.039 rights, Jesus treats you like a child, not a dog. 00:23:02.039 --> 00:23:08.800 Now we live in 2023 in a rights respecting city. 00:23:08.799 --> 00:23:14.279 Edinburgh is registered as one of the great rights respecting cities of Europe. 00:23:14.279 --> 00:23:20.839 And we constantly are talked to and talked about and we know that we have rights. 00:23:20.839 --> 00:23:26.000 People are oriented at every level in our culture to say things like I deserve. 00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:29.440 And so we talk about the right to healthcare and the right to education and the right to 00:23:29.440 --> 00:23:34.319 respect and the right to vote and the right to be heard publicly and the right to an opinion 00:23:34.319 --> 00:23:37.480 and the right to define our own identities even. 00:23:37.480 --> 00:23:41.400 The right we're told by the culture to use our sexuality in any way that we want to as 00:23:41.400 --> 00:23:44.759 long as we don't hurt somebody else. 00:23:44.759 --> 00:23:50.440 The right to define exactly who we want to be and the truth of the matter is that Christianity 00:23:50.440 --> 00:23:54.240 actually established many of those rights. 00:23:54.240 --> 00:24:00.039 Rights talk is like looking at a volcano from the outside, like looking at Arthur's seed, 00:24:00.039 --> 00:24:01.400 that old volcano from the outside. 00:24:01.400 --> 00:24:06.920 You look at it and all you see is dried rock, what used to be magma, but underneath, deep 00:24:06.920 --> 00:24:11.160 underneath is the truth, the truth, the layer that actually created it. 00:24:11.160 --> 00:24:16.000 Christianity is the magma deep down inside the volcano and all you see is the eruption 00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:20.600 of right speech, but it's the doctrine of the image of God that gave us this to modern 00:24:20.600 --> 00:24:21.600 Edinburgh. 00:24:21.600 --> 00:24:26.880 Now, we have to be very careful as 20, 23 people, 21st century people, because we are 00:24:26.880 --> 00:24:29.759 inundated with right speech all the time, all around us. 00:24:29.759 --> 00:24:35.759 We're told all the time about our rights and in a lot of ways that's very good. 00:24:35.759 --> 00:24:39.440 But we have to be careful because when you come to Jesus Christ and you come to the living 00:24:39.440 --> 00:24:42.240 God, you've got to know you don't have rights. 00:24:42.240 --> 00:24:48.200 Yeah, you have rights in this nation, in this country, next to other people, to healthcare 00:24:48.200 --> 00:24:49.920 and education and to vote. 00:24:49.920 --> 00:24:54.240 These are all good things, but you do not have rights when you stand before the living 00:24:54.240 --> 00:25:01.240 God and this woman is the only person in the gospel so far who understood that. 00:25:01.240 --> 00:25:05.559 She didn't come and say, but I'm a citizen, I have rights. 00:25:05.559 --> 00:25:06.559 You have to listen to me. 00:25:06.559 --> 00:25:07.559 How can you call me this? 00:25:07.559 --> 00:25:11.919 No, she knew exactly who she was. 00:25:11.919 --> 00:25:14.599 And so she said, I don't come standing on my rights. 00:25:14.599 --> 00:25:17.879 I come only looking for mercy. 00:25:17.879 --> 00:25:20.839 And her daughter was healed. 00:25:20.839 --> 00:25:23.919 The Pharisees had said, I deserve, I deserve. 00:25:23.919 --> 00:25:26.440 You know, I wash my hands before every meal. 00:25:26.440 --> 00:25:27.480 I deserve God. 00:25:27.480 --> 00:25:30.240 I deserve things before God. 00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:33.000 We are creatures, not the Creator. 00:25:33.000 --> 00:25:37.319 And so the first reason that we don't have rights is because God made us from nothing 00:25:37.319 --> 00:25:39.559 and we didn't need to be made. 00:25:39.559 --> 00:25:40.720 We're completely contingent. 00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:42.559 We're not necessary beings. 00:25:42.559 --> 00:25:44.640 We don't have to exist. 00:25:44.640 --> 00:25:45.920 God doesn't need us. 00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:48.480 He makes us, everything we have from Him is a gift. 00:25:48.480 --> 00:25:52.319 The second reason we don't have rights before God is because even in that great gift He 00:25:52.319 --> 00:25:58.079 gave us of life itself, we rejected Him and we shook our fists before Him and we became 00:25:58.079 --> 00:25:59.599 morally corrupt before Him. 00:25:59.599 --> 00:26:04.000 And so the only right that we have before God, the only thing we deserve actually is 00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:06.159 His justice. 00:26:06.159 --> 00:26:09.000 We can't stand on our rights when it comes to God. 00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:13.639 And she said to Jesus Christ, I don't have rights. 00:26:13.639 --> 00:26:15.279 My sins, they are many. 00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:17.559 Your mercy is more. 00:26:17.559 --> 00:26:20.399 And He said, you've got it. 00:26:20.399 --> 00:26:23.240 You're the only one that's gotten it so far. 00:26:23.240 --> 00:26:25.039 She is the teacher of the disciples. 00:26:25.039 --> 00:26:27.279 She is the teacher of the Pharisees. 00:26:27.279 --> 00:26:31.160 Now let me close with this, secondly, and very briefly. 00:26:31.160 --> 00:26:36.599 We approach Him standing not on rights, but in need. 00:26:36.599 --> 00:26:37.920 How does He approach us? 00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:43.920 You know, actually, we approach Him in this way only because He has first approached us. 00:26:43.920 --> 00:26:49.839 And let me just list for you two ways very quickly that He approaches us as we close. 00:26:49.839 --> 00:26:54.240 And the first is actually the reason all these stories that I've mentioned, the feeding 00:26:54.240 --> 00:26:59.680 of the 5,000, the Pharisees and the disciples' confusion and the story of this woman. 00:26:59.680 --> 00:27:05.120 And then we read the story of the deaf man and the blind man and Jesus spitting on the 00:27:05.120 --> 00:27:08.920 tongue and the ears, the eyes very strangely. 00:27:08.920 --> 00:27:14.200 Why are all these stories put together at this point in Mark? 00:27:14.200 --> 00:27:20.680 And it's because until you see your need of Him, that you don't have any rights before 00:27:20.680 --> 00:27:25.680 them, the text is trying to say the Pharisees, the disciples, everybody but this woman, they 00:27:25.680 --> 00:27:28.960 don't have eyes to see, they don't have ears to hear. 00:27:28.960 --> 00:27:32.240 Now why is the story of a deaf man come right after this? 00:27:32.240 --> 00:27:36.440 And it's saying because Jesus, you know, you don't have eyes to see, you don't have ears 00:27:36.440 --> 00:27:43.799 to hear until Jesus comes and gives you eyes to see and ears to hear. 00:27:43.799 --> 00:27:49.400 This woman got it and then Jesus turns around and heals the deaf man, makes him hear. 00:27:49.400 --> 00:27:52.360 Because a blind man and the disciples say, you see what he can do? 00:27:52.360 --> 00:27:54.400 He can make the deaf hear. 00:27:54.400 --> 00:27:55.920 He can make the blind see. 00:27:55.920 --> 00:28:00.320 And the whole point is to say, only Jesus Christ can give you the eyes to see. 00:28:00.320 --> 00:28:02.720 You know, you can't stay away from Him. 00:28:02.720 --> 00:28:03.880 Why is He so popular? 00:28:03.880 --> 00:28:06.240 Why is He the most famous man who's ever lived? 00:28:06.240 --> 00:28:10.960 And it's because He's given so many people across the centuries eyes to see, ears to 00:28:10.960 --> 00:28:12.880 hear. 00:28:12.880 --> 00:28:17.960 Maybe this has happened to you in your life or maybe it's happening right now. 00:28:17.960 --> 00:28:24.039 You've sat like me for years and years in church, in a church like St. Columbus, and 00:28:24.039 --> 00:28:26.319 you've heard the gospel. 00:28:26.319 --> 00:28:27.319 You've heard it preached. 00:28:27.319 --> 00:28:28.559 You've heard it taught. 00:28:28.559 --> 00:28:29.559 You've read the scriptures. 00:28:29.559 --> 00:28:31.799 You've prayed. 00:28:31.799 --> 00:28:36.160 And most of the time you were pretty bored during the sermon. 00:28:36.160 --> 00:28:37.880 Some of you are right there right now. 00:28:37.880 --> 00:28:38.880 I know. 00:28:38.880 --> 00:28:41.000 I feel that too. 00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:46.960 But then all of a sudden, at some point in your life, just one Sunday or a series of 00:28:46.960 --> 00:28:52.440 weeks, you were overwhelmed and you started to see the stories and you started to say, 00:28:52.440 --> 00:28:53.880 whoa, this is serious. 00:28:53.880 --> 00:28:54.880 This is real. 00:28:54.880 --> 00:28:57.720 It started to actually grip you. 00:28:57.720 --> 00:29:00.960 And you say, you know, I've sat here for so many years, year after year after year, and 00:29:00.960 --> 00:29:03.600 not really, to be honest, cared at all. 00:29:03.600 --> 00:29:08.519 And then all of a sudden, it's like I can't get enough of Him. 00:29:08.519 --> 00:29:09.840 You know what's happening in that moment? 00:29:09.840 --> 00:29:13.799 Jesus Christ is giving you eyes to see, ears to hear. 00:29:13.799 --> 00:29:17.519 He makes the deaf here and the blind to see. 00:29:17.519 --> 00:29:20.279 That's what He had done for this woman. 00:29:20.279 --> 00:29:25.639 And you've got to know that these three stories together, we can't go through the second two 00:29:25.639 --> 00:29:26.879 obviously in any detail. 00:29:26.879 --> 00:29:29.720 But the second two, they teach us something very important. 00:29:29.720 --> 00:29:35.720 That's that Jesus knows how to come to every single one of us in exactly the way we need. 00:29:35.720 --> 00:29:37.879 He knows how to come to us and give us exactly what we need. 00:29:37.879 --> 00:29:38.879 You know, He noted. 00:29:38.879 --> 00:29:40.519 He kno- He kno-ed. 00:29:40.519 --> 00:29:41.519 He knew. 00:29:41.519 --> 00:29:42.519 Knowed. 00:29:42.519 --> 00:29:43.519 No. 00:29:43.519 --> 00:29:44.519 Known. 00:29:44.519 --> 00:29:45.519 He knew. 00:29:45.519 --> 00:29:50.079 The one word He needed to say to that woman, and it was the word first, that one little 00:29:50.079 --> 00:29:52.920 attachment first, and she got it. 00:29:52.920 --> 00:29:53.920 He tested her. 00:29:53.920 --> 00:29:58.639 He knew he could draw her faith out with that, just adding that one word to a cultural phrase, 00:29:58.639 --> 00:30:01.279 that if he just said puppy, she would see. 00:30:01.279 --> 00:30:03.299 She would get it. 00:30:03.299 --> 00:30:08.440 But when he comes to the deaf man, the blind man, you know, he takes this deaf man who's 00:30:08.440 --> 00:30:12.759 been unable to hear and unable to speak his whole life, and the crowds are saying, you 00:30:12.759 --> 00:30:14.400 know, heal him, heal him. 00:30:14.400 --> 00:30:18.480 And he pulls the man away into a wilderness space by himself. 00:30:18.480 --> 00:30:24.460 This man has been a spectacle his whole life, made fun of, no doubt. 00:30:24.460 --> 00:30:28.920 And Jesus has no interest in performing this miraculous deed in front of anybody else. 00:30:28.920 --> 00:30:31.079 He pulls him away by himself. 00:30:31.079 --> 00:30:32.079 And what does he do? 00:30:32.079 --> 00:30:37.480 He touches his ears, and he spits on his hand and touches his tongue. 00:30:37.480 --> 00:30:38.480 Is this magic? 00:30:38.480 --> 00:30:39.480 Is this incantation? 00:30:39.480 --> 00:30:43.360 You know, Jesus didn't want anybody to be confused, so he draws him away by himself. 00:30:43.360 --> 00:30:44.480 And you see what he's saying? 00:30:44.480 --> 00:30:47.279 This man can't hear what Jesus is going to say. 00:30:47.279 --> 00:30:51.240 So he touches his ears to say, I'm about to give you life right here. 00:30:51.240 --> 00:30:55.640 And then he spits a symbol of life, the saliva, and he touches his tongue. 00:30:55.640 --> 00:30:59.000 And he says, I'm about to bring this healing to this part. 00:30:59.000 --> 00:31:02.000 And then he looks up to heaven in size. 00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:04.200 And he's saying, I'm going to heal your ears. 00:31:04.200 --> 00:31:05.400 I'm going to heal your tongue. 00:31:05.400 --> 00:31:08.799 And he looks up to heaven, and I'm going to pray to God, and God the Father is going 00:31:08.799 --> 00:31:10.639 to give this to you. 00:31:10.639 --> 00:31:13.919 He knew exactly how to come to the deaf man. 00:31:13.919 --> 00:31:15.460 He knew exactly how to come to the blind man. 00:31:15.460 --> 00:31:18.720 He knows exactly how to come to you. 00:31:18.720 --> 00:31:23.519 For me, I had wandered away from the Lord in years past, in an earlier life. 00:31:23.519 --> 00:31:25.039 And God knew how to bring me back. 00:31:25.039 --> 00:31:28.039 He brought me back through the consequences of my own sin. 00:31:28.039 --> 00:31:29.039 He knew what I needed. 00:31:29.039 --> 00:31:30.799 He knew I needed a test. 00:31:30.799 --> 00:31:32.919 I needed to be pushed and disciplined. 00:31:32.919 --> 00:31:34.119 And he knows. 00:31:34.119 --> 00:31:35.119 He knows what every... 00:31:35.119 --> 00:31:37.759 Jesus Christ knows how to come to you. 00:31:37.759 --> 00:31:38.759 And to give you what you need. 00:31:38.759 --> 00:31:43.039 Now the second thing, the final thing, and we'll close with this last word. 00:31:43.039 --> 00:31:46.640 Perhaps the second way to say that he approaches us is this simple message. 00:31:46.640 --> 00:31:50.799 It may be the most simple message of the passage. 00:31:50.799 --> 00:31:52.519 Clearly the passage is saying one thing. 00:31:52.519 --> 00:31:56.559 Jesus Christ came for every type of person. 00:31:56.559 --> 00:31:58.460 He came for the Syrophoenician woman. 00:31:58.460 --> 00:32:00.879 He came for the disciple, the Pharisee. 00:32:00.879 --> 00:32:02.079 He comes for the prodigals. 00:32:02.079 --> 00:32:05.420 He comes to the religious elite. 00:32:05.420 --> 00:32:09.000 He comes to the Gentile Canaanite woman who shouldn't be able to approach him in the eyes 00:32:09.000 --> 00:32:14.000 of the culture, but becomes the teacher of even the disciples themselves. 00:32:14.000 --> 00:32:17.039 He comes for your enemy. 00:32:17.039 --> 00:32:20.960 He comes to bring grace to whoever it is in your life that is indeed your enemy. 00:32:20.960 --> 00:32:24.000 He comes to the people you love. 00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:29.160 He comes for everybody to offer grace to anybody and everybody. 00:32:29.160 --> 00:32:33.200 But the last word, why did he come? 00:32:33.200 --> 00:32:34.200 He comes for them. 00:32:34.200 --> 00:32:35.200 But why? 00:32:35.200 --> 00:32:36.400 Why did he come for them? 00:32:36.400 --> 00:32:38.080 And the last thing is this. 00:32:38.080 --> 00:32:42.559 On the one hand, the very fact of Jesus Christ's incarnation that he came into the world and 00:32:42.559 --> 00:32:48.080 took on flesh says to us, you don't have rights before God. 00:32:48.080 --> 00:32:51.019 You know, Jesus Christ taking on flesh is a simple statement. 00:32:51.019 --> 00:32:53.360 You are judged. 00:32:53.360 --> 00:32:58.080 Jesus Christ came from heaven to earth precisely because we're judged. 00:32:58.080 --> 00:33:03.200 He came to do something because we can't do it ourselves, because we don't deserve to 00:33:03.200 --> 00:33:04.200 be in the presence of God. 00:33:04.200 --> 00:33:06.160 He came for us. 00:33:06.160 --> 00:33:08.559 And the first statement of the incarnation is you don't have rights. 00:33:08.559 --> 00:33:12.120 You're judged before the living God. 00:33:12.120 --> 00:33:15.279 But the second statement of the incarnation, why did he come? 00:33:15.279 --> 00:33:16.680 He came because you're judged. 00:33:16.680 --> 00:33:18.319 He came because you don't have rights. 00:33:18.319 --> 00:33:23.720 And so he came to say to you today, I will give you mine. 00:33:23.720 --> 00:33:24.720 That's what he came to say. 00:33:24.720 --> 00:33:30.440 He came, you don't have rights before the Lord, so I will give you my rights. 00:33:30.440 --> 00:33:36.680 And you see, Jesus came and let go of all of his rights. 00:33:36.680 --> 00:33:39.799 He had the right to not become human. 00:33:39.799 --> 00:33:44.360 Jesus had the right to equality with God in heaven, Philippians 2. 00:33:44.360 --> 00:33:45.799 Yet, he made himself nothing. 00:33:45.799 --> 00:33:48.480 He had the right not to suffer. 00:33:48.480 --> 00:33:50.559 He had the right not to be humiliated. 00:33:50.559 --> 00:33:51.960 He had the right not to be poor. 00:33:51.960 --> 00:33:55.640 He had the right to be loved and not hated by the elite. 00:33:55.640 --> 00:33:58.120 He had the right not to die a criminal's death. 00:33:58.119 --> 00:34:00.919 He had the right not to bear our sins and our defilement. 00:34:00.919 --> 00:34:06.039 He had the right to merely administer the justice we deserve to us. 00:34:06.039 --> 00:34:09.079 That was the right he had. 00:34:09.079 --> 00:34:13.079 And when you come to the Lord and say, I know I don't have rights before you, I only have 00:34:13.079 --> 00:34:18.480 needs, then Jesus Christ says I will give you my rights. 00:34:18.480 --> 00:34:24.839 And John 1 says that in the middle of history, Jesus Christ came to give you the right to 00:34:24.840 --> 00:34:29.200 not be a puppy, but to be the child of God. 00:34:29.200 --> 00:34:30.960 He gifts that right to us. 00:34:30.960 --> 00:34:34.320 He sits you as a son or daughter down at his table. 00:34:34.320 --> 00:34:37.840 And the way he could do that is because he put away his rights and the most horrible death 00:34:37.840 --> 00:34:44.120 of all of history so that he could gift to you exactly what God the Father owes to him. 00:34:44.120 --> 00:34:51.519 In his resurrection, he was justified because he deserved it. 00:34:51.519 --> 00:34:55.679 And when we did it, he said, you can have my part, you can have my justice. 00:34:55.679 --> 00:34:57.400 And that's what the cross and resurrection was all about. 00:34:57.400 --> 00:35:04.159 He got what we deserved so that you today could have what he deserves. 00:35:04.159 --> 00:35:05.400 Let's pray together. 00:35:05.400 --> 00:35:11.719 Father, we give thanks for this word and ask, Lord, that you would help us to see today 00:35:11.719 --> 00:35:17.719 that we're not necessary creatures yet you love us. 00:35:17.719 --> 00:35:24.279 We're not, you don't need us yet you call us the image of God. 00:35:24.279 --> 00:35:26.119 You love us even when we rejected you. 00:35:26.119 --> 00:35:28.839 You said yes to us even after we said no to you. 00:35:28.839 --> 00:35:35.159 Lord, help us today in our hearts right now, each of us to not stand on our rights, but 00:35:35.159 --> 00:35:42.679 to stand before you as a child before a father, as a one who has received a gift before the 00:35:42.679 --> 00:35:44.799 gift of giver. 00:35:44.800 --> 00:35:50.360 So I pray, Lord, for each of us today, wherever we are in life and in our souls and our hearts, 00:35:50.360 --> 00:35:57.880 to experience this morning the fact of God's, your great gift, the gift of Christ, the gift 00:35:57.880 --> 00:36:00.840 of the rights of the King himself given to us. 00:36:00.840 --> 00:36:03.240 So we pray that we ask for it. 00:36:03.240 --> 00:36:04.760 Give us that experience this morning. 00:36:04.760 --> 00:36:05.760 Oh, Lord. 00:36:05.760 --> 00:36:07.280 And we pray in Christ's name. 00:36:07.280 --> 00:36:08.280 Amen.