Broadway Christian Church · Columbia, Missouri

Morning Worship · September 17, 2006

Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Prayer of the Day

Lord, in this hour of worship, help us to come to you in our need.  Help us, too, we pray, to be open to those in desperate need, whatever their need, whoever they are.  Amen.

Scripture

Mark 7:24-37

Jesus left that place and set out for the territory of Tyre.  He went into a house and wanted no one to know where he was, but that was impossible.  In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil, unclean spirit came and fell at his feet.  Now the woman was a Greek, a pagan, a Gentile, a foreigner, a Phoenician by birth.  She begged; she pleaded.  She asked Jesus to drive, to cast out, the demon, the evil spirit from her daughter. 

Jesus replied, “First, let the children be fed, for it is not right to take their food and throw it to the dogs.”

“Yes, Lord, I know,” she replied, “but even the dogs under the table eat the scraps, the crumbs the children leave.”

Jesus said to her, “For such an answer as that, you may go your way.  The demon, evil spirit, has left your daughter.”  So she went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the evil spirit was gone.

Then Jesus left Tyre and went down to the Sea of Galilee, and some people there brought to him a man who was deaf and who could barely speak.  They asked him, the begged him, they implored Jesus to place his hands upon this man. 

Jesus took the man aside in private, away from the crowd, and he put his fingers in the man’s ears.  Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue with spittle.  Then he looked up to heaven and gave a deep sigh and said to the man, “Be opened.”  His ears were opened, and his tongue was released, and he began to speak clearly, plainly. 

Jesus said not to tell anyone, but the more he insisted on that, the more they kept talking about it, because people were overwhelmed.  “All which he does,” they said, “he does so well.  He even makes the deaf hear and the stammering speak.”

Message

When You Need a Miracle

Rick Frost

How do we get into this text today?  One way might be this.  When I was a kid, and one of my teeth fell out, I was told to put it under my pillow.  Was anybody else told this?  Sure enough, I did, and the next morning I found a quarter where that tooth had been.  It was amazing. 

For years, as I was growing up, I made a wish list at Christmas time.  I put milk and cookies out on the fireplace for Santa on Christmas Eve.  Sure enough, I would wake up on Christmas morning.  I got a lot of those things, not everything, but lots of those things on the list had been placed under and around the Christmas tree.  It was just amazing.

Now, I have learned over the years that some people have tried this with God.  They may have been like that famous episode in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  Huck, just a young boy, decided to try an experiment.  Do you remember his experiment?  He put a shoebox under his bed one night.  Then he was going to pray that God would fill it with money before the sun came up.  As you know, Huck was testing Miss Watson’s assertion of what she had been teaching him.  She had told him that if he would sincerely pray for something, he would automatically get what he prayed for.  And, of course, as you know, when Huck prayed and didn’t get what he prayed for, Miss Watson called him a fool.

But Twain suggests Huck is not a fool, but that he is a young youth who had penetrated the façade of a false deity, because, if there really were a God in charge and running the universe, then that God could surely give anyone anything they wanted.

Now, I have learned also this isn’t just about kids and youth.  Years ago, I found myself engaged in conversation with a very successful businessman.  He said, “If God will just grow this little finger of mine, just grow it a quarter of an inch, I’ll believe, and I’ll be on the front row of your church every Sunday.  I will be the most faithful person you know, and I’ll tithe.  I’ll do anything, and all God has to do is show me a miracle.”

In today’s text, folks, we have two great stories.  I think they have a lot to teach us about faith, and about healing, and about miracles.  As the story begins, Mark tells us that Jesus is seeking rest and seclusion.  He entered a house, the text says, that was just beyond the borders of his own country, Israel.  He didn’t go outside the borders, by the way, very often.  He simply didn’t want anyone to know where he was (verse 26).  But immediately, (and this is one of Mark’s favorite words) he is discovered and encountered by a very desperate woman.  She is a mother who happens to be a Gentile.  She is the mother of a little girl who is much tormented with what the Bible calls a demon – an evil spirit.  The woman comes to Jesus because the word is out that he is a healer.

Luke Timothy Johnson, a biblical scholar at Emery says, “When scholars compare Jesus with other leaders of world religions, one of the most predominate characteristics of Jesus is that he is a healer.”  Isn’t that interesting?  Did you know that?  We Christ followers are to spread the gospel, folks, not with a sword, but with compassionate healing of the desperate.  Did you know that?

Here is this Gentile – this outsider – and she is a woman on top of it all.  Biblical times say that was a “no-no.”  She needed help in the worst sort of way.  Jesus did not come to her.  She came to Jesus.  She begged him, according to the Scripture, to do for her what he had done for so many others.

Now Jesus’ reply to her was very fascinating.  He said, “First let the children be fed, because it’s not right to take their food and throw it to the dogs.”

Well, that is a helpful thought!  What in the world is going on?  On the surface, that is a pretty cold comment.  He just called her a dog.

Mark doesn’t give any explanation or apologies about this statement.  But this Gentile – this outsider – is not going to be put off so easily.  She comes right back to Jesus and says, “Yes, Lord, I know, but even the dogs under our table eat the scraps that the children leave.”

Jesus must have been moved, astonished, and amazed by what she said.  He replies, “I have not seen such faith, no, not even in Israel, not even among my own people.” 

Now, notice he doesn’t say, “I’ve not seen such desperation before.”  That’s not what he said.  He says, “I have not seen such faith before.”  Faith!

The problem with this woman, you see, is that she is not in the faith.  She’s a foreigner.  She’s a Gentile.  She’s an outsider.  She knows nothing of the beliefs, the traditions, the core values or the ways of Israel, God’s people.  Yet, Jesus who came to save and to serve the lost sheep of Israel, according to the Scripture, says that this poor Phoenician, this Gentile woman, is the paragon of faith.

How in the world does she move from being a person outside the faith, a person who has no faith, to being recognized by Jesus as being full of faith? 

We are often, myself included, fairly casual about our faith.  We attend worship, somewhat regularly.  We bring our kids.  Some of us go to Sunday School, and we support our church at various levels.  Most of us, I think, would call ourselves Christians.  We would say, “Yes, we have faith in Jesus,” if somebody asked.  I think most of us in this room would say we try to model our lives on certain Christ-like principles.  We try to live by those kinds of principles. 

But this woman had none of that.  She had none of that at all.  She has simply become desperate.  She is at the end of her rope, utterly without hope, unless Jesus helps her.

Folks, when human need becomes desperate…  When it gets white hot…  When it gets heated…  When it gets frantic…  When that human need and divine compassion meet, in the Bible, that is the definition of faith.  Did you know that?

  Bible study is wonderful.  Theology is fine.  Serving others is essential.  Yes, but faith is also a matter of somebody being desperate enough to reach out, and secondly, to be perceptive enough to reach out toward Jesus.

Now some of you here today know that deep faith that I’m talking about, because you have somewhere along the line come to Jesus, not because you wanted to mix with an interesting bunch of friendly, nice people, or to engage in pleasant discussions about spiritual matters, or maybe even to give your children a taste of religious instruction.  You have deep faith, because there was a day when you needed a miracle in the worst sort of way, and you didn’t know at the time the first thing about Christian faith or religion, but you could say, and somewhere along the line you did say, “Lord, please help.”  Then it happened – a leap of faith out of desperation into the warm embrace of Christ, and a miracle occurred.

We have a saying in the Stephen Ministry here at Broadway: “We do the caring, but Christ does the curing.”  Do we cure?  Nobody cures.  God cures.  We care, and that’s our job.

A miracle, folks, in the Bible, is an event.  Sometimes it’s natural.  Sometimes it’s supernatural.  It really doesn’t matter.  The key is it arouses awe and causes the one who receives it to see, to experience God in new ways – deeper ways and clearer ways.  That’s a miracle.

So, if you’re not too desperate right now, enjoy it.  Perhaps the best thing you can do today is simply file this story away for sometime later.  Because someday, life being what it is, you may well be in the same place as this gutsy, faithful woman.  Someday, maybe even today, right here, right now, you are in church with Jesus because you need a miracle in the worst sort of way.  You may not have all the answers.  You may not know all that some people in this church know, but today’s text suggests if that’s where you are, and if that’s what is going on with you, you may be closer to the heart of Jesus than you even know.

Have you ever been in a desperate place?  Have you ever been in a place where you needed a miracle in the worst sort of way?  Can you remember what happened?

The woman said, “Lord, never mind about the dogs.  Never mind the fact that I’m a heathen.  My child is sick.  Please, Lord, help!”

And Jesus said, “This is the beginning place.  This is why I’ve come into this world.  This may not be the end of the journey.  It may not even be the middle of the journey, but this is where it begins.”

And we all say together… “Amen.”

Benediction

God of hope and healing, thank you for the way you care for us.  Thank you for the many miracles, great and small, that you have given us.  Help us to expect your astonishing power and to recognize you in all restoration, healing, and joy.  Make our hearts eager to be partners with you in this restoration for others in need.  Amen.