Reading Mark 7: 24-37
Jesus honours a Syro-Phoenician woman’s faith
24 Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre.[a] He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. 25 In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. 27 ‘First let the children eat all they want,’ he told her, ‘for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.’ 28 ‘Lord,’ she replied, ‘even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’ 29 Then he told her, ‘For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.’ 30 She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
Jesus heals a deaf and mute man
31 Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis.[b] 32 There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him. 33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spat and touched the man’s tongue. 34 He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, ‘Ephphatha!’ (which means ‘Be opened!’). 35 At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosed and he began to speak plainly. 36 Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. 37 People were overwhelmed with amazement. ‘He has done everything well,’ they said. ‘He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.’
Teaching:
Over the past month or so I have been deeply impacted by the way in which some people in our community think they can treat people who have moved into our town from other countries. These are people who are working in our care homes, our hospitals, and who are frankly contributing to society – they are carrying out jobs which many people are turning their nose up at. And so why attack them? Has our country not learnt enough over the years about the dangers of sectarian division.
But today I don’t want to talk about the politics of our situation. But I do want us to think together about the notion of compassion and how, as Christians, we are called to reach out to those in need. And this Gospel from Mark 7, has a lot to teach us about how compassion actually works.
So here’s the context.
Jesus hasn’t or never will differentiate between racial groupings: he did not show compassion only to his own people but reached out with love to those who were of a different ethnicity too. In verse 24 we read that, “Jesus set out and went away to the district of Tyre”. This isn’t Jesus’ hometown. Jesus was a Jew – and Tyre was a non-Jewish region: it was a place where Gentiles lived. For him and the disciples, Tyre was bandit-country. And there would have been all sorts of rumours and gossip and speculation amongst Jews as to how these Gentiles lived and the sort of practices they engaged in. There would have been an innate racism and suspicion amongst many of the Jews with regard to the Gentile foreigners who lived in the region of Tyre. But Jesus was prepared to go into their land and meet with them and relate to them as fellow human beings and not categorise them according to race or religion or the colour of their skin.
The second story of the healing of the man who was deaf and dumb, we see that Jesus is now back towards the Sea of Galilee: his homeland. And Jesus shows the same level of care and compassion to the man he meets there. So for Jesus, there is no “them and us”, there is no “Jew and Gentile”: there are just human beings in need of compassion and grace and love.
In these 2 situations we have people who have nowhere to go, they have no-one who can understand the agonies of their situations. But Jesus does not regard them by gender or race or religion, and instead just meets them in their humanity and shows compassion towards them.
So if that was all we said today, that would be enough of a lesson. Like Jesus, we must never think of people according to race and gender and sexuality and religion and be selective in where we show compassion and to whom we show compassion. The church should never be a place of stereotypes. Whatever a person’s background or creed, we all need to hear the Gospel.
So what about Compassion? How should we go about it?
- Compassion begins with dialogue
If we don’t speak with people, then how on earth will we ever show compassion? Compassion is not just about putting money in an envelope or phoning a number off the TV to provide help. Yes, these responses are so important, but just because you give, it doesn’t mean that you’ve done your bit. And the reason I say that is because of this word compassion. The word ‘compassion’ is derived from two Latin words that, together, mean ‘to suffer with’. There is an emotional and spiritual engagement with the situations of others that is at the root of ‘compassion’. And we cannot forge that level of emotional engagement just by writing cheques to charities. Instead, we need to form some sort of dialogue with the situation we are seeking to engage with.
Jesus engages in dialogue with those who are suffering. And he talks to them in 2 different ways. He talks with them in ways that they will understand, not in any way expecting them to meet him on his level.
In verse 27, Jesus begins the dialogue with the Gentile woman by saying, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs”. Now, to be honest, that does not seem like a very friendly opening comment, does it? You’d think Jesus could have come up with something better and kinder than to compare the woman with a scrounging dog! But I think Jesus is being quite clever here because what he wants to do is draw the woman into a conversation that will result in not only meeting her immediate need but will also result in the spiritual growth of both her and the disciples with Jesus.
Now in the second story, Jesus acts completely differently. There is something beautifully compassionate about Jesus’ approach to the dialogue here. Here we have a man who is deaf and dumb – cut off from the rest of the world. In verse 33 we read, “Jesus took him aside in private”. That was such a loving thing to do, wasn’t it? He could have healed the man publicly and amazed the crowd – but his heart was moved by compassion and care and concern for how the man felt and, rather than make himself look brilliant by doing a public healing, instead he chose to act in private. For Jesus his heart wasn’t about what other people could see him do, but it was purely about love and compassion for the other person. And then, to express his compassion in an even more personal way, he carries out the healing in sign language, verse 33 again: “Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then he looked up to heaven…” This is a beautifully intimate moment that shows us that Jesus always meets us where we are at, in ways we can understand: he doesn’t force us out of our comfort zone when we need healing but he is prepared to come into our world, engage with our frailty on our terms and bring us the touch of grace and love that we long for. There was a deep humility about the way in which Jesus showed compassion in these stories.
So when we want to show compassion to those in need, the first step is to begin conversation, build a relationship with the person.
- Compassion doesn’t look for anything in return
Compassion isn’t about me. In the first story, Jesus says to the woman in verse 29: “For saying that, you may go – the demon has left your daughter”. In the second story, in verse 34, Jesus heals the man. But in neither story do we hear that the person who had received compassion then goes on to be a disciple of Jesus, a follower of Jesus. Jesus did not show compassion to get more disciples. He just showed compassion because it was the godly and right thing to do.
The temptation for us is to show compassion towards others and then expect them to come and join us in church. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but I suppose it’s more important for us to seek out from the Lord what part he has us to play. Our part may be compassion. But it might be someone else’s role to lead a person to the Lord. It’s not for us to dictate that in some way these people are our projects. Jesus reaches out and meets the woman and the man in their culture. He doesn’t ask them to join his club, he doesn’t set any provisos for their welcome. He just accepts them as they are, shows compassion and grace and allows them to continue in their own cultural way of being.
- Compassion simply meets the need
These two people were desperate. Absolutely desperate. We read in verse 26, “[The woman] begged him…” The man in the second story was so desperate but he couldn’t even speak the words to express his agony. And Jesus very simply meets their needs: he casts the demon out of the daughter, and he gives hearing and speech to the man. It’s as simple as that. He doesn’t analyse, he doesn’t dictate to them, he doesn’t preach at them: he simply sees the need and he meets the need.
That is compassion. See the need. Meet the need. Full stop.
What we do next I think is to commit those people to prayer. Lift them before the Lord, and should the Lord have more for us to do then he will make that clear to us. Leave them with the Lord.
So as we go from here today, ask the Lord to break your heart for the things that break his. How you respond next is up to yours and my willingness to be led in compassion and not just look helplessly. We all are able to do something.
Remember compassion begins with dialogue and interaction.
Next compassion means we don’t ask for anything in return.
Finally compassion meets the need, nothing else. The rest is up to the Lord.
May God open our eyes to the needs that are around us in our community.
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