The whole Loaf

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

THE WHOLE LOAF

Mark 7:24-30

24 Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. 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 evil 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 their dogs."  28 "Yes, Lord," she replied, "but 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.

NIV

What an incredible story about this Greek woman and her wisdom in responding to Jesus. But before we get to that narrative and learn from it, we should first consider something which, for the most part, we just read over and miss something profound. Here we see Jesus going someway and entering a house not wanting anyone to know that he was there. We wonder why he would want no one to know about his presence. Was he in need of some quiet time? Did he want a moment of rest, of repose, to refresh himself? Did he want to spend some time with His Father, just communing? We simply have no evidence for his reason of not wanting anyone to know he was there. It is possible that because modern-day Tyre and Sidon are just North of modern-day Israel, these cities or region was mostly populated by people the Jews would consider foreigners. Because Matthew records that Jesus said that he was sent to the lost sheep of Israel in response to this Greek woman’s plea, it would make sense that he was outside Israel among a gentile area. But here is what we have not considered from this narrative before. Jesus could not hide his presence from the gentiles. But it is how we internalize this truth. We have Jesus within us, or at least the Spirit of Christ in us. We and Jesus are one as He and the Father are one. So then His presence within us cannot be hidden, or at least His presence should not be hidden. Wherever Jesus was the people found out and came to him. Today, people are still in need of Jesus and His peace, His joy, His healing, His hope His love, and the future He has for them. There is so much need in the world for Jesus, and we are one of the best evidence of his presence. He is in our house, and we need to leave the door open, so all may come to Him. Now, let us see this woman and her dire need for Jesus. Her request was for her daughter that had been tormented by a demon. We are not sure just why Jesus responded in the way he did as he made it sound like His love, mercy, and salvation was not yet meant to be given to the gentiles, but only to the children of Israel. Yet, Jesus was also divine, and as we know he either knew or perceived the thoughts of men, he must have known her thoughts, and her faith in him for a healing of her daughter. Could he have been testing if see would be that persistent in her request? Again, we do not know as we are not told, but what we know is that she did respond with a wise answer and Jesus did acknowledge her request, and again all he had to do was acknowledge her request. He did not need to go to this girl and do any special deliverance or speak to the demon. He simply said it is done, because of such a reply, making note that her reply was very good. Her response was one of both need and faith that he could and would fulfill her request. That is the type of faith we are supposed to have in Jesus. We should expect Him to fulfill our requests. Of course, this implies we are asking within the will of the Father, and that we are asking with the right motives, which is bringing glory and honor to God, to Jesus. Yet, also we can see this woman just had a need and believed Jesus was the answer to her need. Her motive was personal in nature, being of Greek heritage or a gentile she may or may not have had knowledge of the God of Israel and therefore was not asking to bring any glory to God, but simply for her own daughter’s deliverance from demons. Maybe that is all we need, is to just believe Jesus will meet our need, forgetting about motives, or God’s will, or wanting to give all the glory to Him, but just coming to Jesus with our need, whatever it is. Have we made prayer for our need more complicated than it needs to be? What we can be sure of is that we do not need to settle for crumbs from under the table, when we can have the whole loaf of bread.