Thank you to Richard for this message

MARK 7: 24-30

FINDING JESUS

Well, we are pressing on into Mark’s gospel. And Mark’s Gospel is like a journey up and down a mountain. At the moment, we are climbing up the mountain. The writer starts the gospel saying: “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God”. And the writer then in the first four chapters – set in Galilee – describes Jesus calling his disciples, healing people, teaching, casting out demons and at the end of chapter 4, just after Jesus has calmed the wind and the waves, the disciples ask this question: who is this man?

On so, with this question burning in their minds, Mark records Jesus healing a demon-possessed man, a sick woman and bringing back to life a dead girl. Jesus was then rejected; he sent out the twelve; fed the 5,000, walked on water and did some more teaching. We will get to the top of the mountain in a couple of weeks where the disciples will answer the question: “Who is this man?”

All of this took place in Galilee. And that is key to understanding part of this passage. We’ll come back to that later. Let’s dig in to our passage:

  1. Jesus can be found

I was listening to a guy on YouTube this week who is a clinical psychologist and he has seen hundreds and hundreds of people over the year as they have sought his advice and help and he concluded that all people have one thing in common: all suffer. He said that either you have suffered – or are suffering – or you will suffer. But one way or the other, we will suffer. And so we can understand why this woman in the crisis she has with her daughter suffering, comes to Jesus.

But let’s back up a bit and get the context clear in our minds. We’ve seen what Jesus has been up to in is ministry in Galilee – which is in the north. So you can understand, then, why in verse 24 Jesus goes to Tyre. He needs a break and Tyre is on the coast, but in Gentile territory:

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.

Just read that again and let the sheer profundity of what is being saying sink in:

Jesus entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret.

So many questions flow from this. I sat down and wrote over 20 questions in less than 20 minutes. Here’s a few:

Question: Did Jesus know his presence could not be kept secret? Answer: If Jesus is who he says he is – the answer must be yes. He couldn’t keep his presence secret.

Question: Did Jesus want the woman to find him? Answer: This must be a yes.

Question: What is it about Jesus that meant he could not keep his presence secret? Answer: There’s two parts to this: firstly, his reputation was well known. Jesus couldn’t keep his presence secret because of all he had done. Secondly, there’s simply something about Jesus that means he cannot be hidden.

From human suffering God cannot withdraw Himself. He cannot be hidden. Suffering appeals to Him irresistibly, because of the grace of His nature. When there is no eye to pity, His eye always pities; when there is no arm to save, His arm brings salvation. Here, and here alone, is our hope that at last sorrow and sighing shall flee away. And, moreover, in the fact that it is God, Who is compelled by His nature to come to the relief of the sorrowing, that there will be no slight heal of our wounds. He does not deal with symptoms merely, but with the dire root of the disease. He comes forth from His hiding-place, compelled by human agony, He comes to make no deal with that which has caused the pain; but He comes to end the pain by removing the cause. (G Campbell Morgan)

So Jesus can be found.

2. Jesus wants to be found

Now look verse 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. 

My Gran’s house in Polzeath has one of those gardens where you can go right round the house. This has several advantages – but one of them is that when playing games of chase or whatever – this makes for an ideal location. And especially for hide and seek! Years ago I went on holiday there with my sister and her two boys – Jay and Max. They were about 5 and 3 years old respectively and we took it in turns to hide. When Rachel and I hid – we found really difficult places to be found. In an upturned bin – under the car – up a tree. But when Jay and Max hid – they simply stood behind a bush and you could hear Jay saying to Max in a very loud voice: “Quiet Max – or else they will hear us.” And we would pretend “not to find them” (knowing full well where they were) and then walk round the bush – find them and it was then tickle time!

I said to Rachel later – “they weren’t very good at hiding – were they.” Rachel said this: “you don’t understand, Rich – the joy for them is in being found.”

You need to know that Jesus’s joy is in being found. He wants to be found by you. The writer of Hebrews says: For the joy set before him he endured the cross. (Hebrews 12: 2)

He’s not irritated by you. He doesn’t tolerate you. He does not offer salvation because he has to. He is not a reluctant saviour. Even though in our passage Jesus may well have been humanly tired – he wanted to be found. In our passage, don’t you think if Jesus did not want to be found he could have hidden somewhere where he couldn’t be found? Of course he could – but he didn’t. So what do we conclude? He wants to be found. He’s a joyful saviour who delights in drawing people to himself so that they can mended. Put right. Saved.

3. So keep pursuing Jesus

So we might say: “Yes – I can see that Jesus can be found – I can see that he wants to be found. But that was then. What about now?” How can we find Jesus today?

Well – let’s go to scripture first and get the basics right. Hebrews 13: 8 says: Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. So if Jesus could be found then and wanted to be found then we can conclude that he wants to be found now. Also – right at the start of the Mark’s gospel the writer says: “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Well – it’s the beginning but it hasn’t said it has ended – so this news still applies.

What else? Let’s look at this conversation between the woman and Jesus.

She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

‘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.’ ‘Lord,’ she replied, ‘even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’

Now – this part of the passage looks quite shocking. What is this all about? Dogs and children and bread. What is going on? We mentioned earlier that Jesus had been carrying out his ministry in Galilee. He was ministering to the Jewish people. The second thing to know is that the dogs he is referring to here are pet dogs. You know how it is at meal time if you have a pet dog.

My Grandma was a quite an austere woman; a minister’s wife. A stickler for the rules. Although she didn’t have a dog herself she loved dogs and this was really clear when she stayed with us. But there was a rule; no feeding the dog at mealtime; that would happen after we had eaten. Well – one day we having dinner and suddenly she exclaimed: “oh oh” and pointed away from the table at something that had (apparently) caught her eye. The next thing we heard was a crunching sound as our dog had been fed some food by Grandma!

Hopefully you can see the point. What Jesus was saying was that his ministry FIRST was to the Jewish people and then the Gentiles (everyone else). It wasn’t that they were not to be ministered to but at that point there was a “first-ness” in Jesus’ ministry.

But look how this woman perseveres! She carries on. She’s found him – but she won’t let go.

And this is what we must do. Carry on pursuing Jesus.

So how do we do this? Especially when we don’t feel like it. How do we find Jesus?

Sometimes we don’t want to be like this woman. We want to hide away. We want to be in a secret place away from God. We know we’re doing it. Or maybe there’s a sense of spiritual deadness. We know we should want Jesus but we don’t. And we may not want to even want Jesus. We feel tired or lazy or fed up. Then maybe we feel guilty. We may even think that in a few days’ time – things will feel better and maybe those feelings or things that have got in the way – they would have dissolved away. We may think to ourselves: “I’m not feeling it today – I’ll pray later. Or read the Bible when I feel like it. Or I’ll give church a miss today. It’s other people’s turn to pray.”

What we do in that moment – we make Christianity into a set of tasks or activities. Reading the Bible; praying; attending worship or home groups. Actually the purpose of reading the Bible, praying, attending church is not that we are doing God a favour. Doing “Christian activities” doesn’t get a tick in the box from God. It doesn’t mean that we do these things – and then can get on with the rest of our life. No – the purpose of prayer, reading the Bible, being at church – is that we meet Jesus. He is the lifeblood of the Christian! He is life itself. And when we meet him – his life fills us – so we can go and be Jesus to the world we live in.

So even this week – I found myself feeling dead spiritually. But there was this flicker of faith sufficient to say faintly: Jesus I need you. And I found sometime later that he was with me. No longer was I dead but coming alive.

I wonder when that woman went away back to her daughter – what was she thinking? She had reached out to Jesus but there was that kind of waiting involved from the meeting Jesus and the practical outworking of Jesus. Sometimes it’s a bit like that for us. There may be discouragements, sadnesses, frustration with ourselves or our situation. But look at this lady. She persevered. In looking for Jesus, for staying with Jesus and trusting him.

So should we.

Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father, would you so work in my life that I would desire your presence at all times. Help me in my moments of weakness and strengthen me so I can live and work for you.

In Jesus’ name

Amen


Category: Sermons , The Bridge

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