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Kingdom Blessings for the 'Wrong Kinds of People' Part 2

Mark 7:31-37

We come back this weekend to think a second time about the value of each and every human life. Last weekend, as we commemorated Martin Luther King week, we looked at how Jesus dealt with a Gentile woman and her troubled daughter – two people who would have been devalued by many, many people in Jesus’ own community. In that message, I made this point at the beginning:

Followers of Jesus believe that there is something sacred about every human life—regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, educational level, religious background, socioeconomic status, or place of birth. This is something that should be a distinguishing mark of the church of Jesus Christ, i.e., that we believe all human beings are of infinite value simply because they are human.

When I come across a human creature, what is the most important thing I see?

At the end of the message last week, I summarized the message like this:

We who follow Jesus don’t show respect to all people simply out of political correctness or out of laws requiring us to do it. We do so because we are grateful people humbly reflecting the ways of Jesus to all who cross our paths. We see all people as being human. All people are made in God’s image and are potential recipients God’s salvation and his blessing too.

Today, on this “Sanctity of Human Life” weekend, I want us to learn from Jesus about how our appropriate response to the Word of God must begin with how we see people (as we saw last week) – but it cannot end there. Jesus always got involved personally in the lives of those he dealt with. In Mark 7:31-37, we get a graphic illustration of this. In these verses, we have what seems like an eyewitness report telling how Jesus healed a man with a hearing disability and a speech problem. In it, we will see how Jesus entered personally and very physically into the man's life. Here’s what I want to focus on today:

When I come across a human being in need, what should I do?

There was intentionality in what Jesus did when he was in this mostly Gentile region. Jesus took what Bible students have always considered to be a puzzling trip. In 7:31 we discover that from the area of Tyre where he had blessed the Gentile woman and her daughter, Jesus circled north through Phoenicia, turned southeast on the far side of the Sea of Galilee, passed through the region of the Decapolis before going on to the south side of the Sea. It would be like me saying, “I’ve got to head out to Santa Barbara to see my son Brandon today.” And then you would watch me head south toward San Diego – and then east to Palm Springs – and then over and up the coast on 101. Jesus’ trip was not a step short of 120 miles and took him in and through strong Gentile areas. Many estimate that Jesus spent 8 months of his three years of ministry largely among those that some of his own people would have considered to be untouchables.

Near the end of that journey, Jesus went into the Decapolis, an area that is in modern day Jordan and was notoriously anti-Jewish Gentile territory in Jesus’ day. While there, Jesus had the courage – some might say the audacity -- to engage in a startling act of healing with what many people considered to be the “wrong kind of person”, i.e., a Gentile man with obvious and serious disabilities. Do you remember that in the early part of Mark 7, the “powers that were” in Jesus’ society were obsessed with not touching anything and anyone that might defile them? With that in mind, I want us to imagine how radical Jesus’ actions toward the disabled man would have seemed to those who watched.

Here’s my goal today: I want us to move from simply seeing the value of each person into engaging personally and incarnationally with those persons. Jesus prayed -- agonized — touched – and made a difference. Let’s see how he went about it:

How did Jesus go about blessing this man?

#1: The upward look: the dependence on the Father -- Jesus looked up to heaven… (7:34)

When we read about the life of Jesus, we can hardly miss the fact that he constantly was spending time in prayer. This confuses people because the Bible is clear that Jesus is fully God himself. According to Philippians 2:5-11, Jesus is indeed the very nature of God but, out of love, he chose to empty himself of all would have made total humanity impossible. Jesus became fully human and as such, he felt a deep need for prayer. If he felt that, how much more should we?

In this story, Jesus was dealing with the suspicions of his own people and the challenges of being in a foreign culture. Moreover, with this man, he was going to deal with the ravages that evil has brought upon people in this world. This was not something to be taken lightly. So, Jesus felt the need to look up for wisdom and strength from his Father.

There is so much we can learn from this. When we face challenging encounters with people – whether they be a stranger in need whom God brings across our paths, a family member who is struggling or a challenging person in our school or workplace – we should pause for a moment and remember that God is present and sufficient. You know that I call this “practicing the presence of God in our daily lives.”

This is a discipline – a pattern of life -- I’ve been seeking to develop personally. When a person comes to me with a need or with a problem (or who is a problem!), I am seeking to take a moment and intentionally ask God to give me wisdom to do whatever he would have me do. Sometimes, I say, “I don’t have any idea, Lord, what to do or say but you’ve placed me here. Give me wisdom. Keep me from wrong paths. Use me.” The life of Jesus teaches us to do that.

#2: The inner groan: the heart for people affected by wrongs -- …with a deep sigh… (7:34)

Let’s think for a moment about the heart of Jesus. The first place I see his compassion in this story is when Jesus takes the man away from the crowd in v.33. Think of this man’s life. He had almost certainly always been a spectacle among his people with the kinds of disabilities that in no way diminished his intelligence or his value before God. A friend with hearing and speaking disabilities once told me, “Pastor Greg, it’s humiliating to be thought to be stupid because people can’t understand me.” And I’ll tell you this – she was a brilliant woman. I’m sure this man had experienced that kind of response to his disabilities for the entirety of his life. I’m quite sure Jesus didn’t want him to be a spectacle any more. Jesus demonstrates something in this passage that I want you to experience today too, i.e., that whatever disabilities or challenges you have in your life, God does not view you as a problem. Jesus sees each person as a unique and precious individual made in his image. He sees us for what we will be if we invite him into our lives.

But, the heart of Jesus is demonstrated even more in the fact that Jesus “sighed” in v.34. That word in the Bible is a word for a deep moan – an expression that something is bringing pain to Jesus’ heart.

The sigh is a moan – an expression that something brings pain to his heart. Several times in the New Testament, Jesus looks at the wrongs in this world and reacts with a sense of agony over what has happened to the world he had made and in which at one time, everything was very good (Genesis 1-2). In these verses, Jesus looked at one member of his creation, a human being made in God’s image, and he felt what the man felt. Jesus understood profoundly that the life this man had led up to this point was not life as God had intended human beings to live before sin entered the world.

On several occasions in the gospel stories, we are told how Jesus empathized and agonized at the affects of evil in the world. I imagine that when Jesus got up close to the man and they were together, he saw the devastation of his life without God, his shyness, his shattered ego and his sense that life can never be different. I’m quite sure Jesus realized what was behind this man’s hurt and all the world’s wrongs, i.e., human sin, unjust world systems, and Satan. Consider for a moment that Jesus knew he was going to heal this man. Jesus’ attitude could have been, “Chin up, old boy. Wait until you see what I’m going to do for you!” But, no, Jesus had a deep heart for all the pain that is in the world and had been in this man’s life.

And Jesus knows you and cares for you too. And, he wants his followers to have his heart. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn” – mourn both our own sins and the affects of evil in the world. “Blessed are those who are merciful” – to those ravaged by sin in the world.

Sometimes, church people have developed the reputation of being angry about evils in the world – and occasionally even speaking out against the evils in the world. And, we should be. Ignoring evil in the world that leads to unborn children being killed or hurting people being excluded is not what Jesus did. But, simply being angry and accusing the world of being wrong is not quite in keeping with all that Jesus did. Do you weep about what happens in the world? Do you sigh over poverty, alienation, abortion, divorce, or brokenness? Let us today learn from the heart of Jesus. When we feel as Jesus felt, we will be able to represent him well in the world. And to feel as people feel, we must get to know them. That’s #3.

#3: The shocking touch: the willingness to enter in -- Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue (7:33).

It’s hard for me to express fully how radical Jesus’ actions are here. Imagine it – Jesus actually touches the ears of this Gentile man. Then, Jesus takes his own spit and grabs the man’s tongue. What would you think if I did this in a service with an AIDS victim? What’s going on here in Mark 7?

I see Jesus doing two things: Communicating to the man and identifying with him.

The same hearing impaired friend I mentioned earlier, who was in the hearing impaired ministry in one of my former churches, told me she sees Jesus using a primitive form of sign language in this story. They didn’t have the beautiful and complex American Sign Language (ASL) that a number of folk here at LAC know. But, it’s makes sense to me that a part of what Jesus is doing is communicating what he is about to do so the man would not be afraid. Jesus is saying, “I’m going to work with your ears and with your speech.” Jesus looks to heaven and is saying, “And I’ll call on God in heaven. Don’t be afraid!”

Let’s face it – what Jesus was about to do could have been confusing and even terrifying to the man. And, the same is true about much of what we do in our church practices. We too need to learn to speak communicate clearly about what we believe, what we’re doing and why we do them when we encounter a hurting and unbelieving world.

But what Jesus did was more than sign language. Jesus also identified personally with the man. Jesus didn’t just see the man having a problem and then do things from a safe distance. Again and again, Jesus identified radically with those who had needs in his world – and often with those considered ritually unclean. And he did it in ways that could not be missed – like, fingers in the ears and touching a man’s tongue.

Eric Noyes from our student ministry staff put me onto something that I find to be very helpful here. Eric pointed out how Jesus’ journey and actions in Mark 7 point us back to not one but two remarkable hairpin journeys the prophets Elijah and Elisha made in 2 Kings. In the context of their seemingly convoluted traveling, those prophets also had rather shocking ways of identifying with the needs of people as they brought the blessing of God to their own hurting world. For example, in 2 Kings 4, we are introduced to a well to do woman who was in trouble. She had shown hospitality to Elisha at times but she herself had a huge problem, i.e., she had never been able to have children. Then, God blessed the woman with a son.

But tragically and unexpectedly, this son died. Think of it: The mother who had not dared to hope for a son now experienced the death of her son. She went to Elisha and threw herself at his feet. And Elisha hurt with her. When people are hurting, God’s people hurt with them. What did he do out of his compassion? Elisha entered into the room in which the corpse of the boy lay. He looked up to the Lord -- and then he stretched out his own body upon that of the boy — mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. Why did he do this? It was to identify himself with the boy. From a religious perspective, he was rendering himself ceremonially unclean. He not only touched a dead body, he got death all over him. He was mouth-to-mouth and eye-to-eye and hand-to-hand with death. And death was removed. The boy was healed.

Do you see it? Jesus did the same thing kind of thing for this man. And, Jesus did the same for us. He absorbed all of our guilt and all of our death, taking it upon Himself. And when we receive him, we find life. That’s the gospel. Then, Jesus sends us out to pray for, to hurt with, and to identify with a hurting world in his name. Those things should guide us on this Sanctity of Life weekend.

#4: The life-recreating word – his power for our remaking – Jesus said, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.

People have always seen echoes of the Book of Genesis here – both in the fact that God’s power is exercised by a word – and by the fact that everything Jesus did was good. Jesus spoke a word – “Ephphatha” – and God’s re-creative work was done. It’s just like Genesis 1. There, God created. Now, Jesus re-creates what has gone wrong. In Genesis, what God did was very good. Here, what Jesus does is very good.

Interestingly, the Bible is intentionally calling us to grasp the fact that Jesus has come into this world to re-create it – to make all things right. Everything about this story in Mark 7 calls us to read a prophecy written over 800 years before Jesus. Isaiah saw a day in which those who are deaf and cannot speak will be completely healed. Isaiah used a term for being unable to speak well – mogilalos – that’s used only one other time in the entire Bible, i.e., right here in Mark 7. Isaiah said, when the savior comes, “then will the eyes of the blind be opened and ears of the deaf unshackled… and the tongue of the one who cannot speak (mogilalos) will shout for joy (Isaiah 35:5-6). “ Do you see it? Jesus is that one who came, who cares and who will make all things right when he is done. Jesus is the God come to save that the prophet had foretold.

I love how the Bible reports what happened. The man’s ears were opened and, literally it says in v. 35, “the chain binding his tongue was broken.” The evil was broken. And the people who saw what Jesus did echoed the words of Genesis 1, i.e., “Jesus has done everything well (7:37)” – or “all that he has done is very good”. That’s what Jesus has come to set into motion.

Jesus began to bring in the rule of God into the world when he was born and lived. He is continuing to do God’s work in all of us who receive him. And when he is done, everything will be made right. There will be no more daughters being troubled by evil as we saw in Mark 7:24-37. No longer will people think that other people defile them when we touch them as was so prevalent in Jesus’ day. Instead, we will see as Jesus saw. No longer will any of us be shackled by the affects of evil and injustice and disease in our world.

Until that day, we must continue to let God do his healing and restoring work in our lives. We need to confess our sins to him, receive his forgiveness and being anew to live for God. We must bring our needs to one another and allow us to pray for each other. According to James 5, that’s how much of God’s healing work is done in our day. We need to be a church where we pray for one another and see the restoring power of God.

But, we also must go out into the world and be “salt and light” in our own hurting and darkened world. We must look up and seek God’s wisdom for all our words and actions. We must feel the pain of people with the kind of pain Jesus felt. We should do a lot of “sighing” as Jesus sighed. And we must enter into the lives of people. That’s what Jesus did – and we won’t go wrong if we do the same.

When we know of children being destroyed even before they are born, we must weep and advocate for them. When we see their Moms not knowing what to do with an unexpected pregnancy, we must enter into relationship and care and help – and not merely condemn. When we see the kinds of wrongs in lives of people similar to what Jesus saw, we first need to have the eyes of Christ. We must see people as those having infinite value for all people are made in God’s image. And then we must have the courage to act in ways we think are consistent with the Jesus we’ve seen in Mark 7. That may involve time investments, and long trips, and hugging, and giving, and praying. But when we do these things to glorify God, God will be pleased. And, I believe, the world will see the goodness, justice and love of Jesus – though us.

I started this two-week series with some thoughts from Dr. Kings “I Have a Dream” speech delivered August 28, 1963. But, let me end with some of his thoughts written from a prison in Birmingham, AL, a few months earlier in April 1963. In it, he called church leaders and church people not just to see people’s value and to agree but to act in way consistent with what we see. He wrote:

My dear fellow Clergymen,

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the… Ku Klux Klanner, but the… moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice… Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection….

Jesus saw the wrongs. At the same time, he saw the value of the people affected by sin – whether their own sin or others’. But, he did more than see -- he also entered into relationship with all who would receive him. He does that for us. Hallelujah! And he sends us into a world that does not see as he sees and tells us to be his ambassadors.

What does a life like that look like? Keep your eyes open. When people cross your path, look up and seek God’s help. Check your heart and make sure you love as God loves and don’t just condemn. And then, enter in and engage in the name of Christ with people. And see what God will do.

Before the throne of God above,

I have a strong, a perfect plea,

A great High Priest whose name is "Love,"

Who ever lives and pleads for me.

My name is graven on His hands,

My name is written on his heart;

It’s the fifth line I had in mind, one that has always held immense power for me: “My name is graven on His hands.”

Think about that: “graven on His hands”- hands that spun universes into existence, now bleeding because they bear my name, carry my guilt, my shame, all that is corrupt and twisted in me, chiseled into human flesh. To me – as a pianist – the sacrifice of those hands to nails (the actual chisels) is the most vivid reminder of Jesus’ willingness to engage His flesh on behalf of mine. I’ve sometimes thought that a fitting line to follow it would be: “My name is riven in his side.”

Jamie

To His glory,

Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor

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很快跟進...

祂的荣耀，

格雷格Waybright博士
主任牧師