In Mark 7, Jesus had a debate with Pharisees about what was clean and unclean. The debate began because the disciples were eating without washing their hands. Jesus replied to the Pharisees in Mark 7:17-20, “that it is not what goes into the mouth that is unclean but what comes out of the person that is unclean.”
After the debate, Jesus went to the region of Tyre. Tyre was a gentile nation, known for uncleanness, idolatry, paganism and had great animosity against Israelites. Why did Jesus go there? It seemed like He wanted to get some rest, but Jesus would have known that a Syrophoenician woman would come to Him. Syrophoenician was considered the high class respected descendants of the Canaanites. For someone from pagan religion and a good socioeconomic class, she must have been desperate or had some faith in Jesus for her to knee before Him.
Her problem is her daughter who had an unclean spirit. Unclean spirit is the spirit of the demon. None of us is free of this issue of unclean spirit, which is around and amongst us. Adam who had the power to govern the whole creation has given up his authority to Satan. So from now until the final judgment of Jesus, Satan is the king of this world. He has his servants, unclean spirits trying to devour God’s people and interfere with their faith.
For this case, the unclean spirit is in the daughter. She came and persistently asked Jesus to cast the demon out of her daughter. In Matthew’s version of this story, even the disciples were irritated by that. In Mark 7:27, Jesus was basically saying to her that she was like a dog. Despite hearing this, she answered “Yes, Lord” (Mark 7:28). She was acknowledging that Jesus was the master of the house, He came to His children and she was not an Israelites. The Pharisees were not pleased with Jesus eating with them and found little reason to push Him out. But this woman was honoured even to receive a little crumbs.
What kind of attitude do we have coming to Jesus and to the church? She was focused and knew Jesus had the answer she was seeking for, and she would not let anything get in the way. Many times we come to church, and we let so many things get in the way of the main purpose. We have to make it a goal that whenever we come to church for service, when we pray to God, and when we do God’s work, we want to receive the answer to our prayers and receive great blessings from heaven.
Church is a place where different cultures, backgrounds, characters and personalities come together. And mostly sinners come in and there are many interferences and things that can happen. And that becomes a greater problem that we forget about the blessing. She didn’t let that happen and acknowledged what Jesus said. She was honest about herself and who Jesus was. Because of that, in Mark 7:29, Jesus said “You may go, the demon has left your daughter.” In Matthew 15:28, Jesus said to her “ O woman, your faith is great, it shall be done for you as you wish.”
Are we picking and choosing from the word of God? Are we ready to take in whatever Word Jesus gives us and say “Yes Lord”. May our church be like this Syrophoenician woman, even when it is hard to swallow and offensive, may we be able to say “Yes, Lord”, and make corrections because the Word is absolutely right.
The faith that Jesus had been looking for in all Israel, He found it in this woman who was considered unclean and came to Him with this unclean daughter. We are all unclean because we come from an unclean world. When we meet Jesus, He cleanses us. May we walk out of the church dancing and celebrating knowing that we have been cleansed.
Mark transitioned from one event to the next, so Jesus’ teaching unfolded continuously. In Mark 7:31, Jesus healed the deaf and mute man. He put His finger into his ear, He spit and touched his tongue. We have to remember in most of Jesus’ miracles and signs, especially in the gospel of Mark, Jesus just spoke the Word to cast out unclean spirit. He could have just said the Word.
Jesus said that what comes out of a person is unclean and defiled them. So when Jesus spit out of his mouth, the man should be unclean and defiled but he was healed. Because Jesus is God, He has no sin, whatever comes out of Him is power. The Word that came out of Him has the ability to cleanse but it is invisible. So this time Jesus was showing it physically because the disciples and the people couldn’t believe. The fingers used to inscribe the Word on the tablet and He was putting those fingers into his ears. Jesus is the temple and what comes out of Him (the spit) is the living water.
This deafness and muteness, it is not just about healing but recreating the ear, the hearing ability. It is about giving the tongue that was not able to speak, the ability to speak immediately. Jesus was showing us the power of His Word, whatever comes out of Him has the power of creation. Those that physically can’t hear, as a result they have difficulty in their speech. Spiritually, when we can’t hear the word of God, we can’t speak. There is no testimony, our lips can’t open up to sing praise to God.
Jesus said “Ephphatha!”, which means to be opened. Our ears and hearts need to be opened to hear the word of God. Jesus spoke about the ears to hear in Mark 4:23, Matthew 15:10-11, Matthew 13:14-17 and they can’t see or hear because their hearts have become dull. According to Isaiah 42:18-20 and John 8:47, the children of God, those who belong to God will hear the Word of God (John 10:25-28, Revelation 10:11). May the unclean spirit be casted away from our lives and God will open our ears, eyes and mouths.
Once common in these events, the actual people who were healed didn’t ask Jesus but it was the mother and ‘some people’ who implored Jesus to heal the daughter and the deaf and mute man. So it is not only us, we have our family members, friends, colleagues and neighbours, who need such healing. They are suffering because of the unclean spirits in this world and they can’t hear the Word of God. We need to pray for Jesus to lay His hands on our brothers and sisters who are going through difficulty because of physical and spiritual sickness and deafness. Let us pray for healing and “Ephphatha!”and believe that Jesus will create what they do not have.
AMEN.
