Mark 7.30 She
went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. – St.
Mark
In Mark 7, a woman from the Gentile district of Tyre (NW
of Judea) came to Jesus to ask Him to deliver her daughter from a demon.
The account gives us no information of what the demon was doing to the little
girl, only that she was possessed by this supernatural infestation. Initially, Jesus (apparently) refused to help the woman. His attitude appeared
to be: Go away!
Not to be dissuaded, the woman pressed the Lord for a response
and a bit of an interchange resulted.
Jews then didn’t associate with
foreigners – unless, of course, there is some sort of tourism or trade money
associated. (I’m not trying to be cute, but with all the Christian visitors to
the Holy Land each year, you’d think there would be a tremendous return of
modern Jews to Christ. But there isn’t. The Jews of today don’t associate much with
foreigners either.)
However, Jesus wasn’t outright refusing to associate with
her, He was probably testing her. She knew about the Jews and their attitudes,
but she also had heard about Jesus and she had a need. Her daughter was in
serious trouble. I think Jesus tested her resolve. In resolve, she pressed Him
for help.
It is interesting to me that we here, in the enlightened west, don’t quite know what to do about
demons. We write them off as myths or stories because of our devotion to
science; and then we treat serious spiritual problems with medication, not spiritual
authority. Foreigners to our world wonder why we let the demon possessed just
walk about among us…
But the woman had a need, and she asserted herself to
Jesus to elicit His help. When Jesus rejected her in the manner He did, she
wasn’t moved, she simply responded to His objections, and He granted her what
she wanted because of her faith. Faith knows no foreigners. Faith responds to
the believer regardless of race, gender, or nationality. Jesus responds to
faith.
And Jesus told the woman foreigner, “For such a [response],
you may go; the demon has left your daughter.” The demon couldn’t stand up to a
connection of faith with Jesus Christ.
The story isn’t a story about foreigners but a story about faith. (Although we could make a case for foreigners in the Kingdom of Belief.)
The only way to gain access to the Kingdom of Belief is with belief. We call
that faith. It doesn’t mean we believe in a made-up Kingdom, it means we assert
ourselves to God for access into His realm. His realm isn’t made-up; His realm
is unseen. The needy access the Kingdom believing, that though unseen, it is
still there.
It doesn’t matter who we are or where we’re from, the
Kingdom is the Kingdom and only the faithful find God there. What are we
fighting today that can only be resolved by faith in the King of Kings?
Father in Heaven,
You know I need Your help and need Your touch to fix me. I come in faith like
the woman of old, perhaps not as a foreigner, but as a child who needs a touch
from the King. I can only come by faith. I can only be healed by faith. And I
can only proceed by faith. Without faith it is impossible to please You because
those that come to You must believe that You are; and that You reward those who diligently seek You – only the faithful are accepted… Amen.
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