September 16, 2018

What type of Person was / or is Jesus?

We understand that Jesus is 1st literally

·       The Son of God,

·       That is God’s Only Son

And then Jesus 2^nd is also

·       All man, which is 100% full man

·       Right?

So in-all reality, what type of person?

What type of man would He have been?

·       Do you believe He would have had a since of humor?

o  Did He tell jokes and laugh at others?

o  If He told jokes, what type of jokes do you think they would have been?

·       Would He have played sports?

o  If He did, What type of sports do you think they were?

o  Would He have been The Star of any sports or would He have been just a bench warmer?

·       Do you think Jesus was an artist?

o  Do you think that He would have had some artist ability?

o  What do you think He would have drawn as a child so it could have been hung on the refrigerator door?

·       Do you think Jesus excelled in anything, more than the others did?

o  Or do you think He would have just been an average child?

·       What about his ability in subjects such as Math, English, and Science?

o  Do you think He would have ‘aced’ them all?

o  Or do you think that He was an average child?

o  What about being maybe below average?

·       What about His ability on learning the Torah?

o  Do you think that was easy for Him since in His God Form, He literally wrote it?

o  Or do you think He would have had to work at it, taking the time to memorize it just like all of the rest of the children?

·       Do you think He got tired or Did He run on God’s Super Power?

Before you come to an answer on this one,

o  Recall all of the times when He went away, by Himself, to pray.

§  Many of those times were at night

§  Or very early in the morning.

§  How many times could they not find Him because He was away, praying.

Now since He was all man, we could draw a conclusion that He would have gotten tired

But He is also fully God,

·       And we know that God doesn’t get tired,

o  And God Never Ever Sleeps.

So what would you think your answer would be?

·       Do you think Jesus got tired?

We really don’t know the answers to any of these type of questions.

But today - within our Scripture,

·       Do we see another side of Jesus that we rarely see?

We know He is sneaking away.

·       To Be By Himself!

It is as if He is taking a Vacation.

From EVERYTHING!

He doesn’t want to be identified.

·       He has His Shades on.

·       He has His Hat pulled down.

·       He may even have an Overcoat on.

·       He is in disguise and He is sneaking away by Himself.

OK, I took some liberties here but we should also NOTE:

·       That He is Not with His Disciples this time,

·       And it is clear, He wants to be alone by Himself.

·       And the Scriptures says nothing about going away to Pray.

·       So He wants to be Just-By-Himself.

·       To Be ALONE!

THIS IS DIFFERENT FOR JESUS!

ISN’T IT?

He snuck away by himself!

·       Into a private house!

·       No one knows where He went

·       Nor where He is.

·       He made it.

o  He is save!

§  But not for long.

Just then walks in a (S–E-O-Fen-ician) Syrophoenician woman by birth.

She is a Gentile woman

·       And she has a problem.

This woman bows / falls / at Jesus’ feet.

·       And right away,

·       She begs Him to heal her daughter.

By the way, Did you notice here

·       Her daughter is Not There!

This woman pleads to Jesus,

“There is an unclean spirit inside my little girl.

·       Please Cast out the demon that is in her.

·       Please Cast out the devil that is in her.”

And then, what do we find as Jesus’ response?

Wouldn’t we have expected something like:

·       “Why of course my child.

·       What is her name?”

But what type of response do we get?

·       We get a hesitation from Him.

·       Jesus paused, He did nothing - yet.

·       He waits.

Why does He wait?

·       Is it because she is a Gentile?

·       Is that the problem?

·       Is it because she was born as a (Sir-E-an) (Fa-nE-sha) Syrian Phoenicia.

So does it matter where we come from?

·       Does that have something to do with His Hesitation?  

·       Does it have to do with what type of lifestyle she has had up to now?

·       Does it have to do with of what type of life she will be going back to?

·       What does any of this have to do with her asking Jesus for his help?

·       Why is it so important to have it mentioned here within the writing of Mark?

We will dig deeper in that later tonight in the “Dig Deeper” class.

But I believe it is safe to say that over the years, there has been lots and lots of bad-blood between the Jews and the (Cer-e-an – fan-nE-sha-cians) Syrophoenicians.

The mother tells Jesus about her little girl

·       And how she has this unclean spirit,

·       This evilness within-inside of her.

And in response to her plea,

·       We hear something unexpected.

·       It even makes us wonder what is really going on here.

It is as if Jesus is talking out of exhaustion,

·       Or maybe his body is hurting.

I know when my body hurts, I get very short.

·       I am grumpy at best.

·       I snap back with answers.

·       And many of the times,

o  I am totally unaware of how my responses are in a hurting way.

But here we find Jesus in this way.

·       Would you classify him as being a Grumpy Jesus?

·       Would you say that He is responding back to her in a very nastiest way?

·       Would you say that there was no need for this type of talk from Jesus to this woman?

·       What do you think?

Last week, we talked and uncovered when

·       Jesus snapped back at the Pharisees

·       And to the teachers

·       By calling them Hypocrites!

We have even seen where Jesus attacks

·       his own disciples from time to time,

o  “Don’t you get it yet?!!”

But here we have a Begging Mother

·       Who is crying out for help for her little girl.

Would we not expect for Jesus to respond through and with His Love and patience.

But instead He says:

“First I should feed the children – my own family, the Jews. It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.” (Mark 7:27)

WOW! Really?

Now, maybe, just maybe,

·       Jesus wasn’t calling this woman a dog,

·       Maybe there was a real domesticate dog within the room

·       And Jesus was referring to that dog.

And as a side note, the truth is that the Hebrews found dogs, in general, to be utterly disgusting scavengers.

So in the best of light possible,

·       Jesus could have been saying that

·       A filthy, disgusting dog

·       Is more deserving of His care

·       Than this woman and her little girl are.

On another side note: It is interesting that even the most critical of scripture scholars would agree that Jesus actually spoke these words since Mark included them within the scripture, even though they seem to not cast Jesus in the best light.

Now, this woman could have run away in tears.

Or maybe at best, she could have responded with saying

·       "Thank you, You Kind Sir” and then left.

·       Like as if she was getting in a few good ‘Stabs’ in before leaving.

But instead of doing any of these things,

·       She stood her ground.

Nothing, But I mean Nothing,

·       Even dealing with this, what seemed to be a rude prophet,

·       Nothing was going to stand in the way on getting help for her little girl.

You may recall on how she responded to his name calling,

·       "Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."

In other words, I would be grateful to take the leftovers.

·       The Scraps, the Crumbs.

In fact,

She seemed to be saying with great faith,

·       Just the Leftovers

o  Just the Scraps

§  Just the Crumbs

·       That is all that I need

·       And it would be enough to make her daughter whole once again.

And that is when

·       That is when we see Jesus respond.

·       Without even touching this woman

·       Without even touching her daughter,

·       Without laying his eyes upon this woman

·       Without laying his hands on the daughter,

·       And it even seems

·       That even without looking up at Heaven to pray,

·       Jesus pronounces that this woman's little girl is healed.

·       And she was!

Jesus says, “Good Answer!”

“Now go home for the demon has left your daughter.”

And she left and when she arrived home, she found her little girl lying quietly in bed, and the demon was gone.”

This woman's story

·       And Jesus' response reminds me

·       It should remind all of us to pray

·       Always pray

·       And not give up Hope!

Through this woman’s story,

·       We can be reminded of many scriptures

o  Where everything seems to be lost

o  When it seems that everything

o  And everyone seems to be against us

o  Everything,

o  And I mean Everything

o  Including the Lord.

For one example of this, let us take a look at Psalms 13.

This is written by David and it says:

“O Lord, how long will you forget me?

Forever?

How long will you look the other way?

How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul,

With sorrow in my heart every day?

How long will my enemy have the upper hand?

Turn and answer me, O Lord my God!

Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die.

Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying,

“We have defeated him!”

Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall.

But I trust in your unfailing love.

I will rejoice because you have rescued me.

I will sing to the Lord because he is good to me.”

Through this woman’s story found in Mark

·       We should also be reminded that we always cannot decide of what kind of healing is to take place.

·       While we may want someone's cancer, or sickness to go away,

·       Or for a couple to work out their differences and restore their marriage,

·       The healing that does take place may be a totally mysterious to us.

·       It may be that the ones we are praying for are handed a closer walk with God or the Blanket of God’s Peace and Love.

·       And in some cases,

o  They may be rewarded with the ultimate healing of life forever and ever with God.

But as we read on,

·       The So-Called-Vacation

·       That Jesus seemed to be looking for

·       It is now over.

And He along with the disciples are leaving Tyre.

And once again, the crowd forms.

While Jesus and all were on their way,

·       Some people came up to Jesus and interceded,

·       Meaning that they asked on a certain man’s behalf, for help and healing.

They had a friend who could not speak

·       Because he was deaf

·       And he also had a speech impediment.

They begged Jesus to help their poor friend.

·       So Jesus took the man away in private.

Notice, again, for the 2^nd time today,

·       Jesus is in a private setting.

Now you tell me, Do you think that it was a ‘Good Thing’ for Jesus to do this in private or what do you think?

Jesus took this man who could not hear nor speak away in Private.

·       Jesus first put his fingers into the man’s ears.

o  Ok, so far so good.

·       But then Jesus spat on his own fingers

o  YEK

·        And then touched the man’s tongue with his finger.

o  Double YEK

o  Now, isn’t that just gross?

·       Bad enough that Jesus spit on his own fingers

·       But then he placed his wet fingers on the man’s tongue.

Yek!!

·       Why did he do that?

But after doing this,

·       Jesus then looked up to Heaven.

·       And He said, “BE OPENED.”

And it is so very cool that Mark included the words as Jesus said them in His native tongue.

·       We don’t know why Mark did this but it is just pretty cool to me.

“Instantly the man could hear perfectly, and his tongue was freed so he could speak plainly!”

Jesus tried to keep everyone quiet about this healing.

·       We are not for sure why but we can take a few guesses.

o  Maybe Jesus was still exhausted.

o  Maybe He didn’t want his ministry to be about Healing Everyone.

o  But rather, His ministry was to come and to explain the reign of God and to be the perfect sacrifice that was needed to fulfill the Father’s Will.

But as it turns out, the people were overwhelmed with Excitement and through their Joy as they declared:

·       He has done everything well; He even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak” Mark 7:37

Have you noticed, in these two stories,

·       It was through a third party,

·       It was others who asked Jesus to help.

And this is the same thing for you and me.

We often are asked by people to pray for them or for others.

And today’s Scriptures is Our Proof,

·       God honors those types of prayers.

But how well do we handle those prayer requests?

·       I mean, when we are asked to pray,

·       Do we pray once and then forget to continue to pray?

·       Or do we remember to lift them up in our prayers continually?

If you struggle with this,

·       Here are some helpful tips

o  That may help you.

When we say that we will pray for someone, make sure we get his or her name and write it down.

·       It sounds obvious but

o  I can't tell you how many times I've been asked to pray for someone

o  And I have forgotten what their name is.

o  We know that God knows,

o  But it makes prayers more personal when you have their names.

o  And, There is Power within a Name.

Start a prayer journal even if it's on the back of an envelope that you keep on your person.

·       If you have a smart phone or tablet there are many free prayer apps that

o  Can help us remember to pray

o  As well as to remember what we are praying for.

Then set aside some time each day to remember them in prayer.

We should Pray specific prayers

·       And then we must always let God be God.

Let God decide in what way,

·       In what form the healing will come to be.

And don’t give up.

Even through challenges, press on with Faith.