Amen. Well, friends, there are a few different types of stories that we can tell about people, right? Some stories are kind of pretty basic, right? You're introducing a friend to another friend. You say, oh, let me tell you a story about this time, or somebody wasn't there, and you're kind of telling about something they did or something they said, or probably the worst kind of stories. My personal least favorite is when you're around friends from high school and. And they decide to tell a story about something that you allegedly did that. Listen, I was a Christian all through high school. I didn't. You know, I say that not out of judgment, but out of not. I don't want you to hear what I didn't say. And that is that sometimes friends from high school tell stories about me. And I'm like, I have no memory of that. You can't prove that that happened. I think you made that up at some point. And again, that's not me saying that I was in some way wild or something. But I'll just be like, I don't know. But this is one of those stories of Jesus that as I read it, I thought, man, what is this story doing here? There's something getting lost in the translation as to why this would be here. And as I've kind of read it through my life, that's kind of been my thought. So studying it was honestly something of a joy this week because as I discovered what the author is doing through the Gospel of Mark, it really is a beautiful kind of cool thing, but it comes off as a strange story at first. And if I were an early follower of Jesus, I would find this odd. I would wonder what it's doing here. And so I tried to kind of wrestle with that. And it's in Mark 7, verse 24. As you turn there, I'm going to be reading from the NIV or so bring it up on your phone or the Bible that you have with you. And kind of contextually, what's happened right before this is Jesus was gaining disciples in and around Jerusalem. And then he comes into conflict with the Pharisees. And the Pharisees say, you know, your disciples are eating food with unclean hands. And he makes some points about kind of ceremonial cleanliness and uncleanliness. And basically kind of his broader point is, you guys have made up this whole system about who's in and who's out. And you don't understand that the truth is that we are all out. That without the grace of God, we are all outside of the holiness of God, that God, who wants good things for you is a step removed from you because he is a holy God and he has a standard that we can't reach. And last week we talked about that our only way in is through Jesus, and that that is kind of the teaching that Jesus is getting across right before this. And then in verse 24, we continue with the story, and it says, 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. In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit, she came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek born in Syria and Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. And then Jesus replies, 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. Then he told her, for such a reply, you may go. The demon has left your daughter. She went home and found her child lying on the bed and the demon gone. So this first story we get, Jesus stepping outside of Israelite territory. And the text tells us that he's trying to kind of rest and lay low, for we don't find out why. And then we run into this Gentile woman. The text calls her a Greek woman or Syrophoenician woman. And he asks that Jesus heal her daughter of an unclean spirit. And Jesus reply is kind of, well, I'm not your messiah culturally, right? That's kind of like what his reply means. He says, like, well, you know, first the people of Israel. That is who I am here for. I am their Messiah. And he says it with this strange phrase, first, let the children eat all they want, for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it. And the word here is kind of the household pets, right? And then she says, maybe, but I believe that you can still help me. Her display of faith was, look, I understand what you're saying, Jesus. I understand that maybe you're not here for me in terms of salvation, but I'm here for you, and I believe that you can help me. And Jesus reply is, yeah, that's it. You get it. You understand who I am. And with this display of faith, Jesus decides to heal her daughter. And that's kind of the story on his face. But like I said, these stories all Seem both seem very strange to me. But as I studied them, I felt like they opened up, right? So contextually remember that people are obsessed with the clean and the unclean, right? We go back to the beginning of this chapter. That's what Jesus is talking about. It's these Pharisees who are the leaders of the Jewish people. And they were so into this idea of needing a very clean system of who's in and who's out. And Jesus says, you don't understand. It's not about a system of who's in and who's out. It's about an invitation to follow God, an invitation to follow me. Right? And then this story happens next in the Gospel of Mark. And, and it's clear what the author's intent is. He's saying, look, we said this, here's what this actually looks like. And we go and we meet this woman who many Jewish people, the Pharisees definitely would have said, well, yeah, that's an unclean person, that is an outsider. And Jesus says, but look, she gets it more than you guys do. See, she understands the reality of, of who I am. She understands the reality that I am God in human flesh. In fact, she calls him Lord. She says, if we go back to verse 28, Lord, she replied, even the dogs under the table eat the children's cums. I didn't realize this, but this is the only time in the Gospel of Mark where anyone calls Jesus Lord. It is this woman who is acknowledging who he is. Ultimately, this woman had the most accurate view of who Jesus was. She understood that, you know, this was God and this was her hope. She also understood that the Gentiles would not be brought in as dogs, but as fellow heirs. Right? That that word he says, he says, first let the children eat first is kind of this idea that was all through the Old Testament that when the Messiah came, it would first be a message for Israel, but ultimately it would be the hope of all the world that, that this was not a nationalistic or a race based on situation, that ultimately everyone would be invited in. So this story is not just some kind of strange story. We have an illustration of what we got. Like, you know, what we got last week we have, you know, last week we talked about this idea of clean and unclean and that we all stand in need. Now we meet a woman who sees that need and goes to the one way in, in Jesus. It is a reminder that we are all outsiders, but that if we come to Jesus and we acknowledge our need, he will step in. He will work on our behalf, that he will see our faith and that he will work. So this odd story is actually quite revealing of who Jesus is. But there's a second story that's also very strange. Verse 31. Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon down to the Sea of Galilee in the region of the Decapolis. There, some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk. And they begged Jesus to place his hand on him. After he took him aside away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the man's tongue and. And he looked up to heaven with a deep sigh and said, EPH barata, which means be opened. Sometimes words like that, you need to remember to practice them before you say them out loud. I wasn't ready for all those consonants. I just read it in my head. At this, the man's ears were open, his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak plainly. Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone, but the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. People were overwhelmed with amazement. He has done everything well, they said. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak. So again, what does this story tell us? On its face, Jesus is in another Gentile region. A deaf man shows up. And we've seen Jesus heal people in very normal ways up to this point in the Gospel of Mark, right? It's, oh, you need to be healed. He touched them, they were healed. That's probably the method I would have gone with, right? Like if it's me. But Jesus doesn't do that. He puts his fingers in his ears. It says he spits and touches his tongue. There's no more details there, but I hope these two actions were separate from each other as possible. And the man is healed and is absolutely enthralled with who Jesus is, right? And again, it's kind of an odd story that maybe if you're reading in the Bible, you're like, what is this doing here? But let's look at kind of maybe some things we missed. The story happens in a place that we've actually been before in the text called the Decapolis, right? Or the 10 cities. And this is the same place that we were at in Mark, chapter one. Mark, chapter three. Mark, chapter three. When Jesus drove a demon out of a man and it went into pigs, and the pigs went over the hillside. And then they said, jesus don't come here anymore, right? And so he's been in this region before, and he Sent the man he healed. And he says, tell people what Jesus did for you. Right? And we assume that he did. And then when Jesus is back there, this, this deaf man comes to him and. And, you know, so that's kind of the. The word about Jesus has spread in this area through. We assume the word of that man. And I joked about kind of Jesus method of healing being odd, but I came across this in one of the. One of the commentaries about this, and it really is excellent. The commentator says Mark's description of his behavior, that is, Jesus portrays Jesus acting out his intentions for the benefit of those with whom he could not otherwise communicate. Jesus took the man who could not hear or speak apart from the crowd to demonstrate that he was about to do something for him in particular. Then Jesus put his fingers in the man's ears, spat and touched his tongue to show that his ears would be open and his tongue loosened. So in other words, Jesus healing is the way it is, not for the benefit of some type of strange showiness, but for the benefit of this man. See, he couldn't explain to him, here's what I'm about to do. So he does it in a way that is, if you will, self explanatory. And the word that's used here actually has some significance. The New Testament was originally written in Greek, and they would use. Because Greek was the common language of the day, they used an Old Testament that was called the Septuagint or the lxx. You'll see it if you read about it. And it was the entire Old Testament in Greek. So sometimes the New Testament authors will use certain Greek words, and it generally doesn't matter what the Greek word was in the Old Testament. But if a New Testament author is using it, it kind of does matter. Does that make sense? I know it's kind of a weird turn of phrase, but the word that he used here could hardly talk. Occurs two times in the whole Bible. Here is one of those two times. And the second time is Isaiah 35, 5, 6. And this is what Isaiah 35, 5, 6 says. It's looking ahead to when the Messiah would put everything back together. So kind of brief history. Israel is established under, you know, King David. And if you're familiar with the Bible, you might get this. If not, we're gonna fly through it and, you know, read it whenever you want. It's. It's free in a lot of places. But the Israel is established as the kingdom of Israel, but they disobey God and they are sent into exile. Right? And they Are. And while they are in exile. While they are in exile, we get this. There is prophecy about them being kind of put back together, right? And one of these prophecies, a lot of them would look ahead to the Messiah. And so in the book of Isaiah, he is looking ahead to the time of the Messiah. And this is what he says. He says, then the eyes of the blind will be open and the ears of the deaf unstopped. The. Then will the lame leap like a deer and the mute tongue shout for joy. And that phrase, mute tongue, those who cannot speak, that's the exact same word that we get here. Mark didn't do this by accident. He is communicating to his audience that what was talked about in Isaiah is what is happening here, that this actually is what it looks like for the mute tongue to shout for joy. And again, remember our broader context. We're talking about the clean and the unclean and how the Pharisees are unwilling to accept Jesus because he doesn't do it the way that they think he should do it, and he doesn't act the way that they think he should act. And then we get these two stories where Jesus is driving out demons and bringing hope to the Gentiles, and then this prophecy that the mute tongue should shout for joy, but it's not happening in Jerusalem. It's happening in the Decapolis, you see? And so. And without, you know, they have all of these teaching points. And honestly, as I looked more into it, there is. There was more research that I wanted to do because it just got more and more interesting. It's a dense kind of section of scripture where a lot is happening, but there is some obvious stuff, right? First of all, we see that Jesus did pursue these people. He goes into their towns and their villages and he helps them out, right? And, you know, we get this first woman who. He drives the demon out of her daughter from a distance, right? And he shows up, right? Like he had been told to not come back to that region. He chooses to go back to that region to meet this woman and to drive a demon out of her daughter. He cares for her. I think we see his pursuit in the. The deaf man, right? He doesn't choose to heal her for this, heal him for the sake of, you know, showiness or anything like that. He comes to where that man is and to what he can understand, and he interacts with him and he cares for him and he loves him. He pursues these people. But he also works in kind of an unusual way throughout the whole passage. Nothing about this seems normal. When he's talking to the woman, he uses this code language instead of being clear. And then the. You know, if I observed the healing of the deaf man, I would go, well, that was odd, right? Like, you know, imagine not being there and hearing this story. And then Jesus, you know, put his fingers in his ear and then he touched his tongue. And it's like. I mean, couldn't even explain it to him after he was healed. I just thought, you know, there is a certain oddness about it where Jesus is working in unusual and kind of unexpected ways. But the thing I got caught up on most is kind of the broad difference between the two reactions, right? Like at the end of this whole passage, verse 36, it says Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. People were overwhelmed with amazement. He has done everything well, they said. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak. One commentator pointed out, they aren't just talking about him, they are preaching and proclaiming about him. So Jesus shows up, he performs one or two miracles, depending on how you see this. And they're basically sitting there going, that's God. That's God working among us. This is amazing. He has come. He has cared for us. He has loved us. He does everything well. Everything he touches is good. So that's the reaction of the Gentiles. But when we think about what we talked about last week, right? What was Israel's reaction? Because Jesus is showing up over and over again through the Gospel of Mark, right? We're in chapter seven at this point. Chapters one through six and the beginning of seven are just Jesus doing things over and over again that would lead people to believe that he is God. He is. He is driving out demons. He is healing the sick. He is raising the dead. He is teaching. He is walking on water. He is calming storms. And you see the disciples going, man, who is this guy? This is crazy, right? I don't know. Maybe we'll find out. And then you see, like, you see them not really getting it. They're still kind of. Even in the. Even in chapter seven. They say, like, after he says to the Pharisees, like, hey, it's not really about a system of who's in and out. It's about, like, following. You know, it's about following God. It's about following Jesus. It's about your heart actually changing. It says the disciples got into a house with him. They're like, okay, yeah, but, like, what's the system of who's in and who's out? And he's like, did you not hear what I just said? And so they're just constantly struggling to see who Jesus is and not really getting it. I mean, even at the beginning of this chapter, right, they're seeing Jesus work, they're seeing Jesus move. And the religious leaders, you would think they would be excited because they'd be like, wow, I've spent my life on this. And finally people are excited. Finally we're seeing the Messiah. Finally we're seeing God work among us. But what do the religious leaders do? They show up and they say, jesus, why don't your disciples wash their hands the right way? They've got to wash their hands the right way. Jesus, if they're going to eat food, they got to follow all the laws and they got to wash their hands the right way. Can you imagine what part of you wants to go like, who cares? Who cares about them washing their hands? It doesn't matter at all. What are you doing? How have you become so lost, right? Like, what happened to Israel was that they were so sure about what it would look like that they missed it when they actually saw it. They were the ones that were prepared. They were the ones who had read the scriptures, they were the experts, but they were so sure that it would look the way that they expected, that they missed it when they actually saw it. The Pharisees and to a lesser extent, the disciples. The trees got in the way of the forest, right? Like, the don't miss the forest for the trees. They very much missed the forest for the trees. The tragedy for the people of God is that the promises of God were being seen in Gentiles instead of Jerusalem, right? That what Jesus said was true, that first let the children eat first was God's intent, was God's desire that he would reveal himself to the Jewish people and that they would accept their Messiah and that it would be a light for the world and that Gentiles would be brought in. But he is rejected by those who know him well, but accepted by those who would be considered outsiders. And it's so, I think, interesting as we kind of build towards the middle part of Mark, and then we're going to go, we're going to start making our way to Jerusalem, you know, towards Easter and all that type of stuff. But it's so interesting here to look at these two kind of interactions because he shows up among the Gentiles and they accept, yeah, that's him. But he shows up over and over again among his people. Among the people who should know better and they just can't get out of their own way. And so that's the story we have. And like I said, it's a little bit odd, but I do think that it asks some questions of us today. And the first question is, do we struggle when it looks different than what we would have expected, right? Do we struggle when it looks different than what we would have expected, right? Like when following Jesus looks different than we thought it would look, do we struggle with that? And I think that is something that can get in the way of our faith, right? I mentioned that these stories all have kind of odd character to them and it would be odd to me. And as I thought about that, I thought, man, that's so true for us. When I talk to people who struggle with their faith and when they're honest about it, they'll say stuff like that. They'll say, well, I just thought that Jesus would. I just thought that following Jesus would look like this. I thought it would be easier. And I'm not seeing Jesus work in my day to day lives, right? I think that this is something that can happen to all of us, right? It happens through. It happens through. You know, if you're going through a difficult time financially, right? And you're just kind of hoping that there's a job that would work out, right? And you've done everything right, you're praying, you're asking your friends to pray, you're working your network, you read the entire book a job, found out it's not about getting a job. So that's a bad joke. I'm sorry. You know what I mean? And like, you just hoped upon hope, but it still isn't working out. And you're going, hey, Jesus, are you there? Do you hear me? Do you know, do you kind of know that I need you, right? Or like, you know, a medical situation, right? If you've been through a long term medical situation, there's kind of like nothing worse than it, right? Like, I mean, this is just, I mean, not my opinion maybe, but like, you know those things where it's like there's kind of two versions of doctor's appointments and there's like the version you experience every other time in your life, right, where you show up and they're like, oh, you need an antibiotic. And you're like, cool, get it for me. And then you go to CVS and they act like they've never heard of antibiotics. And you're like, oh, it's gonna be at least 40 minutes. And it's like. Seems like it's right over there, but, you know, but like. And sorry, bad joke for. Yeah, no, no, but, you know, there's that version of a doctor's appointment and then there's kind of the long term medical issue version of a doctor's appointment where you're just going, and you're just giving them money and nothing's happening. And you're going, hey, Jesus, I've heard about you healing people. I've heard about you doing something for people. I've heard these testimonies. I wouldn't mind a little bit of that over here. And you know those moments where we don't know what Jesus is doing or why he is doing it or why it doesn't work out the way that we hoped it worked out. I've shared this before, but our oldest daughter is autistic. She is what's called level three autistic. She can communicate, she can talk. But the reality is that at 9 years old, she's basically developmentally probably 5 or 6 years old. And as we went through the process with her growing up, there's kind of an ongoing hope from the time a child is probably like 0 till about like 6 or 7, where you just constantly hear about, oh, kids have breakthroughs all the time. It's gonna be. It's gonna be great. It's gonna be great. It's gonna, you know, at some point, it'll work out at some point. And then kind of like slowly but surely you go, oh, ours isn't gonna be the it's gonna work out version of this story. Ours is gonna be the, she'll probably live with us for the rest of the our lives version of this story. And it's hard because you go, man, it feels. It feels like we did. I mean, if I could just be honest, this is, you know, taking off the pastor. It feels like we did everything right. You know what I mean? Like, we didn't. We're not living in sin. We're not living in. And it feels like people who are living in sin have normal kids. And why is this our story? And if I offended you with the word normal, I don't mean that we love our child, we love her to death, but the struggle is felt right. And I can't help but see that in this story, that when Jesus works in unusual ways, it can get in the way for us and it can be frustrating. But what Jesus would say is he would invite us to see the work. He would invite us to see his Goodness and his grace and to walk alongside it. And, you know, the Pharisees had a problem with the way Jesus did things, and it got in the way of them seeing Jesus. And I share about me. So you don't know that I'm not sharing from a place of, you know, I've never felt that way. But the point is that we can't lose Jesus in the midst of. Of being uncomfortable with maybe the way that it works out. But we also miss Jesus because it's not our way in kind of another way, right? There's the unusualness of it. But also sometimes our prejudices can get in the way, right? And if you don't like the word prejudices, our expectations can get in the way. Oh, it should look this way, right? And I think, like, sometimes we can be a little bit more like a Pharisee just looking for something wrong, instead of a Gentile saying, I can't get enough of this. He's doing everything well. He's doing everything well. And this happens in all sorts of ways, right? Like, I've been in ministry not a long time, I guess. I don't know. It's getting longer every day. There's youth group kids that I had as sixth graders that are now, like, in their second or third year of college. And that's weird because I'm still 25. And so we had to look into it. But, you know, sometimes in ministry, when you see somebody, when you see another church who is, oh, people are finding Jesus. And, you know, and that place is growing and they're changing and they're doing things, you can look at it and you can kind of be like, well, I wouldn't do it that way. You know, I mean, you can get like, I don't know why I did an Eeyore voice, but it kind of fits. You know what I mean? Like, you know, you can look at it and you could say, oh, that's not the right style, or, oh, they don't talk about Scripture enough. Or they talk about Scripture too much, or their services are too long, or their music's too different, or their friends. People are finding Jesus. People are finding Jesus. And listen, if you can't point to a chapter and verse that shows how they are living in sin, that should be something that we celebrate. And listen, I know that it's hard. I feel it, too. I do things the way I do things because that's how I do them, right? If I had a different opinion, I would do different things. But that doesn't mean that My opinion needs to become somebody else's rules. But I could also, you know, we have to also watch our view of people. Like, I think sometimes we, you know, we hear about, like, I don't know, like, you know, somebody who's working in a, you know, a prison ministry or working among, you know, addicts or something. And maybe we say, like, even the way I just said that, like, working among addicts, right? Like, we can't forget that people are people, right? That, first of all, every single person we ever interact with was made in the image of God, that they were made on purpose and for a purpose. And that if you have any part of you that goes, oh, well, those people, whatever that word means for you, that is something you need to bring before Jesus. If you are ever saying those people, you need to pray about that. Because the reality is that those people are people for whom your Savior died. That those people are people for whom your God and their God and our God has a purpose. And you can't let your prejudices or your preconceived notions or your ideas get in the way of what Jesus would do. Because that's the exact mistake that the Pharisees made. And that's how you end up in a place where you see Isaiah 35 being fulfilled. Not in the center of Jerusalem, but in some gentile offshoot town. Because they're the ones who are actually able to look at Jesus and say he does everything well. And so our view of how things go gets in the way. Our view of people or places or strategies or details gets in the way. But the most important thing that we see here is that Jesus is pursuing each of us. And I know that's simple, and I know I kind of already covered it, but Jesus is pursuing each of us because that kind of solves everything we've talked about, right? If Jesus loves me and cares for me, if Jesus is with me and knows me and is for me, then I can go through suffering, I can go through difficulty, I can go through challenges, because I can trust that even though I don't understand, he understands and he cares for me. And if Jesus is pursuing me, and if Jesus is pursuing everyone, well, then there's no room in my heart or my mind for a view of outsiders. Because I have to understand that if Jesus pursues me and I know that what's true about me is true about me, then I can't really hold myself over anybody else, that I can't really see myself as better or superior or greater than anyone else. More worthy of the pursuit of God. I can't really criticize any world in which people are finding Jesus because if Jesus is pursuing them, that means that Jesus loves my friends, my co workers, people I don't know, my family, my family members who I have a tough time with, who I don't look forward to seeing at Thanksgiving, right? Like that Jesus loves all of those people more than I could ever love them. And that he is actively pursuing them because they were made in his image on purpose and for a purpose. And finally, if he is pursuing me, then no matter what I come in with, no matter what I have done, Jesus already died on the cross for every sin that I would ever commit. And that all I have to do is say, you know what, Jesus? I want to be more like you and less like the person that I'm creating. And the truth of scripture is that Jesus is not the type of God to stand on the outside and just kind of hope you get better, but that he is the type of God to, if you need it, to stick his fingers in your ear and touch your tongue, which, again, I'm out on, I'm just like, please, please don't do any of that. But my point is that Jesus gets messy for us. That he steps into our lives and that he loves us. That our struggles, that our difficulties, they're not foreign to him, but that he is in pursuit us and he is in pursuit of any other we can imagine. And he is in pursuit of us in times when we struggle, in times when we doubt, and in times when we have challenges. Let's pray together. Jesus, we thank you for your goodness and your grace. We pray that, Lord, you would speak to us the truth of this message, Lord, that you are in pursuit of us, that you care for us, that you love us, that you go after us, Lord, that we are wanted and cared for and known. And Lord, I pray that that reality would change the way we view challenges and suffering, Lord, because you walk with us in it. And even if we don't understand it now, Lord, you will walk alongside it. And one day we will see you face to face. And, Lord, let it change the way we view others, Lord, that as we're walking through our lives, as we're going to work, as we're driving our cars, Lord, that every person we will encounter was made in your image, was made on purpose and for a purpose, and is loved and cared for by you. And finally, Lord, I pray that you would help us to realize that you pursue us and that, Lord, you care for us that we are personally loved and personally known. And that you would remind us of this each day. We ask all this in your name.