Your Call Is Important to Him: Mark 7:24-37 - 15th Sunday after Pentecost

²⁴[Jesus] set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice,²⁵but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. ²⁶Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” ²⁸But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” ²⁹Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” ³⁰So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
  ³¹Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. ³²They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. ³³He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. ³⁴Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” ³⁵And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. ³⁶Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. ³⁷They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.” (NRSV)

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These days, just about every business and industry is running short of workers.

There aren’t enough school bus drivers or substitute teachers; the drive-thru lanes at fast food restaurants sometimes wrap completely around the building. Day care centers have waitlists because they don’t have adequate staff to care for the children. Hospitals and nursing homes are dangerously understaffed. Some businesses have been forced to go out of business because they can’t hire enough workers.

At many of the restaurants and businesses I frequent, there are signs on the door which ask customers for patience due to staffing shortages.

When I think back to the years I worked in the retail industry, I remember how angry people would get when there were long lines at the checkout counter, or when it was hard to find someone to assist them on the sales floor.

Patience has never been a virtue in modern American society. Let’s be honest: When you call the helpline and they put you on hold, and every ten seconds, the automated voice says, “your call is important to us,” do do you feel like you’re being mocked?

Like it or not, it is a fact of life that everyone must wait their turn.

This would include the Syrophoenician woman Jesus encounters in the region of Tyre, just north of Galilee. She is experiencing every mother‘s worst nightmare. Her daughter was demon-possessed—which was more horrific than it even sounds. She falls at Jesus’s feet and begs mercy for her daughter. 

Jesus’s response, however, is a bit perplexing: he says, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not [right] to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

I have yet to find any sensible explanation as to why Jesus calls them “dogs.” But there are two important points to consider:

We don’t know for certain, but it’s likely Jesus had gone there to get away from all the crowds who’d been pressing in on him from all sides.

All the way back in Genesis, God had chosen the Children of Israel to be the people through whom he would act in the world. For Jesus, they had priority.

Jesus was essentially telling this woman, “There are people in line ahead of you. You must wait your turn.” This isn’t about favoritism. This is fairness.

But Jesus was certainly not prepared for what she was going to say next. She understands that there are others Jesus must serve first; she knows that she has no right to eat at Jesus’s table, or even to ask for  leftovers in a doggy bag.. This is why she begs Jesus to allow her and her daughter to eat the crumbs on the floor, like a dog.

Jesus definitely meets his match in this desperate mother. When you think about it, Jesus has a lot in common with her and daughter. One day soon, Jesus will be counted as one of the dogs of society; condemned by the very people he came to save. When Jesus cries out on the cross, with his last dying breath, “My God, why have you forsaken me?” he is completely helpless. Just like this poor mother and daughter.

I don’t know about you, but the people who’ve inspired my faith the most have also been the most helpless and vulnerable people. Over the years, I’ve witnessed incredible faith in the sick and dying; nursing home residents, little children, and people with no church background. I’ve witnessed incredible faith in prisoners and parolees; persons suffering mental illness or addiction; those in poverty, and those who are condescendingly labeled as “the dogs of society.” More often than not, those who bear the heaviest crosses are also those who cling to Jesus most.

Most of us aren’t too good at admitting helplessness. I don’t think you can fully understand God’s amazing grace until you’re the underdog: when your flesh fails and you can’t help yourself; when all supports give way; your sins become as quicksand; or when people want nothing to do with you. The most painful time to call on Jesus is when you realize that without him, you won’t make it.

Because Jesus is risen from the dead, you don’t have to worry about waiting your turn. If Jesus prioritizes anyone, it’s those who need him most—because they are also the most open to his help. 

You can call out to Jesus with confidence that your call is important to him—and not because you’ve been waiting in line; not because you have more good works than others; and not even because your burdens are heavier than others. Your call is important to Jesus because that’s who he is—the Lord of all God’s Children and the Savior of the underdogs. You can be just as bold as the Syrophoenician mother to contend with Jesus until he shows you mercy. Your call will be answered—and not in the order that it was received, but according his gracious will.

When there is joy amid sorrow, hope amid affliction, love amid evil, and when there is life amid death—there is no room to deny this as the saving work of Jesus.