Religious Leaders from Jerusalem
Religious leaders come to stir up trouble with Jesus. However, notice something about this
interaction. The religious leaders come
and make accusations towards Jesus’ disciples and Jesus doesn’t even honor
their argument. He doesn’t even respond.
The reason He doesn’t respond is because there isn’t any validity
to their argument. They are just coming
to pick a fight. So Jesus gives them the
fight they want. There is no reason to
drag the disciples into this when it really is Jesus that they are going after.
However, Jesus turns the argument onto the Jewish leaders and
their hypocrisy. They come to accuse the
disciples about not living out their faith when they are just as guilty in
different ways. They are not following
the Law in perfection, either. Perhaps
worse, they aren’t even following the Law in spirit! They are actively attempting to get out of
having to be obedient to the Law. The
religious leaders are just being human.
They are looking to rationalize their sin. Jesus calls them on it.
I love that part of this story.
It really doesn’t matter who we are, what our status is, or how
religious we are. Every single one of us
has an inner desire to rationalize our sin.
Defilement
This naturally leads us into Jesus’ next teaching. Jesus teaches clearly that it is not what
goes into a person that defiles them.
Rather, it is the natural human corruption within us that defiles
us. Of course, the Jewish religious leaders
are offended at this statement.
This shouldn’t surprise us.
Do you know how many people in the world are offended by the idea that
every single one of us is inherently evil and sinful? That is a hard teaching, but that is what
Jesus is teaching here. There are people
all over the world that assert that human beings can be good all on their
own. They don’t want to hear that we
have no capacity for good outside of God’s influence upon our lives. As Jesus says after Peter once more asks for
the parable to be explained, every single one of us has evil thoughts that come
out. We are inherently self-interested. We are inherently the self-monger. We defile ourselves from the inside out, not
from the outside in!
Canaanite Woman
This is a great story on many levels. First, it ultimately shows us that Jesus has
a sense of humor and is open to anyone who has a genuine desire to meet
Him. Second, it shows us that He gets
what people need.
This second point is deeper than you might think at first. I’m talking about more than just this woman’s
need for her daughter. He gets what this
woman needs on her own personal level, too.
Look at the story. Do you
notice how Jesus ignores her? Look at
how she addresses Him. She calls Him “Son
of David.” That is a Jewish Messianic
term. What’s my point? She’s not Jewish. She’s Canaanite. The woman is merely repeating a title that
she’s heard. She’s just trying to get
His attention. She’s trying to flatter
Him into helping her.
But then she comes before Jesus, kneels, and calls Him Lord. Suddenly this isn’t a story about a woman who
is trying to impress a healer who just happens to be passing through. Suddenly, this story is about
submission. The woman finds more than a
healer in Jesus, she finds someone to whom she can submit. Only then does Jesus acknowledge her. She confesses that she has no right to have
access to Jesus. Who among us does have
that right? But in her confession, she
is granted forgiveness. Her daughter is
healed. She needed to submit for her own
sake; not just for her daughter. In
submission to Jesus, she found what she and her daughter both needed.
Feeding of the 4,000
From here, Jesus then went to beside the Sea of Galilee. The crowds saw Him and once more brought out
their sick, lame, crippled, and otherwise afflicted. The crowds gave glory to God.
Once more, Jesus has mercy upon the crowds. Once more He calls in His disciples to have a
moment of teaching with them. Once more
the disciples are lost as to how Jesus is going to work. Once more I the reader am asking them how
they could forget the feeding of the 5,000.
Once more, I have to remind myself that sometimes it doesn’t matter how
often you see the impossible. Sometimes
the impossible just seems too impossible.
But here’s the really neat part.
If we read the same story in Mark we understand that this feeding story
takes place in the region of the Decapolis.
That was highly Gentile-dominated land.
That was also the land in which Jesus had been and healed the demoniac. Remember him from chapter 8? I said that we’d get back to him. Remember what Jesus said to him? Go and tell others what God has done for
you. Apparently this man had been
busy. Sure, I’m not going to give him
credit for all 4,000 attendees. But in
this story we can see that Jesus had a plan when he released the demoniac back
into the world. Jesus knew that He was
coming back through here and he wanted someone to go ahead and prepare the
people.
What’s really neat about this is that it really does demonstrate
that God is willing to use anyone. All
we have to do is submit. We simply need
to submit and live out the life that Jesus has for us to live. Demoniac.
Sinner. Self-monger. Liar.
Thief. Cheater. Addict.
It doesn’t matter what our past looks like. Jesus can call us out of it.
Coming back to the feeding of the 4,000, we notice that there are
baskets and number differences. In the
feeding of the 5,000 – a largely Jewish audience – there were 12 baskets (lunch
packs, really) remaining. 12 is a highly
symbolic number to Jews. In this story
there are 4,000 people – a goodly portion non-Jewish, no doubt – there are 7
baskets full. At first it sounds like
less. However, these baskets are the big
baskets that you see people carrying on their heads or strapped to donkeys. The volume left over in the feeding of the
4,000 is far greater than the volume left over in the feeding of the 5,000.
What is even neater is the number of baskets. Seven.
That’s God’s number of completion.
What’s the point? When Jesus
becomes the bread of life to not just Jews but also Gentiles, God’s work will
be complete. How cool is that point!
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