Mark 7: 24-37 v 24″Jesus left that place and went to the territory of Tyre. He didn’t want anyone to know that he was staying in a house there. However, it couldn’t be kept secret.”
Jesus wanted to be alone. He did not want anyone to find Him, but this mother did. The mother with a sick daughter. A gentile. Later in the reading today he took a deaf man with a speech impediment “away from the crowd”. “Jesus ordered the people not to tell anyone”
Even in a ministry dedicated to all the people of the world Jesus found himself in a place surrounded by gentiles or non Jewish people at a time when he was mainly preaching to Jews. He wanted to be alone.
Sometimes before a big move in our lives we feel the same thing. The need to take time out. However Jesus also did not miss the chance to make a difference in the life of individuals that found Him as in this women and the deaf man.
V 28 “She answered Him (Jesus) , “Lord even the dogs under the table receive some of the children’s scraps”
I have had many dogs in my house over the years and one of the things you notice when they are not around are the scraps of food left on the floor after a meal. Dogs manage to find all those scraps under the table.
What is Jesus saying to us about his ministry and how we are to behave? Sometimes encouraging others to follow Jesus is not about a table full of food and deliberately tossing it to the floor for others to feed off. As the women pointed out some can find nourishment from the left-over scraps that automatically fall from a full table.
There is also a time to do things alone, away from the crowds, as Jesus demonstrated when He healed the deaf man and his speech. He still put his hands in the man’s ears and spoke words of healing to him. “At once the man could hear and talk normally. “
Thinking of what needs to be done for one individual who you meet in your day, alone, without the crowds could instantly change that person’s life.
Prayer: Holy Father may we be thankful for the abundant table at which we eat and look for the one person who needs your message today. Amen.
CrossWalk 