For this saying go your way

 From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon.  And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.  For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet.  The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.  But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs."  And she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs."  Then he said to her, "For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter."  And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.

Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee.  Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him.  And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue.  Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened."  Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.  Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it.  And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well.  He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."  

- Mark 7:24-37

Yesterday we read that the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to Jesus, having come from Jerusalem.  Now when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault.  For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders.  When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.  And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches.  Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?"  He answered and said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:  'This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.  And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'  For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men -- the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do."  He said to them, "All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.  For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.'  But you say, 'If a man says to his father or mother, "Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban" -- ' (that is, a gift to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down.  And many such things you do."  When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, "Hear Me, everyone, and understand:  There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man.  If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!"  When He had entered a house away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him concerning this parable.  So He said to them, "Are you thus without understanding also?  Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?"  And He said, "What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.  For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within a defile a man."

 From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon.  And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.  For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet.  The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.  But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs."  And she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs."  Then he said to her, "For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter."  And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.  This interesting story occurs after Christ has been "visited" by a delegation of Pharisees and scribes, who criticized the fact that His disciples were not following the tradition of the elders in practices of ceremonial washing (see yesterday's reading, above).  He has gone to Tyre and Sidon, a Gentile region to the north of Galilee, where He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.  He has gone north into Gentile territory to withdraw from the scrutiny and conflict with the religious authorities from Jerusalem.  Where the text tells us that the Gentile woman He counters is Greek, it's indicating she was a Greek-speaker, common in this region after the major cities of Syro-Phoenicia were conquered by Alexander the Great.  Jesus is there to escape unwanted attention, but she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.  But Jesus' mission has been to the Jews.  In Matthew's version, He tells her, "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 15:24).  In this context He says to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs," little dogs indicating house dogs or puppies persistently begging under the table where children are being fed, an image of this woman who "keeps asking."  But her answer is feisty, and she continues -- in good Near Eastern tradition -- to "bargain" with Jesus, in a quick intelligent reply to His statement:  "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs."  Let us note she does not contradict Him with her reply but has paid close attention; nor is her remark disrespectful but made in recognition of His authority, as she addresses Him as Lord.   He clearly approves of her attitude, as well as her apparently faith in Him, as He tells her, "For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter."  And indeed, her daughter has been healed, in yet another story of Christ healing from a distance, interestingly parallel as well in that it is in response to the elegant, humble, and persistent request of a Gentile capable of great faith -- the healing of the centurion's servant (Matthew 8:5-13,Luke 7:1-10).

Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee.  Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him.  And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue.  Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened."  Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.  Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it.  And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well.  He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."   Once again, Jesus returns to Galilee, but by way of the Decapolis, another mixed region of both Jews and Gentiles, and of Greek and Roman culture.  Here a deaf mute is brought to Christ, simply for His healing touch and seeming blessing.  In another sign of the need to shore up particular faith, Jesus took him aside from the multitude.  My study bible says that the noted detail that He sighed gives a sign of Christ's divine compassion for the sufferings of our fallen human nature.  Note how the language regarding this healing is that of liberation, freeing:  the man's ears are opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed.  Again, Jesus is still trying to avoid public attention -- most likely why He returned by way of the Decapolis and not directly to Capernaum.  But, again as found elsewhere, the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it.  He cannot be hidden.    And once again, the response to Christ is to be astonished.

Jesus gets away to Gentile regions -- even among the Gentiles of Tyre and Sidon -- but He cannot be hidden, as the text tells us.  He's gone to avoid the scrutiny and further immediate clashes with the religious leadership from Jerusalem, and even though He wants no one to know He's there, He meets with a Gentile woman who persistently begs Him to heal her daughter.  He goes to the Decapolis, a region of mixed Jewish and Gentile populations, and still they come to Him with people who need healing, in this case a deaf mute.  Jesus' ministry is truly like the parables He has given us about the kingdom of God:  its seeds continue to spring up seemingly without "a man" understanding how, even while He sleeps (as in this parable found only in Mark), or the sower who sows His seeds, or the leaven that changes the whole lump, and the tiniest mustard seed that sprouts a great sturdy shrub so large that the birds of the air can take refuge in it (4:30-32).  Even despite Himself, and His realistic intentions to keep hidden, to stay away from the controversies with the leadership. to tell people not to spread the news about His healings for them, the explosive and astonishing news about Him and His ministry just cannot be hidden.  People seek Him everywhere.  But this is the work of the Holy Spirit and the kingdom of God as described by His own parables, even if that growth in turn astonishes Jesus Himself.  As He said to Nicodemus, "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8).  Jesus seems at once in the same encounter frustrated, annoyed, delighted, and surprised at the persistence of the Gentile woman who both accepts His lordship and His rebuke and yet still in faith finds a way to continue to request His help.  He sighs in response to the sight of a deaf mute and takes time to take him aside for yet another astonishing healing -- a true prophesied sign of the presence of the Messiah (see, for example, Isaiah 29:18), which occurs not in Judea but in the mixed Greek-speaking territory of the Decapolis.  Everything about this ministry is both astonishing and can't be hidden, even contrarily to the wishes of Jesus.   And so it would continue after His crucifixion and Resurrection, to spread across the traderoads of the great Empires to the known world within the first century after Christ, just as He walks the Roman and other roads that link these territories around Israel.  What we might see as parallel to this growth is the growth of our own faith, which through the countless testimonies we encounter seemingly happens despite ourselves.   How does our own faith grow?  How did we find it?  Did we "do" something to make it happen?  Faith works in the mysterious ways that Jesus describes in His parables, and in the surprising and astonishing revelations of Scripture.  We can't plan it, it's not our plan to create.  But it is something in which we participate, and for which we need the ears to hear and eyes to see.  We need a particular spiritual perception that also may grow in us as the work of grace and Father, Son, and Spirit participating in us.  Faith itself is mysterious.  How does it happen?  Where does it come from?  It certainly springs from need, and as we can read from today's stories, it is clearly linked to persistence, springing up after a supposed setback or rejection, and hoping in the face of impediment.  By the end of Christ's ministry, we find Him stressing the need for endurance among those who would be His disciples (Matthew 24:13).  In Revelation 21, we're told, "He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son" (Revelation 21:7).  Let us look to the woman whose persistence and pleasing response to Christ was rewarded in today's reading, and let us learn from her!   It is not ours to decide what the work of God in our lives will be.  But it is ours to continue to pursue through all things, even as we endure whatever seems to stand in the way.

Looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened"

 From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon.   And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.  For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet.  The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.  But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs." And she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs."  Then He said to her, "For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter."  And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.

Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee.  Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him.  And he took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and he spat and touched His tongue.  Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened."  Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.  Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it.  And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well.  He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak." 

- Mark 7:24-37

On Saturday, we read that the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to Jesus, having come from Jerusalem.  Now when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault.  For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders.  When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.  And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches.  Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?"  He answered and said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:  'This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.  And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'  For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men -- the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do."     He said to them, "All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.  For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and 'He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.'  But you say, 'If a man says to his father or mother, "Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban" -- '(that is, a gift to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down.  And many such things you do."  When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, "Hear Me, everyone, and understand:  There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man.  If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!"  When He had entered a house away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him concerning the parable.  So He said to them, "Are you thus without understanding also?  Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?"  And He said, "What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.  For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within and defile a man."

 From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon.   And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.  For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet.  The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.  But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs." And she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs."  Then He said to her, "For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter."  And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.  Christ travels north of Galilee, to a Gentile region.  He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, because as we read on Saturday, the Pharisees now begin to come to Him and to attack His ministry.  He is essentially withdrawing from them.  In Matthew's version of this story (Matthew 15:21-28), Jesus makes it clear that the "children" are the Jews, those whom He calls "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" to whom He's been sent.  Tradition sees in this story a deliberate evocation of this woman's faith by Christ's response to her; He reveals her humility.  She accepts her place beneath the Jews (the chosen people of God), but illustrates the New Covenant ministry to come -- she still desires a share in God's grace.  My study bible says that Christ's hesitancy wasn't a lack of compassion, but rather a conscious means of revealing the virtues of this woman.  (In Matthew's story, that also means to the disciples, who complain to Him that she is pestering them.)  A note says her ultimate acceptance by Christ also points to the gathering of the Gentiles into the Church after Pentecost, no longer as dogs, but as children who are invited to eat the bread of life.  It should be noted that the English reads little dogs.  In the Greek, there is a distinction between the word indicating "dogs" and this one used in the  diminutive, which more truly means puppies, house dogs -- those which would be insistently begging under a table.

Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee.  Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him.  And he took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and he spat and touched His tongue.  Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened."  Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.  Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it.  And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well.  He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."   Jesus' sigh, in this reading, is understood as a sigh of divine compassion for the sufferings of our "fallen human nature," says my study bible.  This passage also teaches us that we do good to others for the sake of obedience and love of God, and not to seek praise or acclaim.  One commentator, however, Theophylact, upholds those who disobey Christ in this situation, seeing them as a good example, that we should proclaim those who have done good to us even if they do not want us to.

It's interesting to consider the actions of "impediment" that we see in today's reading.  Jesus Himself acts as an impediment to the Syro-Phoenician woman seeking a healing for her daughter.  He tells her in Matthew's Gospel that He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  Here in Mark, as in Matthew, He says that the children should be filled first.  He says that the children's bread should not be thrown to the little dogs.  Historically, this impediment thrown by Christ to this woman has been seen as a way of pushing her faith and her persistence in faith.  When she replies to Him, assertively and cleverly, that even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs, He rewards her specifically for doing so, and tells her as much when He says, "For this saying..."  It is a sign, first of all, that like the historical figures of Israel, specifically Jacob, who struggled with God, and who was renamed Israel, meaning "struggles with God" (see Genesis 12:22-32), this woman also struggles with God.  It reminds us of the struggle with faith on the Sea of Galilee undergone by the disciples on two different occasions (see this reading, and also Friday's), when Jesus had set them out on a path with a fearfully stormy sea as "impediment."   In the earlier reading, my study bible stated that God allows challenges to our faith in order to build and perfect it.  We can see Christ's words to this woman in the same light.  She is forced to redouble her faith and persistence, using her heart, mind, and soul in replying to Christ.  Involved also is the love she has for her daughter.  When our faith is challenged, we are similarly engaged in a full-fledged struggle of heart, mind, and soul -- our energies, intelligence, persistence, and heart will be fully needed to meet such challenges.  In the second story in today's reading, the whole story is couched in language of impediment.  The man's mute condition is called an impediment to his tongue, and Jesus' command for hearing is a way of "unstopping" his ears:  "Be opened," Jesus says.  It's almost as if the things that impede are here in today's reading specifically in order to challenge and test our faith -- and so that Jesus can remove the impediments.  There is a sense that the energies that Jesus'
 brings into the world are those things that "flow" -- that get things moving, that bring healing and movement and opening.  The deaf and mute cry for impediments to wholeness be removed, the woman cries for impediments to the healing of her daughter (possessed by a demon that must be "removed" by one with the power to do so) be removed.  In the language of Greek theology, mercy itself is seen as the "energies" of God.  Grace is this energy.  This concept is understood as that which allows God's action in the world, and even in us, although we cannot know God in God's essence.  Christ's entire ministry is one of bringing God's energies into the world, merging them into our worldly lives, allowing us to participate in God's energy as volunteers who wish to follow His way and be a part of this Kingdom.  The energy of God is compared to a fire in a famous traditional explanation.  A metal object may be put into a fire and rendered hot and purified in it, taking on properties of heat and light, but it does not become the fire itself.  So are we in these energies of God.  This Greek word "energy" appears many times in the New Testament, but was not translated using the word in English.  In 1 Thessalonians 2:13, St. Paul writes that "the word of God . . . works in you who believe" (that is, by faith).  The word translated as works is the Greek word for energizes, indicating the action of the energies of God which are activated in us through faith.   In Galatians 3:5, St. Paul asks, "Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?"  The phrase works miracles can be understood as "energizing power" in the Greek and in the original uses again this root word, energy.  Once again, we note that this energy works through faith.  In the Greek original text, as we can see, there is a strong sense that God's activities, or energies in the world, manifest through interaction with our faith.  If we begin to understand impediments in life as those things we encounter in our struggle for faith which allow the energies of God to be at work in us, purifying and rendering us closer to God, then we will take on a very different attitude toward struggle itself.  We have to understand this struggle for faith as a positive opportunity for growth, stretching us, and helping us to grow in the energies that make us whole, healed, more fully what we are meant to become as beings created with the potential to be "God-like."  Let us remember the refining fire of God's energies of love.  They are at work in us, engaged through the struggle of faith.