Title: CHRIST IN THE WAR ZONE
Focus: In the war zone of spiritual struggles and daily living, Christ brings deliverance and hope to all who turn to him in faith.
Function: To encourage the people to turn to Christ when engaged in daily struggles and spiritual battles.
Text: Mark 7:24-37
INTRODUCTION
Life is beautiful and precious. But the struggles of life often obscure the beauty and joy of life. For example, you wake up in the morning and you feel like singing “This is the day that the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it.” But when the doctor diagnoses you with cancer later that day, you find yourself thrown into a struggle for survival and health. And you find yourself sighing and troubled in spirit.
Life is beautiful and precious. But our world of daily living, filled with struggles, resembles more a war zone than a paradise. Today we witnessed the public profession of faith by Kathy and Andrew. We thank God for them and we join them in their journey of faith through life. What shall we tell them (and ourselves) as we face the future together? Today we also begin a new season of Christian service and growth. Spiritual formation and discipleship are always on our radar screen, but especially so in this time of year. What word is there from the Lord that will encourage us to persevere in the war zone of daily living and spiritual struggles?
The answer comes to us from today’s scripture reading: in the war zone of spiritual struggles and daily living, Christ brings deliverance and hope to all who turn to him in faith. Face the future then by turning to Christ!
When you enter the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in Rome, you’ll see an astonishing painting by Michael Angelo on the ceiling of the chapel. The painting depicts God creating and bringing life to Adam. How? Michael Angelo has painted the finger of God reaching out to the limp hand and fingers of Adam. Why did the painter use the image of a finger?
Michael Angelo knew the scriptures. In Psalm 8:3, for example, we read “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him…?” The finger of God , then, points to the creative, life-giving power of God. But the Bible refers to the finger of God also as the self-revealing, communicative power of God to the world. Moses, for example, received the two tablets of God’s Law to be communicated as the Word of God to his people. And thus we read in Exodus 31:18 “When the Lord finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.” The finger of God, then, points to God’s creative power and life-giving Word. It also refers to God’s power to overcome the powers of darkness.
For example, when God sent the plagues to Egypt and Pharaoh’s palace, the magicians at Pharaoh’s court caught on very soon, and they said to Pharaoh (Ex. 8:19) “This is the finger of God.” Centuries later, when Jesus, the Son of God , lived in our midst, Jesus opposed the forces of darkness and evil. The religious leaders questioned the authority or power source of Jesus casting out demons. They accused Jesus of being in cohorts with the devil. But Jesus turned his adversaries to God’s kingdom and power or Spirit and he said (Lk. 11:20) “But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.”
The finger of God and the reign of darkness and evil are two things to keep in mind today. Think about Jesus’ first coming in the flesh. All hell broke loose at the incarnation of God. Born of the virgin Mary, Jesus was a threat to the powers of darkness. And thus Satan moved King Herod to try to kill Jesus. Although he killed “all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under,” King Herod did not succeed in killing Jesus. The ruler and powers of darkness did not succeed.
But Satan did not stop trying to keep Jesus from bringing God’s rule here on earth. There seems to have been an influx of demon possessions in Jesus’ days. And Jesus encountered plenty of these demons in his ministry. In fact, Jesus found himself at times, as it were, in a war zone of spiritual struggles and daily misery.
Consider today’s story and text: Mark is very specific in pointing out the location and itinerary of Jesus’ travels. In vs. 24 he says that “Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre.” (which is dominated by Gentiles; Jesus is entering pagan culture, the war zone of spiritual battles). In verse 31 Mark tells us that “…Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis” (Again, this is Gentile territory, dominated by Greek culture and pagan thinking; the powers of darkness have free reign in that area, so it seems). And in verses 25 and 26 we see again an emphasis on the presence of evil powers and pagan origins, for Mark tell us of a woman whose little daughter “was possessed by an evil spirit” and this woman “was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.”
Clearly, Jesus, the Son of God, is entering a war zone where people encounter daily battles with evil powers and sinful ignorance, leading them into a state of spiritual bondage. These are people in need of deliverance.
These are people like us today.
Will Jesus bring deliverance and hope to them and us? Ah, in the war zone of spiritual struggles and daily living, Christ brings deliverance and hope to all who turn to him in faith! After all, it is through Jesus, his Son, that God wants to bring salvation to the world, first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles.
Jesus has entered the vicinity of Tyre presumably to get some rest and time alone with his disciples, and to avoid the negative attention of the religious leaders in Jerusalem. But Jesus’ reputation goes ahead of him. And it seems that a Syrian-Phoenician woman has heard of Jesus’ power to heal people and cast out demons. This woman has a little girl possessed by an evil spirit.
The mother turns to Jesus in desperation and with great determination. She believes that Jesus is the only answer to her daughter’s suffering. Jesus recognizes her faith, sympathizes with her daughter’s suffering, yet, he remembers his heavenly Father’s will that the rule of heaven should be proclaimed first to the sons and daughters of Abraham (to the covenant people called Israel) and then to the rest of the world. So, Jesus responds to the woman’s anguished request, saying: “First let the children eat all they want, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”
Pointedly, Jesus states his divine mission to Israel. But he leaves the door of hope open for this woman by saying “First.” In other words, there may be room for an exception. Jesus has made such exceptions before such as with the centurion whose daughter was ill, for example.
The woman understands what Jesus is saying; she also clings to the hope of an exception. She turns to Jesus with fervent faith, humbling herself before Jesus and saying “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” In other words, do not deny me and my daughter what children would not even deny their dogs. This woman is begging Jesus, who is the bread of the world, to cast some crumbs of deliverance to her tormented little daughter.
This woman has great, passionate trust that Jesus can heal her daughter and drive out the evil spirit with the finger or power of God. For Jesus has said that he drives out demons by the finger or powerful Spirit of God. Jesus rewards her faith and says, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”
And the woman believes Jesus and goes home and finds her daughter lying on the bed, and the demon gone. In the war zone of spiritual struggles and daily battles, Christ brings deliverance and hope to all who turn to him in faith.
The story goes on. Jesus now enters the Gentile territory referred to as the Decapolis—the region with 10 cities populated by many Gentiles and saturated with Greek culture and ways of worldly thinking. The rule of heaven has not yet come to that region. But that is about to change.
Having heard of Jesus’ presence and healing power, some people bring to Jesus a man who was deaf and could hardly talk. They begged the Son of God to touch and place his hand on the man.
How do you tell a deaf person that you are going to heal him? How do you communicate with someone who can hardly utter a word? The man’s ears are blocked from hearing; the man’s tongue is tied, unable to express proper vowel sounds. What do you need if not the power, the finger of God, to recreate new hearing and new speech in this man!
So, Jesus takes the man aside, away from the crowd. He communicates that he is going to do something about the man’s hearing by putting “his fingers in the man’s ears.” The fingers of the Son of God are touching the closed doors of this man’s ears.
Then Jesus spits (on his own fingers), and he touches the man’s tongue. Now the finger of the Son of God, laced with spittle, greases the muscle that is tongue-tied.
Then, looking up to his heavenly Father, Jesus embraces with a deep sigh the sufferings of this deaf and mute man, and Jesus cries out “Ephphatha!” “Be opened.” And the power of God, fingered into the ears and mouth of this man, sets him free. The man can hear; the man is speaking plainly. The word of God has brought life and deliverance to him! In the war zone of spiritual struggles and daily battles, Christ brings deliverance and hope to all who turn to him in faith.
APPLICATION
Kathy and Andrew, friends and members of Calvary, let’s take our cues from the scriptures today.
Living by faith calls for spiritual battles; growing in faith through Bible study, prayer, and Christian service confronts us with the enemy of sin and evil. Doing our daily work and walking with the Lord Jesus as our Master—these all lead us into the war zone of spiritual struggles. How shall we face each day? How shall we do battle?
Turn to Jesus: Learn from the Syrian-Phoenician woman and turn to Jesus with faith and great expectation: she humbled herself before Jesus; so should we. She pleaded with him for mercy and deliverance; so should we. She clung to Jesus in hope and faith; so must we. She found deliverance; so will we.
Turn to Jesus in daily prayer; acknowledge him in all your doings, in all your challenges, in all your struggles. And he will touch you, and guide you, and provide you with his gracious Holy Spirit.
Turn to Jesus and his people. For Jesus reveals himself in his body called the “church.” The Holy Spirit shapes and renews every believer in Christ more and more into the image of Christ. We are called to let his light shine; we are called to be “Christ-like.” Thus we meet Christ also in the church.
When I anointed Andrew and Kathy and marked their forehead with some oil, pronouncing a blessing on them, it was the Christ who came to them. When we hear the Word preached, it is Christ speaking to us; when we eat the bread and drink the cup, it is Christ revealing to us his very own presence, lifting us up into the throne room of heaven, where we join the saints in worship of Christ.
Seek Jesus. Turn to him in faith. For Christ brings deliverance and hope to all who turn to him in faith.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.