Who Rules and Reigns? What Kingdom?

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. 25 For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 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.”
28 And she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.”
29 Then He said to her, “For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”
30 And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.
Mark 7:24-35

For a long time I thought the New Testament of the Bible recorded specific historical incidents in the life of Jesus and his disciples which the writers of the New Testament witnessed or heard about from witnesses which over time have given rise to the doctrines of our faith. So, for instance, the practice or rite or sacrament of baptism emerges from specific recorded incidents in the New Testament.

John “the Baptist” baptizes (Mark1:4), Jesus is baptized (Matthew 3:13), His disciples baptize and His ministry of Baptism eclipses John’s ministry of Baptism (John 3:22; John 4:1-3), and at the ascension Jesus gives the great command, “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (Matthew 28:18-20). Acts records baptisms and specifically identifies Peter’s, Philip’s and Paul’s acts of baptism. Subsequently, Paul discusses baptism and its meaning, as a practice and teaching, and as do the writers of the book of Hebrews and First Peter. In fact, the writer of Hebrews identifies it as such a basic, elementary doctrine that mature believers should not have to keep dwelling on it.

A similar account could be made of the teaching and practice, rite or sacrament of Last Supper or Communion. Jesus and his disciples are recorded as doing it, Jesus ordains it as a thing for believers or followers to do and Paul discusses it as an established practice. As one reads the New Testament in this way, the event recorded in the gospel passage cited above, Mark 7:24-35, seems to lay the foundation for teaching Christianity as a new religion to which all are invited and not simply a reformation of Judaism intended for the children of Abraham. There is, of course, Jesus’ admonition to His disciples at His ascension as recorded in the first chapter of the book of Acts, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8) In the Tenth chapter of Acts, Peter is sent to preach and ultimately baptizes the centurion of the Italian regiment, Cornelius. Clearly Cornelius is not Jewish and Peter is required to give an account of his actions to the other disciples. And finally, we have Paul’s mission to the “gentiles” or “uncircumcised.” Paul discusses this ministry and announces that in His crucifixion Christ has dissolved the distinction between Jew and gentile in their opportunity for salvation. (Ephesians 11:2-19)

Alternatively, in the current time, people like to emphasize the passage cited above as one of the incidents which illustrates how Jesus crosses the boundaries that divide us rather than as how He distinguishes His ministry from yet another attempt at Jewish reformation like the Essenes of Pharisees . To this end they make the passage from Mark cited above a piece with the story in the fourth chapter of John known as Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. In the latter account, Jesus violates both the taboo against an unrelated man addressing an unrelated woman alone and the taboo against Jews addressing Samaritans. The gospels are full of him transgressing purity taboos by addressing, touching and allowing himself to be touched by the unclean. Finally, there is the touching and beautiful story in Matthew 26 of the woman who anoints Jesus’ feet with costly oil and wipes them with her hair while He is resting in the House of Simon the leper.

One of the problems with this view is that Jesus comes off as incredibly harsh and grudging in the passage from Mark. He has traveled to “vicinity of Tyre” and entered a household there where he hoped to remain anonymous or to keep his presence a secret. But inevitably, it seems, as Jesus frequently does, he fails to foresee that it will get out that he is there. Mark tells us that as soon as it gets around that Jesus has come to that household, a woman whose daughter is possessed shows up at the household. It seems impossible as one reads verses 27 onward not to perceive Jesus as if he is a crotchety man, full of pique and aggravation, who says essentially, “If you must, you must. Fine, your daughter is healed. Now get out of here.”

Great start to the religion of universal salvation! Peter, Philip and Paul all come across to us as much more enlightened and gracious and giving than our Lord. Is it really, an artifact of Jesus being both human and God, that He, the Son of God (who stills the waters of the sea of Galilee and grants the Roman centurion not only healing for his son but accolades for his faith) is bound by a partisan Semitic world view that holds Gentiles outside the pale of God’s gifts? Can we actually believe that Jesus is unaware that Abraham has been proclaimed the father of salvation for the whole world? Maybe Paul’s Semitic education was better than Jesus’ but certainly not Peter’s.

Or is Jesus response to the Syro-Phoenician woman an artifact of his humanity. He is just tuckered out and grumpy that his respite has been disturbed. The Syro-Phoenician woman caught Jesus in a human, not divine moment. Consubstantiation (the fancy word for Jesus being both man and God) means he alternated moments of humanity and divinity. For obvious reason the gospel writers wrote down more of the divine, but when they are convenient or necessary they could be counted on to give us the human moments, too. However, when Mark records Jesus going off with His disciples to the mountain to afford them rest and see a multitude of people (who guessed correctly where He would retreat to), Jesus ungrudgingly gets up and teaches them and then puts the disciples to work feeding them.
It is very hard to maintain a coherent position about what is recorded that doesn’t run counter to either the notion of God through Christ extending the gospel to all peoples or Jesus modeling God’s universal love by breaking down socially constructed boundaries. That is, unless one understands mark 7: 24-35 a little differently than as a recorded incident which gives rise to a doctrine or some doctrines. Suppose Mark 7: 24-35 is an iteration of an ongoing question that Jesus is posing.

The gospel of Mark opens strangely, if directly. In 14 short verse Isaiah and John the Baptist are described as preparatory prophetic voices, Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist, John is arrested and put in prison and Jesus begins his ministry of preaching by declaring that the kingdom of God is at hand and that the proper response is to believe the good news. The kingdom of God is at hand. The rule and reign of Yahweh is proximate, imminent, about to break forth unmistakably, and you want to believe because believing puts you inside the kingdom and disbelief puts you outside and in opposition to the almighty God. So the question is, “What do you believe?” or, “Who rules?”

In the sixth chapter of Mark, the village of Nazareth rejects Jesus as anything besides the village carpenter’s son; Herod beheads John the Baptist to reward his step daughter’s dancing, and having sent the disciples out in pairs, Jesus attempts to take them into the mountains for a rest but winds up teaching and then feeding the five thousand. The gospel writer john records much more about the interchange after everyone gets back from the remote mountain, and he records Jesus as saying that the people who witnessed the miracle of His feeding the five thousand only wanted to catch up with him again because they got a free satisfying meal. He says if to them if you wanted Me, you would want to eat my flesh and drink my blood, at which many leave.

The fun isn’t over though because in the meantime religious types from Jerusalem have turned up and staying with Mark’s account but moving to chapter 7, we have them telling Jesus, he can’t be much of an authority because his disciples don’t even follow the purity laws. Jesus replies that they have made all the law including purity laws self serving devices for acquiring material wealth and social position. He ices the cake by saying that nothing that goes into a person makes the person impure because the impurity is excreted, but that what people put out from their heart pollutes the world in the form of evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. Over and over we hear the questions “Who rules?” And, “What kind of kingdom are you living in?”

When Jesus retreats to Tyre, the questions don’t go away, precisely because God is not a Semitic creation worried only about and for Jewish people. The Good News is for everyone. The good news is that God’s kingdom is at hand and that the proper response is to believe. So essentially Jesus says to the Syro-Phoenician woman, in vein very similar to John’s record of His response to the people of the Five Thousand which He fed on the mountain when He meets up with them in Capernaum, “What are you seeking, a free lunch or the kingdom of God.?”

It is a question that Jesus is asking me today: in my Bible study, in my prayers, in my work, in my conversations, in my exchange with the bank teller, and the post office clerks, and the retail sales people and the receptionists, as I listen to the news on television --- “Do you want a freebie---insight, answer, to get to the head of the line, special treatment? Or, do you want to meet Me in your response to my other children as you meet and interact with them? Who rules and reigns?” What kingdom?”

And I don’t know about you, but in my life, it isn’t Jesus whose really the harsh an caustic one in the conversation. I lack all the grace and belief of that Syro-Phoenician woman. I argue with Jesus all the time, contemptuously dismissing His message. I almost always take the position that I would be right on board if I was a single guy walking around some desert villages in the first century with 12 of my closest friends and an entourage that included well heeled ladies who paid the bills. I almost always say in my heart, “Get real Jesus! I have five kids and a job. I have to get stuff done. I have to pick one kid at 4:00 pm here and I have to get dinner on the table and the car fixed and the garage door replaced. So what are you bugging me about how I talked or behaved with a bank teller who was rambling on with the guy in front of me about this weekend’s weather. What do you mean? ’Who rule and reigns?’ When I get through all this raising kids and retirement and DIE, then you are going to rule and reign.”

Did you hear what I said, what I say in my heart every day, “When I am dead, Jesus, then You are going to rule and reign.

In fact, I am counting on it: it’s why I got baptized, read the Bible everyday, give what I can when I can and try to find time to pray.

When I am dead, Jesus, and done this rat race, I am all yours.”