Though this Syrophoenician woman thought herself of a low estate–and those around her would’ve agreed, Christ deems her worthy, not of dog food, but of true spiritual meat: faith. Here we see the heart of Christ as he reaches out to those of low conditions.

It’s Mark chapter seven, bringing the second part of that this morning, or the middle part, if you will, starting at verse 24. But before we hear the sermon read and preached, let’s pray the Lord’s blessing upon that and indeed the reception of that word as well. So let’s pray once more before we hear this word. Heavenly Father, we come once more to you this morning to hear from you. We praise you that you have given us such a rich treasure to know what to think and how to think or that you’ve given us a sure word regarding basic truths and regarding profound truths. And we thank you and confess this is your word breathed out by you and given to us and preserved as your covenant people and Lord. We are often so hard of hearing, we confess, and so we ask that your gracious spirit would grant us grace this day, that you would give us ears to hear and hearts that are ready and willing to believe and receive, and we pray, Heavenly Father, that you would magnify your Son, Jesus, in our midst, and that the good news of the gospel, as it is presented in him, would come to us, and Lord, that we would find hope and life in believing. So we ask grace for your people, and grace for the one who speaks on your behalf, in order that your name might be magnified in all the earth. For it’s in Christ’s name that we pray, and all God’s people said together, amen. Amen, Mark chapter seven, we’ll begin at verse 23, and I’ll be reading to verse 30. Please give your attention once more, this is the word of God. And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And he said to her, Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs. But she answered him, yes, Lord. Get even the dogs under the table, eat the children’s crumbs. And he said to her, for this statement, you may go away, for the demon has left your daughter. And she went home and found the child lying in bed, and the demon gone. The word of the Lord. Thank you, God. Indeed, may he have his blessing upon it now as we hear it. You may be seated. I have often thought and commented that every child, generally speaking, should have a dog in their youth. Because those who do will usually have one all their life. And I know there’s a unique breed of humans who strangely don’t like dogs or animals. But the caring for and the bonding with a dog adds depth to life, responsibility, and character that is not had without that experience. Again, I’m speaking general. I know there are exceptions. And having said that, I also know there’s another breed of humans. who treat their dogs like humans. And that’s kind of weird, right? But many cultures for many centuries have held dogs in high esteem for protection, for work, for companionship, for warmth. In the seventh century BC, the famous well-known poet Homer, in his Odyssey, he wrote about the main character, and that was Odysseus. And before going off to war, Odysseus, was born to him, his puppy, Argos, right? He would breed dogs, and this Argos was born before he left. And now Odysseus had to leave and go to war, and his beloved puppy was left behind. And he was gone for a long time, 10 years the war took that he was fighting, and it took 10 years to return home. and returns in disguise to see what’s up, who’s been faithful, who’s been loyal to him, and who’s not, who’s been conspiring against him and his wife and his kingdom. And a group of men, 108, we are told, all that time had been trying to steal away his wife, Penelope, and take over his palace and take over his wealth. And as Odysseus comes back to his homeland and to just outside of his home, The most tear-jerking line in all of Homer’s writings, in my humble opinion, takes place. And that’s when the disguised Odysseus is talking with someone. And the now old, neglected, aged, flea-infested Argos hears his old master’s voice. And he has just enough strength to drop his ears and to wag his tail as he hears. this familiar old voice, but he cannot get up to greet his master because of his old age and his poor condition. And Odysseus, of course, cannot openly greet his beloved dog, for this would, he would be found out, it would reveal his identity. So the great Odysseus sheds a tear, we read, and enters his hall, and his beloved Argos dies. That old dog has one last time experienced his beloved master and friend and is now free to depart, we read in the text there of Homer’s Odyssey. And it’s truly beautiful. And unless you’re cold and dead inside and have a black heart or are a robot, this is very impactful when you read it. Well, our passage today makes reference to the dogs. And at that time and in that culture wherein our passage comes from, they had a very different view of dogs than our culture, who sees them as a little too human, and of Homer’s, even of Homer’s world. So we’ll look at this in just a little bit more and see a far greater importance of what Jesus is saying to this woman who comes to him. The passage today is really a very simple story, it seems. There’s a mother in a desperate situation. She’s coming to Jesus with her need, requesting his help. And we know that this isn’t something that’s foreign to us in the Gospels, those that come to Jesus and have need. There have been many people we have seen in desperate situations. Many of them have come to Christ, and as they’ve come to Him, expressing their need, their desire for His deliverance, they have found just that, deliverance from Him. And we’ve seen time and time again in the Gospel of Mark, Christ shows mercy to those who humble themselves and come to Him, and He is ready and willing to save all those that do confess their need of Him. We’ve also seen that Christ has no problem On the other hand, speaking sternly to those who are proud, rebuking those who just assume as a given that they have a place in the kingdom of God apart from Him. Christ has no problem putting those, recall, those Jerusalem scribes in their place because of their own haughtiness, because of their refusal to admit who Christ is and why He has come. And so as the passage begins, it’s one that we become accustomed to. We think we’re familiar, we recognize the flow of the story. Here’s this woman, she’s there with a need, she comes to Jesus, Jesus will meet that need. And yet that’s not exactly what takes place, that’s not what happens. There’s some things that take us by surprise about this story, what happens next, and how Christ deals with this woman. But before we get to that, we want to look at the basics of the situation, right? Her need is obvious. She has a daughter who’s possessed by an unclean spirit. And because of this, she comes to the one that she knows can help her with her dilemma. She’s desperate. And if you’re a parent, you can certainly relate to this, right? This is something that we’ve seen even beforehand of this daughter, this little daughter who was near to death and indeed dies earlier in Mark. This woman is desperate, knowing that her daughter whom she loves is tormented day and night by this unclean spirit. And you can only begin to imagine what that would look like in regards to her and her family’s relationship in their home and their day-to-day lives. and the great fear in this mother’s heart as a result, and the harassment of this mother, and the exhausted nature that she must be upon her, both emotionally and physically. And so she comes in this desperate situation, in this desperate state, and she comes to this man that she has heard that can help her. And she lays the need before him. She’s done what needed to be done to get to him. Christ has come to this region, we are told, from where he was to Tyre and Sidon, likely, probably to get away. And it says he goes to a particular house so that no one would know he was there, right? Verse 24, he entered the house, did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. It says it’s too late. The word has already gotten out. They know you’re here. And so she does whatever it takes to get there to him, to barge into a home that is not her own, and humbles herself and falls at the feet of Jesus. Once again, the text, immediately, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet, right? And that’s the natural outline, right? Here we come, we worship, we fall down, we submit. We call him Lord. Verse 26 says, now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. A woman, a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And it says, and she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. She begged him. The New American Standard Bible says she kept asking him to cast the demon out of her daughter. This wasn’t a mere request, just a cavalier throwaway ask, right? It wasn’t a calm ask for assistance. The sense of it is begging, pleading continually with urgency. And that’s what we would expect, right? It’s what we would do were it our daughter in this situation. And you can hear the intense pleas from this mother as she cries out for the rescue of her baby, of her daughter. How can we not sympathize with her, right? Those of us who have daughters or those of us who are daughters, how can we not sympathize with her? Who of us would not do whatever we could for the wellbeing of our children? And so she’s come to Christ hoping that he can take her precious child and make her well and free her from this power that has harassed her and their lives. So that’s the setting of this passage, and it seems fairly straightforward, but there’s more going on. And we’ll see here that Christ receives those who believe, those who have faith, and we see that we can flee to Christ in all of our brokenness and blackness of heart and the filth of our sins because he is an all-sufficient Savior. And that is the best news of all. And we see here a harsh standing, right, or hopeless situation, a hurtful sting that he gives to her, and then a hopeful salvation that is most glorious indeed. So despite what we would expect as we read and we anticipate what’s to come next in this particular incident, this straightforward happening, we see some complicating factors despite that familiarity that we have. And these complicating factors actually give us clarity and further comprehension of what Jesus and his ministry is all about. And it’s glorious. Text also shows us after setting the story and giving us this problem, this need, that we are given this woman’s status, the status. And this is where our assumptions and our predictions about this story are challenged and missed the mark. Text shows us here that this woman’s status, what it is in a very low key way. And this status, that status, builds up quite a bit as the story progresses. Very short passage, but as it progresses, we get a fuller picture of what’s going on with the status of this woman, this Syrophoenician Gentile, and we’re told right away that Jesus has left the region that he was in, Galilee, where he healed many, remember? He had many confrontations with the scribes and the Pharisees, and on and on, and he comes to this region, we’re told, of Tyre and Sidon. which the text clearly tells us is a Gentile region. So he’s gone from the people of the covenant, he’s gone from the place of holiness and promise, and he’s gone to a place to get away and maybe get some rest, maybe spend some time with his disciples, those who are notorious for being slow of hearing, right, to explain some of the things that are going on. And when we look at the scriptures, we find that this particular Gentile region, Tyre and Siloam, has a reputation, has a specific reputation. And as you read the Old Testament, this region has some well-known villains that come from there that are associated with this particular place. Many of you know the name Jezebel in your reading of scripture. Even if you’ve not been raised on the Bible, you know it’s one of those things that have entered into the common vernacular. We know what that means when someone references Jezebel. You know, there are bad associations that go with this woman, with this evil woman and her name. And I remember when I was a young man, there was a place where bands would play and it was called Jezebels, right? Trying to be bad and have a reputation, a facade of like, you know, the bad and rock and roll atmosphere and the like. And I assure you that no one there was reading the Bible, right? They weren’t having Bible studies at Jezebel’s, right? But this is what we think of when we think of the word Jezebel. And this is the region where she was from, Tyre and Sidon. This is the place from which she comes. So it’s a place that has a notorious bad side associated with it. And as history progresses, it was found to be a place of really rank paganism. So much so that the first century historian, Jewish historian Josephus, said of this place that the people there, that they are notoriously our greatest and most bitter enemies, right, what he said of those from this region. And when we read the prophets of the Old Testament, we find something similar. We find that Tyre often comes under their condemnation, the condemnation of the prophets as they are given to do so by the Lord himself. those of Tyre and Sidon are condemned, right? Because they’re hoarders of wealth. They’re oppressors of God’s people. And so over and over again, God told Tyre that it was going to, he was going to come and do business with them and judge them. And so when we see Christ entering into this region, Tyre and Sidon, it’s not just a random neutral place on a map. And in telling us these details, Mark wants to give us this backstory in what we’re going to be thinking of the people who live there. In this particular region, Jesus encounters this woman. And as we’re introduced to her, the first thing that we find out about this person is that she’s a woman. That’s not a big deal, of course, in our day and age, but in that day and age, women did not have the same honor and value as men did. Think of that. Don’t believe the lies of modern haters who tell you things to the contrary. Despite what we hear from them in our day, all of the hysterical raging in unhinged hate and attacks against Christianity, which claim to be, they claim it to be oppressive and misogynistic and anti-woman, despite all of that aggression and historical revisionism and ignorance, it was actually Christianity that went strong and hard against all other worldviews and elevated the woman’s status to honorable and equal and valuable. I mean, you go through the Gospels, we find this very thing as well. And you see one of the radical things that Christ does is he exalts the place of women in society and also in the kingdom. This wasn’t how it was previously. It’s not how women were viewed. Or recall John chapter four with Jesus and the woman at the well, and how the disciples kind of freak out when they see that he’s talking to this woman, right? What are you talking to a woman for? A Samaritan woman, no less. And we have the same thing in Mark here. This is a woman, so she has a lower status in that society. So that’s the first strike against her as from what we’re given about her. But as it goes on, Mark tells that she’s not just a woman, but quickly we learn that she’s a Gentile woman. You see that? And so her rank keeps dropping lower and lower as Mark lets out these descriptors, these adjectives about her. She’s a Gentile. So not only is she low in rank in society due to her sex, but far worse for a Jewish rabbi anyway, she’s a Gentile. So she’s what? She’s unclean. And she’s outside the promises of the covenant of Israel. And we’re told exactly what kind of Gentile she is. She’s a Syrophoenician Gentile woman. This means that she comes from that region of Tyre, which was renowned for its paganism and its distance regarding the holiness of Israel. This woman is from the wrong place. She’s the wrong nationality. She’s the wrong sex. She comes to the Jewish rabbi seeking help nevertheless. But wait, there’s more with this woman, right? If all of that isn’t bad enough, back at home, what’s going on? She has the added problem of an unclean spirit at home possessing her daughter. If she’s not already defiled enough by being a Gentile woman who’s Syrophoenician, she lives in a place that is now possessed by this unclean spirit, and her daughter is overcome by this unclean spirit, which means she’s utterly defiled. Everything in her home is defiled. She’s defiled, her status shouts out to all, unclean. And if you remember the story right before this one, right, the passage where the Pharisees are mad at Jesus, they’re frustrated at him, it was because he and his disciples ate with unwashed hands and therefore they were defiled. Now if they’re frustrated about that, what will they do now that he’s associating with a person like this? These are the kind of people that good rabbis don’t, they don’t walk towards, they back away from. And so according to them, if Jesus wants to keep Torah the way that they want him to keep it, he should in one sense have nothing to do with this woman. So the situation is she wants her daughter healed so she comes to Jesus. Her status is she’s an unclean Gentile woman. And then we see in the text next, what many have called the sting, right, the sting. We’re accustomed to Jesus displaying his power for the powerless, right? That’s something that we’ve come to recognize and expect from the Savior. This is the point in the story where Jesus shows compassion to this woman who’s done all that she can to get to him. And we just know that this is where he’s going to say, your daughter is well, fear not. And yet that’s not what we find here. That’s not what he says. That’s not his response to her. Instead, we find this woman on her knees at the feet of Jesus, begging and pleading, Lord, please make my daughter well. And his response, and you need to read it with the seemingly coldness that is there, he responds to her by saying in verse 27, and he said to her, let the children be fed first. for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs. It’s not the Jesus we’re used to. It’s not the response that we’re used to from the Savior. We think at the very least this is rude, but at worst it’s perhaps misogynistic and racist. And we’re gonna see that what Christ is saying when he calls her a dog is not just a metaphor that he’s pulled out of thin air. In our day and age, This is a racial comment, right? Namely that the Gentiles were often referred to as dogs. And the reason for that is because dogs in the ancient Near East were viewed how? They’re often associated strongly with uncleanness. And again, we in our day and age love our dogs, but as much as we love them, they are certainly gross at times. We’re fully aware that they can eat gross things and that they leave gross messes. And when you read in the Old Testament, every connotation of a dog is negative. In fact, mostly when dogs are mentioned, it’s when God wants some kind of cleanup taken care of after a war. He often says to his enemies, and the dogs will come and eat your flesh. And the birds of the air will come and clean the bones. They’ll finish what you couldn’t do so. They will come and clean up what the dogs couldn’t. The birds will take care of it. Dogs are renowned in the Old Testament and in this culture for coming in contact with all things unclean. And as you read through the Old Testament, you don’t find dogs being put in a good light. And so what came to be a metaphor used in common parlance was this, that the Gentiles, because of their unclean status, are likened to dogs, because dogs are unclean. And also we see in the Old Testament where the wicked are associated with dogs, right? They’re seen in this light. One of the most famous passages in the whole of the Old Testament, one of the most famous songs, you all know it, it’s Psalm 22. And recall what it says there, that song, that’s referred to when we speak of Christ’s death on the cross, says what? It says, for dogs encompany me, the company of evildoers encircles me, right? This is parallelism. It says the same thing in different ways. Dogs encompass me. It’s put in this construction of this verse, parallel with a company of evildoers encircles me. Dogs, evildoers. And so Gentiles, because of both their unclean ways and their wickedness, were called dogs in this particular culture. And it’s not just there in the Old Testament. Jesus even says, we know the second part of this verse that I’m going to quote very well, and we say it all the time, or we’re very familiar with it, and it says, don’t throw your pearls to swine, right? You’ve all heard that. But the very first part of that verse is what? It’s don’t give what is holy to the dogs. Paul, when he’s speaking of the enemies of God, enemies of the church, he calls them dogs. Or when John the Apostle, when he speaks of those who will not enter the kingdom of heaven, remember how he speaks of this. He lists all kinds of immoral and adulterous practices in people, and he begins by saying, all the dogs will be outside. And Jesus calls this woman here, falling before him, pleading with him with this urgent need, he calls her a dog. Now, a lot of commentators, if you read about, read this passage, will wanna say that this is really a kind of a term of endearment, right? Call her a little dog, a puppy. you know, my pet, right? That’s how they wanna say it. She’s like a puppy or something. But it’s awfully hard, near impossible actually, to justify the full import of that when you see how this term is used throughout the culture and indeed used throughout Old Testament, New Testament, the whole Bible. He does call her the diminutive of the word dog, a puppy, if you will, a small dog. But the point of calling her that is not to endear, not a term of endearment, rather it’s to clearly say, you are a Gentile. And everything that’s associated with being a Gentile, that you truly are. And that’s why I can’t give you anything. And you can’t make it any nicer than that. That’s what he’s saying. He’s telling her, listen, I’ve got bread for my kids, but not for you. She’s not getting what she came for because she’s the wrong race. She doesn’t fit into the people of God. She’s not of the people of the covenant, if you will. So I’d like to help your ailing daughter, but that would be like stealing food from my children’s mouths, he’s telling her. He’s clearly stating in this text the priority of Israel in his ministry, at least at this time. He’s clearly saying, I’ve come first and foremost for the people of Israel, and you’re not part of that. And I can’t give you what was meant for them. Why does Jesus do this? If it’s not, as the lame commentators would say, a term of endearment, a nicety, why does he do this? Rather harsh, rather cold. I mean, especially in light of the fact that we know the end of the story, right, where he heals her daughter. You often wonder why, why the big production of all of this? If he’s just gonna do it afterwards anyway. Well, part of it is that it forces everyone to see the situation for what it is. This woman is declared by Jesus’ words clearly to everyone who is within earshot of him. She’s outside of the covenant. She’s not part of the promises of God. She’s not of the people of God of Israel. She’s not an Israelite. She’s unclean, and therefore she’s not a recipient of the kingdom of God. In fact, it’s worse, they’re renowned enemies of the people of God and unclean and pagans. She’s an unclean puppy at the children’s table. Everyone who witnesses this will know that what has transpired when he does heal her daughter, because audibly he has declared what? This is who she is. Whatever I’m about to do, know that I’m doing it to one who was a dog. But it also forces this woman to consider who she is, right? As she’s confronted, she must recognize this. Deal with this. She must recognize the situation for what it truly is. Christ is saying to her in no uncertain terms, you don’t qualify. You’re unfit for the ministry that I’m bringing. You don’t qualify to be a recipient of all these sorts of promises. And so if that’s true, if that’s the sting of this response, and it would be a sting to her, if Christ asked her, I can’t because you’re of the wrong race and you don’t qualify, What about her salvation? What about her faith? How do we get from there to this happy ending that we’re left with? Well, notice this woman’s response to being called a dog and she can’t have what she wants. It’s truly a delight to behold if we slow down and pay attention to what she says. She says in response to this, the very first words out of her mouth are what? Yes, Lord. I can’t give this to you. It’s not for you. It’s for my children. I can’t give what’s for them to you, a dog. And she says, yes, Lord. And you can’t help but love this particular character. We don’t know much about her, but these words alone speak volumes. Yes, Lord. So precious in God’s sight must this sort of display of faith been to him. She plainly admits that she agrees with Jesus, his assessment of her. She admits that everything he said is true. I don’t qualify, I’m not fit to receive these things. I acknowledge that everything you’ve just spoken about me is real, it’s true. And I’m not trying to hide from it. I’m not trying to make it better than it is. This is the truth. Her response is a basic, I concur with what you’re saying. You are correct. Yes, Lord. She doesn’t get into self-justification or rationalizing her situation. She doesn’t try to minimize the situation in which she finds herself. She doesn’t come up with a whole list of excuses. She’s not offended. It’s just plain agreements. in her desperate situation, in honesty, bear before him. Yes, Lord, you’re right. This is who I am. This woman is one of the few who actually have been given ears to hear the parables of Jesus. And over and over again, Christ has, he has to rebuke his disciples, right? Who he wants to spend time with to explain them something. You still can’t hear it? You still don’t get it? But this woman is willing to say, I hear your story, and what you’re saying of me, that I’m the dog in this story, and there’s a table set for the children in there, and I’m a dog begging for scraps. Yes, Lord. She’s willing to say, you know what? This is who I am in this story. What you say is right. The story you just told, I admit, is true of me. I place myself in the world you’ve created, and I agree with the things that you said about me. They are true. And Jesus still does this today. Even now, he defines us. He defines you. And the question is, are we going to find truth in his story that he’s telling us and saying, what you said about me is the truth? Or we can argue and justify and excuse. If He says to us, you are dead in your trespasses and sins in Adam, that in you there was nothing righteous, nothing that you can do that is good, you can either say in response to that declaration that’s clearly in Scripture, Ephesians 2, for instance, you can either say, well, you know, that’s not very becoming, it’s kind of insulting to me, I’m kind of uncomfortable with that, and that picture that you’re painting about me is not fully accurate, you know, you’re kind of, you know, leaning towards making me look bad, right? I do all kinds of good stuff. You might respond, I’m a good person. I’m nice. You know, I’m nice to my relatives. I’m kind to people. And I send my mom a card on Mother’s Day, right? I understand that I don’t do everything perfect. Nobody’s perfect. But to say I’m utterly unrighteous before you, before the face of God, and that my whole nature is corrupt, And that like even the good things I do are filthy rags. That’s a hard pill to swallow. That’s often beyond us to accept and admit. But this is exactly what this woman is saying. She’s saying, you know what? The story you’ve told, the picture you’ve painted about me is true. I agree. I am that character in this story of life. And we can either agree with the story that Christ has placed us in, or we can fight back, disagree, and excuse, and argue. This woman has been confronted with her condition. Jesus lays it on the table in stark relief who she is and what the problem is. You’re a dog not qualified for the goodness of God. And she says, yes, yes, Lord. And so what about you? What about you? Most of us here are Christians, we profess the faith, but for those of you who aren’t or may not be, what is your assessment of yourself? Because the most difficult calisthenic any of us can perform in our lives is bending the knee to Jesus and the truth about what he says regarding us. What’s your assessment of yourself? Why should God receive you? Why should you be acceptable in his sight? Do you believe there’s something in you to make you at least a little bit worthy of his love? Because the Bible makes it clear, really clear, that this is not the story that has been written. There’s nothing in you by itself to make you acceptable in God’s sight, we’re told again and again and again. But even those of us who are believers, true believers, we oftentimes can acknowledge, at a theological level at least, that we are sinners. Acknowledge that, it’s easy for us to acknowledge in kind of a theory or like abstract reality, right? We’re sinners. But when was the last time that you heard Jesus telling you those things, and you’re ready and willing, willing and ready to really admit them? Because often Jesus tells you those things through other people, right? The way that he reveals this to you, right? And so we ask, when was the last time someone told you something unflattering? Even in love, and you agreed without anger, without argument, without any excuse, You’re right, I did do that. That is who I am. I did do those things. I do do those things. It’s not the way it usually works, right? It’s not the way we usually respond. It’s not how it sounds often, even in our own homes, to those whom we are closest to and love the most. Mostly we make excuses. We rationalize. We deny things. We justify ourselves. We blame others. This is often how we respond to the picture that Christ paints of us. But this woman who was shown the truth, and it was a hard truth, that the promise was first to Israel and then to the Gentiles through Israel, she makes no claim on Jesus, but admits fully, I have nothing, nothing at all that qualifies me except my needs. That’s the only thing that I have that qualifies me. I have needs, radical needs. You’re right, and what freedom there is in admitting that sort of unworthiness You know, that’s what we confess when we come here week after week, right? We daily sin, so we daily need reminding. And we weekly gather together as commanded by our Lord to be reminded of these things. And oftentimes we use that prayer in our confession of sin when we confess rightly, there is no health in us, in and of ourselves, in us, just from us, there is no health. And the question is, do we mean it when we say that, when we confess that? Because this is the truth. This is what we could admit freely before God. Of course, we understand that after we’re given new life and we’re changed and we’re being sanctified and changed in the image of Christ, the status is different. We’re new creations, that’s true. We’re righteous and holy and indeed perfect in the sight of God as we’re cloaked with Christ’s righteousness. But in our flesh, there is no health in us. This is what we can admit freely before God. If we understand the gospel at all, we can say it without flinching, without making excuses, without having to justify ourselves or explain away certain things. We can say, you know what? There’s absolutely no health in me. Why should he let me into his kingdom? Not for anything in me. There’s nothing that makes me worthy. And this woman’s, she’s free to admit her unqualified status But what is beautiful about what this woman says is what? She goes on being willing to admit her disqualification, but then making sure to extol the qualifications of the one from whom she is seeking remedy. She goes on to lift up and extol the qualifications of Christ, this one to whom she has come. And notice she says, yes, Lord, Yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” And so she basically says, that’s true, I’m unworthy. But when the kids get full, can I have just a little bit of what is leftover from them that they can’t eat? And you know, it’s interesting, this term that he uses here, that Mark uses, from her mouth is used twice by Mark, other than the story. It’s used in the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000. When it said, everyone ate and were satisfied. Everyone ate and was satisfied. She says, yes, Lord, it’s true. But even the dogs get to eat once the children are satisfied. She says, those crumbs are enough for me. I see that your abundance is of such a nature. See how much she’s admitting here, she’s confessing here about the situation. I see that your abundance is such that if I can just have what is left over, that will be more than enough for me to meet all of my disqualifications, right? What a beautiful thing that she can see by faith that the bread and Christ was that by faith she can see that, that it was truly abundant. And you see, for some of you, even as you gather here today, even as we come to this table this morning, we’ll argue with the very mercies and grace of God. You will doubt. You’ll have this inter-confrontation. Am I worthy to receive that sort of grace? Will God truly be gracious to me? I failed him so many times. I know the blackness of my own heart. I know the failing nature of who I am, and the utter disqualification, and the blackness of my own heart. And I notice and I recognize this, and I do it again and again and again. And often we argue this way, though that’s true, against the pure, clear teaching of Scripture, that God’s grace is truly greater than all of our sin. It’s not just a line in a hymn, it’s true. His grace is greater than all of our sin. You can’t out sin, the grace of God has been put beautifully. And yet many times we argue with the grace of God saying, nope, I’m too unworthy to receive that kind of goodness from Him. Scripture makes it clear. No, it’s your disqualification that makes you the perfect candidate for the grace of Jesus Christ. It is your unworthiness that puts you at the right level to be a recipient of the gospel. It’s the fact that you don’t qualify that makes you an ideal candidate for the good news. And I want us to close this morning with the words of a friend. And he says, complete bondage of the human will in matters heavenly is ultimately good news. That sounds strange to us. The complete bondage of the human will in matters heavenly is ultimately good news. Because doctors only come for the sick. If you’re not that bad, what did Jesus come for? What do you need a savior like him? The Apostle Paul boasted in his weakness, remember, I will boast, not of myself, but in my weakness. He claimed to be what? The chief of sinners. And he boasted in his weakness because that left him only one option, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. In Jesus’ kingdom, right, and listen, in his kingdom, only sinners are called saints. In Jesus’ kingdom, only sinners are called saints. And so this morning, as we see this woman, and we see her plight again, and we see ultimately the solution of her problem, a merciful Savior, in that we see, and may we see ourselves fully in this story, unqualified, unfit, utterly unworthy. Acknowledge that truth, agree with the Lord. Yes, Lord. And may we agree with God that that is so, so that we might indeed also agree that His Son is an all-sufficient Savior, even for you, even for me. He’s all-sufficient for sinners who come to Him. And may we rejoice and receive that grace afresh this day, knowing that Jesus is willing and ready and able to save all those that come to Him in faith. Amen, let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the mercy that you’ve shown us in Christ, indeed, our all-sufficient Savior. Lord, we ask forgiveness for our unbelief and our rationalizing the confrontation that we have inwardly about these things and the evidences of our unbelief again and again and again. Lord, we pray, help our unbelief, help us to truly believe what you say about us, that we are dead to sin, and made alive to walk in the midst of life. We pray, Lord, that our lives would be changed evermore ongoingly, and especially as we have met with you this morning and heard from your word, Lord, change us, strengthen us, and grow us for your glory. For he has his own in Christ’s name, amen.