Mark 7:25-26
Some
people say that demons don’t exist, that the mention of them in Scripture
proves that the Scriptures are full of myth and folly, that they are certainly
not worth believing. I disagree with this belief, but I will entertain it for a
few moments as I write.
We
have a woman who believes her young daughter has a demon. Her behavior is
unexplainable by any other diagnosis known at the time of this mom’s living.
But let’s just say that there is another explanation other than demon
possession. It doesn’t change the truth of our text at all. This mother is
desperate to find a cure for her daughter, and Jesus provides that cure, in an
instant, from a distance, seemingly without any intervention other than His
word to this desperate woman. Doesn’t this warrant a second look? Doesn’t this
qualify as miraculous?
What
medical or psychiatric cure can be done without any intervention, any
interaction between practitioner and patient? None! And yet Jesus does this
very thing. Maybe there is an explanation that fits better with these facts.
The perfect fit is demon possession.
So
let’s look at this woman. She is a non-Jew, a Greek by birth, not one of the
chosen people. She was not chosen to bring the message of God’s care and
provision to the world. That is what means to be a Jew, and she wasn’t one. So
her background probably doesn’t know the Old Testament Scriptures.
She
probably hasn’t heard any Sunday School lessons about Moses or Jonah and the
whale. She might have heard small bits about what Jews believe, but would not
have had the full picture, kind of like hearing what the Amish believe. We know
bits and pieces, what we pick up from movies and seeing pictures of the buggies
and the distinctive clothing, but not the substance of their beliefs.
It
also seems as if she is displaced. She was born outside the immediate area. We
don’t know the exact location, but we know it wasn’t in the territory that
Jesus has travelled. If she were born in Tyre where Jesus is, they would have
just said that. But the distinction places her outside the normal bounds of
Israel. Her native language was probably not Hebrew, but one of the other Semitic
languages. It states she was Greek, so perhaps she spoke Greek as well.
I
wonder if she has had to flee her birthplace because of some tragedy. No
mention of her husband. No mention of relatives. It sounds as if she was in
witness protection or hiding from domestic violence. (Just speculating.)
And
yet she hears about Jesus and she seeks Him out. Her desperation drives her to
look beyond her normal resources, since they have failed. And yet, she begs
Jesus. We don’t beg from equals. We beg from someone who has more power, more
authority. When was the last time you begged?