“When Your Reputation Precedes You” Mount Olive Lutheran Church Season of Pentecost Sunday Sermon September 8, 2024 – Mark 7:24–37

Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Sunday September 8th 2024: Season of Pentecost / Mark 7:24–37 “When Your Reputation Precedes You”

And from there [Jesus] 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; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” And He said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

Then He returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. And they brought to Him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged Him to lay His hand on him. And taking him aside from the crowd privately, He put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, He sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more He charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian Friends, maybe you dislike the person, maybe they make you feel uncomfortable, maybe you think they’re a phoney or you have a low opinion of them, they smell, they’re poor, they’re not going to contribute to your life goals; or maybe they don’t actually smell bad and other people seem to like them but every time you lay eyes on them your heart goes sour and you get angry, you’d much rather put your attention on someone else, anyone else really ... but the Lord keeps putting them in your path, they keep turning up like a ‘bad penny,’ and try as you might they won’t go away. What are you to do? I mean you don’t deserve all of this frustration and vexation, you’re a hard worker, you keep the Ten Commandments, you’re a nice and friendly person, or at least that’s what you tell yourself. But honestly, some people should be here, and others should not be here and you know best who those people are. What are you to do? Saint James says, “If you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” So what are you to do? Repent, turn away from these thoughts and remember the other thing Saint James says, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.” Today consider how well you’re doing.

To put us in the right frame of mind let us look at the Eighth Commandment and it’s explanation: You’ll find it in your hymnal on page 321. Let’s read it together.

The Eighth Commandment You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbour, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.[1]      

Reputation is a major part of both our Epistle Reading and Gospel Reading today. Jesus had a lot to teach His disciples about reputation. First many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Scribes and the Elders of the people enjoyed a reputation that didn’t match up with their heart. We’ve seen this unfold over the last couple months in our Readings. Some Pharisees would eventually upon their conversion become great examples of faith like Nicodemus, who Jesus spoke with at the beginning of the Gospel of Saint John,[2] who with another high ranking Pharisee, Joseph of Arimathea, entombed Jesus’ body after His death upon the cross at great personal risk. Saint Mark described Joseph of Arimathea as “a respected member of the council [that’s that Sanhedrin], who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God.”[3] Then there was the Pharisee Saul, who is better known now as Saint Paul, “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, [Saint Paul says] a Pharisee; as to zeal [Saint Paul confesses in the past] a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, [Saint Paul says] blameless. But whatever gain I had, [Saint Paul says] I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.”[4] So while these all had a reputation as a Pharisee, they became changed men by the work of Christ. If they were sent away out of hand simply because of first appearances, if they were sent away based solely on limited information, or prejudice, or bias they would not be the men they are today in Christ.

Saint Mark tells us up front that the woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician woman by birth. Saint Matthew likewise depicted this same episode and in the Gospel of Saint Matthew he gives us some extra details, he records how when Jesus at first did not answer her, Jesus’ disciples came and begged Him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” They would not likely have done this had she been a fellow Jewish person. Saint Matthew tells us how Jesus answered them saying, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”[5] This is a bit of a set up, they are about to learn a lesson. They had not judged her based on her faith in Christ but rather they had judged her based upon her outward appearance, which for them as Jews had a reputation of ill repute; the Gentile was someone they treated as unclean. And so Jesus exposes their short-sightedness by doubling down on their sin of partiality for the sake of the lesson when He says to the woman, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” The disciples probably thought, ‘good Jesus is sending this ‘dog’ away,’ did they expect the next part? Did they expect that she would say, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Did they expect what Jesus then said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” And she went home, Saint Mark tells us, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone. Saint Matthew in his recording of these events recounts how Jesus had said to the woman, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.”[6] The disciples had at first judged her based on outward appearances, and their partiality was grounded in their false assumptions about her reputation of being unclean due to her status as a Gentile, a Syrophoenician woman by birth. But here Jesus is teaching them that He is not just the Saviour of the House of Israel, not just the Saviour of the Jewish people but of the Gentile too. Here they are also being taught that the surface reading of a person may miss seeing their faith.

This great faith of the Syrophoenician woman, by the grace of God, moved her feet to make the journey to see Jesus in the first place. She turned to Him in faith because she had heard of Him and trusted that His reputation as a healer and exorcist were true, she would not have made the trek to find Him, she would not have fell down at His feet to beg Him for His help if she had no faith that He could accomplish the things she petitioned Him to do. The man, woman or child today who prays to Jesus for help does so because they believe in Him and have faith in Him. When it came to this woman the disciples where not defending her, they were not speaking well of her, they were not explaining everything in the kindest way, they continued to hurt her reputation by not seeing her faith and now in the end her faithfulness has been preserved for all time in the Words of Holy Scripture. And here with this woman Jesus has proven to be the one who keeps the Eighth Commandment without fault, for in the pages of the Bible, He does not only heal her daughter and release her from the demonic possession but He likewise gives true testimony in her defence against the false accusations of His very own disciples regarding the actual quality of her reputation. Also remember Jesus casts out the demon from a distance, He doesn’t come with her, He doesn’t even send two of His disciples to go with the women to her house to care for the child, He simply speaks and at His word she is free. The woman has no evidence of this having happened as she stands before Jesus, only the promise that it is true based on her trust of His reputation, so again she shows great faith by not asking for proof; she again shows great faith by trusting the Lord every step of the way back to her house, every step of the way back to her daughter. What did we hear in our Old Testament Reading? Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”[7] For this woman Jesus had come to save her and her daughter, He had come to save these Gentiles with a bad reputation in the eyes of His disciples. The disciples would learn to understand the sin of partiality and prejudice; they would learn to show no partiality as they held the faith in their Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, because He was kind towards them even dying for them when they were riddled with sin.[8]

What are you to do when the Lord keeps putting someone in your path, when they keep turning up like a ‘bad penny,’ and when try as you might they won’t go away? You know the answer, you are to repent and find a way to love them and care for their needs. Now how well you’re doing with this? Is this an area of your spiritual life where you need improvement? How do you love a person you find difficult to love? Start by taking the Eighth Commandment to heart and asking yourself am I breaking this Commandment with my thoughts, words and deeds towards this person or am I working my best to keep this Commandment with my thoughts, words and deeds towards this person? And then remember that where you fall into sin regarding this Commandment your forgiveness is not found in keeping it perfectly for yourself but in the one who actually kept it perfectly for you without fault, Christ Jesus your Lord and Great Redeemer the one who is faithful in every way.

So for our encouragement let us look again at the Eighth Commandment and its explanation: Again you’ll find it in your hymnal on page 321 let us read it together one more time. 

The Eighth Commandment You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbour, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.     

Dear ones Jesus gives no false testimony against you. He tells no lies about you, He does not betray you, or slander you to His heavenly Father; He doesn’t hurt your reputation, in fact He is actively defending you, speaking well of you and explaining everything to His heavenly Father regarding you in the kindest way. He has placed His prefect righteousness over you in the eyes and ears of His heavenly Father out of love for you. Do likewise for your brother and sister in Christ, and treat each person you meet as a potential brother or sister in the Christian faith because to your great surprise whether rich or poor, frustrating or pleasant, old or young, or whatever the case may be, they just might truly turn out be your brother or sister in the faith. The disciples learned this lesson about the Gentile Syrophoenician woman, at first they couldn’t see her for who she truly was, they were blinded by their short-sightedness, but by the grace of God, they were given eyes to see. They came to understand that they were forgiven in Christ Jesus for their sin towards her; you likewise have this forgiveness in Christ Jesus for the times you have sinned against others out of short-sightedness. Strive always to defend your neighbour, speak well of them, and explain everything in the kindest way. Strive to care for their needs and do not shun them, or shoo them away for the Lord does not shun you or shoo you away. Remember your “good reputation, good friends, and faithful neighbours” are gifts from God received in your daily bread,[9] don’t spoil that gift for another and pray that they will heed the example of Christ and not spoil these things for you in your life either. Amen.    

Let us pray:

Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

[1] Eighth Commandment & Explanation, Luther’s Small Catechism, Concordia Publishing House 2017, Pg 14.
[2] John 3
[3] Mark 15:43
[4] Philippians 3:5–7
[5] Matthew 15:23–24
[6] Matthew 15:28a
[7] Isaiah 35:4
[8] Romans 5:8, “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
[9] Explanation of the Fourth Petition, The Lord’s Prayer, Luther’s Small Catechism, Concordia Publishing House 2017, Pg 21.

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