THIRD QUARTER 2024
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #6
AUGUST 10, 2024
"PARABLES."

 

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Mark 2:17, NKJV throughout). 

The Savior of the world came seeking the lost that “they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).  He hungered to reach and heal the hearts of all.  This week we read of Christ’s ministering to Pharisees and scribes, His twelve disciples, the multitudes that followed Him, a Gentile woman and her demon possessed daughter, and a deaf man with a speech impediment.  All needed healing and restoration that only the Heaven-sent Physician could provide.

Trusting in Truth or Tradition

When the Pharisees and scribes faulted Jesus’s disciples for eating with unwashed hands, they referenced the tradition of the elders.  Jesus referred them to the Scriptures.  “This people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.  And in vain they worship Me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:6, 7; Isaiah 29:13).

To the religious leaders sent to spy on Him Jesus cited an example of their vain worship.  Their practice of Corban (Mark7:9-13) was a blatant violation of the fifth commandment, “Honor your father and your mother” (Exodus 20:12).  They set aside God’s law for their own traditions. 

Why did they do this?  They were living under the old covenant.  They needed new hearts.  “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.  For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts…” (Mark 7:20, 21).

“The hypocrisy of the Pharisees was the product of self-seeking.  The glorification of themselves was the object of their lives.  It was this that led them to pervert and misapply the Scriptures, and blinded them to the purpose of Christ’s mission.  This subtle evil even the disciples of Christ were in danger of cherishing.  Those who classed themselves with the followers of Jesus, but who had not left all in order to become His disciples, were influenced in a great degree by the reasoning of the Pharisees.  They were often vacillating between faith and unbelief, and they did not discern the treasures of wisdom hidden in Christ.  Even the disciples, though outwardly they had left all for Jesus’ sake, had not in heart ceased to seek great things for themselves…

“Only the power of God can banish self-seeking and hypocrisy.  This change is the sign of His working.  When the faith we accept destroys selfishness and pretense, when it leads us to accept God’s glory and not our own, we may know that it is of the right order. ‘Father, glorify Thy name’ (John 12:28), was the keynote of Christ’s life, and if we follow Him, this will be the keynote of our life.  He commands us to ‘walk, even as He walked;’ and ‘hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments’ (1 John 2:6, 3).”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 409.

“To the multitude, and afterward more fully to His disciples, Jesus explained that defilement comes not from without, but from within.  Purity and impurity pertain to the soul.  It is the evil deed, the evil word, the evil thought, the transgression of the law of God, not the neglect of external, man-made ceremonies, that defiles a man.”—ibid, p. 397.

Ceremonial washings and purification rites practiced in Christ’s day could not produce righteousness.  Cleanliness of heart is what was needful then as it is now.  Without a living faith, letting God do for us that which we cannot do for ourselves, the invariable outcome is the substitution of manmade traditions for obedience to God’s Word.

The Shepherd Seeking His Sheep

Every word and deed of Christ was far reaching in its purpose.  Much of what Jesus said and did was not comprehended by those He came to save.  His own disciples often failed to grasp the wonderful truths imparted to them.  However, the central character of this week’s lesson, a Syro-Phoenician woman, had ears to hear, a humble spirit, and a persistent faith. She is one of two individuals mentioned in the gospels (both were Gentiles) that Jesus commended for their great faith (Matthew 15:21-28, Luke 7:1-10).

“And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.  For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet…and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.  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.’  And she answered and said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.’  Then He said to her, ‘For this saying; go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter’” (Mark 7:24-29).

In Matthew’s telling of the story Jesus initially ignored the woman’s pleas for help.  The annoyed disciples urged Him to send her away (Matthew 15:21-28).  The woman, however, was persistent.  The Savior was her only hope.  And she read the character of Jesus better than His disciples. 

This Canaanite woman had a heart of faith that saw beyond Jesus’s seeming indifference.  She was not summarily dismissed and this gave her the courage to persevere.  When Jesus did speak to her, she heard in His voice compassion, and she sensed He was extending to her an invitation to respond, which she did.  The Savior then commended her faith.  Her request was granted, and she returned home to find her daughter well.

When the Canaanite woman first approached Jesus, He modeled the belief and attitude of the Jews.  His initial treatment of her was out of character, His practice being to immediately grant help and healing to those in need.  The disciples should have recognized this.  In time, looking back on the experience, they would be led to see how cold and heartless they had often been toward those they considered outsiders.  The Savior was breaking down walls of prejudice and pride.  After the resurrection the disciples began to more fully comprehend Christ’s mission and their commission to take the gospel to the world.  No class of people or individuals were to be excluded from the grace of God that brings salvation (Titus 2:11).

“Christ knew this woman’s situation.  He knew that she was longing to see Him, and He placed Himself in her path.  By ministering to her sorrow, He could give a living representation of the lesson He designed to teach.  For this He had brought His disciples into this region.  He desired them to see the ignorance existing in cities and villages close to the land of Israel.  The people who had been given every opportunity to understand the truth were without a knowledge of the needs of those around them.  No effort was made to help souls in darkness. The partition wall which Jewish pride had erected, shut even the disciples from sympathy with the heathen world.  But these barriers were to be broken down...

“It was a pitying Savior to whom the woman made her plea, and in answer to the request of the disciples (to send her away), Jesus said, ‘I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’  Although this answer appeared to be in accordance with the prejudice of the Jews it was an implied rebuke to the disciples, which they afterward understood as reminding them of what He had often told them, —that He came to the world to save all who would accept Him.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 400, 401.

Commenting further on Christ’s interaction with the heathen woman, Ellen White shares, “The disciples had thought that He dispensed too freely the gifts of His grace.  He would show that His love was not to be circumscribed to race or nation.  When He said, ‘I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel,’ He stated the truth, and in His work for the Canaanite woman He was fulfilling His commission.  This woman was one of the lost sheep that Israel should have rescued.  It was their appointed work, the work which they had neglected, that Christ was doing.”—ibid., p. 402 (emphasis added).

“Christ is the true Shepherd; the hearing of His voice is the test which determines who are really His sheep.  He says, ‘My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.’  Those who refuse to hear His voice place themselves among the goats.  Now it was while He was among His disciples that He said, ‘and other sheep I have which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.’  So we see that the lost sheep of the house of Israel are scattered throughout all the world, and the voice of Jesus alone can find them.  He sends undershepherds, but they must speak with His voice, or else the sheep will be driven away, instead of gathered.  The words of Jesus, ‘I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel,’ when about to grant the request of the Syro-Phoenician woman, who had been drawn by the sound of His voice, show that the poor, believing, heathen woman was one of the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”—E. J. Waggoner, The Everlasting Covenant, Chapter 41, “One Fold and One Shepherd.”

Ears That Hear and Tongues That Speak

“Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him.  And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue.  Then looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to Him, ‘Ephphatha,’ that is, ‘Be opened.’  Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly” (Mark 7:31-35).

As with Jesus opening the eyes of the blind man in the 9^th chapter of John’s gospel, we are reminded of the creation of man in the above passage.  On page 83 of the Teachers Comments section for the Book of Mark Sabbath School Lesson Study Guide the following insight is shared:

In Mark 7, we have an allusion to the making of Adam.  In the case of the deaf man, who speaks with difficulty (Mark 7:32), Jesus intervenes by using His own hands and mouth as a vehicle of healing.  In this way, Jesus seeks to “reshape,” as it were, His creation, which He does by putting His fingers into the man’s ears.  Then, He spits and touches the man’s tongue with His saliva, and at the command of His word, the man is re-created.  In that instant, the man is a new person.  “And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly” (Mark 7:35, NASB) …The Creator of the universe has come to earth to restore the creation, which Satan has ruined.

“Jesus did not according to His custom restore the man by a word only.  Taking him apart from the multitude, He put His fingers in his ears, and touched his tongue; looking up to heaven, He sighed at thought of the ears that would not be open to the truth, the tongues that refused to acknowledge the Redeemer.” –Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 404.

Bread that Satisfies

Our lesson this week begins with Jesus addressing the unbelief and hypocrisy of the religious teachers.  It concludes with caviling Pharisees demanding a sign, and Jesus warning His disciples to beware of the “leaven” of their nation’s leaders.  The twelve misunderstood Christ’s words and applied a literal meaning to them.  He rebuked their unbelief. 

The disciples had just witnessed Christ’s multiplication of the loaves and fishes a second time.  He was more than able to supply their physical needs.  Yet, in Mark chapter 8 we find them worried because “they had forgotten to take bread.”  What were they going to eat? 

How often we are like the disciples.  Our thoughts gravitate to our temporal needs and desires to the neglect of the eternal.  “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him” (John 6:27).

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).  Even physically, you cannot live on something that has no life in it…Whatever you take in the way of food or drink must have in it the element of life, or else you cannot live on it.  So also, in order that you may live by the word of God, that word has in it the element of life.  Therefore, this word is called ‘the word of life.’

“Since it is the word of God and is imbued with life, the life that is in it must be the life of God; and this is eternal life.  Therefore, it is truly said that the words of the Lord are ‘the words of eternal life.’  Whenever the word of God comes to you, at that very time and in that word, eternal life comes to you.  And when you refuse to receive the word, you are rejecting eternal life.  Jesus himself said, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life’ (John 5:24).”—E. J. Waggoner, A. T. Jones, Living by Faith, p. 105.

My prayer is that we allow Christ to remove the leaven of sin from our hearts, and that we desire His righteousness above all that is earthly.  We need the abundant life that Jesus came to give.  “He who has the Son has life” (1 John 5:12). “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).

May our ears be opened to hear, and our tongues loosed to share the Gospel, to proclaim the truth as it is in Jesus.  May we live by His word and for His glory.  Oh, for a living faith that will direct others to the Savior of the World, the Bread of Heaven! 

 

~ Martha Ruggles