When the Crumbs Are Enough:
The Savior Who Cannot Be Hidden
You can try to hide from Jesus, but you cannot hide Jesus. You can think your problem is too far gone, too unclean, too outside the circle, but when Christ steps into a region, everything changes. Mark 7:24-8:10 shows us a Savior who cannot be concealed and cannot be stopped.
The text opens with a quiet move. “And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid” ~Mark 7:24. He did not announce Himself. He did not stage an event. Yet He could not be hid. Light does not need advertising. Authority does not need applause. When the Son of God moves, darkness reacts.
A desperate mother comes next. “For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet” ~Mark 7:25. She is identified as a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation ~Mark 7:26. She is outside the covenant nation. Yet she comes. She does not argue status. She does not claim merit. She falls. That posture is the beginning of faith.
Jesus answers her with words that test the heart. “Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs” ~Mark 7:27. The kingdom promise came first to Israel. The Messiah came through them. But listen to her reply: “Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs” ~Mark 7:28. She does not deny His order. She appeals to His abundance. She calls Him Lord. That is not pride. That is faith that sees who He is.
Christ responds, “For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter” ~Mark 7:29. The distance does not matter. The demon does not resist. The word of Christ is enough. When she returns home, “she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed” ~Mark 7:30. This is deliverance from darkness. Scripture says, “The Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” ~1 John 3:8. Mark shows it happening in real time.
Then another need is brought. A man deaf, with an impediment in his speech. Jesus takes him aside. “And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened” ~Mark 7:34. And “straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain” ~Mark 7:35. He opens what is shut. He loosens what is bound. Isaiah foretold that in the days of salvation “the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped” ~Isaiah 35:5. In Christ, that promise is not theory. It is fulfillment.
The crowd says, “He hath done all things well” ~Mark 7:37. That is not exaggeration. That is confession. He does not do some things well. He does all things well. The problem is not His sufficiency. The problem is our sight.
Chapter 8 moves into the wilderness. A great multitude has nothing to eat. Jesus says, “I have compassion on the multitude” ~Mark 8:2. Compassion is not weakness. It is the heart of God in motion. The disciples ask, “From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?” ~Mark 8:4. They see the lack. He sees the supply.
He takes seven loaves, gives thanks, breaks, and gives. “So they did eat, and were filled” ~Mark 8:8. Filled. Not tasted. Not rationed. Filled. This is not just about bread. It is about the One who provides it. Later He will say, “I am the bread of life” ~John 6:35. In the wilderness of human need, Christ is enough.
Mark 7:24-8:10 reveals a Savior who delivers from demons, opens deaf ears, looses tongues, feeds the hungry, and cannot be hidden. It exposes desperate faith in a Gentile woman and dull questioning in disciples who still struggle to see. It points forward to the cross where the ultimate deliverance would come, not from hunger or speech impediments, but from sin itself.
So what does this mean for you today? Stop measuring your need by your resources. Bring it to Him. Fall at His feet. Call Him Lord. Trust His word. If there is deafness in your soul, ask Him to open it. If there is wilderness around you, look to the One who fills.
He cannot be hid. The question is not whether He is sufficient. The question is whether you will come to Him as she did, and believe that even the crumbs of Christ are more than enough.
Read / Listen / Video
Leviticus 16:29-18:30
Mark 7:24-8:10
Psalm 41:1-13
Proverbs 10:15-16
New Testament
Mark 7:24-8:10
Summary
The Syrophoenician Woman’s Faith
Jesus Heals a Deaf Man
Jesus Feeds the Four Thousand
The Syrophoenician Woman’s Faith
Jesus Heals a Deaf Man
Jesus Feeds the Four Thousand
Photo from: freebibleimages.org
Listen to John MacArthur on today’s scripture reading below:
Do you think she had tried to appeal to whatever deities she had been taught existed? Sure. Whatever she had done in the past,
she had lost all confidence in them. She is now doing what 1 Thessalonians 1:9 says the Thessalonians did, “They turned from idols to the living God.” Whenever you talk about idols and the living God, it’s because there’s a contrast between a living God and dead idols. Read Isaiah 44 and watch how foolish it is to make a god out of a piece of wood.
She’s done with that. She would have repented if Jesus had been in Tyre and Sidon and done what He had done, because she’s now here repenting from what she experienced or what she heard about that He had done in Galilee. She now knows that He’s the one who can help her, and He’s the only one who can help her.
In fact, her faith is so amazing that in Matthew’s account, Matthew 15:21 to 28, the last verse, verse 28, Jesus says, “You have great faith.” You don’t just have faith, you have mega faith. You have big faith, strong faith, great faith. So she comes to Jesus. We don’t know how all of that came about, but she comes to Him. Now at this particular point, I want you to see that faith – let’s just talk about this woman’s great faith. Faith has to be placed in the right object. It has to be placed in the right object. You hear people today say, “I believe. I’m a believer. I have great faith.” In whom? In what? Faith has to have an object. You have to put your trust in something valid, something true, someone true. You can’t put your faith in yourself. People say, “I have faith in myself. I have faith that things are going to work out.” Faith in what? Faith in chance?
She had faith in Him. He’s the only legitimate object of faith. There’s no salvation in any other. So she goes to Him, verse 26, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. She kept asking Him and asking Him. What does that tell you? He didn’t respond. Now you say, is He lacking in compassion? We know better than that. Right? Is He lacking in affection? We know better than that. Is He lacking in sympathy? We know better than that. What is the delay? Well let’s go to Matthew’s account and we’ll fill in the blanks. This is really interesting. Matthew 15 – Matthew 15 and verse 22 picks up the story. She comes. She says, “Have mercy on me, Lord.” Have mercy on me, Lord. Oh, that’s good. “Lord, Son of David.” Ah, now we get the picture. She believes in someone she knows to be the Lord and the Son of David. Wow. And the dispenser of mercy. For the entire sermon click here
Mark 8 Introduction by Dr. J. Vernon McGee – Thru the Bible
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