Mark 7:24–8:10 — The Table of Jesus

This sermon is from Mark chapter 7 verse 24 through chapter 8 verse 10 and is

Mark 7:24

entitled "The Table of Jesus." It was delivered to Ecclesia churches on Sunday,

September 7th, 2025.

A frequent theme throughout the entire Gospel of Mark has been one of insiders

and outsiders. And from the outset we've seen people that we would expect to be

outsiders invited in to relationship with Jesus and responding to that

invitation that is issued by him alone. And then we've seen the people that we

might expect to be insiders rejecting that invitation, rejecting the message of

Jesus and placing themselves on the outside. And one of the dynamics that

we've seen this play out in is the relationship between the Jews and the

Gentiles, which just means non-Jews. The Jews were the chosen people of God, all

the way back to Abraham, and they were chosen for a purpose to be a holy nation

that was set apart, and their primary purpose was to actually be a

representative and a light to all the nations of the earth. We have multiple

verses like Genesis 12, 2 through 3. It says, "You will be a blessing all the

peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Exodus 19.6 says, "You will be for me a kingdom of

priests that is representatives and a holy nation." Isaiah 49.6 says, "I will also make you a light

for the Gentiles that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth." However, over the course

of time they had largely abandoned this mission, first through their own disobedience, but second

through a love of the appearance of being insiders instead of being a nation of priests

whose hearts beat with the heart of a god for all nations to know him. It was this focus on

external appearances and the neglect of their own corrupt hearts that Jesus had just finished

sparring with the Pharisees over. And in what almost feels like a rebuke of the very idea of

uncleanness being caused by external things and people. Jesus leaves Jewish territory and goes

on this roundabout journey through almost exclusively gentile regions.

In the last passage, Jesus declared all foods clean, and in this passage he's going to show that

no person is too unclean to come to the Messiah. In fact, coming to Jesus and putting your faith

in him is the only way that you can be clean from the inside out. Specifically, it is the only way

that you will be invited into the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of Jesus, and receive a place at the

Lord's table. So through this somewhat lengthy passage, I hope that you hear and respond to an

invitation and come to the table of Jesus because it's an invitation that we don't deserve, but

thanks to Jesus. It is an invitation that we are able to receive and respond to.

So with that, let's read the first part of our passage. We'll do it in three parts today.

This is Mark chapter 7, verses 24 through 30.

Mark 7:24–30

"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. 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.

In these couple of verses, we have probably one of the harshest sounding statements that

Jesus makes in the Gospels. So before we get indignant with our western sensibilities,

let's understand the setting and the conversation and let's look at the way that the woman responds.

Because we know that Jesus always speaks the truth in love and never says anything without a reason.

The first controversial thing actually in this passage may have actually gotten right by you.

It happens in the first verse. Jesus goes into the region of Tyre and Sidon, which are not just

any Gentile city or region, but concentrated centers of paganism and even anti-Jewish sentiment,

all the way back to the time of the kings. It was from this region that in 1 Kings 16,

a Jewish king named Ahab finds his queen, a woman named Jezebel, who will lead Israel to worship

the idol Baal or Baal, and will persecute the prophets of God.

Fast forward to less than 200 years before Jesus, and when the Jews are first revolting

against the occupying empire, the people of Tyre actually fought with that empire against the Jews.

So these are not a friendly people to the Jewish people, and he does the unthinkable for a Jewish

man, it says he entered a house, a Gentile house which made him, ritually, you guessed it, unclean.

But with what we know from the last passage, nothing makes Jesus unclean. He comes to make the

unclean clean. So that's the place that we find Jesus in. Now let's look at this woman who finds

him there and comes to him. Maybe even worse than living in Tyre is that this woman is a syrophoenician,

which is a group of people heavily steeped in pagan practices, idol worship, occult practices that were forbidden in Israel.

So perhaps it's really unsurprising that her daughter is possessed by a demon,

given her background in the city that she lives in.

What is surprising is that this woman hears about Jesus and comes to him

and falls at the feet of this Jewish Rabbi.

We don't see a lot of Jews falling at the feet of the Messiah at this point, but this pagan,

Gentile woman responds more appropriately than any Pharisee has thus far.

She begs him to heal her daughter, casting the demon out.

Now let's get to this statement that feels so harsh. Jesus tells this short little one-sentence

parable about children eating before the dogs.

So it was not an uncommon comparison for Jewish rabbis to make in that time,

referring to Gentiles as dogs, to call them unclean and not a part of the nation

of Israel.

And it was really a title that some of them kind of owned.

Like, yeah, that's who we are.

We, we are not a part of you.

But the word "dog" that Jesus uses here isn't referring to like a stray or a street dog.

It's actually a softer word that's used for like a family pet.

So the connotation may be not quite like this, but it's more like the puppy doesn't get

fed before the kids do.

So no matter how you read it, it's not a positive assessment of the woman.

And I think if Jesus were just a Jewish rabbi, knowing where he is and the history of the

people and the conflict between them, we might say, "Yeah, it kind of makes sense that he

would respond with some hostility."

But Jesus isn't just a Jewish rabbi.

He's Jesus.

We know that Jesus isn't concerned with the outward appearance, but with the heart, which

means Jesus is doing something here.

Jesus is using this short little parable to pose a question to this woman, testing whether

she understands her position before God rightly.

He knows her heart, so Jesus is actually giving her a chance to recognize that she actually

doesn't have the right to come asking Jesus for anything.

Jesus is not just some miracle worker with services that can be purchased, like the pagan

magicians and healers that would have been common in Syrophoenicia. He is the Messiah who comes with

salvation and a salvation that is specifically available to those who would put their faith in

God for it. So the question that remains for this woman really is, are you here to ask for a favor

from a healer or are you here to ask for the undeserved favor of God? The woman's answer

shows us an incredible amount of humility.

Because she doesn't take offense at the statement of Jesus,

instead she recognizes that it is true.

She has not followed Yahweh, she is a pagan Gentile who has never come to worship him,

and yet she comes now because she needs something,

but also because she believes something about Jesus.

She believes that even though she doesn't deserve what Jesus has to offer,

Jesus is enough, he is good enough that even an undeserving Gentile pagan

might find their satisfaction in him.

Just like the people who came believing that all they needed was to touch the tip of his garment,

she comes believing that there will be enough of an overflow

that it will be sufficient for her and her daughter as well.

So really, incredibly, this pagan woman is the first in the Gospel of Mark,

which we are almost halfway through now, to hear a parable of Jesus and understand it

and respond rightly to it. This is the first example of someone who Jesus has said,

"He who has ears let him hear," and it's not a Jewish scholar. It's a pagan woman.

entire. The way to Jesus is open to those who will have enough humility to see

themselves as they are and to come to Jesus anyway. The people who have not

been able to come to Jesus are the ones who think they're righteous. Right? Think

back with me. The Pharisees, the scribes, the Jews who thought they were good with

God because of their performance. The Gentiles who thought their peace with Rome was more important

than the eternal peace with God. Everyone who thought they were pretty well off already

has rejected Jesus. It's the ones who have laid aside their pride and recognized that they are

sinful and unworthy and have come to Jesus anyway who have received the mercy of God.

This woman certainly does, and because she has the humility to recognize that she does not

deserve a place at the table of God, yet she believed whatever Jesus would offer was enough.

What's really beautiful is that the full message of the gospel would have reached places like Tyre,

a number of years after Jesus ascended, and they would have heard the full message that there was

an invitation in this man who healed the sick and cast out demons to do so much more than

give them the crumbs from the table, that the invitation of Jesus, this is the message

of the gospel, was to all who would humble themselves and repent and turn to him.

And what he offered in return was himself, the bread of life and a place at the table

of God.

In Acts 21, we actually see Paul visiting Tyre and finding believers already there who

had received and accepted this invitation to come to Jesus.

And she glad that the mission of Jesus resulted in salvation for all nations, including us.

The invitation of Jesus certainly begins with recognizing that we deserve worse than nothing.

We deserve death and separation from this God that we have rejected and sinned against.

And yet, the invitation of Jesus ends with us receiving an invitation to his table, through

his boundless grace for the undeserving.

And if you hear and respond to nothing else from this passage, respond to that and come

to Jesus.

So who will come to Jesus next in this passage?

Who will he invite to his table next?

Well, he travels in this kind of horseshoe-shaped journey which keeps him in Gentile territory

for a while, so we can hazard a guess that it will probably be more Gentiles, almost

as if Jesus is making a point with this journey about who is invited to come to him.

In the next few verses, he comes back to the region of the Decapolis, where he's actually

been before.

If you remember, a few chapters back there was this incident with some pigs in this region,

and he was asked to leave, but not before leaving a man who he had freed from a legion

of demons who had been declaring ever since then to anyone who would listen, "Look what

God has done for me."

So let's see if that changes anything.

This is Mark 7.31 through 37.

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 spinning touched his tongue, and looked up to heaven

and he sighed and said to him, "Epitha.

is be opened, and his ears were opened, and 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." What a change in this region from the last time,

Instead of begging him to leave, Jesus can't get them to stop proclaiming how he has done all things well and makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.

So what we saw a little of with the woman entire, we now see a whole lot of this previously hostile, gentile region proclaiming Jesus.

And I find it really interesting that when Jesus left, there was just one man proclaiming his testimony.

And when Jesus returns, people are open to Him and bringing their sick to Him and start proclaiming Him.

Could it be that God uses the testimony of people who have been changed by Jesus to open the hearts of others to Jesus?

I think we see evidence of that over and over again.

So let's just talk about this man for a moment, right, whose story is a little more straightforward than the woman in the last passage,

but not without some oddities to us.

He is deaf and he's unable to speak clearly,

and the people, his neighbors and friends,

bring him to Jesus begging for his healing.

The standard for healers would have been

to make a big spectacle,

just like picture the televangelists of today

shoving people over on stages and declaring them healed

and doing signs and wonders,

but Jesus is uninterested in putting on a show

for the crowd here.

He's not trying to amass a following of people

who want to follow a miracle worker.

Instead, he takes the man aside from the crowd

and deals with him in private.

He is willing to heal this man who can see Jesus

and come with him, but is until this point

unable to hear or speak.

And then Jesus does something odd here.

He puts his fingers in the man's ears,

and then spitting on his fingers,

he touches the man's tongue.

So just for reference, I know this sounds gross,

but the spit thing isn't actually all that odd in context.

So people widely believed that the spittle or the saliva

or the blood of a holy man could heal.

And so the real question isn't why would a healer do this?

It's why is Jesus doing this?

Why is Jesus seemingly putting on a show?

We know that he doesn't even need to touch people

to make them well.

And yet he's touching this man

and in ways that are symbolic of a healer of that day.

We also know that he's in private.

He's not in front of a crowd,

which means his audience isn't the crowd.

It's the man.

The man, by the way, who can't hear and can't speak,

but can only see Jesus.

Which means Jesus is communicating with this man

what he is about to do,

using the only sense the man has, his sight.

In almost a kind of sign language,

he is inviting the man to receive this healing.

And of course, he does.

And I love that the translation here says,

"His ears were opened and his tongue was released."

I think that's beautiful,

the Greek offers an even clearer word picture here. It says, "The chain of his tongue was broken.

This man has been healed to hear, and his tongue has been set free to proclaim the goodness of God.

You will not find a better picture of what truly receiving the work of God in us is like and should

do. And this, by the way, is exactly what God said was going to happen when the Messiah came.

This is another one of those places in Mark where he's hint hinting not so subtly at who Jesus is,

because Isaiah prophesied in chapter 35 verses 5 and 6 that when the Messiah comes,

the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man

leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy, for waters break forth in the wilderness

and streams in the desert. The man who could not speak now has the chains of his tongue broken

and proclaims what God has done. Just like the man who was freed from demonic possession has been

doing in this region, proclaiming with so many others the truth that Jesus does all things well.

That is the right response of someone who has received the mercy of God through Jesus.

So the question is, do you know this? People who recognize that they are dead and undeserving

of the grace of God, but come to receive that grace through Jesus tend to overflow with thanks to God.

People who have received the living water of Jesus overflow with a testimony that he does all things well.

They become like a kind of water that breaks forth in the wilderness, these streams of life in the desert.

That is a right response to Jesus.

Jesus does one other thing though in this Gentile region that Mark tells us about,

And I don't think it's disconnected. So far we've seen Jesus receive undeserving people

and give them more than just crumbs from the table. We've seen gratitude flow from the lips

of undeserving people who have been freed and healed by Jesus. And Mark says, "In those days,"

meaning during this same period of time, this same Gentile mission, Jesus sets another table.

So let's read the first few verses of Mark 8. This is Mark 8 verses 1 through 10.

Mark 8:1–10

"In those days when again a great crowd had gathered and they had nothing to eat,

he called his disciples to him and said to them, 'I have compassion on the crowd because they have

been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their

homes they will faint on the way, and some of them have come from far away."

And his disciples answered him, "How can one feed these people with bread here in this

desolate place?"

And he asked them, "How many loaves do you have?"

They said, "Seven."

And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground.

He took the seven loaves and, having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his

disciples to set before the people, and they set them before the crowd.

And they had a few small fish, and having blessed them, he said that these also should

be set before them, and they ate and were satisfied.

And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full, and they were about 4,000

people, and he sent them away.

And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.

So this is a separate event from the feeding of the 5,000, not a repeated version of it.

And really, Mark tells us as such right in that first verse, he says, "Again,

a great crowd gathered and they had nothing to eat." This is the second time that this has

happened, but there's a couple of differences. So there was only about 4,000 people in total,

instead of 5,000 men plus women and children. So it's a smaller crowd, but not an insignificant

crowd. The food available is different from the early account. Even the food that's left over

is a different amount. But the biggest difference is that the crowd is largely Gentile instead of Jewish

and has not only come out of their villages to see Jesus, but has stayed with Jesus for three days,

it says. This is not a crowd that came to see a miracle and go home. They see something in Jesus

that they know they need.

So why are the disciples seemingly forgetful?

It's been a month at most since the last time this happened, right?

I actually don't think they are forgetful because of the actual question that they pose.

They don't say, "Send them away."

They don't say, "We don't have money or food."

They don't seem indignant at this.

They say, "Who is able to feed these people with bread here in a desolate place?"

The question is almost too specific, almost to the point of being rhetorical.

Jesus was able to do miracles, yes, but these miracles were always unexpected and they were

never demanded by the disciples.

So here it seems we have the disciples asking, "Is there anyone here who has some experience

with multiplying bread and feeding the people out in the wilderness?"

And then they kind of all look to Jesus.

And Jesus, of course, blesses the food, multiplies it.

They all eat.

They are all satisfied, again, with leftovers.

And this time, they get in the boat together and they go to the next region.

So what has Jesus done here?

And how does it kind of sum up this entire out-of-the-way journey through Gentile territory?

We keep coming back to this idea of the table and the bread that is offered there, this

idea that acceptance at the table of Jesus is not perhaps based on what we thought it was.

This is not a table that you can deserve an invitation to, based on your ethnicity or

religious performance or background. Instead, this is a table that you are invited to only

by coming to Jesus in humility, recognizing that you don't deserve it.

This is a table that is marked over and over again by the mercy of God shown to us through Jesus.

And when we taste and see it, we just can't help but be moved to tell about it.

Testifying to the mercy of God in our lives is not something that we do under compulsion.

It is something that should flow out of us like an overflow of gratitude for what he's done for us.

This table is for those who would come to Jesus and simply stay with him, clinging to him as the

only hope that we have and wanting nothing less than Jesus. And I don't know if Mark meant for

this connection or whether it's just the work of the Holy Spirit being consistent through all of

scripture, but I can't unsee this connection with Micah 6/8, where it says that God requires that we

do justice and love kindness and walk humbly with God. And if you go back through these three stories,

beginning with these people that stayed with Jesus for three days, they stayed with Jesus,

which is one way of understanding how to do justice. We stay with Jesus and we obey him.

And then the people in the Decapolis loved the kindness of God so much that they couldn't stop

telling about it, and the woman entire found that kindness by walking humbly to the feet of Jesus.

And I would invite you to do the same, beginning at the feet of the one who has shown us

the greatest kindness that we will ever know.

Bringing your sin and brokenness from the last 20 years or the last 20 hours and come to Jesus

for forgiveness for all of it today. Bring the pride that's kept you from bending the need

to Jesus up until now and leave that here too because it really is that simple. That we are able

and invited to come to the feet of Jesus and receive an undeserved invitation to the table of God.

Ecclesia is a church of house churches gathering weekly in Council Bluffs, Iowa,

and in homes throughout the week. We are a Bible-centered church focused on preaching

from Scripture and making disciples of Jesus. You can learn more about our statement of faith

and contact a pastor by visiting ecclesia churches.