The Visit to Tyre and Sidon

(Mark vii:24-37.)

I. The Analysis.

1. The Christ who cannot be hidden away (verses 24, 25). --It was not only true of the earth life of our Lord that, once manifested to Israel, retirement became impossible (Mark ii:1; iii:7, 8; Luke vii:37; Mark vi:31-33); but in a deeper sense it is continuously true that wherever Christ is He cannot be hid. Secret discipleship is never a permanent possibility. If Christ be "in you the hope of glory" there will inevitably be some manifestation of His presence.

2. The dispensational lesson (verses 26-28).--Matthew tells us (xv:22) that the Gentile woman began by seeking to put herself on Jewish ground: "Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David." But on that ground she had no rights (Eph. ii:11, 12), for as a Gentile she was outside the Davidic Covenant (Matt. xv:24). But when she took her place on universal ground and called Him "Lord" (Matt. xv:25) she obtained her request. On that ground "there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him" (Rom. x:12, 13).

3. The sigh of Christ (verses 31-37). (See below.)

II. The Heart of the Lesson.

That Jesus should have preserved vital dispensational distinctions, remaining silent when addressed by a Gentile as "son of David" because the Gentiles as such are "strangers" from the Davidic "covenant of promise" (Eph. ii:11, 12); that He should have responded when, taking her true Gentile position, she called upon Him as "Lord" (Rom. x:12, 13); that He should heal the man who was deaf and dumb-- these cannot be the core truths of this lesson, because they are equally taught in many lessons. He was always carefully preserving divinely made distinctions; He was always healing the sick, and restoring the infirm. But only twice is it said of Him that He sighed. Our lesson records the first instance, and again (Mark viii:12), when the Pharisees sought of Him a sign, "He sighed deeply in His spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign?"

The character, the heart, the inmost thought of Jesus-- these for centuries have been the study of those who have loved Him; who have with passionate intensity desired above all other desires that they might by any means come to be like Him. They have sought to come to the knowledge of these deeper facts of His being by meditation upon His words, and His actions. And this is a true method, for with Him whatever was outward, visible, audible, was in truth the natural and unforced expression of His inner self.

But may not an even surer highway into the heart of our Lord be found through His emotions? Beyond question this is true of all other human beings--why not of Jesus, who was more truly human than we? Tell me what makes a man laugh, what makes him weep, what stirs his indignation, what arouses his wonder, what amazes him--and I shall come at no greatly inaccurate knowledge of the man himself.

Now Jesus was no stoic. He stood an unfallen man in the midst of fallen men, but foursquare to all the winds that swept over them, and He opened His heart to all the influences, not sinful, which played in upon their hearts. He loved children and flowers and birds. What does His sigh tell us of Him?

A sigh is the natural, physical expression of the peculiar depression caused by sadness. It does not imply discouragement--still less doubt or despair. It is the expression of the soul cast down. David knew this, and when his soul was cast down he still held high his faith and hope, and manfully talked with his soul. "Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him."

We know oft and again the soul cast down, and the sigh upbreathed from the depths. Oppressed by the ears deaf to the message of God, and lips dumb to the praises of God; oppressed by the hardness of the Pharisee's heart; feeling the dead weight of the accumulated sin of the centuries, we sigh!

Well, our blessed Lord sighed too, and under the same burden, but he healed as before, and fought steadily on-- and so, God helping, will we.