December 7th

Plan B

          From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet.  Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.  He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”  But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”  Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.”  So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Mark 7:24-30

             Jesus had a plan.  He was just wanting to lay low for a few days.  He was outside of the Jews’ territory and His reputation did not cause as much of a disturbance here as it would back in Israel.  He entered a house and wanted to escape notice, but people found out who He was and where He was staying and so they came to Him for help.

            One of the people who came to Jesus had a daughter who was tormented by demons.  This is a troubling passage because Jesus seems to initially say “no.”  He seems to call the woman a dog and say that she is not worthy of the miracle.  Then she uses His analogy and Jesus seems to bow before her wisdom and change His mind and then her daughter is healed.  This does not seem to be how Jesus is supposed to work.  He is supposed to love all, no matter their background.  He is supposed to be eager to heal.  He is supposed have a soft spot in His heart for the marginalized and the children and those that society will not help.  But that is not how this passage plays out.

            It could be that Jesus is allowing this woman to express how much she wants this healing.  It could be that Jesus wants her to know that the thing that she wants more than anything is merely a crumb of His power.  It could be that Jesus wants her to identify as a child of God but she finds a loophole with the dogs instead.

            It could just be that Jesus had a plan and initially wanted to stick to it.  His plan was to come to the Jews and then have the Gospel go to the rest of the world through the Israelites.  His plan was to come to Tyre and rest for a while and have some time to himself.  He is resistant to deviating from Plan A.

            I know all about having a plan and wanting to stick to it.  I let go of Plan A for my life long ago, but I still love having a plan to follow.  I am probably on Plan L by now, but it is a plan.  Plans are great; they help make sure that we have the time and resources that we need in order to achieve our goals.  If I know that I have a meeting at 3, then I know when I need to schedule my prep time and then I know when to schedule my meal time so that I have adequate prep time.  And then I know when to schedule my shopping so that I have food for my meal time so that I have adequate prep time so that I am ready for my meeting.  And then I know when to wake up so that I can do the shopping to get the food to eat the food to clear the time to prep to be ready for my meeting.  And then I know when to go to sleep…

            Then come our kids.  My plans are daily blown apart because something comes up with my family.  My son had a bad night sleeping every single night before I preached for the first half of his life.  I would usually show up to the church on 2 hours of sleep and stagger through my sermons.  I would have plans for dinner.  I would have plans for fun.  I would have plans for the holidays.  I would have plans for home repair.  And most times something would be too loud or anxiety-filled or smelly or fall in the middle of an unexpected nap and so I would have to improvise.

            Plans are intended to serve us towards make our lives better.  They are not the final goal.  The plan is to serve the family, not the family to serve the plan.  So we are to be interruptible and flexible, just as Jesus was.  Sometimes the best days, the best experiences, will come out of deviations from the plan if we will let them. 

A moment to reflect:

How can you be interruptible today?