Jesus Welcomes the Outsider

INTRO Welcome to the Gospel Focused: Family Moment. I'm your host, Eric Novak. Each week, we pause as a family to remember what matters most, the good news of Jesus. This podcast is brought to you by GospelFocused.com OPENING LITURGY For our opening liturgy today, I'll be our leader and ask a question, and then you follow along and repeat with your family: Eric: "Christian family, what do we believe?" All: "We believe in God the Father, Maker of heaven and earth. We believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. We believe in the Holy Spirit, Who gives us life and makes us one." SCRIPTURE READING 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.” This is the word of the Lord. MAIN STORY / REFLECTION When we read scripture together, it's always important for us to think about the people that the book of the Bible was written about and written to. If you found a letter that was written by your great-grandma, it would be very helpful to understand that the letter was not written to you, even if you could learn important things from it, otherwise the messages would be super confusing to read. Reading this story, we learn that certain people groups in Jesus' time were not treated very well. The Jews didn't like people who were called "gentiles." That word means "other nations." And they didn't like people called Samaritans, those were basically Jews who married gentiles and worshiped God outside of Jerusalem. In this time, it was very rare for a Jew to talk to a gentile or Samaritan, especially one who was a woman, but Jesus constantly interacted with and ministered to people that were considered to be on the edges of society: • In Matthew 8, Jesus healed the centurion's servant. • He ministered to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. • He healed the man in Decapolis in Mark 5 and here, He heals a Syrophoenician's daughter. Jesus tells the woman that his mission is to the nation of Israel first, because He intended for Israel to go out and share His good news with everyone else. But the woman acts in faith, she asks Jesus to still heal her daughter, because she trusts in God. Jesus replies, "For this statement, you may go your way, the demon has left your daughter." It's important to understand that Jesus sees the woman's heart, she doesn't think her words are what will make her daughter well, she thinks Jesus will make her daughter well. It's like that letter we talked about at the beginning of the show. Remember, even though the letter wasn't written to us, we can still trust it, because of who wrote it. We don't put our faith in the paper, or the ink, or even how clever the words are. We trust it because of the person behind it. That's exactly what the woman did. She didn't think her own words were what would heal her daughter, she knew it was Jesus. Her faith wasn't in her answer. Her faith was in Him. Thinking about Jesus' whole ministry, and the instructions He left, "go therefore and make disciples of all nations" in Matthew 28, it's clear to see that Jesus didn't care as much about what nation people belonged to, He cared that they were created in the image of God. When people approached Jesus, he took the time to listen to them, to talk to them, and to heal them. And that's what the gospel is. Gospel means, "good news." It's good news that Jesus makes time for people like us. It's good news that Jesus listens to where we are hurting and broken. It's good news that Jesus comes to earth to become one of us, to make us right with God. You know, the name of our podcast network here is Gospel Focused, and that's because we care about sharing the good news of Jesus with everyone, sharing the good news of Jesus with you and your family, and the outsider! I hope that you and your family are always looking for ways to do the same, even if that's sharing a meal with someone or just a kind word. MEMORY VERSE Today's memory verse is Ephesians 2:8: "For by grace you have been saved through faith." PRAYER Dear God, we come to you with thankful hearts that you have adopted us into your family. We were once outsiders, but because of your Holy son Jesus Christ, we are now part of the family called the church. Help us to see other people this week who need to be welcomed to the table, not just for crumbs, but for the full meal. Through the power of the Holy Spirit given to us by your Son, we pray, amen. OUTRO Thanks for joining us for this week's Gospel Focused: Family Moment. I'm your host, Eric Novak. Until next time, keep your eyes on Jesus and your hearts focused on the gospel. BENEDICTION Go as a family in the peace of your Savior and closest friend, Jesus Christ. See you next week!