David Bahn – Reflections

Mark 7:29-30

[Jesus] said to her,“For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” ³⁰ And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

Christ has come to the world. He has not turned away the Syrophoenician woman. He did not reject her worship (see the fuller context below). He would go to the cross and shed his blood for her and for all people. Through the simplest faith this woman and all who believe will be saved. A glorious eternal future awaits all of us who believe in Jesus. It will come in the life of the world to come.

Until that time, we struggle. One day we will be with Jesus face to face and evil will be totally banished. Today we will encounter all manner of good and evil throughout our day. One day there will be no sin, sickness, or sorrow. Now we face financial, relational, physical, emotional, and spiritual joys and woes.

That’s why we pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Some pray that petition as a sort of release valve or escape clause for their prayers. They don’t want to pin God down to something that wouldn’t truly be his will. But God’s will is not that mysterious. His timing may be mysterious, but not his will.

God wants all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. He desires our eternal life, complete with new resurrected bodies, glorified and perfected, clothed in immortality. So when we pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we are actually asking for heaven’s perfection to be brought down to earth. We are saying, “As your will is done in heaven (perfectly), let it be done here. As you have banished sickness in heaven, banish it here. As you have taken away all sorrow in heaven, take it away here. As you have conquered all sin in heaven, conquer it here.”

Until the Great Last Day it will always be a battle. Sin, sickness, sorrow, and Satan continue to muddy the waters and seemingly even thwart the will of God. On occasion, however, God’s Kingdom breaks through – probably more often in fact than we realize. Occasionally the reign of Christ in the hearts and lives of his people leaks out. Such is the case in this encounter.

This woman and her unflinching desire for God’s will to be done here and now is one side of the manifestation of his Kingdom. The other side? Her daughter’s release from the demon who had attacked her daughter. There was no question that this woman would be saved. There was no question that her worship would be accepted by Jesus. The only question was whether the veil would be lifted – if even for a moment – and the Kingdom of Christ would be revealed in her daughter’s life. “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” That’s the first half. The second half? And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone. That was a Kingdom moment, and surely defined her life from then on.

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. ²⁵ But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. ²⁶ Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷ 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.” ²⁸ But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” ²⁹ And he said to her,“For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” ³⁰ And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.