The kingdom of God is not about maintaining purity and exclusivity but about finding as many as possible to bring into it.
- Discussion Audio (58 minutes)
- Text: Mark 7:24-37
The unit 7:1–37 radically expands the inclusiveness of the kingdom of God. It includes a redefinition of cleanliness, a major value in the Jewish and Greco-Roman worlds, breaks out of the boundary of Galilee into Gentile lands, and crosses boundaries between male and female, even showing Jesus’ honor being challenged by a witty Syrophoenician woman. If we miss all this boundary breaking and the inclusiveness of the kingdom, we miss the gospel’s essence.[1]
We encounter two puzzling statements from Jesus:
- The first story includes a saying that can be interpreted as a racial slur (calling the Gentiles a “dog”).
- The second story continues Jesus commanding people to remain silent, but in the context that he has just enabled a mute man to speak, it seems particularly puzzling.
The study outline and the accompanying group discussion explores what Mark might have intended his audience to hear and understand. This outline includes extensive footnotes with commentary excerpts to help us see the different ways in which these stories could be read and interpreted.
So while both of these stories anticipate and justify a Gentile mission, they both indicate the great boundary that had to be crossed to start that mission. Often forgetting that Jesus crossed that boundary for our sake, we Gentile Christians institute new boundaries between us and them. Mark intends the kingdom as radically inclusive; we often reconstitute it as exclusive… The story of the Syrophoenician makes explicit one more boundary that had to be crossed: she was a woman… Even more, Jesus, as a Jewish male of honor, must give up some of that honor to meet the woman’s request. The first must become the last and slave of all (9:35).[2]
[1] Feasting: Mark, location 7651.
[2] Feasting: Mark, location 7444.
No comments:
Post a Comment