First Place Goes to Jezebel
Have you wondered how and why I chose the subjects for bulletin articles? Often, they tie into the sermon for the day and may help explain details I do not have time for in the sermon. At other times, the subjects seem random and are nothing near to the sermon subject or any event that currently affects us. These articles are the ones I struggle with the most.
The prompt for today’s subject was our sermon text—or should I say two words in the text caused me to think. These two words are the names of Gentile cities which defined the general area where Jesus visited in Mark 7. Both are north of Israel in present day Lebanon. They are seaports on the Mediterranean Sea which entertained visitors from all parts of the Middle Eastern world. Each were wicked cities with a sordid past in their relationship with Israel. Interestingly, sailors from almost anywhere represent some of the worst of human depravity. At least this is their reputation and not without convincing evidence. Tyre and Sidon boasted of their sea power, and this of course relied on these same notoriously wicked sailors.
These two cities were off-limits to the proud self-righteous scribes and Pharisees and were neither an obvious choice for Jesus to visit. This reputational prejudice is clear in our sermon text today as Jesus referred to the citizens of these cities as “dogs.” This was not an uncommon moniker as the Syrophoenician woman did not bristle at Jesus’ use of it.
What brings me to the mention of Tyre and Sidon? It is a rather obscure connection. You will recognize the name of a former resident of Sidon. Her name was Jezebel who married King Ahab of Israel during the time of Elijah. She was the daughter of the Sidonian king and in today’s terms we would call her an influencer. She influenced Ahab in the worship of the heathen god Baal, who was perhaps the most prevalently notorious god of many heathen nations. This is a strange way to describe this false god as he was truly nothing. He was a god of the imagination without power to help or hurt anyone. As Paul would later say, an idol is a dumb thing and is nothing. And yet, idol worship ruled not only all the peoples of Canaan but all the other nations as well. Israel was the loner—the standout without an image to worship.
Returning to our thoughts of Jezebel, she claims the top post, first place among wicked women. Throughout all the history of Israel, she was infamous enough for Jesus to name her in the Revelation one thousand years after her notorious life. Anyone with only a smidgen of religious background knows the name, and many others recognize her as a historical figure and a substitute description for the character of treacherous women.
I mention Jezebel today because of the Sidonian connection to our story and the constant reminder of how womanhood has degenerated. The idols of old were wood and stone and had no power or thoughts of any kind. The imaginations of their worshippers energized them. Make no mistake, these idols are not gone from the imagination. The middleman, so-to-speak, rationally disappeared. The stone idol is gone with false worship commandeered by self, the replacement human idol. The result is the same—the rejection of Christ and the elevation of human reasoning.
Three thousand years ago, it was child sacrifice to appease false gods (Baal, Chemosh, Ashtoreth, et. al.). Today it is child sacrifice to appease the selfish god of inconvenience. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The need of the Syrophoenician woman is the same as women need today. What do women need? Jesus Christ and the salvation of their souls is primary. Secondly, men with more backbone who act like men.
Pastor V. Mark Smith