Mark 7:24-30 — 24 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.
The response of the laborers to the master in Matt. 20 could be summarized as follows: “That’s not fair! They didn’t work as long or hard as I did!” “Oh? I need to clear it with you if I want to be gracious and generous with others. You were in a hopeless situation with no way to earn a day’s wage, so I offered you work and paid you exactly what I said I was going to pay you. How am I doing you wrong?” We can know self-righteousness is present if we, like these laborers and like the prophet Jonah, get frustrated at the freeness of the grace of God—“Lord, why would you waste your time with that person? They don’t seem very worthy of your grace”—Implication: “You got a winner when you picked me Lord. I may not be perfect, but at least I can contribute something good to your cause.” This also is manifested when you look with disdain not only upon whom Christ saves, but even who he uses or gives gifts to. On what basis could we, as sinners, be jealous over how God wants to distribute his resources and gifting? The answer is that there is no basis. This is where we must live in our thinking–1 Cor. 4:7…What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? The grace of God is just as it sounds—unearned favor from the Creator and King of the Universe. This applies to everything from predestination all the way to glorification and everything in between—any good deed that you do; any spiritual gift that you employ; any spiritual insight that you attain—it’s a gracious gift from the Lord. We will find it much easier to do this if we consider our defiled condition, as our wicked hearts were described in the previous verses of Mark 7. This will lead to more contempt for oneself, which will certainly lead to less contempt for others.