The Impediments Removed Series

MARK 7:36, 37

THE IMPEDIMENTS REMOVED

I. STIPULATIONS: * Mark 7:36

A. Significance.

B. Sensitivity.

C. Spurned.

II. SPECTATORS: ** Mark 7:37

A. Surprise.

B. Statements.

C. Surety.

III. SIGNS: ***

A. Saviour.

B. Sincere.

C. Selfless.

The miracle has now been effected and Jesus is left with another situation. The people who stood motionless watching the Master work this miracle could no longer keep quite. The ones who brought the deaf mute to Him, the deaf mute himself and the others who stood by were excited beyond all measure. They had just seen a miracle. They had just saw this poor man who was locked up inside of himself for a long time, now began to hear and to talk. The only natural thing to do was to exclaim the praises of Jesus and then to begin to spread the word about what they had just experienced. Yet, it was at this very juncture that Jesus gave His command to not tell what they had seen. The irony here is too great to ignore.

The one was dumb and could now talk. The others who could talk were to become dumb. Jesus had freed one man’s tongue and tried to silence the others. One who could not hear, now hears while the others who did hear were to not tell others’ ears about what they had just witnessed.

The question then arises as to why did the Master give this command? If it would have been one who was seeking self adulation, the thing to do would be to allow others to tell about this miracle and to publish this event near and far. Yet, the Master gave strict orders to all to not spread the word. The answers are hard to decipher as to the real intent but as these two verses are studied, the reasoning behind the Master’s wishes becomes clearer. With these thoughts in mind, I see three things that these verses suggest which help shed light on Jesus’ orders and to try and comprehend a little of the intent of these verses.

The first major part of these verses which shed some light on the message of these scriptures concerns itself with the STIPULATION given by Jesus and the why of it. The next part of the purpose of the message that Jesus was trying to convey in these verses has to do with the SPECTATORS themselves. Then, as we conclude these two verses and the end of this chapter, one is truck by the SIGNS that are there for the readers’ benefits.

* THE STIPULAIONS: Jesus was so unlike many so called preachers of history and of today. He came, never calling attention to Himself but instead He wanted to glorify and edify His Father. I wonder if He would be on earth today and was an American pastor or a pastor in any part of the world, would He want to have a huge conglomerate church building erected so He could preach to the people? Would He try and raise millions of dollars just so His weekly air show could be seen by untold numbers of people? Would He drive around in flashy cars and live in mansions here and there because He felt these things were owed to Him? Would He be invited to the White House for din-din or show up on the greens for golf with this or that congressman or senator? Would the world leaders seek Him out because He was a super preacher? If we read these two verses together of our text, we get the picture that He really wanted to stay in the background and give the glory to His Father.

True, He preferred to edify His Father, but there was also the aspect that something very Significant was at play in His command to the people not to tell what they had seen. One of the important reasons for His reticence on not having the news spread about Him was the simple fact that His time had not arrived. This was very important to Jesus and He did not want the masses of people to flock to Him and think that He came to be an earthly doctor. The Significance of His wish was to allow Him to complete His work before He went to the cross. He knew that if the masses would spread the news about His healing, the religious leaders of His day would have sought a more opportune time of hastening His demise and He had much to do before He went to the cross. He really regarded His mission on this earth as some thing sacred and wanted no one to impeded His work. He viewed, with much earnestness, His mission as was given to Him by His Father and this was paramount in His command here. He wanted no earthly glory, no accolades, and no self-glorification because He wanted to complete His mission as was given by God, Himself. We need to take a page out of the Master plan of accomplishing things for God. It is never us-it always has to be Him. As such, we will be willing to take the think about things that we might want to do to glorify us if they do not bring glory to God.