Deafness/Dumbness Delightfully Dismissed Series

MARK 7:33-35

DEAFNESS/DUMBNESSDELIGHTFULLY DISMISSED

I. THE SAVIOUR: * Mark 7:33 A. Sympathetic

B. Signs

C. Significance

II. THE SIGHING: ** Mark 7:34

A. Suffering

B. Sirens

C. Satan

III. THE SUCCESS: *** Mark 7:34, 35

A. Soliloquy

B. Shocking

C. Symbolism

The nameless friends in the preceding two verses have been able to lay their care and their charge before Jesus. They were the ones who brought this nameless man to the Master and they were the ones that did the communication due to the fact that this man was unable to hear or to speak. I wonder if he was embarrassed about the whole matter? Perhaps this had occurred so often before in his life time, people speaking on his behalf, that he was used to the stares, the snickers, the shunning that he must have endured for years with out ceasing. Once more he was the center of everyone’s attention and once more he was not able to communicate his inner thoughts with clarity nor certainty. Once more, he stood silently while others did his bidding. Once more he knew that if he attempted to say anything that no one would have enough patience for him to complete his thought.

There he stood, alone although surrounded by people. Once more he stood and felt that he probably was a freak, a fluke a foundling, because he was cut off from the world of conversation, conviviality, and confederacy. He was in his world of silence, of seconds, of suspicion by those whom he met who judged him to be not an equal among men of his own age and stature. Once more he could see the mouths moving but the noise they emitted never penetrated those ears that were dead and lifeless. His cranial side extremities were more for a show than a means to an end wherein he could hear and converse with those around him. He might have read lips and maybe knew enough signs from others to at least be included in part of his surroundings, but by and large, he was excluded and could not adequately join in with his friends who were talking to this common ordinary Man about his plight.

As he looked at Jesus and as Jesus looked at him, he must have sensed that this Man was kind and sympathetic. This Man was no doctor who was in a hurry to give him a cursory examination and then shuffle him away to someone else or to merely state what others have said, “There is no cure for your maladies.” No, the Man to whom this deaf mute was looking, was different. There was compassion in His eyes. There was something about this Man’s demeanor, His genuineness, His sobriety, His mannerism, His ambiance, His essence that disarmed the perturb deaf mute and set him at ease at once. There must have been something about this Man that signaled to the sufferer that this time there was going to be help and the deaf mute was ready and willing to comply with what ever Jesus said. Today-there was going to be healing and the man knew it.

There is something about coming face-to-face with Jesus that assures the seeker, the sinner, the sufferer that all will be fine. There is something electrifying about meeting Jesus and knowing that one is going to be the better when He is helping. Oh, if our friends, all of them: the suffering ones, the sick ones, the sinful ones, the self-sufficient ones-all of them could just meet Jesus, He would arrest the damage in their lives and heal them completely. May we endeavor again and again, over and over, to bring our friends to the Master as the friends of this deaf mute did to him-by bringing them to Jesus. When the meeting with Jesus was complete, this man was healed. I see three things in these verses.

The first thing I see is THE SAVIOUR, Himself, as He assumes command of the entire happenings from this point on. I next see THE SIGHING done by Jesus as he began the healing process. Lastly, I see THE SUCCESS of the miracles wrought.

* THE SAVIOUR : What a kind and gentle Man this Jesus was. I marvel at how astute He was. I am amazed at how He was able to read crowds, people and events and always knew what to do. He was the Creator of all and He superintended over all things, people and places, yet, that does not deter my admiration at the way He was able to do and say the right things-all of the time. Here, in verse 33, He did the right things and the people marveled.

The first thing I note about Jesus in this verse is the way He was Sympathetic to this poor wretch of an individual. Somehow, I think Jesus knew that this man was always on center stage when ever he ventured out to try and hold intercourse with his fellow human beings. There is something in the psyche of all people that makes everyone notice those who are different than us. There is the allurement to stare, to scrutinize, to stratify those who are different, those who are not what society deems as normal. Oh, we try not to be obvious, but that demon of self-vaulting is always there at the expense of the one who has been marked, mauled, maimed or otherwise-that is different than the “normal.” Jesus knew this and He did something profound, “He took him aside.”