9.5.21 Mark 7:31-37
31 Jesus left the region of Tyre again and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of the Decapolis. 32 They brought a man to him who was deaf and had a speech impediment. They pleaded with Jesus to place his hand on him. 33 Jesus took him aside in private, away from the crowd. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34 After he looked up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”) 35 Immediately the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was set free, and he began to speak plainly. 36 Jesus gave the people strict orders to tell no one, but the more he did so, the more they kept proclaiming it. 37 They were amazed beyond measure and said, “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!”
Some might consider it a blessing to be deaf. Then I don’t have to listen to anyone yelling at me. I can sleep better at night. I can just live in my own world. Maybe that’s why some elderly people choose not to get hearing aids. They can tune everyone out. But then the only way people can communicate with you is if they shout at you. They become angry and irritated with you and you always have to ask, “What?!?” Being deaf isn’t all that.
Back in Topeka, KS, somehow we came into contact with a deaf man who ended up joining our congregation. We had a very dedicated lady who knew sign language and ended up teaching it to about ten people in our small congregation of about 100 people. It was a neat thing to see so many members join in learning sign language in order to communicate with him.
I soon found out that there is more to communicating with a deaf person than just learning sign language. I’m not sure about all deaf people, but this man had many other struggles that came along with being deaf. He couldn’t balance very well in the dark. He was somewhat afraid of what might happen with someone breaking in when he was asleep. It also seemed that he was somewhat paranoid about whether people were talking about him or not. Individually, he was always somewhat on edge and angry with life because of his disability.
I’m not sure, but it seemed to me that since he couldn’t communicate very well with the people around him he was almost forced to think more about himself. He turned in on himself and was rather demanding of people to do things for him. It seemed that he felt we owed him extra attention because he was deaf. That might be worse than the actual inability to hear, how the loss of a major sense made him more self centered. I can see why. He almost had to be. He didn’t have much choice in the matter.
Deaf people are born that way. We have our own selfish ways of being deaf to those around us and deaf to God too. You can have a husband and wife who are completely deaf to each other. They are so tuned in to social media or their own wants and needs that they don’t even hear each other. We have a society of people that are tuned in to politics and sports that it becomes an obsession. Yet these same people have no ear tuned to what God has to say. It is a self imposed deafness. Teenagers will be more than willing to listen to social influencers than they are to listen to what God has to say.
The deaf man couldn’t speak clearly. We have our own ways of not speaking up too. Think about how easy it is to give someone a care emoji. Think of how easy it is to tell someone “I’m praying for you.” But how often do we even do that? We keep our mouths shut because we don’t want to get in an argument or we don’t want people to get angry at us. We even go so far as to support those who we know are making immoral decisions in an effort to be “loving.” So we are, in a sense, worse than deaf people that can’t speak, because we purposely choose not to use our own tongues where and when we could or we should. We speak in vague ways when we should clearly speak the truth.
It seems that electronic devices have turned us into the most selfish people in this world. We are so worried about what kind of an ONLINE presence we post to the world that we don’t think about what kind of a LIVE presence we are giving to our spouses, our children, and our neighbors. We are too busy being ONLINE so that we are deaf and mute to those who are trying to talk to us most and get through to us in flesh and blood. We are so driven to be connected to everyone that we are connected to no one. Electronics have deafened us to those closest to us to where we don’t know how to speak to each other face to face.
But let’s get back to today’s actual deaf man. They brought a man to him who was deaf and had a speech impediment. They pleaded with Jesus to place his hand on him. What a beautiful thing! Such a simple solution. Who are they? I assume his neighbors and friends. They would have heard about Jesus, while the deaf man couldn’t have. But they loved this man, and they wanted him to see Jesus and be healed. They wanted him to be free to hear and able to speak. So they brought him to Jesus, AND they PLEADED with Jesus to put his hand on him.
The people of Decapolis, in a sense, told Jesus how to do His job. “Here, just put your hand on him and he will be good to go.” They wanted a quick and easy fix. And if Jesus had hurried through the process, what would the man have really gotten from it? He might have even been a bit scared, not knowing where the people were rushing him to or why. “What’s going on!?”, he would have thought to himself. Yes, he would have gotten healed. But he wouldn’t have understood Who did it or how He did it. Jesus isn’t here just to be a quick fix so that we can move on to the next project.
Jesus didn’t want this man to just be on a conveyor belt of healing. See how Jesus alleviates the man of his fears. He’s so PERSONAL with the man. He wants to involve this man in the process, so He uses the only senses the man has. 33 Jesus took him aside in private, away from the crowd. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue.
That’s kind of personal, isn’t it? Have you ever had someone stick their finger in your ear? Ever get a wet willy? Not exactly a fun thing. Keep your fingers out of my ears. And then the Greek says that Jesus “hepsato”d the man’s tongue. It can mean touch, but it can also mean to grab hold of. Where did Jesus spit? Did He just spit on the ground, or did He spit into His fingers and then grab the man’s tongue? We don’t know. What we do know was that these were the very things that didn’t work too well on the man, and Jesus went ahead and stuck His fingers in and on those parts that didn’t work. How many would be offended at such an action or shrink back from such a thing? But this man doesn’t shrink back at all, it would appear. He knew what Jesus was there for. He wasn’t afraid of Jesus touching him.
Isn’t this a wonderful thing too to think about, from the aspect of God? God is willing to get His hands dirty in order to heal us, even if it means sticking His fingers in dirty ears. He isn’t repulsed by us. He personally deals with this man in his weaknesses in order to heal him.
What does this mean for us? Sometimes healing has to be very personal, especially when we have spent some time trying to hide our sins and make excuses for them. He knows what your weaknesses are, and He wants to heal you. But if you live your life in fear of being exposed and if you approach God from a viewpoint of “Don’t touch me,” then He can have no part of you. Think of Peter. He didn’t want Jesus to get his hands dirty to wash his feet, and Jesus told Peter that He would have no part with Him then. No, that’s not how He rolls. He comes right up to us with our weaknesses, and He wants to get His hands dirty in order to heal us, placing His healing power right where we need it. He has to get His hands dirty in order to heal us. (And as a side note, isn’t it a beautiful thing that Jesus Himself HAS hands, ears, and a tongue, just like us?!? He personally knows what beautiful gifts these are from God.)
God’s most beautiful gifts are physical and personal. Think of why Jesus became human, so that He could use His hands not only to touch our broken ears, but so those hands could be pierced with nails and crucified. He Himself used His mouth to tell us who He is, the Son of Man who came to seek and to save the lost. His mouth is beautiful. He speaks words of grace, mercy and forgiveness.
On top of all this He chooses to come to us in very physical and personal ways, through the waters of baptism and in the bread and wine of the Supper. He personally chooses to give Himself to us as we eat and drink Him, receiving the very life that He used to sacrifice Himself for the sins of the world. God used to outlaw drinking the blood of the animal in the Old Testament because the life was in the blood, and the blood was sacrificed to God. But here in the Lord’s Supper, He chooses to give us His body and blood, because the life is in the blood that He already sacrificed. Now with his powerful raised body, He chooses to give us life, an eternal and omnipresent life, through the Supper! He personally comes to us! You can’t get any more physical than that!
34 After he looked up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”) 35 Immediately the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was set free, and he began to speak plainly.
How do you envision this sigh? Can you sense Jesus frustration? Sadness? Exasperation? Day after day, hour after hour, people are coming to him with so many sicknesses and so much sadness. The world is a messed up and broken place. Jesus feels it. He sighs it out. Ephphatha. It’s so much more than a sigh though! It’s also a solution, a word of prayer, which God himself has the answer to. Be opened! The effect is immediate. Not only can the man HEAR, but he also can SPEAK PLAINLY. The man who couldn’t hear and wouldn’t know how to pronounce anything properly starts speaking with a perfectly clear diction.
I wish I could speak a simple word, a simple Ephphatha, and all of the diseases, problems and sicknesses would go away. I wish with one simple prayer I could heal you of all that ails you. But I’m not God. I don’t know who needs what and when. And I do still have the Word of God to give you. I have the Lord’s Supper. I have the Law and Gospel. I have prayer that God can choose how to answer however best. I can use that, and I have to trust that God knows how to answer my prayers. I also have to trust that these tools are powerful weapons to fight against the evils of this world. Either I can trust God and keep using them or I can just give up.
We also have a responsibility now that God has opened our ears, to keep on listening, especially when Satan is so full of lies! There is no doubt, when God reveals it, what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil, what is sin and Who is grace. And the only way we can have such clarity is by a miracle of Jesus. We need it, and so do all of the deaf people in this world, those who have been deafened by a world of noise.
I think of John’s voice in the wilderness. Calling in the desert. A simple message. Make straight the way of the LORD. Repent. So simple. So straight forward. Yet people listened. People came to the middle of a barren area to be baptized. No entertainment. No big buildings. No pageantry. Just a guy in camel’s hair. What was it that attracted people? The voice of God drew them. The voice of God rang out in their ears. We have that voice. Do you hear it? Do you speak it?
36 Jesus gave the people strict orders to tell no one, but the more he did so, the more they kept proclaiming it. 37 They were amazed beyond measure and said, “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!”
There’s some debate as to whether the people SHOULD have really said anything. Jesus didn’t want His main attraction to be healing. He wanted people to listen to His WORDS first and foremost. Nonetheless, the people just couldn’t shut up about Him. He has done everything well.
Do we have such things to say of Jesus, in a society that has gone to the devil? In a world that is being racked by hurricanes and disease? In a world that says God’s design for marriage and gender is wrong? He has done everything well? Yes! He has given us a perfect design for marriage. He has given us full forgiveness at the cross. He has given us hope in the resurrection. He has given us protection by His angels. He has given us direction in His Word. He has sent earthquakes and hurricanes and floods to wake people up! He has done everything well and He continues to do everything well. We may not be able to feel it or see it much of the time, but by faith we see how He has worked it time and time again.
And maybe that is why more deaf people are not hearing about Jesus? Because we aren’t praising Him or bringing people to Him, because maybe we are angry at Him or a little ashamed of Him? Maybe because we don’t really believe He is doing everything well?
Jesus has NOT commanded us to be quiet. There are many deaf people in this world who need to hear the truth. Imagine if we were as confident or forceful as these people were with their deaf friend? How many more people would be coming here wondering, “Who is this Jesus? What does He have to say?” What would happen if our tongues were set free from our own doubts and fear? God grant it! Amen.
