Hear and Speak

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MARK

HEAR AND SPEAK

Mark 7:31-37

31 Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis.   32 There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man. 33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the man's tongue. 34 He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, "Ephphatha!" (which means, "Be opened!"). 35 At this, the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. 36 Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. 37 People were overwhelmed with amazement. "He has done everything well," they said. "He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."

NIV

Of course he has done everything well, he is Jesus, but of course they did not know what we now do. What we who know all about Jesus need to be asking is why is this story included in the account recorded for us to read. Is there something special about making the deaf to hear and the mute to speak? Of course any healing is special and should be shouted from the rooftops so as to give Jesus the glory, but he did not want the glory, in fact, he did not want anyone to even tell about this healing. So what can we learn here? Maybe we could say that people some people turn a deaf ear to what Jesus has to say. Maybe we could say that some people simply do not speak about the truth of gospel. Maybe we could say that Jesus can heal both those types of people. Yet there is something special here in that Jesus could have just said, “Your faith has made you whole” but he did not. He put his fingers into the man’s ears and he spit and touched the man’s tongue. Jesus made some kind of show out of this healing. For what purpose did he do that? Why not just tell him he was healed? Perhaps some people need more than to be told they are healed. Perhaps some people need some kind of point of contact with Jesus in order to believe in his power. Some people need to travel to see some faith healer in hopes of being called up on stage and either breathed on or hit in the head in order to feel healed. Some people may have to send money to get a handkerchief that has been prayed over. There was once when people were told to reach out and touch the television and they would be healed. Maybe some people just have to see something to believe it, or to see some kind of physical action in the performance of healing. Yet all we really need to be healed we have already heard from the words of Jesus, “Believe”. Maybe we are the ones with the deaf ears. Maybe we just do not hear what he has said. Are we looking for some miraculous act of magic, a show, in order to believe? Yet when Jesus did heal this man, everyone was amazed. If they were overwhelmed with amazement, why did they bring this man to Jesus? Were they testing to see if Jesus could heal this man? Maybe they did not really believe in the power of Jesus, but now they did because they saw him heal, they saw the show, the act of magic. Jesus told Thomas that he believed because he saw, but blessed are those who have not seen and believe. That is who we are, the blessed. We have not seen, but we believe and we can hear and we can talk about Jesus.