He Who Has an Ear, Let Him Hear

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

HE WOULD HAS AN EAR LET HIM HEAR

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

Certainly, we are not surprised that Jesus has the authority to open the man’s ears and lose his tongue. This is just one more of the many times Jesus has healed either by just saying so or by some type of touch. It is interesting that Mark says that Jesus spit and touched the man’s tongue. Did Jesus spit into his hand then use that hand containing his spit to touch the man’s tongue. That sure seems to be the implication. There is also something of interest in that Jesus took him away from the crowd. Was there a special meaning to this? Could it be said that when Jesus gets involved in our lives he takes us away from the crowd, he separates us from the world, and takes us to be alone with him? That might be over spiritualizes what happened here, but it is an interesting idea to ponder on. What is also notable is that someone who could neither hear with his ears nor speak with his mouth could now do so after his encounter with Jesus. Again, this may be seeing more in here than we should, but there is a very interesting spiritual parallel to be seen. Jesus has said several times in his teaching, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”. He also has said throughout the letters to the seven churches, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”. This gives us an impression that before having any type of encounter with Jesus the ears of people are deaf to the word of God. We can give personal testimony to that case, as before our being found and called to Jesus, His word had absolutely no meaning whatsoever in our life. If, when trying to read it, if we were ever inclined to, it spoke nothing to us. We did not have ears to hear, because Jesus had not put his fingers into our ears. We also had nothing of value to say, our mouth had nothing to say in praise of God. Quite the contrary, in fact, it was used to object to anything which would have been religious. However, all that changed the moment Jesus touched my ears and my tongue. We suspect that is the case with everyone prior to their experience with Jesus. He has opened our ears and we can hear the word of God clearly. He has opened our mouth, touched our tongue and we can now give praise and honor where it is due, to our heavenly Father who saved us, who called us out of the darkness and brought us into his light. We can now praise Jesus who came to take away all our sin and to present us to the Father, holy and blameless. How can we not use our tongue for praise and how can we not use our ears to hear his words? He has also called us out from the crowd and called us his own, his people, the sheep of his pasture, the living stones being built into His temple. We are no longer a member of the nameless crowd for we have been given a new name, a child of God. He who has an ear let him hear.