Hearing Jesus' Healing Words

Good morning. In Psalm 119, the psalmist prays to God. He says,

Oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my

enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your

testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts. I hold

back my feet from every evil way in order to keep your word. I do not turn aside from your rules,

for you have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through

your precepts, I get understanding. Therefore, I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet

and a light to my path. The psalmist tells us that God's law is a lamp unto our feet. His scriptures

are sweet in our mouth. By his word, we get wisdom, and by his word, we get life. And in his words,

spiritual wonders may always be found. And so after all this, the psalmist then adds this little prayer.

Father, open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.

And this will be our prayer today. This morning, we read a brief passage from the Gospel of Mark about

Jesus healing a deaf man. But though Jesus works a miracle of healing in this passage, how he works it

can come across sometimes as a little strange or confusing to us. At first sight, it may not seem to

you that there are wondrous things in this passage. But God promises that wondrous things can always be

found in all of his words. So as we look at this passage, we will do so with that prayer in our hearts

from the psalmist. Oh Lord, open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.

The passage is from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 7, verses 31 through 37.

Mark 7:31–37

And it reads like this. That's chapter 7, verses 31 through 37 of the Gospel of Mark.

Then he, Jesus, returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the

region of Decapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment. And they

begged him to lay his hand on him. And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers

into his ears and after spitting, touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him,

Ephthatha, that is, be opened. And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.

And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed

it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf

hear and the mute speak. In the story we just heard, Jesus heals a man who is deaf and mute.

And now, Jesus does a lot of things like this in the Gospels. But as I said, this particular story

often strikes people as somehow different or puzzling, possibly even a little weird. There are a few

reasons for this. The most obvious one is in verse 33, where Jesus spits and then touches the man's

tongue. Why does he do that? If we're honest, this makes some of us a little uncomfortable and seems a

little gross. There's some other odd things, too. When healing the man, Jesus performs all these

physical actions. He touches the man's ears. He touches his tongue. He looks up to heaven. He sighs.

We know from other miracles that Jesus didn't have to do all those things. We knew that he didn't like

making a show of things. With just a simple touch, he worked even greater miracles. With just a word of

command, he raised Lazarus from the dead. In fact, Jesus often tries to hide his miracles and make

sure people don't spread news about them. But this time, with this miracle, he has all these

gesticulations going on. And there are other things also that are a little puzzling. Why doesn't he want

people to speak about this miracle? And what about that strange, almost unpronounceable word,

epitha, that Mark records Jesus as saying? What's going on here? Well, the first thing to do when

interpreting this passage is the same thing you should do when interpreting any passage of Scripture

that is confusing to you. You should pray that prayer of the psalmist. Oh, Lord, open my eyes that I may

behold wondrous things out of your law. God has promised that there are wonders in every passage of

Scripture. So whenever you find something confusing in the Scriptures, ask God to open your eyes, open

your ears, soften your heart, and humble your soul to see the wonders that are there. And over the years,

I've had many times when my eyes were too weak or my ears too hard of hearing. In my study of the

Scriptures, where there have been words or verses or passages or even whole books of Scripture that I did

not understand or that I did not like and which I stumbled. But time and again, God opened my eyes

and my ears to reveal many spiritual wonders. So let's do this now. Let's pray together and ask God

to open our eyes and let's see what's hidden in his Word together in the Gospel of Mark. Join me in prayer.

Father, Father, we come before you and, Lord, we confess that our eyes are weak and our ears are hard of

hearing to see and to hear your Word. And we ask that you would anoint us with your Holy Spirit

to enable us, Lord, to look upon your shining self and to hear your softly spoken words.

Lord, we submit to you in this. And we pray this in the name of your Son, Jesus. Amen.

So to find all of the wonders in this passage, let's work through it verse by verse. We'll start

with verse 31 in chapter 7. Verse 31,

Then he, Jesus, returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the

region of Decapolis. In verse 31, Jesus is in the north of Israel. He's in Gentile

country. He's near the cities of Tyre and Sidon. This is up where modern Lebanon is today. Jesus,

as we saw last week, he's been resting there. And he comes down south to the territory near the Sea of

Galilee. Now, the Sea of Galilee is very familiar to Jesus. It's very familiar territory. But Mark tells

us that Jesus departs from his normal practice. Instead of ministering on the western side of the

Sea of Galilee, which was heavily Jewish, he instead is ministering in the Decapolis, which is

on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. And this is an area dominated by Gentiles.

What this means is that many of the people to whom Jesus was ministering were likely Gentiles

and not Jewish. And this little fact casts this story in a different light. It suggests that the

local residents may not have been as familiar with reports of Jesus as the Jewish inhabitants on the

western side of the Sea of Galilee. And it suggests they may not have known as much or much at all about

Jesus's teachings. Let's see what happens next in verse 32. And they brought to Jesus a man who was deaf

and had a speech impediment. And they begged him to lay his hand on him.

In verse 32, there occurs something very typical when Jesus comes to a new place.

People hear that a great healer has come to town. So they bring all those with various ailments to him

to see what he can do with them. And this time, they bring a man who was deaf and who spoke with

difficulty. Now the fact that this man was deaf, but yet still could speak with some difficulty,

this fact tells us that the man probably lost his hearing when he was a small child. If he had been

born deaf, he probably would not have been able to speak at all. Perhaps he got a very high fever

and woke up one day without his hearing while he was a toddler or a very little boy. We can infer

more about this man too. Because he was deaf, he likely had an almost impossible time communicating

with others. And this is because there was no sign language back then. There was also no therapy for

people who were deaf. And on account of this, the deaf man could barely speak. And moreover,

there was no formal training for reading lips. So this man would have passed through life only

understanding a small percentage of what was going on. People would have had trouble communicating with

him and he would have had a terrible time communicating with others. He probably spent most of his time

being ignored and being alone. It was probably a very hard life and likely a very lonely life.

And Mark tells us in verse 32 that the crowd brings this man to Jesus and begs him to heal the man.

Notice here in the passage that the man is not the one asking to be healed or even motioning or

gesturing to be healed. This is another indication that this man has a difficult time communicating

and people also had a difficult time communicating with him. But this little observation also gives us a clue

about what is really going on here. It's not too much to imagine that this man may not have even known

exactly why he was standing before Jesus. Mark implies that it is not the man who goes out and seeks Jesus.

The crowd does. It's not the man who approaches Jesus. The crowd does. The man is not trying to rudimentarily

communicate that he needs healing. Instead the crowd begs Jesus to heal him. And Jesus is also

ministering in an area where he was likely relatively unknown. So the man may not have known about Jesus

even if he could hear and speak. But if it's true that this man may not know entirely why he's standing

before Jesus, then what do you think is going through his mind as he looks at Jesus? In fact, let's go back

a few steps. What do you think it was like for this deaf man when a crowd showed up and hurried him off

to some unknown direction? Imagine in your mind all of a sudden you are being jostled, you are led along,

you are hurried, you're pushed. Imagine if this happened to you. You've lived your life deaf and mute in the

ancient world. You've been ignored and lonely with few if anyone to communicate with. And then suddenly

a crowd comes and hurries you off. You don't understand what is happening. Where are they taking

me, you wonder? What is going on? And now you're standing before a strange man while a crowd surrounds

you. Who is this man? What is going on, you're wondering? It is probably fair to say that the deaf man

is feeling some uncertainty or fear or anxiety, worry and confusion. And even if he understood what was

going on, it must have been terribly fearful being surrounded by so much chaos without being able to

hear or to communicate. And now he stands before this strange man. Let's see what Jesus does in verse 33.

Verse 33, the first part says,

And Jesus, taking him aside from the crowd privately. Well, Jesus, the first thing he does

is to calm the situation down. He settles everything. He brings the man aside privately and reassures the

man. The man is probably relieved and put at ease. Now it's just him and Jesus. And as we learn later

in the passage, a few other people as well. And then verse 33 goes on. He put his fingers into his ears

and after spitting, touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him,

Ephatha, that is, be opened.

All right, it's in this verse that we get to some of those odd bits. Because here Jesus puts his fingers

into the man's ears. He spits and he touches the man's tongue. Some Bible translations say that Jesus

touched the man's tongue with the spit. But the Greek does not actually say this. But either way,

what's going on here? Why is Jesus touching the man's ears and even reaching his fingers into them?

And why is he touching this man's mouth and even reaching his finger in to touch his tongue?

And why does he spit? Well, to understand all this, we need to view this story through the eyes

of the deaf and mute man. And I mean this somewhat literally. Because remember that this man cannot

hear. He relies on a sense of sight and a sense of touch far more than most. So let's envision this

story from his point of view, through his eyes and his sense of touch. And I think all will be revealed.

The man is standing alone in front of Jesus. Jesus puts his fingers in the man's ears.

What would the man think about that? Well, naturally, he would think, Jesus

is touching the part of me that does not work properly. And then Jesus spits. Now, in our culture,

spitting is viewed as something unclean or gross. It's unhygienic. It's rude. It's offensive.

And this was also true in the ancient world. This is why when Jesus went to the cross, the high

priests tried to humiliate him by spitting on him. But in the Greco-Roman world, saliva was also

thought of as having healing or restorative properties. There are, in fact, whole chapters

in ancient literature devoted to the healing properties of saliva. And unfortunately, I've read

some of these. But in this way, the ancients thought of saliva like how we think of something

like manure. Normally, we find manure to be gross and off-putting, in certain contexts even offensive.

But we also agree that manure can be a very desirable thing when used for certain purposes,

like fertilizer for crops and gardens. So like manure, the ancients thought of saliva in the same

way. In certain contexts, it was offensive and gross. But in medical settings, it could be quite

useful. So putting all this together, what this means is that when Jesus spits, the deaf and mute man

would see him spitting right after he touched his ears. And this would probably cause the man to think

of healing, restoration, and rejuvenation. Perhaps he might begin to wonder, is Jesus going to heal my ears?

Then, after Jesus spits, the man sees and feels Jesus touch his tongue. And the man thinks,

I can't speak well. And Jesus is touching the other part of my body that does not work properly.

And this prompts the man to think, is Jesus also going to heal my tongue and let me speak?

Next, the man sees Jesus looking up to heaven.

Now, what is one of the first things that comes to our mind when we think of heaven?

We think of God. And so the man seeing Jesus look up to heaven would be prompted to think,

Jesus is focusing on God. Afterwards, the man sees Jesus sighing deeply. To do that, he needed to fill

his lungs with air. This is a visible action. The man could have seen Jesus' chest expanding. He could

see his shoulders rising a little bit. We do this when we're getting ready to do or say something very

important. We take a deep breath to ready ourselves. The man sees Jesus doing this while he's looking up

to heaven. And the man puts both of these together and he thinks, Jesus is getting ready to say

something to heaven. Perhaps he's getting ready to pray an important prayer to God.

Let's go over this again. The deaf and mute man's first encounter with Jesus is when Jesus

caringly takes him aside from the large crowd to put him at ease. And then he sees and he feels Jesus

put his finger in his ears. And then he sees Jesus spit, which as I said, indicates healing.

Then he sees and feels Jesus touch his tongue. Then Jesus looks up to heaven. And then he sees Jesus

fill his lungs with air. What is Jesus doing here? Well, I've wrestled with this passage for many years.

And I keep being led back to the same inescapable conclusion. Jesus seems to be trying to communicate

with this man who cannot hear. But instead of speaking with audible words, he speaks with him

via rudimentary sign language. Jesus speaks with visible movements and with physical touch.

And there's a good chance that no one, especially no stranger,

had ever done something like this for this man. But Jesus understands this man's struggles. He sees his

weakness and he comforts the man. He communicates to the man that he's going to help him. Throughout

this whole process, he's telling the man he's going to heal him. He's going to heal his ears so he can

hear. He's going to heal his tongue so he can speak. And this isn't going to be by some magic spell.

This is going to be from the God of heaven. This is going to be through prayer. Consider the love

that Jesus had for this man. Consider how this man may have felt loved by Jesus. Jesus takes time away

from the demands of his day to give his attention to this disabled man and to speak with him in a way

that the deaf man could understand. We know that Jesus could have snapped his fingers and healed the

man. But he didn't. He first took time to love the man. And I think it is fair to say that this act of

love is the first miracle Jesus did for this man. And this is typical of Jesus. We read in the Gospels

that out of the same love, Jesus touches a leper who had not felt touch in years. With the same love,

when Jesus was at a dinner party and a disabled man was present, he told the host he should have

invited that disabled man as the guest of honor. We read further that Jesus welcomes little children,

though others rejected them. He speaks with a despised Samaritan woman. He allows an unclean

and desperate woman to touch his garment for healing. And I should say too, Scripture testifies

that most of all Jesus, while seeing all of your sins, went to the cross to wipe them away.

But I want to return to Jesus and this deaf man for a moment. If Jesus is indeed endeavoring to

communicate with this man, and I think he is, then we should spend a little more time

on how remarkable this is. These rudimentary signs Jesus made would have impacted this deaf man

powerfully. We are fortunate to have an account from history about what it is like to be unable to

speak or communicate, and then what it is like to gain this ability when someone attempts to make

physical signs to you as Jesus was doing with this deaf man. And this account comes from a woman,

some of you might recognize this name, named Helen Keller. And her story will help us to understand

this deaf man and what it was like for him and what Jesus did for him by physically signing.

Helen was born about 1880. When she was two years old, she grew gravely ill, and her fever caused her

to become deaf and blind. And for five years, until she was seven years old, Helen went through life alone,

without speech or communication, and given to tantrums and raging.

In her autobiography, she says that one day a teacher named Ann Sullivan arrived at her house,

and Ann attempted to start signing into Helen's hands.

Signing into someone's hands is when you trace letters into someone's hands to spell a word.

And to do this, Ann first gave Helen a porcelain doll as a gift, and then spelled the word doll

into Helen's hands. As Helen relates years later, she did not understand.

And grew quickly frustrated and smashed the porcelain doll on the ground.

Undeterred, Ann gently led Helen outside. And then while Helen was feeling cool water pour over her hands,

Ann signed the word water into her hands. And then for the first time,

Helen understood that Ann Sullivan was communicating with her.

Ann Helen writes this,

That living word awakened my soul. It gave it light, hope, joy, and set it free.

I left the well eager to learn. Everything had a name, and each name gave birth to a new thought.

As we returned to the house, every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life.

That was because I saw everything with the strange new sight that had come to me.

On entering the door, I remembered the doll I had broken.

I felt my way to the hearth and picked up the pieces.

I tried vainly to put them together.

And then my eyes filled with tears.

For I realized what I had done.

And for the first time,

I felt repentance

and sorrow.

In Helen's account,

a simple word to a wordless soul awakened her and gave her life and joy.

And in a manner of speaking,

even gave her the knowledge of her sins.

Forever afterwards,

Helen would call this day her soul's birthday.

One word to a wordless soul did this.

How much more, therefore, did Jesus do

for this deaf and mute man?

How much more

does Jesus do for you?

After all,

Jesus does not simply speak true words to you.

He is the true word

for you.

Jesus

is the word of God made flesh.

He is the word of God descending to earth

and becoming like us

in order to reach us

and to communicate with us

and to save us from our sins.

And Jesus

is the word of God.

It is he

who speaks to the deaf man,

not with audible words,

but with words he can understand.

Friends,

is not this a beautiful picture

of the incarnation of Jesus,

the Son of God?

And this

is what Jesus does

for all of you.

Jesus speaks to all of you

in ways you can understand.

Now, of course,

the deaf and mute man

was a special case.

Jesus couldn't speak to him

with audible words,

so he used physical signing.

But in truth,

you're all special cases.

And Jesus speaks to all of you

in your own language

with images that you can understand

so that you can be brought to repentance.

Consider all the ways

Jesus describes himself

in the scriptures.

He is the good shepherd

who lays his life down

for his sheep.

He is the mother hen

who gathers her chicks

under her wings.

He is the father

who forgives

the wayward son.

He is the woman

looking for the lost coin.

He is the husband

who welcomes back

the unfaithful wife.

He is the vine

and you are the branches.

He is a wellspring

and you are thirsty.

He is a healer

and you are sick.

He is light

and you are darkness.

He is the word of God

and you are deaf and mute

and you cannot hear him

and you cannot understand his message.

So he speaks in a way

that you can hear.

Have you heard God lately?

Are you listening for his voice?

Are you listening to his voice?

Sometimes he speaks words of comfort,

sometimes encouragement,

sometimes forgiveness,

but sometimes rebuke,

sometimes words of command.

What is he saying to you?

Because he is speaking to you,

sometimes,

or just heart of hearing

or heart of heart.

And his constant call

to every one of you

is to repent of your sins

and to be comforted

by his Holy Spirit

whom he has sent into your hearts

and to follow Jesus

with joyfulness.

Are you listening to him today?

Let's return to our gospel passage

because Jesus is not done

speaking to this man.

Let's see what he does next.

Verse 34,

And looking up to heaven,

Jesus sighed

and says to the man,

Ephephithah,

that is,

be opened.

And his ears were opened

and his tongue was released

and he spoke plainly.

Jesus says this odd little word,

Ephephithah.

This word is Aramaic

for be opened.

Jesus' native language

was Aramaic

and here Mark spells out

Jesus' Aramaic phrase

and then translates it

into Greek for his readers.

So in our English Bibles,

we have the practice

of spelling out

the Aramaic word

like Mark did

and then we translate it

into English.

But this linguistic information aside,

what's really remarkable

about all of this

is that this word,

be opened,

was the first word

this man had ever heard

or at least the first word

he'd heard in a long time.

And thanks to modern medicine,

we have examples

of people who are deaf

and then who are given

the ability to hear

like this man was given

miraculously by Jesus.

And you can go on the internet,

you can find videos

of people hearing voices

for the first time

and if you do,

you'll see that the experience

is often completely overwhelming.

They're surrounded by sounds.

At long last,

they hear voices

of their loved ones.

It's so overwhelming

and new

that their brain

has to acclimate

and learn how to process

the sounds.

Often people break down

sobbing

when they're given the gift

of hearing for the first time.

It's amazing to watch

and this man probably

had a similar reaction

but let's see

what Jesus says.

In verse 36,

and Jesus charged them

to tell no one.

Jesus heals

this man of deafness

and the first thing

he tells him

is not to tell anyone.

This would have been

a very difficult command

to obey.

This man has just

miraculously gained

the ability

to hear and to speak

and Jesus tells him

that he can't share this.

Can you imagine?

Can you imagine

you can finally speak,

you're miraculously healed

by Jesus

and Jesus doesn't want

you telling anybody.

And Jesus tells

the same thing

not just to the man

but the few others

who witnessed the miracle.

He commands them

not to tell anyone.

But Mark goes on

in verse 36 and 37.

He says,

but the more he charged them

the more zealously

they proclaimed it

and they were astonished

beyond measure

saying he's done

all things well.

He even makes the deaf hear

and the mute speak.

Here we see that

though Jesus commands people

not to spread around

the news of his miracles

all the more

do they proclaim it.

So the question

needs to be asked

why did Jesus

not want people

to speak about his miracles?

Jesus just gave

the mute man

this miraculous ability

to speak.

Why doesn't he want him

to speak about it?

And what should we make

of the people

who disobey Jesus here?

He told them

not to tell anyone

and then they go

and do it anyway

but they're saying

good things about Jesus.

They compliment Jesus.

They praise him.

They say he's done

all things well.

He even makes the deaf hear

and the mute speak.

What's so bad about that?

Well practically speaking

what's so bad

about saying those things

is that Jesus

told them not to do it.

And friends

how often we commit

similar things

when we think

we know better than God.

Then we act much like

Saul the king

in the Old Testament

where he disobeys

God's command

so that he could offer

a sacrifice to God

and the prophet Samuel

rebuked him

and said obedience

is better than sacrifice.

Remember that

in your walk with Christ

God will sometimes

command you

to do things

you don't always

fully understand.

But this is just like

when you read the scriptures

and you come to

a difficult passage

which you don't

fully understand.

In both situations

you should do

the very same thing.

Humble yourself.

submit to God.

Obey him.

And pray that prayer

the psalmist prayed earlier

O Lord

open my eyes

that I may see

wondrous things

in your law.

And we might also

pray like this deaf man

would have prayed

O Lord

open my ears

that I may hear

wondrous things

in your law.

Because there are

always reasons

why God

commands things.

And sometimes

these reasons

are for us

to hear

and to know

on the other side

of eternity.

But God also

delights

in sharing

his purposes

with his children.

And he will often

explain his commands

if you come to him

in humility

and with patience.

In the case

of the deaf and mute man

Jesus commands

the man and others

around not to speak

of his miracles.

And this is just

the same old thing

Jesus does many times

throughout the gospels

where he tells people

not to speak

about his miracles.

And if we read

those passages

there may be observed

a profound

gospel centered reason

for why Jesus

often wants his miracles

to be kept secret.

The passages

as a whole

make clear

that the whole point

of Jesus' ministry

is ultimately

not earthly signs

and wonders.

The whole purpose

of Jesus' ministry

first, last

and all the time

is nothing else

than the forgiveness

of sins

and the glory

of God.

God.

This is the entire

purpose for Jesus

going to the cross

and rising from the dead.

And as good

and wonderful

as Jesus'

miraculous ministry

was and it was

wonderful

and some of us

have experienced

true miracles

but as wonderful

as these things are

they do not compare

with the ministry

of Jesus

for forgiving sins

and bringing the sinner

into newness of life

for the glory of God.

God.

This is why

Jesus repeatedly says

a wicked generation

seeks for a sign.

This is why

when a paralyzed man

was brought to Jesus

the first thing he did

was not to heal him

but to say

son

your sins are forgiven.

This is why

when Jesus healed

a blind man

he said

you have been made well

stop sinning

or something worse

may happen to you.

This is why

when a crowd of people

sought Jesus out

he said

truly truly

I say to you

you are seeking me

not because you saw signs

but because you ate

and were filled.

For they had eaten

the spiritual food

that Jesus had given to them.

This is why

when a deaf and mute man

was brought to Jesus

he did not skip

straight to the miracle

he saw that

what this man needed

above all else

was for fellowship

and reconciliation

with God.

So Jesus took him aside

away from the crowd

and he patiently spoke

to him with physical signs

which the man

could understand

and he communicated

that this miracle

would be by the God

of heaven

and in doing this

Jesus prepared

this man's heart

for accepting

the gospel

that God had come down

to save those

who are lost.

But what about you?

How is Jesus

taking you aside

away from the crowd today?

What is he communicating

to you?

How is he preparing

your heart

for repentance?

What is his command

to you?

If his message

is difficult

to understand

are you praying

O Lord

open my eyes

that I may see

wondrous things

in your law?

Or like this deaf

and mute man

are you praying

O Lord

open my ears

that I may hear

wondrous things?

Are you praying

O Lord

loosen my tongue

that I may proclaim

wondrous things?

If you truly

pray these things

then God will make you

to be his disciple.

And this is what

Isaiah the prophet

declared in chapter 50

of his book.

He says

Let's pray for these things now.

O Father in heaven

we come to you Lord

and we

are hard of hearing

we are slow of speech

our eyes are dim

and it is difficult

for us to understand you

and to seek you

and we pray

that you would reach down

and awaken our ears

and our eyes

to behold

what you have for us.

Loosen our tongues

that we can proclaim

your gospel message

of forgiveness.

Show us Lord

show us Lord

how we can share

your love

and your precious truth

and your scriptures

with this world.

Help us to delight

in your word

and we pray this

in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.