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.
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.