Mark 7

³¹ Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. ³² 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. ³³ And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. ³⁴ And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” ³⁵ And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. ³⁶ And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. ³⁷ And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

If I am honest, I am a sucker for emotional viral videos. There are two kinds in particular that always get me: returning soldiers surprising their families and people who are deaf being able to hear for the first time after receiving cochlear implants. One of these cochlear implant videos is especially beautiful because it shows two amazing things happening to the young lady who received it.

Here is how one article described the scene that happened in the Spring of 2016.

After receiving a cochlear implant, patients of [University of Mississippi Medical Center] ENT and Communicative Sciences audiologist Dr. Vicki Gonzalez are sometimes overcome with emotions when the device is turned on and the patient can gain or regain hearing.

Andrea Diaz is one such example.

In the video above, Andrea receives an implant and is seen becoming very emotional when the new device was activated.

Under the watchful eye of her mother and her boyfriend Kevin, Andrea reacts to the sound of her own and her mother’s voices.

Then, among the other ‘first things’ she heard when the implant was activated, was a marriage proposal from Kevin who got down on one knee.

Both and Andrea and her boyfriend embrace each other as she gives him an emotional “yes.”[1]

That video is a double whammy! If you are not moved by it then there is something wrong with you! There are two powerful elements in this video: (1) a deaf person suddenly being able to hear and (2) an unbelievable proclamation of love being among the first words the person hears.

As it turns out, those two elements are present in the amazing story at the end of John 7: the healing of a deaf man and the amazing realization that he is not only healed but he is loved.

Jesus the Worker of Odd Miracles

Miracles are by nature “odd,” but this miracle has some interesting elements to be sure.

³¹ Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. ³² 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. ³³ And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. ³⁴ And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” ³⁵ And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. ³⁶ And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. ³⁷ And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

The man that is brought to Jesus is “deaf and could hardly talk.” That is, he could not hear at all and his speech was majorly impeded almost to the point of muteness. He was brought to Jesus by concerned friends. Interestingly, Jesus “took him aside, away from the crowd.” Thus, this miracle was privately performed. Why? We do not know for sure. The end result was, of course, not something that could be hidden from the crowd, so this makes us think that there was something about that miracle itself that led Jesus to either desire or require privacy.

The healing was interesting. Here are the components:

• Jesus puts His fingers in the man’s ears.
• Jesus spits.
• Jesus touches the man’s tongue.
• Jesus looks up to Heaven.
• Jesus sighs.
• Jesus issues a verbal command: “Ephphatha!” (“Be opened!”)

The results were as complete as they were instantaneous:

• The man’s ears are opened.
• The man’s tongue is loosed.
• The man starts speaking.

There is a much stronger physical aspect to this healing on Jesus’ part than in most of His other miracles: touching the man’s ears and touching the man’s tongue. Jesus’ spitting and using saliva in healings is unusual but something He sometimes did, as with the healing of the blind man in Bethsaida in Matthew 8.

²³ And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?”

He did the same in John 9 with the healing of the man born blind.

⁶ Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud

Was this type of physical infirmity particularly challenging and did it require certain extra measures of Jesus? Perhaps. Perhaps this is also why Jesus took Him aside away form the crowd.

Regardless, what we see here yet again is the amazing power of Jesus and a life that was transformed as a result of it! This man’s life is changed in an instant as the Son of God miraculously cast off the terrible infirmities that had so hindered and hampered his life! Jesus is the worker of odd miracles, the divine healer who came to set people free not only spiritually but also physically.

Jesus the Savior of the Outcast

Jesus is also the savior of the outcast. We saw in the text immediately preceding this that Jesus showed compassion to a Gentile Syrophoenician woman. We also saw that His doing so said something amazing about the reach and the extent of God’s love. We see the same here but in a more creative way.

Jesus left a largely Gentile area to go to another largely Gentile area. Even so, His route was perplexing.

³¹ Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.

Simply put, if one wanted to go from Tyre to the region of the Decapolis, one would not normally go through Sidon seeing as though it is the opposite way of the Decapolis. Joel Marcus explains:

If Mark’s wording is meant to describe a direct journey, it implies that Sidon and the Decapolis are on a line from Tyre to the Sea of Galilee. This is scarcely the case, the Sea of Galilee is southeast of Tyre, but Sidon is north of Tyre and the Decapolis region is mostly east of the Sea of Galilee (of the ten cities, only Scythopolis is west of it). Mark’s notice, then, is comparable to a description of an American trip from Portland to Denver via Seattle and the Great Plains or a British trip from Liverpool to London via Glasgow and Norfolk.[2]

To put it in our terms, it would be like saying, “Yeah, I went to Pine Bluff by way of Conway.” That is an odd route to take: north when you need to go southeast. But it is odd only if, as Marcus says, “Mark’s wording is meant to describe a direct journey.” But clearly Jesus was not terribly interested in taking a direct journey. As one commentator put it, “After all, Jesus was engaged in a mission, not attempting to travel as quickly as possible from A to B.”[3] Indeed He was engaged in a mission. It was a mission of the power and love of God, but, at this particular episode in His ministry, it was a mission of divine power and love to Gentiles specifically.

But why did Jesus take such an unusually route? Why go north if you want to go south and east? First of all, let us know that our understanding of why is not as important as the fact that He did so! But there is something intriguing here that does catch one’s attention.

Jesus was and is the fulfillment of the pictures and types and prophecies of the Old Testament. It is widely agreed – and I certainly agree – that with this miracle Jesus was fulfilling the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah 35.

Now that chapter is very interesting. That chapter speaks about the coming of the Messiah. We have mentioned it before with the feeding of the five thousand because the beginning of Isaiah 35 says that when the Messiah comes the desert will bloom. You will remember us commenting on Marks’ intentional usage of the adjective “green” in describing the “desolate” area where He fed the five thousand (Mark 6:39) and how it likely was pointing to Isaiah 35. So Isaiah 35 has already been “hanging around” Marks’ gospel, so to speak.

But then Jesus heals a deaf and mute man and He takes a weird road to get to him.

A deaf man hears.

A mute man speaks.

And Jesus takes a weird road to get there.

Listen to Isaiah 35.

¹ The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, ² it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God. ³ Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; ⁴ say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” ⁵ Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. ⁶ Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. ⁷ The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow. ⁸ And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it. ⁹ No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, ¹⁰ and those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Did you catch that? In Isaiah’s prophecy the Holy One will come, the desert will bloom, the deaf will hear, the mute will speak, and a holy highway will be established through the desert place…but the road will be for the clean and “the unclean will not journey on it.”

The desert will bloom.

The deaf will hear.

The mute will speak.

There will be a road in the wilderness.

The road is only for the clean.

Do you know what the Jews said of the Gentiles? They said they were unclean. They were not holy. They were outsiders and outcasts. The road of God was not for them.

Can I offer an opinion, a mere theory? What if Jesus is being intentionally prophetically provocative in the way He traveled the road to this man because He wanted to communicate that the way the Jews were thinking of the road of Isaiah 35 was all wrong? What if Jesus took the weird route He took knowing that the watching Jews would say, “Wow. Why on earth would go to the Decapolis by way of Sidon? Tell you what: that Jesus is a smart guy in many ways but He does not know how roads work.”

And Jesus goes to an unclean Gentile.

And Jesus heals an unclean Gentile.

And Jesus says, “You too get to walk the holy road in the wilderness.”

And the Jewish critics said, “He does not get to walk the road! The road is for the holy! Jesus, you do not know how roads work…”

And Jesus says, “No. It is you who do not know how roads work. Your map is upside down. Not mine. This man you say is unclean and broken is now a child of the living God. If the highway of holiness is for anyone it is for him. The journey I am taking that you think is backwards and confused is truly the path of God. I am not lost. You are lost. I know how the roads work. I am the Way. I am the highway of holiness. The self-righteous do not get to walk it. The broken and discarded do. This road does not work the way you thought it would.”

Jesus the Maker of New Creation…and of Old

There is yet more that is happening in our text. We have established well the fact that Mark tips his cap repeatedly to the Old Testament and repeatedly makes statements about who this Jesus is in the way he tells the story. This story of the healing of the deaf man is no exception. On the contrary, it is pregnant with meaning. There is a statement being made behind the words being used, and it is a statement about who this Jesus is and what it is He is doing.

The creative God

Take, for instance, verse 37. It uses the verb poiein twice to describe what Jesus has done.

³⁷ And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done [pepoieken = perfect tense] all things well. He even makes [poiei = present tense] the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

Jesus made.

Jesus makes.

This double usage of Jesus doing or Jesus making and their different tenses is intriguing. “The double use of poiein calls to mind Gen 1:1-2:3,” writes Joel Marcus, “where the verb is repeatedly used for God’s creative act.”[4] Consider how this word is used in Genesis 1-2

Genesis 1

⁷ So God made the vault and separated the water

¹⁶ God made two great lights…He also made the stars.

²⁵ God made the wild animals according to their kinds

³¹ God saw all that he had made

Genesis 2

² on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done

² he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done

³ God rested from all his work that he had done in creation

God made.

God makes.

Jesus made.

Jesus makes.

This is Genesis creation language and it points to both old and new creation. In Christ the Creator God has come among us. He who made is He who makes even still. He who made Adam to begin with now remakes the fallen sons of Adam.

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” (Revelation 21:5)

The creative mouth of God

When Jesus works a work of new creation He uses His mouth to do so.

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.

This use of saliva is jarring to us as it no doubt was to them, but this image is powerful. There is creative power in the mouth of Jesus. Out of the mouth of Jesus He creates new creation, He makes all things new.

But this too beckons us back to Genesis 1, for it was out of the mouth of God that He created! Thus, we find this in Genesis 1:

³ And God said

⁶ And God said

⁹ And God said

¹¹ And God said

¹⁴ And God said

²⁰ And God said

²⁴ And God said

²⁶ And God said

Creation, old and new, is wrought by the power of the mouth of God! The God who created with His mouth in Genesis 1 is the God who creates anew with His mouth in Mark 7.

The creative breath of God

Jesus works new creation through saliva but also through breath.

^34a-b He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh

Commentators differ on why Jesus offered a deep sigh. Was the deaf man’s malady so intense that Jesus was groaning beneath the strain of this miracle? Is He grieving over the fallenness of the world? Or is there some other explanation?

However you understand it, it must be noted that Jesus breathing out, sighing, is consistent also with the Genesis creation account. In Genesis 1 we see that the Spirit of God, the breath of God, is over the waters at creation.

² Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

In Genesis 2, the breath of God brings quickening and generative power to the life of the newly formed man.

⁷ Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Jesus is the God who created yet creates, the God who creates out of the power of His mouth, and the God whose breath brings life upon a dead thing.

The creative word of God

And He is the God who works new creation through the command of His voice. He creates with the words of His mouth.

^34c said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”).

R.T. France says that ephphatha “probably represents the Aramaic ethpeel imperative, ‘etp^etah, which has a reflexive sense, ‘Open up!’”[5] It is a short, powerful imperative: “Open up!” It brings to mind the powerful creative commands of God in Genesis 1:

³ And God said, “Let there be light.”

⁶ And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters…”

⁹ And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place…”

¹¹ And God said, “Let the land produce vegetation…”

¹⁴ And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky…”

²⁰ And God said, “Let the water team with living creatures…”

²⁴ And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures…”

²⁶ And God said, “Let us make mankind in our image…”

Jesus is the God who created yet creates, the God who creates out of the power of His mouth, the God whose breath brings life upon a dead thing, and the God who creates through the powerful work of divine command!

The proclamation of the goodness of creation

In light of these links to Genesis 1-2, verse 37 of Mark 7 becomes profoundly fascinating.

^37a People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well”

“He has done everything well.” Robert Gundry has noted the curiosity of “the universal plural of [panta] ‘all things [“everything” in ESV],’ despite the reference to only one miracle.”[6] In other words, Jesus performs one miracle, yet the people say, “He has done everything well.” Or, to put it another way, the people looked at what Jesus had done and saw that it was good. Again, Genesis 1.

⁴ God saw that the light was good…

¹⁰ …And God saw that it was good.

¹² …And God saw that it was good.

¹⁸ …And God saw that it was good.

²⁵ …And God saw that it was good.

³¹ God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

It is good.

All that Jesus has created is good.

It was the same good that God said over His work in Eden, for it is the same God who did both works!

The 4^th century deacon and hymn writer Ephraim the Syrian saw well the link between this story and the creation of Adam in Eden.

At that moment with fingers that may be touched, he touched the Godhead that may not be touched. Immediately this loosed the string of his tongue, and opened the clogged doors of his ears. For the very architect of the body itself and artificer of all flesh had come personally to him, and with his gentle voice tenderly opened up his obstructed ears. Then his mouth which had been so closed up that it could not give birth to a word, gave birth to praise him who made its barrenness fruitful. The One who immediately had given to Adam speech without teaching, gave speech to him so that he could speak easily a language that is learned only with difficulty.[7]

Creation.

New creation.

The first Adam was taught to speak.

Now we fallen sons of Adam are taught again to speak.

Creation was wrecked by us.

Creation is being restored by Jesus.

Jesus is the God who created yet creates, the God who creates out of the power of His own mouth, the God who commands light to shine in darkness and sound to burst forth in deaf ears, and the God over whose work He Himself and we along with Him say, “It is good. All that He has done is good. It is very, very good.”

See there Jesus, God with us, the God who makes all things new.

 

[1] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/12196773/Emotional-moment-boyfriends-marriage-proposal-the-first-thing-young-woman-hears-after-cochlear-implant.html

[2] Joel Marcus, Mark 1-8. The Anchor Bible. Vol.27 (New Haven, CT: The Anchor Yale Bible, 2005), p.472.

[3] Ben Witherington III, The Gospel of Mark. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001), p.233, n.108.

[4] Joel Marcus, p.480.

[5] R.T. France, The Gospel of Mark. The New International Greek Testament Commentary. Gen. Eds., I. Howard Marshall and Donald A. Hagner. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002), p.304.

[6] Robert H. Gundry, Mark. Vol.1 (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993), p.385.

[7] Thomas C. Oden and Christopher A. Hall, Mark. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Gen. Ed., Thomas C. Oden. New Testament, Vol. II (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998), p.103.