Why Should It Matter for Me that Jesus Healed a Deaf Man?

Introduction

As you may remember, as we’ve been working through the gospel of Mark on Sunday mornings, we’ve been seeing a number of key events from the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. And in particular, Mark Chapter 7 has been focused on showing how Jesus’s mercy isn’t just for religious insiders or Jews – but his mercy is clearly extended to whoever will trust him, from any nation and background. The good news of God’s blessing that comes in Christ – it isn’t limited ethnically or geographically. But the grace of Christ is shown to be great, even beyond the borders of Israel. And we’ll continue to see that in our text this morning as Jesus heals a deaf man, at the end of Mark, Chapter 7. So if you haven’t done so already, please turn with me in your Bibles to Mark, Chapter 7. And let’s ask for the Holy Spirit to bring clarity and conviction and comfort through the preaching of the Scriptures this morning. Let’s pray:

[Pray and Read Text]

The Man Who Heals the Deaf

In the early 1880s, a 19-month-old girl named Helen Adams Keller came down with a severe infection that left her deaf and blind. Helen was left in truly helpless condition. And yet her parents continued to do all they could to feed her, clothe her, and care for her. And they eventually began searching earnestly on Helen’s behalf, to see if there was someone who could help her. They were encouraged by a friend to reach to the Perkins Institution – a school for the blind in Boston, Massachusetts. And it was through the school that the Keller family was introduced to a bright young woman named Anne Sullivan, who was helping to develop a system of teaching by means of touch. She began manually making letters into Helen’s hand. And over the next several years, Helen gained the ability to communicate and interact with the outside world. She attended college, with Anne Sullivan spelling out the lectures into Helen’s hand – and Helen became proficient in French, German, Latin, and Greek. After graduation, she went on to become an author and advocate for various social causes. And of course the story of this is quite amazing – how Anne Sullivan was able to break into Helen’s dark, soundless world to teach her, and to change the course of her life.

And yet, even with all of Anne Sullivan’s skill, she didn’t have the ability to take away Helen’s blindness or deafness. For all of Helen Keller’s life, her ability to speak was permanently hindered, because of her other disabilities. She was difficult to understand and often needed an interpreter.

But as Jesus engages with the disabled man here in our text – who’s deaf and unable to speak – we’re supposed to see that his abilities are much greater than those of Anne Sullivan. Jesus isn’t just like one of us, a person trying to make the best things in a fallen, suffering world – but Jesus is the one who can actually set things right.

This short account of the deaf man – it might seem very simple and unremarkable compared to some of the other miracles that Jesus has done up until this point. And yet this account comes with a special sweetness and simplicity that’s intended to delight us all over again as we see Jesus’s care for those who are unclean, and unable to help themselves. The contents of our text can be divided under three main points – and so we’ll look at each one in turn. First, the condition of the disabled man. Second, the restoration that comes from Christ. And third the conclusion of the witnesses.

The Condition of the Deaf Man

So first, let’s consider the condition of the disabled man. In verse 31 of our text, we’re told that Jesus returned from the region of Tyre. That’s the region where he had recently encountered the Syrophoenician woman. And we’re told that he went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.

Now, I get it, for many of us, when we read about places like this – we might recognize the names, but it’s hard to keep track of where they’re actually located in relation to each other. The ancient geography of the Middle East can be hard to keep track of. And you might be one of those people who feel like you’re so bad with maps, you still need GPS to get you to the grocery store and back. And that’s fine.

But as Mark explains Jesus’s path from the region around Tyre to the Sea of Galilee – there’s significance to it. Because Jesus doesn’t take the normal path – the shortest path. He doesn’t take the path that primarily passes through the majority-Jewish region of Galilee. But instead, Mark tells us that Jesus takes a longer route. He intentionally takes a route that leads through lands that are inhabited by Gentiles – non-Jews, unbelievers.

As we’ve seen in previous weeks, Mark is intentionally showing us that part of Jesus’s ministry really was spent, demonstrating his mercy to people beyond the borders of Israel. And this is significant, because up until this point, God had made himself known in a special, focused way to the Jews. But now God was preparing to reveal his saving kindness through the Jews, to reach the Gentiles.

But this would have been a hard concept for the Jews to grasp. Many Jews had the idea that the Gentiles were hopeless – cut off from the possibility of finding favor with God. But that’s clearly not the case, as evidenced by Jesus’s own ministry. Mark wants to make sure we don’t miss it – Jesus very deliberately went to Gentile regions, to display miraculous signs and visible evidences of his mercy to them.

And this isn’t just seen in the way that Jesus travels the long way, from Sidon to the Sea of Galilee. But you’ll also see at the end of verse 31 that Jesus’s destination is the Decapolis. And the Decapolis, around the South and East side of the Sea of Galilee – it was another Gentile region centered around ten largely Greek cities. (Which is why the region was called the Decapolis – Deka, meaning ten in Greek, and polis meaning city). This is the same region where Jesus had traveled earlier, to cast the legion-army of demons out of a man who was once deranged, living among tombs.

But now Jesus is back. And people are gathering, who have heard of his reputation. It’s even possible that a number of these people have heard about Jesus from that man who was once oppressed by demons. And so people are coming to Jesus, and seeking his help with other issues that are disturbing them. And in verse 32, we’re particularly told about how people in the crowd came to Jesus, bringing a man who was deaf, and who had a serious speech impediment – who was unable to speak clearly.

And even though the description of this man isn’t very expansive, there are a few different things we learn about the condition of this disabled man.

For one thing, we’re given evidence of this man’s defilement. Since Jesus was in the Decapolis, here, it’s safe to say that this deaf, non-speaking man was a Gentile. And so there was all the baggage that came with that – idolatry, uncleanness, immorality.  It was just understood that, as a Gentile, this guy was being brought to God as a polluted man – as a sinner.

And then, of course, in addition to that we’re told of this man’s deafness, and his inability to speak. It’s common for these issues to go together – because people who can’t hear usually have trouble fine-tuning the way that sounds and words are supposed to be pronounced. Because they can’t hear what those words sound like. It can lead to some pretty serious speech impairments unless there’s special intervention.

But in addition to his defilement, and deafness, we’re also told about this man’s utter dependency on other people. You have to remember, this deaf man – he hadn’t heard about Jesus. How could he? He was deaf? He didn’t have ears to hear! Who knows how challenging it might have been, trying to make hand signals to this guy, trying to convince him to come and see Jesus. Without his friends or family members, it’s possible this guy never would have heard. And of course, he depended on his friends to ask for directions, and to figure out Jesus’s whereabouts. And even when they arrived at the location where Jesus was at – this man couldn’t speak. He didn’t even have the basic ability to ask for help. He depended on the people who came with him – who could speak up for him, and to ask for his healing. If he were left to himself, he never would have had a chance like this.

And when we slow down, and make a point of trying to understand this man’s situation – it might arouse some feelings of compassion for him. And that’s appropriate. But I hope you’re also able to see that as we’re looking at this deaf man, what we’re really seeing is a picture of us. This is humanity’s natural condition before God. This is the situation that all people are in, before they’re brought to Jesus.

Our natural condition is defilement. We enter this world as part of an unclean people, who have inherited corruption and fallenness from our first parents, Adam and Eve. We willfully embrace lives of idolatry and immorality, because our heart innately views God as something distant and undesirable. Our natural condition is defilement.

And our natural condition is also deafness. Not physical deafness, but spiritual deafness. The natural fallenness and sinfulness of people not only affects people like you and I by distorting our morals or our behaviors – but sin also disables people in other ways. It makes it so that we can’t hear and understand God’s Word. Sin has the effect of making people unwilling to listen, uninterested in what Scripture says, unable to understand spiritual truths. Even though we can hear words being spoken, the deafness caused by our sin – it prevents those words from getting in, and humbling us, and helping us. And of course, spiritual deafness ruins our ability to speak right words in the right way.

And just like the deaf man, our natural condition ends up being one of absolute dependency. We aren’t able, or willing, in our deafness to go find Jesus. And yet Jesus came to us.  Not just a long, inconvenient trip from Sidon to the Decapolis – but he came from the highest heavens to the low, and despised regions of the earth. And in our deafness, we don’t have ears to hear of the great things he can do heal us and change us. We don’t know the right words to ask for his help. But just as the deaf man was assisted by his friends, God has put people around us who have cared for us in our deafness, who have signaled to us that good news is nearby, even when our ears have been shut. And in our speaking problem – we’ve been given friends to pray for us, to ask for Jesus’s help on our behalf, even when we couldn’t form the words ourselves.

When we understand that this is our condition – that we’re really not much different from this deaf man – it helps us, all over again, to appreciate the work of Jesus. And this brings us to my second point in the text, concerning the restoration that comes from Christ.

The Restoration that Comes from Christ

As the friends of this deaf man bring him forward, they plead with Jesus – please, lay your hand on him. It would seem that this is how they had seen Jesus heal people before. So they ask for the same sort of thing. Please, lay your hand on this man, and heal him. And Jesus steps in to bring restoration, starting in verse 33. He pulls this deaf man aside, out of the crowd. And at this point – we’ve seen Jesus do some pretty unexpected things, so I don’t know why this would surprise us. But we’re told that Jesus did something highly unusual, here. “He put his fingers in [the deaf man’s] ears, and after spitting, [Jesus] touched his tongue.” And yes, that means that Jesus spit in his hand, and then with that spit-covered hand touched the other man’s tongue. So this probably sounds a bit gross to many of us. It might be confusing – why isn’t Jesus just laying his hand on him? What’s even going on here?

Well, one thing that’s important to point out is that in Jesus’s day, saliva from a healthy person – it actually wasn’t viewed as something disgusting or unsanitary. In fact, it was widely believed that saliva had helpful healing properties. Now, this might sound a bit naïve. But there’s actually something to it. Modern research has demonstrated that saliva naturally contains a number of compounds that can be antibacterial, and that can promote quicker healing – which is one of the reasons why injuries in your mouth often heal faster than wounds in other places. That being said, there are some viral diseases that can be passed through saliva – so it’s not as though you should go around spitting at people. But all that being said – in Jesus’s day, saliva was actually associated with restorative care – with healing. That helps to explain why Jesus did what he did.

But it may still seem odd. When the people brought this deaf man to Jesus, they were just asking that Jesus would lay his hand on the man, to heal him. So why didn’t Jesus just do that – especially since that seems to have been how he normally did things?

Well, I think that one of the things that’s helpful to realize here, is that this shows us that Jesus often does his work of healing in people, in different ways. It doesn’t always look the same for everyone. Some people – he healed them by laying on his hands. Other people, he’s given them healing just by a verbal command. Other people have been healed by touching the fringe of his garment. And of course, here, we see something different – fingers in the ears, and touching the man’s tongue. It’s different.

And similarly, when Jesus is rescuing people from their spiritual disease and deadness and deafness – the healing process doesn’t always look the same. For some people, the change is very public, very obvious all of a sudden. For other people, Jesus pulls them out of the crowd and heals them quietly, with almost no one noticing. For some people, all it takes is a timely Word from Jesus to change their life. For others, there’s a process of Jesus putting his hands on our disabilities and deficiencies – reminding us of how needy we are for him – before the healing comes. In some cases, people are drawn to seek out Jesus themselves. But in other cases, they’re led to Jesus by friends and family. We should expect that the healing work of Jesus won’t always look the same. Jesus laying his hands on people might’ve been the norm – but it wasn’t the only way. And practically, this is helpful for us to keep in mind. Because sometimes Jesus’s work to restore people may not follow the same pattern as when Jesus healed us. We might be inclined to think surely if someone is saved, they’ll know the day and time that it happened. Or surely if someone is saved, it will immediately cause that person to lose all interest in certain sin patterns, like it did for me. And yet the healing work of Jesus sometimes takes different forms – and goes at different speeds, even. Even in this room, I imagine that there would be a diversity of different stories, of how Jesus met us in our lostness and sinfulness, in order to give us new life by the work of Spirit. Even though there’s one Savior, and one Spirit, there isn’t just one predictable method that Jesus uses when he applies his healing power. That’s one helpful insight we see, when Jesus heals in this unusual way.

But I think there’s another reason why Jesus does this. He heals like this for the benefit of the deaf man. Out of love for this deaf man, Jesus heals in a way that’s really visible, and touchable. Jesus pokes his fingers in this deaf man’s ears, as if to say – I’m going to do something about these ears for you. He applies saliva to this man’s tongue, to say, “I know you have trouble speaking – but I’m going to heal you.” Jesus isn’t trying to prove a point to the crowds with this. Remember, he pulled away from the crowd. But Jesus’s concern is just for this one man – to make sure that this one man really understands his saving power and kindness.

But as you see in our text – there are other things that Jesus does as he’s healing this man. In verse 34, we’re told that Jesus looked up to heaven. There’s an acknowledgement that the healing that’s about to happen – it’s not being brought about by power that’s just earthly, but it’s by heavenly power. And then we’re told that Jesus sighed. Do you see that in verse 34? He sighed – or another translation of this could be that he groaned.

It perhaps seems like such a small, insignificant detail. And yet, Mark took the time to include it. He wanted us to understand that as Jesus prepared to heal this disabled man, he groaned. But don’t misunderstand the groaning here. This is isn’t the sort of groan that you some of you might give your spouse when you’re asked to take out the trash. This isn’t a groan of self-pity, or a groan of discontentment. But this is a groan of sorrow and longing. In this groan, we see Jesus’s earnest desire that this world, wrecked by sin, would be delivered from its bondage to corruption. In Romans 8:22, we’re told that the whole creation has been groaning together in a similar way – and that as Christians, we too groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, and the redemption of our bodies.

As Jesus steps in to heal this man, it’s not as though he’s just non-emotional, or unmoved. He doesn’t just view the deaf man as an object on an assembly line of people who need to be serviced. But Jesus, in all the right ways, is aroused to compassion over this man’s condition. Even though he’s just met this man – even though the malady of this man is temporary, and will soon be resolved – Jesus displays his genuine affection for this disabled man. He sighs.

And then Jesus opens his mouth, and he says Ephphatha. Mark appears to be giving us an exact quote here. Jesus said this word in Aramaic, which as a Jew, was likely Jesus’ mother tongue. And Mark clearly expects that a number of his readers will be Greeks-speaking Gentiles who don’t know Aramaic. Because he translates. He explains that “Ephphatha,” simply means, “Be opened.”

And with this short command, just by speaking, the deaf man is healed. We see this in verse 35: “And his ears were opened, his tongue was released” – the literal translation here is that his tongue was unchained, it was set free! – “and he spoke plainly.”

And this gives us an important reminder that Word of Christ is truly powerful. The power didn’t have anything to do with the word choice Jesus used – it’s not as though Jesus was reciting a magic spell or something. The power to heal didn’t come from the language that he spoke in. But the power came – and comes – from Jesus himself, as the divine Son of God. The same almighty voice that spoke way back in the beginning, that created the whole universe out of nothing – it’s the same voice that spoke to restore this man’s hearing. And it’s the same voice that continues to speak from the Scriptures to restore sinful hearts.

This is why, as a Church – as Christians, we have such a high value for the preaching and reading and the proclaiming of God’s Word. It’s not because we have a superstitious hunch, that if we just recite Bible verses over people it’ll make them better. But it’s because we have the utmost confidence in the God who has spoken, and who continues to speak through His Word, by His Spirit, to bring new life and needed grace for his people.

But when Jesus speaks to heal this deaf man, it gives us another helpful reminder. Sometimes, the work of God to restore us is carried out in ways that we aren’t able to feel or observe. Think about it, the healing word of Jesus – it was a word that the deaf man couldn’t hear. Though sometimes God may stoop down to our level, and work in ways that we can feel and see – like Jesus did for this deaf man – it’s not uncommon for God to do his work unheard and unseen.

Some people might assume – surely if the Spirit is working in me, it should produce a certain type of emotion. I should be able to feel God at work. And yet the deaf man is healed without hearing the word that healed him. You could say the same thing about our text last week. The Gentile woman’s daughter, who was demon-possessed – she’s healed by a word from Jesus that she doesn’t hear or experience, either. Jesus’s main concern isn’t ultimately to give people an experience of healing – even though sometimes he does that in different ways. But what he’s primarily concerned about is the effect of actually making us well.

The Conclusion of the Witnesses

And so that’s the result that gets focused on in our text. We don’t hear anything about the deaf experiencing a tingly feeling, or anything about supernatural, mystical sensations. But the focus, here, is given to the actual change that Jesus produced in him. He was once deaf – but now he can hear. He was once unable to speak coherently. And now, he (and the witnesses of this event) – Jesus can’t get them to stop talking.

Verse 36 tells us that “Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.” Mark’s point here isn’t so much that we should disapprove of these people for disobeying Jesus. But his point is just to draw attention to how astonished and amazed and excited they were about the work of Jesus. They just can’t stop talking about it! And we know that this is his main purpose because of what he says in verse 37, about the conclusion of these witnesses. And this is my last point – a brief one: The conclusion of the witnesses.

In verse 37, we’re told that the people were astonished beyond measure about Jesus. They were saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear, and the mute speak.” It’s an interesting comment. On the one hand, it may just seem like the people are saying that Jesus has done all kinds of supernatural things. That he’s a jack-of-all-trades kind of miracle worker. And though that might be part of it, I also think it’s worth noting that these people say that Jesus does all things well.

And this is worth reflecting on a bit. Because the gloriousness of Jesus isn’t just that he’s powerful – that he can crush windstorms, or cast out demons, or cure diseases. But the gloriousness of Jesus is likewise seen in his goodness. As he does all that he does, he does it well.

We have evidence of his goodness, here, in the text. When Jesus heals, he heals generously – all for free. He doesn’t charge people a fee – even though he had the chance to make money this way. But he brings rescue and restoration as a gift.

And Jesus does this healing well, in that he heals humbly. He doesn’t do it to win the applause or approval of a human audience. But Jesus heals and helps in a self-forgetful way, by asking people to keep his work hidden, rather than craving personal publicity.

Also, when Jesus heals, he heals effectively. He doesn’t run out of supernatural authority midway through the process. He doesn’t come up short. He doesn’t walk away from half-finished works. But Jesus brings his work to completion. Whatever he does, he really does well.

And in addition to these things – when Jesus heals, he serves compassionately, with a groaning heart. He serves reverently, with his face turned to heaven. And he serves out God’s mercy, not just in a limited geographical space – but even beyond the borders of Israel.

The power of Jesus is good. And the goodness of Jesus is powerful. He does all things well. That’s what the witnesses say. And Mark wants us to pay attention to the words of these witnesses – to understand that this is true. Especially because there will be days when things don’t seem well. When you’re being led through heart-wrenching situations, trusting that Jesus does all things well – that his purposes are wise and good – trusting Jesus might be difficult!

And yet those are exactly the types of situations when you must be reminded and assured – Jesus does all things well. Though the surgeon may seem to be wounding you – it’s for your healing. The good banker may seem to be taking from you, but it’s because he’s at work to store up treasure for you, to pay you back with interest. The faithful father may seem to be hard toward his child – and yet it’s driven by rich love, to produce greater growth and maturity. We shouldn’t expect to always know why Jesus is doing what he’s doing. But what we do know, when we know Jesus, is that he does all things well.

And if you’re ever tempted to doubt Jesus’s goodwill – remember the cross. Because the cross reminds us – we deserved the death of a criminal for our wrongs against God. But in Jesus’s perfect love, he took the blame for our evils. And he suffered the punishment that should have fallen on you and me, so that we could be forgiven. And because of what Jesus did in his perfect obedience, he ushered in a powerful, true healing – not only a healing for deaf ears – but a powerful healing to reverse our darkness and raise the dead. For all who trust in him, our future isn’t uncertainty and sorrow – but our future is everlasting peace and pleasure and life with God. Jesus does all things well.

But you and I don’t. You and I can’t. That’s why we need to be saved through the work of Jesus. If you’re here this morning, and haven’t trusted in Jesus’s work to heal you of your defilement and deafness – if you’ve been trying to fix your spiritual emptiness and inability on your own – the day has come to give it up. You need to admit you have nothing without Jesus. Acknowledge that nothing less than the divine power of Jesus can make you well. Receive the savior that God has sent to rescue you from your deafness and deadness. Don’t leave this place until you’re resting in his work. And all will be right. Because everything that Jesus does is powerful. All he does is good. Jesus does all things well.  Let’s pray:

Fellowship Reformed Church is a Bible-believing Church in Mt Pleasant, MI.