Key Verse: People
were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has
done everything well,” they said. “He
even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
Mark 7:37
Imagine having never heard a word. Without words, how does one think? How does one even have a concept of
communication? How does one have, or
gain understanding?
Deafness, especially from birth, can be such an isolating
handicap. So much of how we understand
the world around us comes through our ears.
It’s not just the sounds of nature that we do not experience, but all of
communication itself. It is through
words that we gain understanding. This
man had not been educated in sign language or lip reading. He couldn’t have been taught to read or
write. It wasn’t that he was not capable
of learning these things, but that the world around him was unable to
communicate these skills to him.
With that in mind, how would anyone teach him of Jesus? How would he gain understanding of God, or
God’s love? This man could not know
these things. We are left to wonder how
he experienced Jesus' interaction with him.
It is important to note that this healing took place near
the Decapolis. This is the area that
Jesus sent the Gentile that He had healed of a legion of demons in Mark
5:1-20. Jesus had sent this man off to
tell what Jesus had done for him. It’s
obvious, from the reception that Jesus received, that the man had obeyed Jesus
and now, this deaf mute, another Gentile would benefit from Jesus Healing
touch.
First of all, Jesus drew him aside. I’m sure that, in part, this was for reasons
of privacy, but could it have also been to avoid frightening him?
Then, Jesus puts his fingers in the man’s ears. In other words, Jesus drew him close. But this could also have served as sign language so the man would may get some idea what was about to happen, or at least, when it did happen, the man would know who had healed him. Finally, Jesus produced saliva, and took it
from His own mouth to put in this deaf man’s mouth. This would mean that Jesus lifted the man’s face,
probably so that He could look into his eyes to reassure the man that He meant
no harm and that it would be okay. What
an intimate act, almost like lovers, that God would draw so close to this man
who, up to now, had been in his own little world.
The people were amazed! It wasn’t just this man who was healed, this healing would have been experienced
also by all those who loved him and had brought him to Jesus. Imagine being his mother, being able to tell
her son for the first time, “I love you,” and know that he understood. Imagine the gift that this healing was for
all those around him. Imagine the deaf and mute man being given the gift of understanding all this in an instant.
Jesus came into this man’s world to free him from isolation
and ignorance, as He came into our world to free us from the consequences of
sin and give us understanding beyond what we could imagine. We, like this man,
were isolated by our sin, ignorant of God’s truth, as the man was ignorant of
much of life itself. Jesus longs to draw
us close into an intimate relationship with Him.
Hymn: “OLove That Will Not Let Me Go”
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