The deaf man healed and Isaiah 35
The Pharisees were trying to fault Jesus in every way possible. They had said that He was doing miracles by the power of demons. And then more recently, they had found fault in matters to do with the washing of hands and ceremonial cleansing. So Jesus did something that He had never done before—He crossed the borders of Israel and walked 40 km North West to the region of Tyre.
Mark was being written for Gentile believers in Rome, and this chapter would have greatly encouraged them. In Mark 7:24-30, they would have seen Jesus, being somewhat fed up with the Israelites and their religious leaders, leave Israel, enter Gentile territory and engage with the Syrophoenician woman. The Syrophoenician woman came begging for Jesus’ help. She knew that she had nothing to offer in exchange for the Lord’s mercy and no claim to access by right or righteousness—the very mindset that is the prerequisite for salvation.
In our passage for today, Mark 7:31-37 about the healing of the mute man, we have another account that would have greatly encouraged the Gentile believers.
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.] The Decapolis was an area with a large number of Gentiles. Mark records mater-of-factly that Jesus went through Sidon. But the Gentiles in Rome would have found this encouraging and exciting, because it shows Christ’s heart for the Gentile world. For Sidon was not on the way south from Tyre to the Decapolis, and in fact, Jesus would have done a 200 km detour through multiple Gentile cities. Jesus came as a Jew, to be the fulfillment of the Law and Prophets, as the Jewish Messiah. But we see glimpses of His heart for the Gentiles in passages like this.
This account is more than just the healing of a deaf man. It is more even than the opening of spiritual ears to hear the gospel. This account is about promise and fulfillment and the restoration of all things in the new heaven and new earth.
PROMISE TO THE WORLD
Only two accounts are unique to Mark’s gospel and not found in the other gospels. This one and the one about the man healed of blindness in Bethsaida in Mark 8. This account is about the plan of God to save and restore people with which to populate the New Heaven and New Earth.
Mark 7:32 [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.] The word used for speech impediment is a very uncommon word. Mark could have used other familiar words, but he uses this word, which is only used twice in the Bible. Here and in Mark 7:32 and in Isaiah 35:6 [then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.]
This is a passage that looked forward to Jesus who would make the way for people to be saved. Mark is saying that Isaiah 35 was being fulfilled, a prophecy of restoration not just for Israel but for God’s people from all over the earth. Mark wants them to know that Jesus’ ministry was also for them. At a time when the Roman Christians were being thrown to the lions, Mark pointed them to the prophecy in Isa 35:9 [No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.] This prophecy pointed them in hope to the final restoration when all persecution and troubles would all be gone.
PROMISE TO THE MAN
Luke 7:33-35 [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, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.]
Jesus did some unusual things. 1. Took the man away from the crowd, 2. Put His fingers in the man’s ears, 3. Touched the man’s tongue with His spit, 4. Looked up and said “Ephphatha.”
Jesus was not setting up a new healing method, for He did not need to even see the persons who needed healing. What Jesus was doing was to convey a promise to someone who was deaf. Jesus was signing, as it were, to the deaf man, promising to heal Him. And Jesus also used the word “Ephphatha” that needed the lips to move sufficiently to be lip read.
Jesus’ tender compassion is seen in that He led the deaf man away from the watching crowd, letting him enjoy the joy of the moment with some privacy.
You cannot put Jesus in a box. He operates in ways that are appropriate to the person. Unlike the case of the Syrophoenician woman, there was no boldness left in this man, and Jesus restores his hope in God and the possibility of his healing.
It is good to note that it was his friends that brought him to Christ and begged Him for healing. Luke 7:32 [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.]
Our spiritually deaf and blind friends will not go to Jesus unless we play our roles as friends, and take them to Jesus and beg Him on their behalf.
THE COST OF THAT PROMISE
Luke 7:34 [And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”]
Just before Jesus said “Be opened,” He looked up to heaven and sighed. He groaned with pain. This affected Him. It could be that He identified with the man’s suffering. But He was about to heal him. This sigh is Jesus’ way of communicating to the man that his healing came at great cost. All the blessings that come, while they are freely given, are not free. They come at a cost. The cost is the highest cost that would be paid by Christ on the cross. This is why Isa 35:10 mentions ‘The Ransomed of the Lord.’ Ransom is a payment. And Jesus came to pay that ransom. The blessing here was given, but the cost had not yet been paid. Jesus looked ahead to the time when He would make that payment, when He would sigh the ultimate sigh. And when that ransom was paid, He would begin to create a world with no more sighing.
Isa 35:10 [And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.]
The ransom paid on the cross redirected the wrath of God, removed the curse of sin, and took away all sighing and tears.
When we enjoy God’s abundant blessings to us, let us remember the cost. Let us remember what the mute man saw just before he was healed, conveyed to him by the Lord’s ‘signing.’ Let us remember how He looked up to heaven knowing that the blessing would come from heaven and how He sighed knowing that it was through His pain and sighing that His people would be made whole. This story is about promise and promise fulfilled through the sighing and pain of our Saviour.