He Does All Things Well!
Mark 7:31-37
Introduction: 700 years before the birth of Jesus
the prophet Isaiah spoke of the coming of the Messiah. He said “…He will
come and save you. 5Then the
eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6then shall the lame man leap like
a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy…” (Isa 35:4-6). The hope that God would send a rescuer at the
right time to save His people and set them free was at the core of the faith of
Israel in the first century. The nature and the means of that rescue was,
however, poorly understood. What would that deliverance look like? At the
outset of his ministry Jesus said,
14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee,
proclaiming the gospel of God, 15
and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand;
repent and believe in the gospel."
The time had come
and God was sending the Messiah, the Promised One, the long-awaited Savior into
the world. But the people were expecting, for the most part, a military or
political leader, not a Savior from sin. A little further on in Mark, in
chapter 8, Jesus explicitly begins to teach the disciples what was about to
happen, what had to happen…
31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and
be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed,
and after three days rise again. 32
And he said this plainly… (Mk 8:31,32).
Everything was moving toward Calvary. The climactic
confrontation would come in God’s time, for God’s purpose. Jesus’ ministry looked
toward what Calvary would accomplish. His ministry was giving the people a glimpse of the
future, insight into the curse undone in the New Creation!
The Maine* Idea: The compassionate healing that Jesus did was a
glimpse of the restoration and life He came to provide and which we are called
to proclaim.
I. The Help of True
Friends: Again, we
are reminded of the importance of intercessory prayer (31-32). We see a straightforward request: Some people “begged” Jesus to touch him.
Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through
Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the 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.
I’ve been
impressed as we’ve gone through the Gospel of Mark at the repeated illustration
of a principle we’ve tried to emphasize over the last couple of years: That God
would use us to impact the lives of the people He has sovereignly and
strategically placed in our lives, that is our family and others in our close
sphere of influence (our oikos!). One striking example was across the lake from
this scene, back in Mark 2, where we saw how the faith of the friends had a
major role not only in the man’s healing, but also in his salvation…
4 And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed
the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on
which the paralytic lay. 5
And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "My son,
your sins are forgiven." (Mark 2:4,5).
The leaders took exception to Jesus
pronouncing forgiveness, and so to make His authority crystal clear, He brought
physical healing to the man as well. But don’t miss how the crippled man got
there, in front of Jesus. His friends cared enough to persist, they didn’t give
up, and the crowd and even the hard clay roof were not going to stop them. And
their friend found healing and grace!
Fast forward to
Mark 7. By now maybe a couple of years have passed. Jesus was again in the
region of the Sea of Galilee, after taking a rather circuitous route, a trip
north from Tyre through Sidon, and then looping back east and south toward the
Sea of Galilee. This time rather than Capernaum or Nazareth, He comes to
gentile territory on the southeast of the lake, the area called “Decapolis.”
And Jesus continues to do works that reveal He is the Messiah. There are
several links between this scene at the end of Mark 7 and Isaiah 35. Look at Isaiah 35:4-10,
…He will come and save you. 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall
be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6 then shall the lame man leap
like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break
forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; 7 the burning sand shall become a
pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, where
they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. 8And a
highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean
shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way... 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
miracles of Jesus were a glimpse of the future, the “not yet” of the Kingdom
breaking into the “already” of today, because the King was present. Mark wants
us to connect what Jesus is doing to this passage in Isaiah. For example, the
word in 7:32 that the ESV translates with “speech impediment,” mogilalon, occurs only here in the New
Testament. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, it
also appears in only one place, Isaiah 35:6. It is a context talking about the
coming King and His Kingdom, the undoing of the curse, the promise of the life
of blessing and abundance for which we were created.
So, we see these
unnamed friends, “some people,”
bringing their deaf and mute friend to Jesus. Their help is expressed by two
verbs, they “brought” him to Jesus,
and they “begged” Jesus to touch him. If they were aware of Isaiah 35, they were
asking Him for a kingdom blessing, a messianic work, in the life this man who
was deaf and mute. The word “brought” is the verb phero, which often has the sense of “carry, bear.” It gives me the
picture of these guys hearing that Jesus was there, and grabbing their friend
by the hand and leading him to Jesus. And they don’t just drop him off and hope
for the best. They begin pleading with Jesus, begging Him to touch their
friend. Another picture of persistent,
caring, intercession! Like the mother
pleading for her daughter in the previous scene, these men bring their friend
to Jesus, and plead with Him for help. The compassionate healing that Jesus did
was a glimpse of the restoration and life He came to provide and which we are
called to proclaim.
II. A Touching
Response (33-35) –
The Love of Jesus is evident - the man was deaf, so here actions speak louder
than words as Jesus, apart from the crowd, “acts out” the healing through touching
– no show, just grace!
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.
Mark tells us Jesus took the deaf man aside
from the crowd, seemingly so that He could minister to him with a little
privacy. There is something “touching” about this scene, as though Jesus wants
this man to know that he is not just a face in the crowd, or someone who He
reluctantly blesses. He is showing His personal care and compassion. Just like Jesus taught the mother in the
previous scene, and was growing her faith, it seems that Jesus is building faith
into the life of the man, as well as the life of the friends that brought him,
along with Jesus’ own disciples.
Do you have, or
have you ever had, a deaf person in your life? Communication can be a challenge!
When I was young my dad had a young deaf man, George, who worked for him. My
dad learned some sign language so they could communicate. I was impressed that they could seemingly
understand one another. George could
make some sounds, but since he couldn’t hear he never learned to speak. I had a
student one semester in the seminary in Brazil who was deaf. Later he actually
became a teacher of a class on sign language at the school. In my case, he had
an “interpreter” that was there with him, signing while I spoke, and translating
an occasional question from the student. In our scene in Mark, Jesus is using
sign language, letting this man know what He is doing. By touching the ears, He
showed the man he was addressing his need. By touching his tongue, he showed
him that he would be able to speak. There would be no speech therapy needed! Jesus
looks up to heaven, letting the man know from whence comes his help. Even His “sigh” could communicate His
compassion. Someone said at our Wednesday night meeting, that each of the
miracles Jesus did was in a sense unique. He knows us, and He understands. He
will meet us at the point of our need…
Jesus “sighed” – Why? (see also Mk 8:12; Jn
11:35). It certainly showed strong
emotion, expressing compassion… One writer called His sigh “An emotional
response to the wretched state of fallen humanity.” Another compared it to Jesus
weeping at the tomb of Lazarus (Jn 11:35, “Jesus wept.”) It seems to me the
connection with Isaiah 35 helps us. There we read in verse 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…
Jesus sighed, identifying with the wretched state of fallen
humanity. According to Isaiah 53 “He was
a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief…” He identified with us, He “sighed”
for us, He wept for us, and ultimately He died for us, so we could have life. The compassionate healing that Jesus did was a
glimpse of the restoration and life He came to provide and which we are called
to proclaim.
III. A Time for Testimony: Jesus was about God’s will – in
God’s time (36-37; cf. 8:30,31).
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 word of
Jesus may seem a little out of place here.
The last time He was in the region, and he cast the Legion out of the
Gadarene demoniac, the man now healed, wanted to get in the boat and go with Jesus
and the disciples. But Jesus had another
mission for Him. We read in Mark 5:19-20,
19 And he did not permit him but said to him, "Go
home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how
he has had mercy on you." 20
And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done
for him, and everyone marveled.
That made sense! Don’t come now, you have another mission. Go
to your oikos, your friends and
family, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you. Be a witness! But
wait a minute, now, a year or two later, “tell no one”? It seems to me that the
explanation can be found a little further ahead in the Gospel, Mark 8:27-31,
And on the way he asked his disciples, "Who do
people say that I am?" 28
And they told him, "John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others,
one of the prophets." 29
And he asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered
him, "You are the Christ." 30
And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. 31 And he began to teach them that
the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the
chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.
Why tell no
one? The time was drawing nearer for
Jesus to “set his face resolutely toward
Jerusalem,” to turn toward the City of Peace where He, the Prince of Peace,
would be rejected, unjustly accused, handed over to the gentiles, tortured and
executed (Cf. Luke 9:20,21,51). The hour
was coming, but it wasn’t this day, not yet. There was more revelation, and
more teaching, that had to happen first. God was guiding this story and
everything had to unfold according to His plan and His time. The Gadarene had
been told to “Go and tell,” and through his testimony the fame of Jesus had
spread already through that predominantly gentile region. The day of reaching out to the gentiles with
the full revelation of the Gospel was still future, so for now Jesus tells them
to tell no one. Even so, in their human weakness and excitement they can’t keep
the news to themselves!
We see an
overwhelming reaction in verse 37, “And
they were astonished beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done all things well. He
even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.’" Utter astonishment! Notice the language that
is used, “He does all things well…” The adverb “well” is the same root [kalos] that is translated “good” in
Genesis 1:4,10,12,18,21,25, and in 1:30
“very good.” As God brought the creation into existence, He pronounces it
“good.” God’s Creation was marred by the Fall. In the light of the
context, Mark may be wanting us to think of God’s “good” work in Creation, and
to even think of Jesus’ kingdom work as re-creation (see also John 1:1ff. He is
the Creator!). God created, it was all
“good,” and now Jesus does all things “well.” When I would pick up my southern
Baptist colleague to drive to the seminary in Sao Paulo, Brazil, his wife would
often say, “Y’all teach ‘um good!” Was she saying to teach our students well,
or did she mean to teach them “good,” that is, God’s truth? I was never quite sure,
but either way works! Jesus did “all things well,” and all that he did was good.
The final phrase in v.7, “He even
makes the deaf hear and the mute speak”—in Mark’s context is clearly
alluding to the messianic Kingdom described in Isaiah 35—the curse undone—the life
of blessing and abundance God created us to experience! That is Good News!
Jesus said, I am come that you might have
life, and that you might have it more abundantly! Think of that—God was in Christ reconciling the world to
himself, and He has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation! And so,
as His ambassadors, we urge people on
behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God!
What is God saying to me in this passage? The compassionate healing that Jesus
did was a glimpse of the restoration and life He came to provide and which we
are called to proclaim.
What would God have me to do in response to this passage? Who is Jesus? He will ask the
disciples in the next chapter, “Who do
men say that I am?” That is an interesting question to ask people today,
you’ll get all kinds of answers. But be sure in your heart: Who do you say that He is? If you
believe that He is God, the Son, the eternal Word who was made flesh, that
means we owe Him our love, our allegiance, our obedience, our worship. Think
about this: He is the same, yesterday,
today, and forever. Just as He was doing with His disciples, He is still at
work in us, guiding each of us through life in this fallen world, revealing
Himself through the Word, using this time to teach us and to grow our faith. There
is a lot of pain and suffering in this fallen world. But this isn’t the end of
the story (Cf. Jn 16:20)! We can have victory, in Jesus.
And this, for me, is the amazing part: He has entrusted to us the
message of His grace. The unnamed friends in this story brought their deaf and
mute friend to Jesus. And it didn’t stop there: they pleaded with Jesus
to heal Him. Let’s determine to bring our friends before the Lord, and
diligently, persistently plead with God to give them ears to hear the truth of
the Gospel! Write down their names, and keep
praying! After all, Jesus is still building His church! AMEN.
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