GOSPEL MEDITATION # 195
Jesus Heals a Deaf Man
Mark 7:31-37
- Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions.
- Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
- Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer
- Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
- Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
- Reread it. From memory, determine the central points.
- Jesus retreats to the Decapolis (ten cities) on the eastern side of the Jordan River. He encounters another Gentile.
- To be deaf and have trouble speaking makes sense.
- Those who brought the man to Jesus are not identified. This has become a pattern for us; this is what we do too.
- They “begged Jesus” to heal him. This reminds us of what happened in Mark 7:26. The idea is that, for whatever reason, Jesus did not respond immediately.
- Jesus shows courtesy to the man by taking him aside. However, might Jesus have wanted this encounter to remain quiet?
- We must ask then, if the healing was private how do we know of it now?
- Jesus often spoke a word to heal, now a touch. Would not a spoken word have achieved the desired healing?
- Jesus must have touched the man’s ears, then a second action, He spit and touched the man’s tongue with a wet finger. Might this have looked differently?
- In Aramaic, “Be opened.” Here now was the word.
- The man spoke plainly (incredible, a multifaceted healing), and Jesus wants the man to be quiet.
- The man simply could not obey.
- Jesus does do all things well.