Gospel Meditation: Jesus Heals a Deaf Man Mark 7:31-37

GOSPEL MEDITATION # 195

Jesus Heals a Deaf Man

Mark 7:31-37

  1. Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions.
  2. Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
  3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer
  4. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
  5. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
  6. Reread it. From memory, determine the central points.
  7. Jesus retreats to the Decapolis (ten cities) on the eastern side of the Jordan River. He encounters another Gentile.
  1. To be deaf and have trouble speaking makes sense.
  2. Those who brought the man to Jesus are not identified. This has become a pattern for us; this is what we do too.
  3. 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.
  4. Jesus shows courtesy to the man by taking him aside. However, might Jesus have wanted this encounter to remain quiet?
  5. We must ask then, if the healing was private how do we know of it now?
  6. Jesus often spoke a word to heal, now a touch. Would not a spoken word have achieved the desired healing?
  7. 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?
  8. In Aramaic, “Be opened.” Here now was the word.
  9. The man spoke plainly (incredible, a multifaceted healing), and Jesus wants the man to be quiet.
  10. The man simply could not obey.
  11. Jesus does do all things well.

 

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