In our daily meditations, we continue to explore the supernatural ministry of the Lord Jesus while He walked among us. Today, we examine Mark's account of the healing of a deaf man with a speech impediment:
31Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. 34And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak” (Mark 7:31: 37).
No one can claim that the Lord acted in just one way. There was no specific formula for how He healed the sick. Jesus relied on what the Father revealed to Him in all situations. He could have simply spoken a word of healing, and it would have happened, but no method of healing was favored over any other. Christ demonstrated total reliance on the Father. He did not explain to His disciples why He led the man away from the crowd, nor why He sighed before commanding, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened” (v. 35). There are no magical words to say when praying for sick individuals; we should follow Christ’s example and learn to be obedient to the prompting and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
In this case, Jesus put His fingers in the man's ears and, after spitting, touched the man's tongue. Doesn't that sound strange? Sometimes, the Lord does things that challenge a person’s mind to reach their heart. It’s almost like Naaman, the Syrian general, who was instructed by the prophet Elijah to go and dip himself seven times in the murky Jordan River (2 Kings 5). Naaman was initially offended, believing the rivers of Syria were cleaner than the Jordan. However, when he was encouraged to obey the word given to him, he washed in the Jordan and returned completely healed of leprosy. Obedience is the key to witnessing God’s work among us.
When people witnessed what Jesus did, their testimony was, "They were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak'" (v. 37). Indeed, all of us who are disciples will reflect on how the Lord has transformed us, and we also testify that the Lord has done all things well for us. At the end of our lives, when we look forward to living with Christ for eternity, we, too, will be astonished at what He has accomplished. Furthermore, on our deathbed, there will come that resurrection day when we will look at one another in our new glorious bodies (1 Corinthians 15), and our joy will be complete in our transformation by the power of God. Keith Thomas
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