Ep. 48: The Deaf and mute man

CLICK HERE for the corresponding devotional in Yeshua Adored

MARK 7:31-37

This miracle meant that Jesus would get no rest as the fame of the healing spread. Privacy was going to be impossible now wherever he went. He continued his journey into the country of the Tetrarch Philip, then on to the Decapolis, the confederacy of ‘the Ten Cities’. Heathen territory, where Greek deities were worshipped.

Matthew gives only a general description of what happened there, concluding with those who witnessed his mighty deeds glorifying ‘the God of Israel.’ Among those brought to Jesus was one deaf and mute. The plea to ‘lay his hand upon him’ resulted in Jesus taking him aside from the multitude. In healing him, ‘He spat,’ applying it directly to the diseased organ. We read of the direct application of saliva only here and in the healing of the blind man at Bethsaida (as we shall soon see) and so we perhaps see this as peculiar to the healing of Gentiles. Peculiar, also, is the fact that he sighed, the thrusting of his fingers into the ears and the touch of his tongue.

It is a new era, Israel conquers the heathen world, not by force, but by love; not by outward means, but by the manifestation of power from above. One word was spoken by him, the Jewish word, Ephphatha (be opened). This teaches us that Jesus must always have spoken the Jews’ language, even among the heathens.

This is an extract from the book, Jesus : Life and Times, available for £10 here (Finalist for Academic Book of the year at 2023 CRT awards)