Well done!

Mark 7:31-37

31 Then he left the region of Tyre, went through Sidon back to Galilee Lake and over to the district of the Ten Towns. 32 Some people brought a man who could neither hear nor speak and asked Jesus to lay a healing hand on him. 33 He took the man off by himself, put his fingers in the man's ears and some spit on the man's tongue. 34 Then Jesus looked up in prayer, groaned mightily, and commanded, "Ephphatha!-- Open up!" 35 And it happened. The man's hearing was clear and his speech plain-- just like that. 36 Jesus urged them to keep it quiet, but they talked it up all the more, 37 beside themselves with excitement. "He's done it all and done it well. He gives hearing to the deaf, speech to the speechless."

Food for thought!

This story is of a man with double jeopardy! He was deaf and had an impediment in his speech. No doubt the two things went together; it was the man's inability to hear which made his speech so imperfect. This was a special case that needed special handling. There is no miracle which so beautifully shows Jesus' way of treating people.

(i) He took the man aside from the crowd, all by himself. Here is the most tender considerateness of Jesus. Deaf people are always a little embarrassed. In some ways it is more embarrassing to be deaf than it is to be blind. Many times it is only the deaf person who knows that he cannot hear; and when we talk to one, we talk as if we are talking to a normal person, only to find out later that the deaf was not hearing a thing. Jesus showed the most tender consideration for the feelings of a man for whom life was very difficult. The whole story shows us most vividly that Jesus did not consider the man merely a case; he considered him as an individual the man had a special need and a special problem, and with the most tender considerateness Jesus dealt with him in a way that spared his feelings and in a way that he could understand.

We can learn from and after Jesus. When we want to correct someone, we do well to take them aside, away from the public, and speak to them there. Secondly, when we deal with physically challenged people, to be considerate. We need to learn the philosophy behind Para-Olympics.

(ii) Throughout the whole miracle Jesus acted what he was going to do in dumb-show. He put his hands in the man's ears and touched his tongue with spittle. In those days, as in ours too, people believed that spittle had a curative quality. When we cut our finger, instinctively we put the bleeding finger in the mouth. Even today, we believe that saliva is curative!

(iii) Jesus looked up to heaven to show that it was from God that help was to come. Then he spoke the word and the man was healed. We sometimes forget the source of our being and doing. It is God!

Above all we have said so far, there's something worthy of our notice. When the healing was completed the people declared that Jesus had done all things well. That is none other than the verdict of God upon his own creation in the very beginning: "And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good." (Gen.1:31).

When Jesus came, bringing healing to men's bodies and salvation to their souls, he had begun the work of creation all over again. In the beginning of the world, everything had been good; God saw everything he created as good. It was man's sin that spoiled and spoils God's creation. And it is Jesus' mission to recreate us. In today's gospel reading, Jesus was bringing back the beauty of God to the man who had lost it. Jesus can do the same to you and me! That's, if we let him.