Re-Think Church (2): A Church Contacting the World
Mark 7:31-37 (September 13, 2009)

Jesus stayed in Tyre for a few days and went by way of Sidon toward Lake Galilee. He went through the land near the ten cities known as Decapolis. Last week I talked about an incident that Jesus encountered in Tyre. I won’t mention it again because I believe you still remember it.

When he came into the region of the Decapolis, as usual a multitude came to him, and many of them brought their sick people to Jesus. Of course, they brought their sick people to him to cure them. But today’s text pays special attention to one man out of many who came to Jesus for their healings. By the way, the man mentioned in the text was deaf and mute.

As a matter of fact, it was not a special thing for Jesus to heal a deaf and mute. He healed many people who suffered much worse than the man. And on that day possibly there were many others whose situations were much worse than the man’s. Then why does today’s text focus only on the deaf and mute man? I read the text with a strong curiosity to this matter last week. I read it again and again and finally came up with some thoughts to share with you this morning. By the way, the rest of the story goes as follows:

Some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk. They begged Jesus just to touch him. After Jesus had taken him aside from the crowd, he stuck his fingers in the man's ears. Then he spit and put it on the man's tongue. Jesus looked up toward heaven, and with a groan he said, “Ephphatha!” which means “Be opened!” At once the man could hear, and he had no more trouble talking clearly.

Jesus told the people not to say anything about what he had done. But the more he told them, the more they talked about it. They were completely amazed and said, “Everything he does is good! He even heals people who cannot hear or talk.”

Well, when you read this story, don’t you see anything unusual from his manner to deal with the man? Usually when he healed the sick, he laid his hand on them before praying for their cures or he just declared their healing without laying hands on them. Whenever he did so, the sick were healed immediately.

According to last week’s story, the Greek and Phoenician woman came to beg Jesus to free her daughter from the demon. She received a discriminative and offensive word from Jesus but still continued begging until Jesus was persuaded. When he granted her request, what did he do? Did he go to her house and lay his hand on the daughter? Of course not. He gave her a simple word, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.” (MK 7:29) Indeed, the daughter was freed from the demon immediately after Jesus had spoken to her. He drove the demon out of her with a simple word of demand.

However, the way of Jesus to cure the deaf and mute man in today’s text, was exceedingly different from his ordinary healing manners. People brought the deaf and mute to Jesus and asked him to place his hand on the man. That’s all they asked. But he treated the man with a special attention to. He took him aside, away from the crowd. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. He spit and touched the man’s tongue. Moreover, he looked up toward heaven with a deep sigh and said to him, “Ephphatha!”

In fact, he didn’t have to put his fingers into the man’s ears. He didn’t have to spit and touched the man’s tongue. Without doing it, he had power at once to open the man’s ears and loose his tongue. However, for some reason, he cured him with a strange act of manner. I think he intended to choose that way.

Jesus took the man aside from the multitude. Ordinarily, he brought his miracles publicly before all the people, but for this particular case he wanted to do privately. Why? Some commentators including Matthew Henry explain that he wanted to show that he didn’t seek his own glory from the miracle. However, I don’t see his action with the same viewpoint. I think, by separating the man from the multitude, he tried to prevent the crowds from any misunderstanding of his exceedingly unusual way of cure for the man.

Before we talk about his strange healing manner for the deaf and mute, the first thing we better look at is who the man was. Of course, we know very little of him, but verse 31 gives us a hint to guess about him. “Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis.” (vs 31)

According to this verse, the man lived in the region of the Decapolis. “The Decapolis” was a country which consisted of ten cities, from whence it had its name (Gill’s Commentary on Mark 7:31). In the area, there inhabited many Romans and Greeks in those days. Therefore, we can guess that he wouldn’t be a Jew but a gentile, possibly and evidently a Syrian (You will see why I’m guessing him to be Syrian later).

For more reference, if my guess is correct that he was not a Jew but a gentile, we can learn that the image of Jesus mentioned in last week’s text is far different from his image in today’s text. What I want to point out is that when Jesus said to the gentile woman in Tyre, “First let the children eat all they want for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs,” he wouldn’t mean to treat her with the Jewish separatism or superiority over the gentiles.

By the way, after Jesus took the man aside, away from the crowd, he began talking to him. But how could he communicate with the deaf and mute? According to my observation, Jesus didn’t learn the hand-sign language. Despite the difficult situation, Jesus tried his best to speak to the man by using a form of sign language. Putting his fingers into the man’s ears, he spoke to him that Jesus himself was aware of his problem with hearing. Spitting with his own mouth and then touching the tongue of the man, he spoke to him that Jesus knew of his problem with speech.

Of course, the man realized what Jesus was trying to say to him by those strange body motions. Those who use the sign language can easily figure out what others say by observing their finger movements or body movements. So the man nodded his head toward Jesus. It was the first time for him to learn that, in the world, there was somebody who knew his problems and was truly concerned with them. So he was blurred with tears.

When Jesus saw the tears from the man’s eyes, his heart was broken because of the pains that the man had to go through. So he turned his eyes to heaven and breathed a deep sigh out. I think his deep sigh contained a special petition to God on behalf of the man, “My dear Father, what do you want to do with this poor guy?” He took a brief moment of silent prayer and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (Syrian language) which meant “Be opened!”

When I thought of Jesus trying his best to speak to the man by the body gesture, I looked back at my attitude toward the sick and the people with many life problems around me. “What do I do for the people who suffer from many life problems?” “How hard do I push myself toward them?” “What kind of language do I use to communicate to share their pains?” “What gestures do I make to help them to meet their needs?” “What do I do to assist the church to go to comfort their neighbors with life problems?” When I threw those questions to myself, I felt ashamed. Tears came out not because of my sympathy for their pains but because of the shame of myself.

Contact. We have to contact people. Jesus approached the deaf and mute as close as possible. He touched the man. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. He spit and touched the man’s tongue with it.

Dear brothers and sisters, can you put your fingers into someone’s ears? Can you spit and touch someone’s tongue with it? Perhaps someone might say that “Those behaviors are too unsanitary.” Of course, in the present situation that bad influenzas are so violent, it is not easy for us to put our fingers into someone’s ears. It is much difficult to spit and touch someone’s tongue with it.

However, it is certain that there are so many people in our neighborhood waiting for someone to come toward them. They want someone to stretch his hand over to them. They want someone come to listen and speak to them. They need someone to come definitely. And we, as a church, are the ones to go to them.

But we come to them much. Why? Perhaps we are afraid of approaching them too close. Perhaps we are afraid of being contaminated by them. That’s why are not willing to go to them.

Dear brothers and sisters, do you see Jesus looking up to heaven with a deep sigh because of the deaf and mute? Do we have the same heart that Jesus had for those who are in need in our neighborhood? Actually I confess I lack of it. Actually we lack of it. So I pray to God, “O God, let me have the same heart of the Lord. O Lord, let us have the same love and heart of the Father for the people in the world.”

We know Father Damien, called the Saint of Molokai. He volunteered to serve the lepers in Molokai. He washed the feet of the lepers and wiped out the drainage from their wounds. He asked God to help him to get leprosy in order to be one of them. And he became a leper. His skin felt no longer pain. He lost hairs from the eyebrows, and the joints were gradually disordered. But the worse his leprosy turned out the more lepers came to listen to him and accept what he spoke to them.

“He looked up to heaven with a deep sigh.” For some reason, this particular phrase causes so much pain in my heart.

Jesus saw the miseries of the deaf and mute and prayed to God and then said to him, “Ephphatha.”

“Be opened” served both parts of the cure: “Let the ears be opened, let the lips be opened, let him hear and speak freely, and let the restraint be taken off.” And the command was answered. Now the man was able to hear and to speak. Can you imagine how the man felt? A new world had just begun for him. A new life had just begun with him.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus speaks the same word to us, to our heart: “Ephphatha,” “Be opened.” And our ears are opened to hear his voice that “I love you. You are forgiven. You are my beloved child.” And our tongues are opened to reply, “Thanks, Lord, for loving me, forgiving me and choosing me to be your beloved one.”

We know whatever he touches, it will come alive. When he touches, a deaf can hear and a mute can speak. That’s the power of his touch. And for sure, his touch will be with us forever. In this sense, I can say that we live in his kingdom in which his renewing power takes place now. Whatever the Word of the Lord touches, it comes alive. Whatever God touches, there is a change or renewal. We must know it. We must admit it. We must rejoice in it. And we must proclaim it to those who don’t know it yet. That’s our call to fulfill. We as a church are sent out to proclaim this Good News to the world.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us go into the people. Let’s no longer say to the world “Come to us,” but go to them. Let us go to them as close as possible and touch them, listen to them and speak to them. With our body and our action, let’ us teach them, “His Kingdom is here!” Amen?

Next week, I will talk about what language we have to use to communicate with the world.