Encounters Along the Way Christ’s Encounter with the Deaf, Blind and Mute Mark 7:31 – 37 and 8:22 – 26

“Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him. After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.

… They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.”

It would be easy for us to conclude from today’s text that Jesus has the power to heal the deaf, blind and mute. I am convinced that the gospels record the healings of the mute, deaf and blind not only to show Jesus’ incredible power over these things and not only so that they reveal Christ’s messiahship, but also because they reveal a deep spiritual reality for each one of us. Christ’s healing of the blind, mute and deaf confirms His identity as the Messiah.

THE PRINCIPLE More and more, I am convinced that the enemy of our souls will try to do one of three things to us: deafen us to the voice of God, blind us to God’s presence and work in the world, or silence us from sharing the good news of Jesus to those around us.

Because of their consistent and pervasive rebellion against God, the people of Israel began to find themselves alienated from God. ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed”. (Isaiah 6:9-10) Because of their continued unbelief, the people of Israel would find themselves deafened to, blind to, and unable to perceptively speak about God, until the coming of the Messiah.

When Jesus showed up on the scene healing the deaf, blind and mute, people understood that such healings pointed to an even greater reality – Jesus wasn’t just a miracle worker, He was in fact fulfilling the prophecy of the coming Messiah. God’s people would soon be permitted to “turn and be healed” - the healing of the rift of sin between God and humankind was shortly at hand.

Our passages today follow an incredible account of Jesus feeding 4,000 people on seven loaves of bread and few small fish. “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear?” (Mark 8:17-18). The religious leaders at the time of Christ taught that righteousness came through adherence to the Law; by one’s own effort, one could see, hear and speak of God clearly. Many within Israel set about to improve their knowledge of God through prideful self-reliance.

Spiritual blindness creates incredible difficulties in following God; in fact, very often this idea is linked with pride and a calloused heart in Scripture. The outcome of spiritual blindness is that we cannot perceive correctly neither the work of God in the world around us nor Jesus in his fullness and we are left with feelings of hopelessness and despair. The two-part nature of the healing in Mark 8 is really weird, but I believe this occurred to illustrate something to the disciples. Without consistent humility and repeated submission to Him, the healing of our spiritual blindness will never be complete.

Spiritual deafness is another significant barrier to following Jesus.  Simply, to follow Jesus means that we must be attentive to His voice and the voice of the Holy Spirit to us. Unless we are attuned to the voice of Christ, we end up following other voices, all of which lead us astray; when we fail to hear the voice of God, we are prone to living in misdirection. The outcome of spiritual deafness is an undirected, aimless life. Hard-heartedness is closely associated with pride in Scripture, so the encouragement is to abandon pride in order to hear God’s voice. Christ’s healing of the deaf man gives us hope that spiritual deafness in our lives too can be healed at the command of Jesus, if in humility, we would approach Him.

Spiritual muteness is yet another barrier to fully following Jesus. Central to our mission as followers of Jesus is the sharing of the good news of Jesus, a very difficult task if our tongues are not loosed. We cannot fully follow Jesus if we do not fully embrace our call to witness. The result of our fear is that we manifest a spiritual silence, leaving us feeling impotent and irrelevant. The healing of the mute man in our passage today ought to give us hope that we might be a people who in humility, ask for God’s healing touch on our spiritual muteness, so that our community might know the good news of Jesus more fully.

Learning from a Spiritual Mute

Do you today experience a spiritual deafness Do you today experience a spiritual deafness? Then let us pray God unstops our ears! Do you experience a spiritual blindness? Then let us pray God opens our eyes! Do you experience a spiritual muteness? Then let us pray God loosens our tongues! Today, might we be a people who leave fear, hopelessness and aimlessness at the foot of the cross, becoming a people who listen, perceive and speak about the good news of Jesus at work all around us. Let us be a people who in humility ask God to heal us of our pride that we may be made useful in His kingdom.