Mark 7:31-37

Reaching Beyond Israel (2) – Bringing Wholeness

Mark 7:31-37 – Jesus Heals a Deaf and Dumb Pagan

³¹ He left the district of Tyre

and went through that of Sidon

to the Lake of Galilee

and right into the middle of the Decapolis region.

The route described by Mark was circuitous, moving northwards along the coast to Sidon, then in a south-easterly direction (or east and then south) down to the Lake of Galilee, and then further south into the Decapolis region. Either Mark was not particularly familiar with geography of Palestine or he chose to circumscribe the whole region as a way of noting the presence of Jesus in pagan territory as a whole. It may be significant that the area described, though no longer Jewish, had originally been part of the area shared out among the tribes of Israel at the time of Joshua.

The following incident would be the first healing, as distinct from exorcisms, performed by Jesus in pagan territory.

³² Some people brought to him a deaf man

who also had difficulty speaking.

They earnestly asked him to lay his hand on him.

³³ He took him by himself away from the crowd.

He put his fingers into the man’s ears;

then he spat and touched the man’s tongue with the spittle.

³⁴ He looked up to heaven, sighed

and said to him, “Ephphatha’ [that is, “Be opened”].

³⁵ Immediately his ears were opened,

and the impediment to his speaking was removed,

and he spoke properly.

In this incident, as in so many others, the person who was incapable of making the necessary approach had the support of others, in this case referred to but otherwise unidentified. Their hope and faith were effectively expressed in their begging Jesus to help.

In the world of the time the deaf man’s affliction would have meant his being cut off from the possibility of social engagement, education, effective employment and probably friendship. In some ways his general alienation would have been even more total than that for lepers, who at least often had each others’ company. The people who brought him to Jesus may possibly have been family. If they were friends, their friendship in this case would have spoken of a wonderful sensitivity and compassion.

The actions of Jesus may have been his way to communicate with the deaf man and to elicit in some vague way his permission, and perhaps even some opening to faith. There seemed also to have been a real sensitivity in his taking him away from the crowd. The man was deaf so verbal communication was impossible. To secure the man’s undivided attention he took him away from the distracting crowd. Putting his fingers into the man’s ears and touching his tongue were presumably his way of conveying his intention of doing something to the man’s hearing and speech. Spittle was sometimes seen in antiquity as a therapeutic agent. By spitting he was possibly letting the man know that he was about to heal him.

Jesus looked up to heaven in a gesture of prayer to his Father. He sighed, possibly because of his recognition of the alienating effect of the man’s condition. The word Ephphatha was an Aramaic word, Jesus’ own language. It would have probably been unintelligible to the man, but, since he could not hear, that was irrelevant. For some reason, the detail had been preserved in the tradition.

Jesus’ action of healing had a different meaning in Gentile territory. Among his own people it served to illustrate the intervention of God in their history and to interpret in action his initial proclamation of the Kingdom. Jesus did not see his sortie into Gentile territory as a missionary enterprise. If anything, it was to get away from the pressure mounting on the other side of the border.

³⁶ He directed them, “Tell nothing to anyone.”

But however much he directed them,

they spread the news even more.

³⁷ They were amazed beyond measure, and were saying,

“He has done everything so well:

he makes deaf people hear and dumb people speak.”

Jesus’ insistence that they tell no one mirrored similar requests on his part in the early stages of his ministry in Galilee. The danger then had been that a volatile Jewish crowd would misinterpret his identity. Who could know what sense a group of pagans would have made of his action? Jesus who had moved over the border to escape notice now found that his attempt had failed.

Mark gave no clear indication why he included the incident at this stage in his narrative, indeed, why he included it at all. It may have been a reflection on the condition of the pagan world. This was a very real question for Mark’s community. If that was the case, it presented a world with embryonic faith and openness to Jesus. It was a world that could not initially join in the Christian enterprise because it was ignorant of it. It could not speak because it had not heard.

Once that ignorance was removed and hearing became possible, participation in the Christian mission could follow. Yet, as with the disciples, the danger of allowing enthusiasm to cloud the essential depth of the Christian message needed to be addressed.

Mark possibly recounted the reaction of the crowd to highlight the contrasting attitudes of the disciples who were experiencing so much difficulty in hearing the message of Jesus.

Next >> Mark 8:1-10