Today's Gospel lesson tells us several things about Jesus's ministry.  Of the thousands of healings Jesus performed during his earthly ministry, only a handful are described in the Gospels.  Each one that is recorded has something special to teach us.  What can we learn from today's story of the healing of a deaf-mute?

 First we learn that he had been visiting the area of the Mediterranean coast around the cities of Tyre and Sidon.  That region is in the country that is nowadays called Lebanon but was anciently known as Phoenicia.  And he was returning to the Galilee by way of a region called "Decapolis," or "ten cities."  Both the Tyrian coast and the ten cities were places with a Gentile population.  This shows that Jesus was bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews.

 In the same chapter of Saint Mark's Gospel, just before the verses read this morning, a Phoenician woman asked Jesus to heal her daughter.  Jesus told her that his mission was first to the Jews, but the woman replied that even the dogs may gather up the crumbs under the master's table.  And Jesus, responding to her faith, healed the woman's daughter.

 It is in this Gentile region, too, that Jesus healed the deaf-mute.  The healing of the deaf was one of the signs of the Messiah, as foretold by the Prophet Isaiah.  Surprisingly enough, although Jesus probably cured many people of deafness, the incident in today's Gospel lesson is the only such healing that was recorded.  And, although it was a sign of the Messiah whose coming was foretold by the Hebrew prophets, the sign was given in a non-Jewish area.

 Only in a very few places in the Gospels do the evangelists record the actual words spoken by Jesus, because he usually spoke in Aramaic, a language related to Hebrew, and the Gospels were written in Greek.  But Mark has seen fit to record that in the healing of the deaf-mute, Jesus spoke the word "Ephphatha," which is translated as "be opened."  This is the same word that Isaiah used when he predicted that

 In today's Gospel lesson, Mark writes that "they brought the deaf-mute to Jesus and asked him to lay his hand on him."  That is, it is not the deaf-mute who seeks out Jesus's help.  Instead, his friends seek Jesus's help on his behalf.  By this, we are taught to intercede on behalf of those in need.  The friends of the deaf-mute knew of his suffering and his need; they knew that Jesus could help.  And so they brought him to Jesus and asked Jesus to help him., just as we bring the suffering and the needs of those around us to Jesus, and ask Jesus to help them.

 Obviously, the deaf-mute has never heard Jesus speak.  We know that Jesus did not need to spit, or to sigh, or to look up to heaven, or even to touch the deaf-mute in order to cure his physical ailments.  Only a little bit earlier he had cured the daughter of the Tyrian woman, and the child was not even present at the time.  Similarly, he cured the child of the Roman officer without even entering his house; the officer had said

 So Jesus does for each person what that person needs.  The healing miracles are inward and spiritual, but they are done with outward and visible signs when that is what is necessary to reach the heart of the person.

 When he healed the deaf-mute, he healed his deafness first, then his muteness.  It is important to hear than to speak.  Faith, as Saint Paul wrote to the Romans, comes by hearing.  And Saint James wrote that we should be swift to hear and slow to speak.  So we should listen to what God has to say to us before we blurt out what we want to say to others.

 There is some disagreement about the exact meaning of the word used to indicate the man's muteness.  The word probably means that he was unable to speak at all, but it may mean that he had an impediment in his speech.  We know that people who cannot hear are usually unable to speak clearly; sometimes they can make only inarticulate sounds.  One way or another, the man was unable to speak right.  Jesus touched the man's tongue, and the "strings of his tongue were untied," then, in the literal meaning of the Greek, he was able to speak straight.

 Of course, not all of the deafness in the world is physical; and it is not only deaf-mutes who are unable to speak right.  The Psalmist says that those who devote their life to the service of material things become like the idols they worship:

 It would be nice if we could bring  them to church.  But we know that Jesus can touch them wherever they are--just as he did for the children of the Tyrian worman and the Roman officer.  We need to bring them to Jesus in prayer, here in church and in our private intercessions.  We need to intercede not only for those who are physically ill but also, and especially, for those who are spiritually deaf and mute.

 Finally, we see that the good news cannot be contained.  Jesus cautions the crowd that they should not tell anyone what they have seen.  But the more he warned them, the more they talked about it.

 What about us?  Nobody has told us to keep quiet.  We need to tell the world about Jesus, who has done all things well, who has made both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak.

Church of Saint Mary Magdalene,
2 September 2001