Friday in the Fifth Week of Ordinary Time, February 10, 2023

Mark 7, 31-37

Jesus left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis. And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”).  And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it. They were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

Since Sidon is to the north of Tyre and the cities of the Decapolis were to the southeast, it is hard to understand the route St. Mark gives for the Lord’s movements unless he meant that the Lord intended to visit the region around Sidon, and then he headed for the Decapolis.  All of these places were inhabited by Gentiles.  It is interesting that St. Mark shows the Lord to have spent so much time among the Gentiles, more than the other Evangelists, just as John shows the Lord among the Samaritans more than the others.  The Decapolis was a group of ten cities, of which Damascus was one, which lay beyond the eastern bank of the Jordan River.  Greek and Roman culture was celebrated there, and temples to the gods abounded, besides amphitheaters and baths.  To this pagan region, the Lord led his Apostles — and not just to its fringe, for the Greek tells us that he went into the middle of it.

“And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment.”  In spite of the fact that the Lord came into a Greek land, the people knew of him and of his power.  And they did not quail at the notion of bringing their sick to a Jew from Galilee for healing (in the way that no Jew would think to go to a Greek for healing).  We would like to know what the Greeks there thought of him: was he a demigod, a magician, or a hero of some sort?  But we do not know.  We do know that the Lord had compassion on them and did not withhold from the Gentiles anything that he gave to the Jews.  While the lesson might be lost on us, it was a powerful one for the Apostles.  Mark says that a group of people brought a deaf man who stammered (as the Greek tells us) before the Lord so that he might be healed.  We can imagine the man’s friends or family members taking him out of his house and bringing him through the streets to the Lord.  The man probably knew nothing about Jesus or why he was being pushed and pulled this way.  He may have stammered loudly in protest.  Certainly he could not have thought he was being taken to be cured.  

“They begged him to lay his hand on him.”  The people who brought the man would have spoken to the Lord in Greek.  Some Aramaic was still spoken in the region, but mostly only in small villages.  Hebrew was not spoken there at all.  The people wanted the Lord “to lay his hand” upon the man because they wanted a visual sign that some action was being performed.  We humans are caressed with senses, and all that we know comes to us through our senses.  We have a natural desire and need to see things and hear things.  Their desire to see the man’s healing by Jesus corresponds with the man’s desire to hear the Lord’s voice.

“He took him off by himself away from the crowd.”  A sizable crowd had grown, impeding the Lord from giving a sign of his healing that everyone could see.  “He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, ‘Ephphatha!” (that is, ‘Be opened!’).”  The Lord did not need to use these actions to heal the man, but used them so that the people, a pagan people, could understand that the power which healed the man came from him directly, and that he did not summon it from the gods on Olympus or from the world of nature.  And instead of using a Greek word, the Lord spoke an Aramaic word.  In doing so, he pointed the Greeks to the God of the Jews.

“And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly.”  The Lord’s healings are instantaneous.  There is no slow recovery or period of convalescence.  That the man “spoke plainly” indicates that he spoke Greek plainly in spite of the fact that he had never heard it before due to his deafness.  

“He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it.”  He does this amongst the Jews too, sometimes.  The Lord, who knows what people will do, does not let their future disobedience stop him from performing a merciful act.  This helps us to understand the Crucifixion:  the mercy of God is such that he died for us even though he knew we would sin again and again.  It is heartbreaking if we really think about it.

“They were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”  We can all say: He has done all things well.  He has forgiven my sins when I came to him in repentance.