He returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of S...

He returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.” (Mark 7:31-37)

Jesus once healed a man by giving him a wet Willie. The Decapolis was a federation of ten cities in the area east of Samaria and Galilee, including the cities of Damascus and Philadelphia. It was an area that had a Greek culture more than a Hebrew culture and there were many non-Jewish people living in the area. After Jesus had healed the daughter of the gentile woman in Tyre, he traveled on to visit the region.

While there, some of the people there brought him a man who was deaf. Since he had an “impediment in his speech,” that likely meant that he was not born deaf, but had become deaf later in life. Since he could no longer hear himself talk, the clarity of his speech was affected.

Unlike so many of his healings, Jesus made a ritual of the process: he spat, touched the man’s tongue and stuck his fingers in his ears, besides uttering an Aramaic word which the man couldn’t have heard and probably wouldn’t have understood given that it was a Greek speaking region. Why so much rigmarole? Because the man’s friends had asked for it. They wanted Jesus to “lay his hand” on him. Jesus accommodated their expectations. Jesus works with us where we are, he comes to us in our situation and from there takes us to where we need to be. He does not insist on us changing before he changes us. This man and his friends needed the show. Jesus always gives us what we need.

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