Mark 7:31-37 What am I hearing?
14 Pentecost

I don’t exactly remember why we were having that conversation in the first place, but I do remember distinctly having that very animated conversation with my husband a few years ago about what disability might be worse, blindness or being deaf and mute? I felt very strongly that blindness is a worse place to be in, while he listed all the reasons why being deaf and mute would be much worse. In the end we decided to hold on to our opinions! But I had to admit secretly that maybe he is right because so much of our human relationships depend on talking and listening to each other. To be able to hear or understand what the other is saying is I believe crucial to developing a healthy and fulfilling relationship.

In our Gospel reading, Mark introduces the healing story of Jesus by giving us an interesting geographical detail of Jesus’ travel route. The regions of Tyre, Sidon and the Decapolis were largely Gentile territories, and this detail by Mark is in all probability very intentional and has deep significance in understanding the Gospel of Christ as that which is meant to go beyond a certain region, and also beyond a specific group of people, which in Jesus’ context were the Jewish people. There is also a more profound event happening in the very nature of the healing itself, which is the healing of the man who was deaf and mute. The spiritual significance of the man being able to hear and speak is a far more important and enduring message than the physical healing itself.

The command by Jesus to the man who was brought for healing, “Be opened” is a command that has tremendous implications for all of us who profess to be followers of Christ. I love the way Mark tells the story of the healing, he says, “his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.” He doesn’t just say he was healed of his deafness or muteness. If you remember, a couple of weeks ago we read from the Gospel of John about what Peter said of Jesus: “You have the words of eternal life.” To have our ears opened means that we now have the full potential of hearing and understanding the Words of eternal life that comes from Jesus. And if our ears have been opened and we have truly heard the words of eternal life, the most natural thing for us to do would be to tell others of what God has done for us, very much like what the people did after they experienced the miracle of Jesus’ healing touch on that man. That particular day when Jesus healed the man, not only was the tongue of the mute man released by Jesus, all those who saw and heard him speak released their own tongues to proclaim what Jesus had done amongst them. There is also another very interesting thing about the healing; Mark says that the man “spoke plainly.” In other words, what he had to say when his tongue was released made sense to the people who were gathered there. He was clear in what he had to proclaim.

A genuine hearing and experience of Gods’ words in our lives must have certain outcomes. Listening to and hearing the Words of Eternal Life is not meant to be experienced through the privacy of our headphones or kept as a well guarded secret in our hearts. It is meant to create life- sustaining relationships and have eternal meaning. It is meant to perpetuate transformation in and through our lives, just like it happened in the healing story of the Gospel. Furthermore, the man who was deaf and mute would have remained in his condition and the community poorer for it, if he had not been brought by the people to Jesus. In taking the initiative to seek healing from Jesus, the community too opened themselves to experience Gods’ power and presence amongst them, releasing in them a wonderful zeal to proclaim the works of God to others. God’s work in any individuals’ life is meant to be shared so that the community can be blessed, and the very essence of a community called by God is that of being the path for others to reach God.

Have we been listening to God lately? Are we hearing Him? And if we have experienced hearing something from God as if for the first time, what are we doing about it? Have we also made time to open our lives for God’s healing touch so that our tongues can be released to speak clearly about the experience of God in our lives?

Earlier in Mark Chapter 4:18-20 (explanation about the parable of the Sower to the disciples), Jesus has something to say about how we choose to be opened or not be opened about the word of God.  Jesus explains to the disciples, “And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”  My challenge for us all today is for us to find the courage and the desire to help each other come before Him and to be opened from our spiritual deafness and muteness. Amen.