Mark 7:31-37

A Strange Compassion

Devotional 37 of 50 · Mark chapter 7

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After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, rolled away the stone, and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards trembled in fear of him and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; He has risen, just as He said! Come, see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell His disciples, ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him.’ See, I have told you.” So they hurried away from the tomb in fear and great joy, and ran to tell His disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” They came to Him, grasped His feet, and worshiped Him. “Do not

Mark 7:31-37 · BSB

³¹Then Jesus left the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. ³²Some people brought to Him a man who was deaf and hardly able to speak, and they begged Jesus to place His hand on him. ³³So Jesus took him aside privately, away from the crowd, and put His fingers into the man’s ears. Then He spit and touched the man’s tongue. ³⁴And looking up to heaven, He sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means, “Be opened!”). ³⁵Immediately the man’s ears were opened and his tongue was released, and he began to speak plainly. ³⁶Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more He ordered them, the more widely they proclaimed it. ³⁷The people were utterly astonished and said, “He has done all things well! He makes even the deaf hear and the mute speak!”

Jesus

Here we see Jesus heal in a strange and unique way. Why did He put His fingers in the guy's ears? Why did He spit? Why did He touch this man's tongue? The Bible does not tell us directly why, but there are a few possibilities.

It is believed that this strange healing was done to communicate to the deaf man the event of healing and give an opportunity for faith. By placing His hands on him, Jesus helped the man understand that He intended to heal his ears. This also gave an opportunity for this man to be involved. He was not ignorantly dragged by others; rather, he actively expressed trust and faith in Jesus. He could have run away, but he freely stepped away from the crowd with this stranger and looked to Him as healer.

Jesus is, in fact, the true Healer. If Jesus healed like this every time, people would be trying to copy His words and actions like a magic spell. This may be why Jesus heals in a variety of ways. Jesus is not giving a guide on how to heal people; Jesus is displaying that He is the Healer. The people who saw this miracle were indeed correct: “He does all things well!”

His Desires

Jesus cares about the people outside of Abraham’s descent—the Gentiles. As we see in these last two stories, as the Gentiles seek Him out, He heals them. We can see in this passage and throughout Scripture, Jesus gives opportunities for us to trust Him in faith. As mentioned above, this man could have resisted or run away, but instead he trusted and yielded to Christ.

Again, we see Jesus seeking to keep word from spreading about this miracle. Later, Jesus is telling His followers to spread the Good News to all nations, so He eventually wants the word to get out. In this, we see that His primary mission is not to go around and simply be a healer of physical pains and hindrances. This is because He is working toward a much higher purpose: ushering in the kingdom of God.

Follow Through

Trust in Christ as healer.
Bring your friends to Him.

Testimonies

This is where people will share how they actually obeyed this passage — and read what happened to everyone else who obeyed the same words.

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