This is the fourth in a series of five messages looking at Mark chapters 6-8. If you’ve read the first three you’ll know it is very helpful to note this pattern in these chapters:
6:30-44
Feeding Miracle
6:45-52
On the Sea of Galilee
6:53-56
Healings
7:1-33
Conflict with Religious Leaders (and conflict with a foreigner)
7:34-37
Jesus uses his spit to cure a deaf man.
Then
(minus the healings) it happens again in almost the same order!
8:1-10
Feeding Miracle
8:11-13
Conflict with Religious Leaders
8:14-21
On the Sea of Galilee
8:22-26
Jesus uses his spit to cure a blind man.
We’re
looking at these chapters with the pairs Mark has created. Today’s pair is the two healings done by
Jesus. Both are more detailed than the
usual healing miracles. And in both
cases we get the curious detail that Jesus uses his spit for the healing. Here are the texts:
Mark
7:31-37
31Then
he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea
of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32They brought to
him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay
his hand on him. 33He took him aside in private, away from the
crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his
tongue. 34Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him,
“Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35And immediately his ears
were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36Then
Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more
zealously they proclaimed it. 37They were astounded beyond
measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear
and the mute to speak.”
Mark
8:22-26
22They
came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to
touch him. 23He took the blind man by the hand and led him out
of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on
him, he asked him, “Can you see anything?” 24And the man looked
up and said, “I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.” 25Then
Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight
was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26Then he sent him
away to his home, saying, “Do not even go into the village.”
The thing that jumps out to me the
most in these passages is that it seems to take Jesus two tries to cure the
blind man! What? Really?
Remember the scene in 5:1-20 where Jesus drives out the “legion” of
demons from the Gerasene man? There
seems to be a bit of a struggle there but we’re left feeling that Jesus can
overcome anything without a lot of fuss.
There’s also walking on water, stilling the storm, and feeding thousands
of people (on multiple occasions) with very meagre resources. Jesus can do anything, right? So why does it take two tries here? If Jesus were a kid’s toy I’d think his
battery was running low!
No one really knows for sure what
was going on. And biblical commentators
aren’t sure what Mark intends for us to get from this. The best suggestion is that it hints at what
is going on the following scene. We
haven’t read that part yet, but it is the famous story of Jesus asking the
disciples who do people say that he is?
The disciples share what the crowds are saying. Then Jesus asks, “But who do you say that I
am?” And Peter answers, “You are the
Messiah.”
So it seems like Peter’s gotten some
pretty good sight into who Jesus is.
But in the next scene Peter comes
crashing down.
Jesus goes on to explain that being
the Messiah means undergoing rejection from the religious leaders, suffering,
and finally crucifixion. Peter seems to
think Jesus has become demon possessed because he starts acting like an
exorcist. In 8:32 we find, “And Peter
took him aside and became to rebuke him.”
Then Jesus responds in the next verse, “But turning and looking at his
disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine
things but on human things.”
Notice something small but very
important in that last verse. It says
Jesus was looking at his disciples. And
what did Jesus do in the second try to cure the blind man? “Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again;
and he looked intently and his sight was restored…”
It appears as if Jesus’ look carries
power. And perhaps in the same way there
was two levels of sight for the blind man, the disciples are also showing two
levels of sight; although they haven’t gotten the “second” sight yet. The first sight is seeing Jesus as the
Messiah. The second sight will be seeing
Jesus as the crucified one.
Well, that’s the best theory I’ve
come across as to why Mark has the details of it taking Jesus two tries to cure
the blind man. But let’s also notice
that Jesus uses spit to cure the deaf and dumb man. You’ll remember it says, “[Jesus] took him
aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and
he spat and touched his tongue.”
(7:33)
Part of me thinks this is all
gross. Why can’t Jesus heal this guy
cleanly? But a bigger part of me
appreciates the close touch between Jesus and this man. The same goes for the spitting and curing of
the blind man.
Jesus is not afraid to get down into
the dirtiness of ailments; and even life in general. These details show Jesus getting up close and
personal with people. He does not stay
removed and at a safe distance creating cures with surgical sterility. In Jesus we discover that God will step right
into the mess of a situation and work within that mess.
Sometimes people bear so much shame
and guilt that they feel unredeemable.
They feel so foul and dirty that God could never want to be with them,
let alone be close. But if we’re
learning anything from being this far into Mark’s gospel it is that God will
not be so bound. God will not stay
within the bounds of cleanliness or propriety or holiness. God will break out into any and every place
God wants to be. And God wants to be in
your heart, however it is you feel about yourself.
The man who was deaf & dumb and
the blind man who took two tries to cure both received wholeness of life from
Jesus. In both cases Jesus touched them
intently. He was not afraid of their
ailments. It is important for us to
remember that God wants – GOD WANTS – to be close to us. God wants to meet us wherever we are. That is simply who God is. And that is how God loves.
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