Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
Read
A Private Audience
Remember the last time Jesus was in the region of the Decapolis?
His reception this time is much more enthusiastic
Still can’t fly under the radar.
Apparently had a broad healing ministry there.
Matthew doesn’t record this specific miracle, but does tell us:
Mark doesn’t mention all that; zeros in on this specific incident
No word of who brought the man, but given the region (Decapolis), likely Gentiles bringing Gentile
The man is deaf and mute, likely congenital.
Can’t hear, speech wouldn’t develop properly
At that time in history, no cure.
No cochlear implants.
Hopeless.
And someone in this condition would have been considered mentally handicapped.
Jews even assumed deafness/blindness were God’s judgment for some sin:
I used to work with a man born deaf.
Could read lips well, hard to understand.
Even after cochlear implant.
21st century America, difficult life.
Imagine being in that condition 2000 yrs ago
I love this statement: “And taking him aside from the crowd privately,”
Jesus treated this man as an individual human being, attended to his pressing need
For this man’s whole life, he had been scorned.
But now he has the private attention of the one who created him
But how he did it requires some attention:
A Bizarre Ritual?
Jesus didn’t simply heal him w/ a word or a touch, like he often had.
Look how Mark describes
he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue.
34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”
I puzzled over this: why this ritual?
First, two options: either Jesus needed to go through these steps, or he didn’t
Ancient healers had elaborate rituals.
Saliva even involved, especially from king or holy man
But I’ve seen enough to know that Jesus surely didn’t have to do all this.
So that leaves option 2: Jesus didn’t *need* to perform these steps
Must be doing them for others’ benefit
Leads to next 2 options: did he do it for those watching, or for the man himself?
Easy: first took him away from the crowd privately, so he’s doing it for the man’s benefit
I was still stumped: why?
Sinclair Ferguson, little commentary, first clued me in: sign language
The man can’t hear him speak, so he communicates to him in a way he could understand.
Three signs:
put his fingers into his ears
spit and touched his tongue:
Shows what he’s going to do for him.
Man would have understood, especially with use of saliva, Jesus intended to heal him
3. looked up to heaven: shows where the power for his healing will come from
Then he spoke—more in a second
But before he spoke, Mark records that Jesus “sighed”; literally “groaned”
Not a sound of contentment
Related to word used in 8:12:
In ch 8 he’s groaning over the display of sinfulness
Here he’s groaning over the effects of sin
This is a groan of compassion, for a child of Adam whose life has been wrecked by the effects of sin on Adam’s race, and on him in particular
Jesus not handing out miracles like Oprah, “and you get a healing, and you get a healing, and you get a healing”
No doubt this man was a sinner.
Yet Jesus genuinely feels the pain of this man’s suffering
Do we?
This week I heard about a young person coming home from school, talking about two girls here in our town who have announced they are now boys and are dating each other, while their peers applaud them
Now do not misconstrue what I’m about to say: The sin of transgenderism is, of course, deeply evil and satanic
To a grown man dressing as a sexually provocative drag queen to read stories to children, I would say, you child of the devil, repent, before you perish
But for young teen girls, transgender ideology is like a corrosive acid; once the come in contact with it it consumes them.
In some way they are as powerless in the face of this adult evil as this man was over his ears and tongue
These girls aren’t just sinning against God by acting against the sex he created them; they are victims of a world system, esp.
education and social media, hell-bent on confusing them and destroying them
Like the serpent beguiled Eve in the garden, our young girls especially are being deceived
I bring that up because do you know what the response was of the young person telling about these girls?
Tears.
He was groaning about the effects of sin
So do all Christians as we look at the destruction caused by human sinfulness in the world
Unlike us, Jesus is able to do something about it.
And he does:
And as usual w/ Jesus’ miracles, results are instant and total:
Notice what Mark makes clear: it wasn’t touching ears or tongue that accomplished the miracle.
It wasn’t the saliva.
It was the authoritative word of the Lord that accomplished it
Mark even records the original word that Jesus spoke: probably Aramaic, language of Jews of that time.
Mark records probably the first word this man had ever heard, and its instantaneous effects
Mark translates it for his Gentile readers: be opened.
It’s the word used, for instance, by Stephen, first martyr, at his stoning:
And his ears were opened, and his tongue was released, literally "the chain of his tongue was broken.”
We have an expression, tongue-tied.
Not this man, not any longer
Don’t miss the creator-level majesty of this miracle.
Ears didn’t work: ever studied the ear?
Know how complex and delicate it is?
Likely required creating or connecting nerves to brain, who knows what else
And didn’t just hear, spoke plainly.
When someone gets a cochlear implant now, how many years of speech therapy does it take before they speak plainly?
Jesus creates what’s missing in his ears and rewires his brain.
No wonder the people’s reply:
Whether they knew it or not, they’re referring to a prophecy about the Messiah
Prophecy Fulfilled
Mark used an interesting word to describe this man’s condition.
English translation just says he “had a speech impediment”
Word mogilalos, only used here in the NT
Used one other time, in Septuagint:
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