Mark 7:31-37

When I was in college, and actually into our first year of marriage, I worked at a frozen yogurt shop. We wore gray shirts and hats and a bright pink apron. It was hideous. But there was a pretty big perk. For quality control purposes, I had to regularly check all 12 flavors for taste and consistency. So I consumed a lot, and I mean a lot, of frozen yogurt for those two years.

Now, at some point in life you learn that after you regularly consume something over an extended period of time, the taste becomes less and less memorable. Like, the first time I tried the Maple-Bacon Frozen Yogurt, I was stunned. It was so mapley. And bacony! But the 20th time, it was just so-so. And by the 400th time, I dreaded the thought of it. When you consume something again and again, over time it loses it’s “wow factor.”

Now, let’s be honest. How many of us have consumed the miracle stories of Jesus so much for so long that they have lost their “wow factor?” When we first became believers or if you grew up in the church, when you were first learning about these stories as children, the image of Jesus healing the blind and sick was powerful! Some of us fell in love with Jesus because of his care for the least of these. But now? After all these years? After all these stories and movies and books and songs? After consuming so much for so long? Do you approach them with the same excitement, or do they fall a little flat?

And I can relate to that. When I read first read this text, I wasn’t particularly excited to preach on it. My initial thought was, “Really? That’s it? It’s just a story about Jesus healing someone. He did that all the time.”

But I was reminded this week that these stories are not just stories about Jesus healing people. In fact, Jesus was constantly urging people to see that there was more to his miracles than what they saw, and he’s urging us this morning to see the bigger picture. Because at the end of the day, the story of Jesus healing a deaf guy isn’t going to get us through the difficult things of life. It’s just not. It’s not durable enough of a story and it can’t span the gap of time to this day, this week, this crisis that my family is going through, this hardship. The story of Jesus healing a guy isn’t durable enough to do that.

But the story that Jesus’ miracle fits into - the story that this healing points to - the story that Jesus is really telling by his words and deeds. That story is the most life changing story you’ll encounter in life, and it directly effects what you are going through today and how you can handle what comes tomorrow. So, what is that story? It’s the story of how God, in his grace, comes to make the desert bloom.

Let’s look at Mark 7:31 together.

Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him.

Jesus is in a predominantly Gentile region to the north of Jerusalem, and he encounters a man who is deaf - but not just deaf. Mark says that he has a speech impediment. Magilalos. Here’s what’s interesting about that. This is the only occurrence of that word in the whole New Testament. Jesus is recorded healing many people who are mute, but this is the only time magilalos is used.

And the use is intentional. Because there is only one other place in the entire biblical story where that word is used, and it is in Isaiah 35. As Mark is telling the story of Jesus healing this deaf and mute man, he is choosing to use the language of Isaiah 35. There is evidently something in the prophets that speaks to what Jesus is doing in this story.

Isaiah 35 follows Isaiah 34. In Isaiah 34, the luxurious land of the nations has become a desert wasteland. The streams of water have become ditches, the fertile soil has become like sulphur, the trees are blackened stumps. The great strongholds and fortifications are overgrown with thorns, and over the land walks every manner of unclean and dangerous animal. And what has caused this calamity to occur? Human arrogance. It’s a poetic depiction of a world marred by sin, where every dimension of life has been destroyed by human arrogance: the physical, relational, and spiritual aspects of our life - turning what was meant to be beautiful and productive and brimming with life, into a desert.

Think about what a desert is. It is a place starved for life and nourishment. A place where even survival is a challenge. Melanie and I love those nature documentaries that look at what life is like in these extreme climates and places on earth - and there is always an episode on life in the desert, because it is a place where life does not come easy. Surviving is hard.

Well, Jesus is standing in front of a man who has undoubtedly struggled to survive. His body does not function the way it was made to. He is cut off spiritually and relationally from others by virtue of his disability. His life could aptly be described as a desert. He is starved for life and nourishment.

But something is about to change for this man, just like in Isaiah 35 something is about to change for this desert. And remember, Mark wants us to see what Jesus is doing through the lens of Isaiah 35. So, let’s read it together. Immediately after talking about the arrogance of humanity wrecking havoc on every dimension of life, the prophet suddenly changes his tune, and the scene that he is describing takes on a radically different character. The desert wasteland begins to bloom with life and abundance and beauty; and here’s what I want you to listen for as we read. Listen to what Isaiah says is the cause for this radical change. Why has the desert begun to bloom? Listen for that as we read.

Isaiah 35.

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.

Isaiah leaves his audience waiting in suspense. He has told us of this amazing turn of events, the desert is blossoming with life and beauty - the effects of sin are being turned back. But he hasn’t yet told us why. What has caused this? We continue...

Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not!

And here it is. Here is the reason for the desert blooming. Here is the reason the anxious heart can be strong.

Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”

God will come and save you. He will come with vengeance against the destructive power of sin, and he will save you from its grasp. The desert will bloom because God will come. And look what happens when God comes. Tell me if it sounds familiar.

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water...everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

When God comes, he reverses the destruction wrought by human sin: the desert will bloom, and the deaf will hear, and the magilalos, the mute, will sing for joy.

When Jesus comes, what does he do? He does this very thing. Do you hear the story that he is telling? Jesus encounters this man who’s life is not how it should be. Life should not be a struggle to survive. Ears should not be deaf. Tongues should not be mute. And Jesus takes him aside, and touches the man’s ears and tongue to indicate non-verbally what he intends to do. And he looks up to the heavens, and he sighs.

I spent a long time this week thinking about that sigh. Imagine the scene with me. Jesus has his hands on this broken man of the earth and his eyes are on his Father in heaven - and between the two, between heaven and earth, between the holy God and sinful man, stands Jesus. And he sighs. He audibly expresses his sadness, his broken-heartedness that this is how things are.

And I know that every one of us intimately knows that sigh. When Melanie and I went to see a show at the Fox a couple weeks ago, we walked past a number of people: men, women, and children who were experiencing homelessness - and I made that sigh. When I read the terrible stories coming out of Afghanistan, I made that sigh. When I used to take our son to physical therapy to help him walk, and we saw kids who were going to struggle for years and years with a physical disability - I made that sigh.

When we see the desert, we are broken-hearted that this is how things are, and so is Jesus. Our God weeps and sighs in the sand alongside us.

But that is not where he leaves us. Christ healing this man is primarily a statement about who Jesus is. As Isaiah says, the restoration of the deaf and mute is a sign that God has come to earth to save his people from the consequences of their sins - and here is Jesus restoring the deaf and mute. Jesus is making a statement. He is God, and he has come to make the deserts bloom.

This is why what Jesus does in Mark 7 directly relates to your life and my life today. The takeaway is not that Jesus is going to transform your life from hard to easy. The message is not that Jesus promises to right every wrong in your life this week.