And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment
and begged him to lay his hand on him.
We are all deaf to one degree or another, not necessarily physically, but intellectually and spiritually. We do not always or often have the "ears to hear" for which Jesus asks. Our deafness is something much worse than the inability to hear sound, for such a private can be compensated for by other senses, and by sign language. It does not render true communication impossible. Spiritual deafness on the other hand leaves us isolated and unable to communicate. The solution, then, might seem at first a bit paradoxical.
He took him off by himself away from the crowd.
We need to be taken away from the cacophony of the crowd in order to regain our ability to hear God. This means more than literally spending time physically apart from other people. In our day, it means toning down all of the internet influencers that surround us with opinions day in and day out. It means stepping back from the news. Even research and science isn't entirely pure in this regard. We may be seeking an objective truth and the authors may be attempting to put one forward for us to receive. But there is such an onslaught of such information that it will nevertheless unhinge us if we stand headlong against the tide. In order to be able to interface with the crowd well we must first spend time alone with Jesus.
He put his finger into the man’s ears
Jesus helps to shut our ears in to noise so that we can open them to meaning. Without his help we listen, but we are at a loss to navigate what we hear. We argue, but without being able to restate the positions of our adversaries in a way that they would recognize or agree to be their own. We cannot be true evangelists until we can first listen. It is only from this posture that we are truly free to speak without any impediment. Evangelists who can't listen to others always have something peculiar about the way they present their message. It is often unable to bridge the gap between hearts and communicate.
and, spitting, touched his tongue;
then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,
Our tongues are so dry without the living water of the Spirit that we cannot speak well. We attempt to say something, are misunderstood, and respond by shouting rather than clarifying. We can't simply speak concisely and at a normal volume so we fall back on aggression and emotion. We are a little like the rich man who did not feed Lazarus when he was dying at his door, now in hell, now desperate for a drop of water to touch our tongues. The good news for us is that he who is himself the source of living water is ready and able to give life to the parched deserts of our tongues, and indeed to our whole inner worlds.
“Ephphatha!”— that is, “Be opened!” —
At once the tongues of we who are mute can burst forth, not merely with speech, cold and abstract, but with song, beautiful unto the Lord. Streams will burst forth in the desert of our souls, rivers in steppe of our spirits. After such experiences it understandably hard not to put our healed abilities to use speaking of the experience.
He ordered them not to tell anyone.
But the more he ordered them not to,
the more they proclaimed it.
They were exceedingly astonished and they said,
“He has done all things well.
He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.
It is this close personal encounter alone with our Lord that give us confidence when we are afraid, because he himself can heal and address our insufficiencies with his mercy.
Say to those whose hearts are frightened:
Be strong, fear not!
God speaks strength and courage to those who are able to hear him, and heals the ears of those who desire to hear him but cannot. His strength enables us to be true evangelists, no longer confused, no longer falling back on ourselves in frustration, but able to speak his message clearly. We will be able to clearly perceive those in our midst who are in the most need and respond generously to them.
My brothers and sisters, show no partiality
as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us come away from the crowds into the presence of our Lord and Savior. Let us ask him to heal and heal again our ability to hear well, to truly listen, to have hearts that are able to understand others, and so able to communicate the message we ourselves first hear. The beauty of this message is that even if others do not have ears to hear the message itself can heal them.
“Ephphatha!”— that is, “Be opened!” —
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