And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment
and begged him to lay his hand on him.
We have something in common with this deaf man who could not speak clearly. It is not uncommon for those who cannot hear to have difficulty with speech as well. And we ourselves, while perhaps not deaf, are often such bad listeners that our ability to speak coherently can become compromised in turn.
He took him off by himself away from the crowd.
For us, the problem is not a lack of noise or sound for us to hear, but rather an excess. We are bombarded from all directions, news, social media, television, friends, and many other sources with things vying for our attention. The degree of truth in these sources varies drastically one to the next, and even those things which are true vary profoundly in importance or relevance. Without stepping away from this environment we will continue to be confused, confounded, and frustrated, unable to hear those things that truly matter in the cacophony of the crowd.
Finding a place of quiet is important. Yet, simply stepping away from the crowd is not enough on its own. That brings us into a place where Jesus is free to work, where we can be more wholly attentive to him and what he wants to do in us. It brings us to a place where he is free to work as deeply within us as he desires. It is often at a level so personal and intimate that we are grateful that the crowds do not see.
He put his finger into the man’s ears
and, spitting, touched his tongue;
then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,
“Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”)
Isn't this healing a little bit like stepping into the confessional? When we confess our sins we are implicitly asking Jesus to heal us and help us to hear and speak the word of God. We are grateful to keep such a touch between us and the presence of Jesus, symbolically represented in his priests. Isn't it also very much like receiving the Eucharist, another moment that can be so intimate and personal as to take our awareness from those around us, as if we were alone with Jesus himself? There is a great need of this intimacy with Jesus so that he can be free to work within our hearts. Without such space there is the risk of us rejecting him out of the need to protect our self-image.
And immediately the man’s ears were opened,
his speech impediment was removed,
and he spoke plainly.
When we come away with Jesus, experience his touch, we will find that our ears are opened. They will become attuned, in the first place, to his own words as the paradigm by which we interpret all else that we hear. And once this becomes true for us we will become free to speak, able to say things that matter, words that the world needs to hear.
He ordered them not to tell anyone.
This abrupt command may have been more directed at the crowd who only saw the external sign without understanding the internal healing. But it may have been aimed also at the deaf man. He might have needed more time to internalize what he had received, to learn to keep the integrity of it even as he returned to the crowd, and only then convey what Jesus had done. Or maybe what he had received was simply too intimate to be shared. Perhaps the external miracle would not be enough of the truth to speak.
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.”
The crowds could not resist speaking of what they had seen because they were simply too astonished. They saw the prophecy of Isaiah fulfilled which said:
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 (see Isaiah 35:5-6).
They saw Jesus doing mighty deeds which seemed to be properly the prerogative of God alone.
The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? (see Exodus 4:11).
The risk of describing the external healing without conveying the inner reality is that it might seem that the external healing was the whole point. We are meant to be astonished even more by what Jesus does within us than by the external works of healing which he does indeed still delight to do. Jesus demonstrated by the physicality of the healing of the deaf man that he does desire to address himself to our whole being, to heal us on every level. But we see that his emphasis is always on the inner work. The question for us, then, who have received something at least of this inner work, is, are we appropriately astonished? He has indeed done all things well.
The two were alone in the area,
and the prophet was wearing a new cloak.
Ahijah took off his new cloak,
tore it into twelve pieces
Unlike this prophet, Jesus had a garment which could not be torn or divided, showing us that his was the Kingdom that would last forever. So too does he desire to make us whole and healed in order to live fully the life of that Kingdom. The crowd pulls us in different directions, most of which are away from Jesus. Let us allow him to take us away by ourselves and speak again his words to us, "Ephphatha!", be opened!
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