Mark 7:24-37
Albert Einstein once said:
- There are two ways to live your life.
- One is as though nothing is a miracle.
- The other is as though everything is a miracle.
Yes…everything in life is a miracle…but we need to leave room for those rare instances that occur every once in a while.
- When something so extraordinary happens that there seems to be no other explanation than that God intervened.
- Intervened in a wonderful way.
- And something that was not supposed to happen…did happen.
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Well…there would have been no miracle if it had not been for the deaf man’s friends bringing him to Jesus.
- The deaf man was afraid to approach Jesus…since it was difficult for him to speak.
- Most likely…he had become something of a recluse.
- So…we are glad for heaven’s accomplices to miracles.
- Those people who help in small and unspectacular ways.
- But in ways that open the door for great things to happen.
- These angels…unawares…asked Jesus to touch their friend.
Jesus took the man aside in private…away from the crowd.
- An empathic and sensitive thing to do.
- Crowds were a problem for this man…with his difficulty in communicating.
- Because of his deafness…he felt left out…never sure of what was going on.
So…Jesus put the man at ease.
- He took him alone…away from the crowd.
- Jesus healed the man’s sense of inferiority before he healed his body.
- We often need emotional healing before medicine or treatments even begin.
Then Jesus put his fingers into the deaf man’s ears.
- As a way of telling the man he understood where the problem was.
- And in doing this Jesus was accepting the man at the very point of his sense of rejection.
- No words could have done this.
And then Jesus spits on the ground.
- And he touched the man’s tongue.
- Jesus was saying…dramatically:
- “We will spit out this thing that binds your tongue.”
Then Jesus looked up to heaven and sighed.
- A sigh is often a sign of weariness or of longing.
- What was in Jesus’ mind as he “sighed” while looking up to heaven?
- Well…Jesus was weary with the load of human need?
- Jesus was expressing his longing for God’s intervention in still another lamentable human case.
- He was also thinking of the Canaanite woman’s daughter he had just healed.
When Jesus made his comment referring to the woman as a dog…
- He was not speaking directly to the woman in distress.
- He was responding to his own Jewish disciples.
- Speaking out of their own narrowness and insensitivity.
- Remember…they had told him to send the woman away.
- They were steeped in the values of their own culture.
- To them Canaanites were dogs.
- They had yet to learn that with God no one is a dog.
- So…Jesus becomes…once again…their teacher.
- He mirrors back to them their own thinking…
- In a way that would allow them to hear just how terrible it sounded.
Jesus said: “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs”.
- And the Canaanite woman responds:
- “Yes Lord…yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
- Even his leftovers are enough.
- Jesus is our last resort.
- He is the profligate one.
- He wastes his crumbs…his leftovers on us!
- And so…he sighs!!!
- And the woman’s little girl is healed.
And then Jesus spoke.
- “Be opened.”
- The man’s ears were opened…so he could hear.
- And his tongue was released…and he spoke plainly.
Jesus then ordered the healed man and his friends to tell no one.
- But of course…the more he ordered them…the more they proclaimed it.
- How could it have been otherwise?
- Especially for the man who had been healed.
Why did Jesus order silence?
- Because those who were opposed to him were becoming increasingly agitated.
- Jesus wanted to delay his arrest and trial until he had accomplished more of his earthly mission.
- But it was hard to silence people who had been the recipients and witnesses of something so wonderful.
Well…here’s an afterthought:
- I cannot count the number of times I have started to complain about something…
- Only to have my friend cut me off after two or three sentences with a well-intentioned but misguided…
- “I know exactly what you are going through.
- The same thing just happened to me.”
- Suddenly we are talking about the other’s ungrateful kid…
- The other’s lousy boss…leaky fuel line.
- And I am left nodding my head in all the right places.
- Feeling angry and ripped off…wondering if we have not all come down with a bad case of emotional attention disorder.
Nothing is more natural than trying to soothe an overwrought friend with assurances that they are not alone.
- But calamities resemble each other only from afar.
- Up close they are as unique as fingerprints.
What we all hope for…when we turn to a friend because we are feeling low or agitated or wildly happy…
- Is to find someone who sounds as if they have all the time in the world.
- Someone who does not rush us.
- We do not always want answers or advice.
- Sometimes we just want company.
“I am learning (in my old age) to follow the other person’s lead.
- To pay attention to body language…facial gestures…tone of voice.
- To hear what is left unsaid.
- To recall relevant details and make helpful associations and connections.
- This ability to be with someone in their pain and happiness is the cornerstone of genuine empathy.
- We must immerse ourselves in the other person’s experience.
- We must pay attention to the other person.
- We must listen to the other person.
Jesus restores the deaf man’s hearing with the word be opened.
- Our prayer is that we too…be given this gift of generous…selfless openness of heart and spirit.
- To bring healing and life to those who need the support…
- The affirmation and the peace that the simple act of listening can give.