Again he left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis. 32 And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. 33 He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; 34 then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “ Ephphatha !” (that is, “Be opened!”) 35 And [immediately] the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. 36 He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it. 37 They were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and [the] mute speak.”
This miracle is recorded only in Mark with enough detail to lead one to believe that it was an eyewitness account. Jesus had previously been in the Gentile district of the Decapolis and had cast out unclean spirits from a man and sent them into a herd of swine. The townspeople asked Jesus to leave the area and man amazed everyone in the Decapolis with the story (Mk. 5:1-20). This time the townspeople welcomed Jesus and brought a deaf man with a speech impediment to him. Jesus, in an effort not to draw attention to what he was going to do, took the man aside and performed a healing ritual that could have been misunderstood by the pagans as a magic rite. We do not know if the deaf-mute was a man of faith but the people that brought him to Jesus believed that Jesus could cure him and begged Jesus to lay hands on him. Why Jesus performed the healing ritual is unknown because he could easily have healed the man with a word (Mt. 8:8-13). The man was immediately and completely cured of his infirmities.
This miracle further showed the divinity of Jesus; “Who gives one person speech? Who makes another mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord (Ex. 4:11)?” Jesus ordered the Gentile crowd not to tell anyone (Messianic secret), but the prohibition had the opposite effect. Mark presented Jesus as more than a healer whose full identity would be revealed through the cross and his resurrection. Mark ended the story with a reference to Isaiah; “Then the eyes of the blind shall see, and the ears of the deaf be opened; Then the lame shall leap like a stag, and the mute tongue sing for joy (Is. 35:5-6).”
Almighty God, out of your infinite love look with mercy upon us and remove all things that lead us away from you. Grant that we may be fruitfully nourished by hearing your Word and in turn speak it to nourish others. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen!
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
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