Where Is Your Point of Need?
Do you ever feel like you have been kicked to the curb? Maybe you have some impediment (physical, mental, emotional, etc.) that holds you down. It could be the feeling that you are on the outside looking in or that nobody sees or hears you. While the world so often lacks the personal touch we deeply long for, today we will look at a story which only appears in the Gospel of Mark. This story speaks so clearly of how Jesus meets us specifically at the point of our need.
Mark chapter 7 begins with Jesus having a dispute with the scribes and Pharisees (the moral police of that time) over clean and unclean in vv.1-23. The text then narrates Jesus healing two Gentiles, first the curing of a Canaanite woman’s daughter (24-30) and then the restoration of a deaf and mute man (31-37), which is my focus today.
In v.32 we see that some people brought to Jesus a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him. Here is what we read – And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into the man’s ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to the man, “Ephphatha,” that is “Be opened.” And the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.
The word describing the man’s speech impediment is only used once in the New Testament, right here in v.32, and in my opinion, Mark is clearly referencing the glorious benefits of Messiah’s rule and reign, as found in Isaiah 35:5-6 – “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.”
There is so much in these verses, too much for today, but I want to share four key elements that you can cling to. First, we see the personal touch of Jesus. We know that Jesus can deal with the masses (for example, feeding 5,000) but in today’s text we see Jesus simply dealing one on one with this man. Second, we see the humanity and heart of Jesus. He reached out to touch this man and also sighed, as a compassionate response to the man’s condition. Third, we see that Jesus knew that His power source came from God. We read “he looked up to heaven.” And lastly, we see Jesus is more than a man of words, He is also a man of action.
That phrase “be opened” is representative of entirety of Jesus’ ministry – he enables the disabled, he sets free those who are in bondage, he mends the broken, he restores the sick, he welcomes the outcasts. Those of you who have been shoved out of the way, those of you who have been forgotten, those of you who are on the fringe of life – this is the Jesus who steps into your life and meets you at your very point of need. He did not touch the man’s leg or put His hand on the man’s arm, instead He touched the man’s deaf ear and mute tongue. He also touches you right where you have a need, as if to say, “I understand.”
After the crowd witnessed what Jesus had done – And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. ‘He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak’” (v.37). As the people see this miracle, they recognize that when God does something in our lives, it isn’t just partial, it isn’t just okay, but instead, on the contrary, He brings it to completion, and it is always excellent work. It is always very good. If you are familiar at all with the Creation Story in Genesis, then you know that as God created, He stepped back and said it was good. This is the God that does all things well.
Right now, some of you are in bondage, some of you are in despair, others of you simply feel like you are on the fringe, or you have some impediment, some blockage, that is keeping you from becoming all you can be. Jesus, in and through his great love for you, meets you at that point of need and says to you, “Ephphatha.”
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