And having taken him away from the crowd apart, he put his fingers to his ears; and having spit, he touched his tongue;
A deaf man who can barely speak is brought to Jesus, and the Lord takes him away from the crowd. Instead of healing him with a word from a distance, He uses fingers, spit and touch — so why this slow, deliberate method?
The first move is separation. One writer sees two things held together here. The Lord turns no needy person away. But He does not act as if the nation had never rejected Him.
Their sin cannot change His heart of love. So He will not turn away a case of need. If He will not send away a Gentile woman, neither will He refuse an appeal on behalf of a needy Jew. But in giving grace, He will, in both cases, hold to the truth. So we read that He took him aside from the crowd privately. He is not indifferent to their rejection of Him. If He works among them it is because of their need, and not because they are Jews. Sin has put Jew and Gentile on one common level, and grace can bless either on the ground of their need.
Why the ears first, and why touch them at all?
He took the deaf man aside from the multitude. The two were now alone together, the deaf man in the company of the Son of God. Attention was directed first to his ears, then to his tongue. He had to hear sounds correctly before he could speak clearly. The Lord putting His fingers into his ears first gives the impression that the man had been deaf from birth, and had never heard the sounds of human speech.
Another writer ties the way He heals to what He was carrying inside.
Hidden from the Jews, He is grace to the sinner. When He heals the deaf man of his deafness and his speech impediment, He takes him aside from the crowd, looks up to heaven and sighs. The unbelief of the people weighed on His heart. He looks up to the sovereign Source of all goodness and all help for man, and grieves at the condition in which man is found.
One writer notes how much care went into this single case.
This case differs from others. The sufferer is not said to have been completely mute. He had an impediment of speech, or spoke with difficulty, as well as being deaf. Even so, the Lord takes special pains with him. The manner reveals the divine Servant's grace. There was no question of His power. Normally He healed all who needed it in a moment, no matter how extreme the case. Here He was pleased to show His tender interest in detail. He showed His compassionate love no less than His power to heal. He does much more than those who brought the patient to Him asked.
One writer lingers on each step of the cure.
It is not only the cure, but the manner of it, that is so strikingly brought out here. Who could interfere with that scene between the perfect servant of God and the needy one? "He put His fingers into his ears." What would He not do to prove His interest? "And after spitting touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, He sighed." As He weighed the distressing results of sin, what a burden was on His heart!
There is a lesson for us in how He sighed.
In showing grace the Lord looked up to heaven and sighed. He always acted in dependence on the Father and in agreement with the mind of heaven. His heart was sustained by heaven even while it was broken by the sorrows of earth. We too, as the sorrows of earth press on our spirits, may well sigh; but too often we sigh without looking up to heaven, and so become cast down and depressed. Looking around we sigh; but looking up we are sustained.
The physical disability mirrors a spiritual one.
The afflicted man was only a picture of the state of Israel. Through unbelief they were unwilling and unable to hear God, or to speak out their own misery and His praise. But as brought to Him he pictures the remnant on whom light dawned in a region and shadow of death. And "immediately" is a word that marks this Gospel of His service. His ears were opened, the tie of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke correctly.
- Aside. Christ deals with this man alone, away from the crowd. Grace comes on the ground of need, not nationality.
- Slower. He gave far more than He was asked for: fingers, spit, touch, a sigh. The manner of the cure, not just the cure, is the point.
- Downward. The sigh shows the burden on His heart as He weighed what sin has done to man.
- Upward. He looks to heaven before He speaks. We sigh looking around; He sighed looking up, and was sustained.
- Opened. Ears first, then tongue — he had to hear before he could speak. His cure pictures a people deaf through unbelief, whose ears Christ opens.
and looking up to heaven he groaned, and says to him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.
Mark records the order: Jesus looked up, He sighed, and only then came the one word that Mark stops to translate for us. Why did a sigh come before the healing, and what was in it?
One writer links the upward look to the Lord's dependence on the Father, and finds a lesson in it for us.
In showing grace the Lord looked up to heaven and sighed. He always acted in dependence upon the Father and in accord with the mind of heaven. Heaven sustained His heart, even when the sorrows of earth broke it. We too may well sigh as the sorrows of earth press on our spirits. But too often we sigh without looking up to heaven, and so become cast down and depressed. Looking around we sigh; but looking up we are sustained.
One writer traces the sigh back past this man's ears to the ruin of a creation once called good, and forward to the atonement He came to make.
The burden of the world's sin, and the many miseries that come with it, weighed on His gracious spirit. He recalled the day when, ages before, He pronounced His whole creative work "very good" (Gen. 1:31), and He groaned as He considered all the ruin that Satan and man had caused through sin. This is what brought Him from above. But He had come, not to heal physical diseases only, but to make atonement for sin by His blood.
Another writer, whose translation says "groaned" where ours says "sighed", asks what this man's state meant for God. A closed ear is not only the man's loss. It is silence toward God.
"Looking up to heaven He groaned." Surely this suggests that He was seeing this man's condition as it affected God. Estranged from the life of God, held in Satan's grip, man's ear is not tuned to the speaking of God. In the Old Testament we read of the many times God pleaded with His earthly people — "Hear, My people"!
Mark translates the word for us: be opened. One writer asks who has the right to speak to a deaf ear like that.
Following His touch of sympathy, the Lord uttered His word of command, Ephphatha. The Servant of Jehovah spoke in the fullness of His rights as the Son of God, and it was done. His word was as able to control and to correct as it was to create. Had He not "planted the ear" (Ps. 94:9)? If He made the hearing ear (Prov. 20:12), should He not cause the deaf ear to hear His voice? So He spoke to the helpless part rather than to the man himself: Be opened. At once the deaf man's ears opened, the bond on his tongue gave way, and he spoke plainly.
One writer explains why the Lord met this need in person.
He saw in both acts how everything depended on bringing Himself personally to bear on the actual need. The One who worked was man, yet no less was He God, the Son become flesh and on earth, in His pitying love serving God and man. He did not only apply what came from within Himself to the man's tongue. He also looked up to heaven, groaned, and said to him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.
Writers apply the man's condition in two directions. One takes it as a picture of every person since the fall.
A humiliating picture of every man's moral and spiritual condition as the fruit of the fall. God lost man's ear in the garden. Ever since that fatal day the whole human family has been inclined to listen to anyone rather than to God… The tongue of the unconverted man is as estranged from God as the ear. Nobody can deny that the most eloquent speaker shows an impediment in his speech as soon as the things of God and Christ come up.
Another writer keeps the focus on the nation. He reads the healing as a sample of what God will yet do for the believing few in Israel.
We see Jesus here, His heart moved at the condition of man, and even more at the state of His ever-loved Israel. This poor sufferer was a striking picture of it. He causes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. So it was individually, and so it will be with the whole remnant of Israel in the latter days.
The ear comes first, and the loosed tongue follows. One writer sums up the whole of the Lord's service in that order.
What a summary of the service of our blessed Lord! Opening men's ears to the gracious revelation from God — and loosing their tongue to answer His speaking with understanding.
- Opened upward. Jesus looks up before He opens anything in the man. Dependence comes first, and looking up keeps a sighing heart from being crushed.
- Opened in grief. The sigh weighs sin's ruin of a creation once called "very good," and points on to atonement by His blood as the real cure.
- Opened by a word. The One who planted the ear speaks to the ear itself: "Be opened." The Creator repairs what He made.
- Opened in person. He met the need Himself, bringing His own touch to the ear and the tongue.
- Opened to speak. Ears first, tongue after: He gives men the hearing to receive God's word and the speech to answer Him.
And immediately his ears were opened, and the band of his tongue was loosed and he spoke right.
A deaf man who could barely speak was brought to Jesus. Jesus took him aside from the crowd, touched his ears and tongue, and said one word: Ephphatha, "Be opened." This verse is the result, and commentators find far more in it than one man's recovery.
The cure came by a word of command. One writer links that word to the God who made the ear in the first place:
Following His touch of sympathy, the Lord uttered His word of command, Ephphatha. The Servant of Jehovah spoke in the fullness of His rights as the Son of God, and it was done. His word was as powerful to correct and control as it was to create. Had He not "planted the ear" (Ps. 94:9)? If He made the hearing ear (Prov. 20:12), should He not cause the deaf ear to hear His voice? So He spoke to the disabled part, not to the man himself: Be opened.
Hearing comes first in the verse, then speech. One writer applies that order to the way anyone comes to praise God:
The Saviour touched first the ears of the afflicted one, and then his tongue. This order is significant. In spiritual things the ear must first be opened to receive God's teaching. Only then can the tongue speak out His praise… The man who has taken the gospel of Christ into his heart through his ear will delight to tell everyone around him about the wonders of God's grace.
There is also a physical reason the two disabilities go together:
Being unable to speak is the result of being unable to hear. Children hear sounds and then learn to copy them. That is, they learn to repeat what they hear other people say. This is how every one of us has learned to speak. But the deaf child hears nothing. It cannot copy, so it never learns to speak… The ear is the guide and director of the tongue.
Some writers see in this man a picture of every person, with the loss going back to the garden of Eden:
A man was brought to Him who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech (Mark 7:31-37). It is a humbling picture of every man's moral and spiritual condition as the fruit of the fall. God lost man's ear in the garden. Ever since that fatal day the whole human family would sooner listen to anyone than to God… The tongue of the unconverted man is as much a stranger to God as the ear. No one can deny it: the most eloquent talker shows an impediment in his speech as soon as the things of God and Christ come up.
Others see the man as a picture of Israel at that moment:
The afflicted man was only a symbol of the state of Israel. Sadly, the nation was unwilling, and through unbelief unable, to hear God or to speak out their own misery and His praise. But as brought to Him he pictured the faithful remnant on whom light dawned in a region and shadow of death. And "immediately" — a word so typical of this Gospel of His service — his ears were opened. The tie of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke rightly.
Another writer sees the same grace reaching further than this one man:
He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak. So it was for this one man, and so it will be for the whole faithful remnant of Israel in the last days. He acts Himself, and He does all things well. The power of the enemy is destroyed.
The healing also points forward. One writer links it to a promise in Isaiah:
Then will come the fulfilment of the prophecy that this Galilean miracle guaranteed: "Behold your God… will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped… and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing… and sorrow and sighing shall flee away" (Isa. 35:4-10).
One writer sees the whole work of Christ summed up in this one cure:
People brought to Jesus a man who was deaf and could not speak properly. Jesus opened his ears and loosed his tongue… What a wonderful summary of the work of Christ! He opens men's ears so that they may hear the speaking of God, and unlooses their tongues so that they may respond in praise to Him. The verb is in the perfect tense — ears are still being opened to divine speaking, and lips are opened in response.
- Deaf first. The ear was lost in the garden, and ever since the human bent has been to listen to anyone rather than to God.
- Silence follows. Speech depends on hearing. The ear guides the tongue, so a silent tongue is the symptom, not the disease.
- Opened by a word. The One who planted the ear needed only to say "Be opened," and it was done.
- Still opening. God opens the ear to receive His instruction before the tongue can speak His praise — and He is still opening ears today.
- Sorrow ending. This one cure was a pledge of a coming day. Then deaf ears will be unstopped, mute tongues will sing, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
And he charged them that they should speak to no one [of it]. But so much the more *he* charged them, so much the more abundantly *they* proclaimed it;
Jesus has just given a deaf man his hearing and speech, and now He tells the crowd to keep it quiet. The harder He presses, the louder they talk — which raises two questions: why did He want no report made, and what does that noise say about the people making it?
The order to tell no one comes straight after a miracle that could have made His name. One writer explains why He wanted none of it:
After healing the man He charges them to tell no one. He was here as the perfect Servant, so He would not use His mighty power and grace to exalt Himself. His mind was to make Himself of no reputation. But He could not stay hidden.
Hiding was not a one-off mood. Another writer sees it as part of what serving means:
As the Servant of God, here in Mark, He was hiding Himself, as far as His service allowed it. Service is never perfect without that. A servant is not to know himself. He is to know only his master, and to be very willing that others likewise should not know him, but only his master. And it is so with the Lord. He goes on with His work. If that gathers notice, His way is still to go on, and to hide Himself again under fresh service.
The command matched the way He had healed the man:
He worked the miracle in secret, and not as a public sign. So the Lord, having opened the ears and mouth of the man brought to Him, gave the order to tell no one. But this command fell upon the deaf ears of disobedience, for the more He charged this upon them, so much the more they published it.
Another writer traces the reason back to how the nation had already treated Him. Mercy continued; publicity did not:
He still showed mercy. But it was not His object now to be known by these miracles. He was now separating and distinguishing within a nation that had rejected Him — or rather, a nation that had rejected itself. So afterwards, they were to tell no one about Him. They confessed that He was the Christ. Yet morally, as Son of God in all His grace, they had rejected Him. He was not now to take reputation as Christ. They were morally bad, they were rejecting the Lord, and they had no taste for what was true in it.
What the crowd said about Him was true. One writer weighs what lay behind their words:
For the moment it was all in vain. He charged them to tell no one, but the more He did, the more they spread it. Yet, true as it might be in words, it was not faith in the heart, but rather extreme astonishment.
Another writer finds the same gap in people today:
Yet the Lord wanted no advertising: He charged them to tell no one of this miracle, as we have seen He did on other occasions. But men were more impressed by what they saw than by the authority of the Lord's word. They appreciated Him and His power, but were not prepared to obey His Word. Today this is a common illness too. Admiration of Him without obedience is an illness more serious than we imagine.
The word for what the crowd did here turns up elsewhere in Mark. One writer points out that it is not reserved for officials:
The word "proclaim" is not restricted to an official class at all. It is used of the healed leper, and of the man freed from demons, when they proclaimed what the Lord had done for each of them (Mark 1:45; Mark 5:20). It is used as well of those who published the cure of the deaf and dumb man (Mark 7:36).
- Humble — The Servant would not use His power to exalt Himself. His mind was to make Himself of no reputation.
- Hidden — A servant is to know only his master. When notice came, Christ moved on to fresh work and hid Himself again.
- Held back — He did the cure in secret, not as a public sign. He would not take reputation as Christ among people who had rejected Him.
- Heard everywhere — The command fell on deaf ears. What spread was extreme astonishment, not faith in the heart.
- Heeded? — Admiration without obedience is a more serious illness than we imagine. That crowd was not the last to have it.