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NOTES for Mar 7:31-37

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31 And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.
32 And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him.
33 And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;
34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.
35 And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.
36 And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it;
37 And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
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As the Gospel testifies, crowds of people in need of help followed Jesus, because they valued His ability to heal above all else. The last lines of today's passage point to this: "He has done all things well: He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak." The evangelist records words about the Lord Himself, who is grieved that the crowds follow Him only because of miracles and do not see something more essential.

Having healed the deaf man with a speech impediment, the Savior asks him not to tell anyone about it. Perhaps this is precisely because the miracle, though it played an enormous role in the healed man's life, was not the most important thing. Far more important was what Christ had done in his soul, the way the Good News had touched this man broken by illness. Yet speaking about how the heart has changed is much harder than telling how you stopped being deaf and mute. But it is precisely this kind of witness that the Lord expects from us.

Other notes

 
For Mar 7:31-37
31 And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.
32 And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him.
33 And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;
34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.
35 And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.
36 And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it;
37 And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
Hide
Jesus forbids the healed man and those who accompanied him to spread the report of the miracle that had taken place, of which they had become witnesses. And this is not the first time He has proclaimed such a prohibition. It looks very much as though...  Read more

Jesus forbids the healed man and those who accompanied him to spread the report of the miracle that had taken place, of which they had become witnesses. And this is not the first time He has proclaimed such a prohibition. It looks very much as though Jesus wanted the event of healing, the event of divine intervention in a person's fate, to remain a mystery, a secret between Jesus and the one who had been healed. And all for the simple reason that a miracle can happen only on the personal level; and only on that level, in that inward and hidden dimension, does God reveal Himself to a person. For any miracle, in the end, whether healing, rescue in the midst of mortal danger, or something else, if it is, of course, perceived as a miracle and not as a random coincidence, is a flash of divine light in our life. And such a flash is our personal, intimate glimpse into the depths of life, into the depths of God, the appearance or sharpening of the ability to hear the "harmony of Heaven."

As for outside observers, for them everything "miraculous" is most often perceived as some kind of divine trick, or as the deeds of a good magician providing for the material well-being of his charges. It was precisely from this perception that Jesus wanted to protect everyone who might hear the story of the miracle or see someone they knew healed. After all, in the final analysis, the purpose of every word and action of Jesus, and therefore of God acting through Him, is to open a person's eyes to his real disastrous condition and, what is still more important, to show the path of liberation: liberation from being fixated on one's own problems, from attempts to get rid of them by one's own strength and to be happy at the expense of others and only for oneself... Incidentally, this may be why the witnesses of the healing of the deaf-mute also turn from amazed outside observers into active participants in the miracle. For they meet God in the act of their compassion and active care for their maimed fellow tribesman, whom they "brought to Jesus."

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For Mar 7:31-37
31 And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.
32 And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him.
33 And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;
34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.
35 And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.
36 And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it;
37 And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
Hide
Faith and long-suffering are symbols of Christian steadfastness in trials. When the Lord helps us, when all suffering ends, we often begin telling everyone about what has happened. And at...  Read more

Faith and long-suffering are symbols of Christian steadfastness in trials. When the Lord helps us, when all suffering ends, we often begin telling everyone about what has happened. And at that very moment we often drown out the voice of Christ addressed to us. Christ says to almost everyone He heals, "do not tell anyone." He calls us to silence, to finding peace, to the struggle against the noise produced by the surrounding world.

In fasting we ask that the spirit of humility, patience, and love be sent down to us. To receive these gifts, we need silence. Silence as time for conversation with Christ. And in our prayer, whether we pray according to rules or in our own words, few words are necessary. They are necessary precisely because Christ's work is accomplished in silence and secrecy. In the silence of morning and the slight chill of dawn, His friends and disciples learn that He is not in the tomb. That He is risen.

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For Mar 7:31-37
31 And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.
32 And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him.
33 And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;
34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.
35 And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.
36 And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it;
37 And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
Hide
The people who brought the deaf man with a speech impediment to Jesus did not merely ask Him for healing; they also specified how...  Read more

The people who brought the deaf man with a speech impediment to Jesus did not merely ask Him for healing; they also specified how it should take place. They “begged Him to lay His hand on him,” that is, to bless the sick man in the presence of the whole crowd. Jesus, however, takes the deaf-mute man aside to a secluded place where, alone with His disciples, He performs a series of physical actions quite unlike the customary blessing: He puts His fingers into the man's ears and touches his tongue with saliva...

How often in our lives, when asking the Lord for something, we expect Him to act in ways that are clear and obvious to us. But He works His miracles neither according to our plan nor in a way that we necessarily see, just as the friends of the man with the speech impediment did not see the miracle. Yet neither this healing nor God's other works lose any of their power because of that.

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For Mar 7:24-37
24 And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid.
25 For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet:
26 The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.
27 But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.
28 And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.
29 And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.
30 And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.
31 And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.
32 And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him.
33 And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;
34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.
35 And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.
36 And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it;
37 And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
Hide
In this story it is very interesting why Mark decided to preserve the Aramaic word "ephphatha." Usually the evangelist...  Read more

In this story it is very interesting why Mark decided to preserve the Aramaic word "ephphatha." Usually the evangelist gives Aramaic words either when they were well known to his listeners, or when they said a great deal to them and to him personally. In particular, Mark preserves not only the Lord Jesus' address to the Father, "Abba," and His words of God-forsakenness on the cross, but also His words addressed to those whom He healed: for example, to Jairus's daughter, "talitha, cumi," and today, to the deaf man. Why was the word "ephphatha" so precious to the evangelist? Perhaps he felt that it was, in some measure, addressed not only to the deaf man, but also to everyone who recognizes his own deafness, the closedness of his heart and spiritual hearing, and his inability to hear and understand the Word addressed to him. This means that today the Lord, in His native language, addresses all who want healing, all who want to live His life and follow His way, and says: "Ephphatha, be opened..."

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