NOTES for Heb 4:1-13
This is already the second episode described by Mark in which the Lord heals by using saliva. Perhaps this is another prophetic action, in which Jesus symbolically portrays what is really happening on the invisible plane of being.
The point is not even that these symbols reflect what is happening better than anything else, but that they themselves are a reflection of the heavenly reality brought by the Son of God, who became the Son of Man. Thus the very words "Father" and "Son" are taken from human vocabulary for family relationships. But who knows whether these family relationships were not created to reflect the heavenly unity of the Father and the Son? Human saliva has always been considered a carrier of a person's qualities. The saliva of the unclean is unclean (Lev. 15:8); the saliva of the sick is contagious. In exactly the same way, the saliva of the One who sees gives sight, and the saliva of the One who hears and speaks gives hearing and speech (Mark 7:33).