Getting Back Into The Conversation
Preaching
Your Faith Has Made You Well
Preaching The Miracles
Miracle Eight
Getting Back Into The Conversation
The Text
Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened." And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, "He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."
This little story is often neglected, dwarfed by the more well-known stories of the miraculous feeding and the Syrophoenician woman and her daughter that come before it. Matthew and Luke do not include a parallel to it in their gospels. Chapter 8 is a turning point in the Gospel of Mark: Jesus begins talking about his death. It is easy to lose this story in the shuffle. As we will see, though, the story makes crucial theological points in Mark.
Background
The Old Testament does not contain stories about the deaf being healed, which makes this account in Mark unique in the Bible. Nevertheless, the Old Testament has much to say about the importance of the sense of hearing and of speaking. Hearing and speaking affect relationships among people and between people and God, and have implications for the creation itself.
The world of the Old Testament was largely an oral culture. Literacy rates were low, and people communicated primarily by speaking and hearing. I do not have information about any sort of sign language, but any such system likely would have been quite crude. Throughout the biblical period, communicating even in the most basic way would have been difficult and frustrating for a deaf person. Friendships, romance, work, and even leisure might have been next to impossible. Of course, the problems of a person born deaf or whose hearing failed early in life would be greater than those who became deaf late in life. Even with people who became deaf later in life, the deprivation was frustrating. 2 Samuel recounts the plight of Barzillai, who became deaf by the age of eighty. He laments that he cannot hear the sound of people singing (2 Samuel 19:35). The passage suggests he greatly missed hearing music.
The Old Testament writers, especially in the wisdom literature, emphasized the importance of hearing for learning and maturing. The willingness to listen and to hear instruction was considered a sign of personal growth. "Hear, my child, your father's instruction, and do not reject your mother's teaching" (Proverbs 1:8). "My child, if you accept my words and treasure up my commandments within you, making your ear attentive to wisdom ... then you will understand the fear of the Lord" (Proverbs 2:1-5). One gained wisdom and received instruction through the sense of hearing. No alternative is mentioned for those who cannot hear. Perhaps that lacuna suggests how marginalized were those unable to hear.
The way the Old Testament uses language suggests that hearing was integral to one's relationship to God. One of the key verses of the Old Testament was the "Shema," in Deuteronomy 6. "Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone" (Deuteronomy 6:4). The name of the verse comes from the Hebrew word for "hear," which also means, "obey." Truly to hear the word of God was to obey. Other passages reinforce this idea. The psalmist contrasts making an offering with true obedience and uses the ear as a metonym for that obedience, "You have given me an open ear" (Psalm 40:6). Conversely, to disobey God was to shut one's ears. Jeremiah complains about the stubbornness of the people by saying, "their ears are closed, they cannot listen" (Jeremiah 6:10). Again, as in the wisdom literature, no provision is made for people who cannot hear. The language itself seems to exclude hearing-impaired people.
The ability to speak also is crucial for human interaction and one's relationship with God. The psalmist, who wants to think of a terrible punishment for himself if he forgets Jerusalem, picks the inability to speak as a fate he wishes to avoid (Psalm 137:6). It should be noted that the psalmist is a musician, and would therefore be unable to sing if his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. When the psalmists want to offer praise to God, they often wish their praises to come out as "singing" (see Psalm 108:1). Not only praise, but also a variety of interactions with God depend on the ability to speak. The psalmists cry to God (Psalm 120:1, 130:1), bless God (Psalm 134:1) and give thanks to God (Psalm 138:1). All of these forms of interaction require, if not the power of speech, at least the use of language. We can only surmise how people in the ancient world developed any ability to use language if they were born deaf. Psalm 103:1 suggests that the psalmists understood that a person could bless God with more than the organs of speech. He wants "all that is within" him to bless the Lord. Nevertheless, the power of speech was so important that one Old Testament scholar declares, "Thus the mouth, which expresses what ear and eye had perceived, becomes the organ which distinguishes man above all other creatures."1
None of the statements in this section should be understood as suggesting that deaf people are to blame for their condition or to suggest that deaf people lack faith or maturity or wisdom. I include this background material to highlight the problems and deprivation that deaf and hearing-impaired people experienced in the ancient world. In a sense, with limited ability to interact with others, learn, or practice their faith in God, they had to fight for their very humanity.
Literary Analysis
Jesus is once again in Gentile territory. Even though his first miracle among the Gentiles led to the people asking him to leave (5:17), Jesus' fame has spread so that he cannot get away from the people (7:24). The real heroes of the story remain anonymous. An indefinite "they" bring the deaf man to Jesus. We do not know if the ones who bring the man to Jesus are his family, his friends, or just concerned bystanders who have caught the buzz about Jesus. Because the narrator does not tell us that they are family or friends, perhaps the most likely possibility is that they are people who notice the deaf man and take him to Jesus. Their compassion shows through in what they do. They become the ears and mouth for the man who cannot hear about Jesus as the woman with the hemorrhage could (5:27) and cannot ask for Jesus' help as Jairus could. The narrator does not tell us explicitly that Jesus noticed their faith as he does with regard to that of the four men who bring the paralytic (2:5), but surely, their faith is exemplary, especially since they are Gentiles. We know precious little about the man himself. Apparently he was not born deaf, because he can speak some, just not clearly (the Greek in v. 32 suggests this). We don't know how long he had been deaf, or what hardships his deafness caused him.
The focus in the story is on Jesus' actions in healing. Jesus' actions are consistent with those of other ancient healers, suggesting that Mark shows us Jesus' superiority over them. Spitting and sighing are common to ancient healing stories. Saliva was thought to have healing qualities. The sighing could mean a number of things. Jesus could be expressing for the man his grief, or he could be drawing on God's power for the healing. As in some of the other healing stories, this account contains the language of exorcism: the man's tongue was "released" (v. 35).
Once again, Jesus orders the crowd ("them" in v. 36?) not to tell anyone about the healing. Even though Jesus has taken the man away by himself for the healing, the crowd can see the effect. The admonishment to silence is again a signal to Mark's readers. Even though this story has great theological significance, the true understanding of Jesus has not come yet. The next chapter begins to unfold that significance as Jesus tells the disciples about his crucifixion and calls for them to take up their own crosses. We note, of course, that the crowd ignores the admonition to silence and begins to proclaim the message.
The crowd gets the last theological word, as has often been the case in these stories. They are astounded at the healing, declaring, "He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak" (v. 37). This declaration is an acknowledgment that healing the deaf is unique to Jesus. Jesus has done what Old Testament prophets and other healers of the ancient world had not done.
Theological Reflection
When the crowd exclaims that Jesus has "done everything well" (v. 37) we hear echoes of the creation story from the first chapter of Genesis, where God declares repeatedly that the creation and all of its parts are "good" (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). [Note the Greek of Genesis 1 in the Septuagint contains some of the same vocabulary of Mark 7:37. Both use the words panta (all) and a form of kalos (good).] This narrative, therefore, links Jesus' healings with God's act of creation. The opening of a man's ears, and the restoration of the power to speak are appropriate for such a connection.
In the first creation story in Genesis, God creates through the power of speech, "Then God said, 'Let there be light' " (Genesis 1:3). The text, of course, does not say who heard God speak, only that speech was the instrument through which God created. Immediately after God spoke, what God commanded came into being, "and there was light" (v. 3). Such is the power of language in God's mouth.
In a couple of places, the Old Testament writers affirm that God created the ability to hear and the ability to speak. When the Lord appeared to Moses in a burning bush, calling him to lead the Hebrew people out of slavery in Egypt, Moses offered several protests. Moses claimed to be "slow of speech and slow of tongue" (Exodus 4:10). The Lord's response was, "Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak?" (Exodus 4:11-12). The Lord grants the power of speech in the general sense and will specifically teach Moses how to speak. The power of speech was integral to the very formation of the community of Israel, and to God's plan for them. The sages of Israel affirm, "The hearing ear and the seeing eye -- the Lord has made them both" (Proverbs 20:12). This verse celebrates that our senses are a special gift from God.
We cited Isaiah 35:5-6 in the passage about the paralyzed man in Mark 2. "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy." This passage proclaims that the healing of disabilities will be a sign of God's favor during the special event of the return from exile. The passage is an eschatological promise of God's blessing.
Given the importance of hearing and speech in biblical theology, the account of the deaf man in Mark takes on a special significance. This is more than a story about one man whose ears are opened. This is a proclamation that in Jesus, God is renewing creation. Jesus is restoring the goodness of creation corrupted by sin, illness, and demonic forces.
That the man Jesus heals of deafness is a Gentile is no accident. The man is both the recipient of God's gracious healing through Jesus and a synecdoche. He represents the Gentiles, to whom the word of salvation is preached. God is unstopping the ears of the Gentiles so that they can hear the good news. This speaks to us of the universality of the gospel message, and urges the church to proclaim the good news to all.
Pastoral Reading
Not many of us will face the prospect of being paralyzed, blind, or having a hemorrhage for twelve years. Loss of hearing, however, is a common problem that accompanies growing older. Sooner or later, most of us will face the growing isolation of hearing impairment. We will be deprived of the beautiful sounds of music playing, birds chirping, and children laughing. Improvements in technology will help mitigate this situation somewhat, but the problems remain. Of all the healing stories, this may be the one that more of us will turn to for comfort and courage at some point in our lives.
One of the most painful aspects of deafness for some elderly people is the loss of full participation in church. People find the sermon hard to follow or the music difficult to enjoy. They can't keep up with conversations when someone speaks to them. They can't keep up in Sunday school. I have sat in the homes of many elderly parishioners who told me that they stopped going to church when their hearing became bad. They missed church terribly, but it was just too awkward and frustrating to keep going.
If we want to expand the range of people who might be able to identify with these healing stories, we might consider how they apply to people other than those who have the specific condition mentioned in the story. People who are shy are not addressed in scripture much (if at all). Even though they can hear perfectly, they may still feel left out of conversations and social situations. They may relate well to the feelings of isolation, loneliness, and frustration that a deaf person feels. This passage can provide a pastoral word to those who are shy or who have some condition such as social anxiety or Asperger's autism. God may open up channels of communication for them. In a variety of ways, God may loosen their tongues.
Needless to say, the church should do all it can to provide for the needs of the deaf and hard of hearing in all of its ministries. Sign language interpreters, special amplifiers, and provision for good acoustics are ways the church can show love and care to persons with hearing impairment. The ability to worship, interact with others, and take part in the life of the church is vital to all people.
The language we use is especially important in dealing with those who have trouble speaking. The old phrase "deaf and dumb" should be tossed away. The implications of "dumb" -- because of the modern meaning of the term -- are just too painful and insulting. Let us use patience and sensitivity when we speak of people with handicapping conditions.
The anonymity of the people who bring the deaf man to Jesus is instructive. That Mark doesn't identify them suggests that the details about them are not important. Let us do our work for the church without seeking attention or credit for ourselves.
Over and over, Jesus admonishes people not to tell about his miracles. Over and over, the people so admonished ignore Jesus' command and proclaim the message anyway. Even Jesus' miracles are not self-interpreting. Some of Jesus' opponents saw the miracles firsthand, but did not comprehend God's power in them. The Gospel of Mark opens by announcing the "good news" of Jesus Christ (Mark 1:1). The overall message of Mark is that once we truly understand the mission of Jesus, cross and all, we should proclaim the good news. Just as Jesus' miracles are not self-interpreting, neither are the church's actions. The role of proclamation is indispensable.
Preaching Strategies
Even though this passage is brief, it is rich in sermon potential. By focusing on different characters or different theological affirmations in the passage, the preacher can find material for several sermons. Although the characters in this story are not especially well developed, their actions are instructive for the church.
A focus on the people who bring the deaf man to Jesus reminds the church of its mediating role between Jesus and the world. In the text, the ones who bring the deaf man to Jesus are not necessarily followers of Jesus. They are not the disciples, who usually represent the church in Mark. Nevertheless, they recognize Jesus as a healer, and bring the man to him. Part of the church's mission is to communicate to a needy world the grace offered by Christ. The church takes the initiative to offer and interpret the grace of God. The church discerns the needs of the world and how the grace of Christ addresses that need. That discernment is important because people's perceived needs are not always their real needs. The man in the story might not have known that Jesus could heal him.
The deaf man is a reminder to Christians that others have mediated the gospel to us. Perhaps someone shared a testimony with us. Maybe a Sunday school teacher or youth director made an impression on us. All Christians owe a debt to others who have preserved the church's witness through the centuries, sometimes at great cost.
The deaf man also reminds us that we are all recipients of grace. Because he might not have realized what would happen to him when he encountered Jesus, he personifies the unexpected joy of receiving grace. Many people have experienced the grace of God when they were not looking for it, or were even intentionally closed to it. God's grace finds us, even when we don't want to be found.
The deaf man is a synecdoche for human isolation. Even with the physical ability to communicate and the impressive technology that makes communication possible, we often feel estranged and lonely. Sometimes we cannot find the words to say to each other, even when we desperately want to communicate.
As is true with each of the miracle stories the healing itself points to a larger theological affirmation. Jesus' ministry is the coming near of the renewal of creation. Because Jesus does all things well he begins the process of restoring the creation to the goodness God intended. Part of that restoration is giving back the ability to enjoy the beauty of the creation and genuine fellowship with one another.
Kathy Black's book, A Healing Homiletic: Preaching and Disability2, is an insightful book about preaching from the healing narratives in the New Testament. Part of her message is a caution about using physical disabilities as metaphors for sin and disobedience. Her book is instructive for all forms of disability but perhaps especially so for deafness. Mark intends this narrative about opening the ears of a deaf man to serve as a synecdoche for bringing the word to the Gentiles. As the man's ears are opened, so are the ears of the Gentiles opened to the proclamation of the word (7:36). Let us remember, however, that the inability to hear is not a good metaphor for the unwillingness to hear.
____________
1.ÊHans Walter Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, trans. Margaret Kohl (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974), p. 77.
2.ÊKathy Black, A Healing Homiletic: Preaching and Disability (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996). Her chapter on deafness is especially helpful for understanding the needs of deaf people in contemporary society (pp. 88-103).
Getting Back Into The Conversation
The Text
Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened." And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, "He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."
This little story is often neglected, dwarfed by the more well-known stories of the miraculous feeding and the Syrophoenician woman and her daughter that come before it. Matthew and Luke do not include a parallel to it in their gospels. Chapter 8 is a turning point in the Gospel of Mark: Jesus begins talking about his death. It is easy to lose this story in the shuffle. As we will see, though, the story makes crucial theological points in Mark.
Background
The Old Testament does not contain stories about the deaf being healed, which makes this account in Mark unique in the Bible. Nevertheless, the Old Testament has much to say about the importance of the sense of hearing and of speaking. Hearing and speaking affect relationships among people and between people and God, and have implications for the creation itself.
The world of the Old Testament was largely an oral culture. Literacy rates were low, and people communicated primarily by speaking and hearing. I do not have information about any sort of sign language, but any such system likely would have been quite crude. Throughout the biblical period, communicating even in the most basic way would have been difficult and frustrating for a deaf person. Friendships, romance, work, and even leisure might have been next to impossible. Of course, the problems of a person born deaf or whose hearing failed early in life would be greater than those who became deaf late in life. Even with people who became deaf later in life, the deprivation was frustrating. 2 Samuel recounts the plight of Barzillai, who became deaf by the age of eighty. He laments that he cannot hear the sound of people singing (2 Samuel 19:35). The passage suggests he greatly missed hearing music.
The Old Testament writers, especially in the wisdom literature, emphasized the importance of hearing for learning and maturing. The willingness to listen and to hear instruction was considered a sign of personal growth. "Hear, my child, your father's instruction, and do not reject your mother's teaching" (Proverbs 1:8). "My child, if you accept my words and treasure up my commandments within you, making your ear attentive to wisdom ... then you will understand the fear of the Lord" (Proverbs 2:1-5). One gained wisdom and received instruction through the sense of hearing. No alternative is mentioned for those who cannot hear. Perhaps that lacuna suggests how marginalized were those unable to hear.
The way the Old Testament uses language suggests that hearing was integral to one's relationship to God. One of the key verses of the Old Testament was the "Shema," in Deuteronomy 6. "Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone" (Deuteronomy 6:4). The name of the verse comes from the Hebrew word for "hear," which also means, "obey." Truly to hear the word of God was to obey. Other passages reinforce this idea. The psalmist contrasts making an offering with true obedience and uses the ear as a metonym for that obedience, "You have given me an open ear" (Psalm 40:6). Conversely, to disobey God was to shut one's ears. Jeremiah complains about the stubbornness of the people by saying, "their ears are closed, they cannot listen" (Jeremiah 6:10). Again, as in the wisdom literature, no provision is made for people who cannot hear. The language itself seems to exclude hearing-impaired people.
The ability to speak also is crucial for human interaction and one's relationship with God. The psalmist, who wants to think of a terrible punishment for himself if he forgets Jerusalem, picks the inability to speak as a fate he wishes to avoid (Psalm 137:6). It should be noted that the psalmist is a musician, and would therefore be unable to sing if his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. When the psalmists want to offer praise to God, they often wish their praises to come out as "singing" (see Psalm 108:1). Not only praise, but also a variety of interactions with God depend on the ability to speak. The psalmists cry to God (Psalm 120:1, 130:1), bless God (Psalm 134:1) and give thanks to God (Psalm 138:1). All of these forms of interaction require, if not the power of speech, at least the use of language. We can only surmise how people in the ancient world developed any ability to use language if they were born deaf. Psalm 103:1 suggests that the psalmists understood that a person could bless God with more than the organs of speech. He wants "all that is within" him to bless the Lord. Nevertheless, the power of speech was so important that one Old Testament scholar declares, "Thus the mouth, which expresses what ear and eye had perceived, becomes the organ which distinguishes man above all other creatures."1
None of the statements in this section should be understood as suggesting that deaf people are to blame for their condition or to suggest that deaf people lack faith or maturity or wisdom. I include this background material to highlight the problems and deprivation that deaf and hearing-impaired people experienced in the ancient world. In a sense, with limited ability to interact with others, learn, or practice their faith in God, they had to fight for their very humanity.
Literary Analysis
Jesus is once again in Gentile territory. Even though his first miracle among the Gentiles led to the people asking him to leave (5:17), Jesus' fame has spread so that he cannot get away from the people (7:24). The real heroes of the story remain anonymous. An indefinite "they" bring the deaf man to Jesus. We do not know if the ones who bring the man to Jesus are his family, his friends, or just concerned bystanders who have caught the buzz about Jesus. Because the narrator does not tell us that they are family or friends, perhaps the most likely possibility is that they are people who notice the deaf man and take him to Jesus. Their compassion shows through in what they do. They become the ears and mouth for the man who cannot hear about Jesus as the woman with the hemorrhage could (5:27) and cannot ask for Jesus' help as Jairus could. The narrator does not tell us explicitly that Jesus noticed their faith as he does with regard to that of the four men who bring the paralytic (2:5), but surely, their faith is exemplary, especially since they are Gentiles. We know precious little about the man himself. Apparently he was not born deaf, because he can speak some, just not clearly (the Greek in v. 32 suggests this). We don't know how long he had been deaf, or what hardships his deafness caused him.
The focus in the story is on Jesus' actions in healing. Jesus' actions are consistent with those of other ancient healers, suggesting that Mark shows us Jesus' superiority over them. Spitting and sighing are common to ancient healing stories. Saliva was thought to have healing qualities. The sighing could mean a number of things. Jesus could be expressing for the man his grief, or he could be drawing on God's power for the healing. As in some of the other healing stories, this account contains the language of exorcism: the man's tongue was "released" (v. 35).
Once again, Jesus orders the crowd ("them" in v. 36?) not to tell anyone about the healing. Even though Jesus has taken the man away by himself for the healing, the crowd can see the effect. The admonishment to silence is again a signal to Mark's readers. Even though this story has great theological significance, the true understanding of Jesus has not come yet. The next chapter begins to unfold that significance as Jesus tells the disciples about his crucifixion and calls for them to take up their own crosses. We note, of course, that the crowd ignores the admonition to silence and begins to proclaim the message.
The crowd gets the last theological word, as has often been the case in these stories. They are astounded at the healing, declaring, "He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak" (v. 37). This declaration is an acknowledgment that healing the deaf is unique to Jesus. Jesus has done what Old Testament prophets and other healers of the ancient world had not done.
Theological Reflection
When the crowd exclaims that Jesus has "done everything well" (v. 37) we hear echoes of the creation story from the first chapter of Genesis, where God declares repeatedly that the creation and all of its parts are "good" (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). [Note the Greek of Genesis 1 in the Septuagint contains some of the same vocabulary of Mark 7:37. Both use the words panta (all) and a form of kalos (good).] This narrative, therefore, links Jesus' healings with God's act of creation. The opening of a man's ears, and the restoration of the power to speak are appropriate for such a connection.
In the first creation story in Genesis, God creates through the power of speech, "Then God said, 'Let there be light' " (Genesis 1:3). The text, of course, does not say who heard God speak, only that speech was the instrument through which God created. Immediately after God spoke, what God commanded came into being, "and there was light" (v. 3). Such is the power of language in God's mouth.
In a couple of places, the Old Testament writers affirm that God created the ability to hear and the ability to speak. When the Lord appeared to Moses in a burning bush, calling him to lead the Hebrew people out of slavery in Egypt, Moses offered several protests. Moses claimed to be "slow of speech and slow of tongue" (Exodus 4:10). The Lord's response was, "Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak?" (Exodus 4:11-12). The Lord grants the power of speech in the general sense and will specifically teach Moses how to speak. The power of speech was integral to the very formation of the community of Israel, and to God's plan for them. The sages of Israel affirm, "The hearing ear and the seeing eye -- the Lord has made them both" (Proverbs 20:12). This verse celebrates that our senses are a special gift from God.
We cited Isaiah 35:5-6 in the passage about the paralyzed man in Mark 2. "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy." This passage proclaims that the healing of disabilities will be a sign of God's favor during the special event of the return from exile. The passage is an eschatological promise of God's blessing.
Given the importance of hearing and speech in biblical theology, the account of the deaf man in Mark takes on a special significance. This is more than a story about one man whose ears are opened. This is a proclamation that in Jesus, God is renewing creation. Jesus is restoring the goodness of creation corrupted by sin, illness, and demonic forces.
That the man Jesus heals of deafness is a Gentile is no accident. The man is both the recipient of God's gracious healing through Jesus and a synecdoche. He represents the Gentiles, to whom the word of salvation is preached. God is unstopping the ears of the Gentiles so that they can hear the good news. This speaks to us of the universality of the gospel message, and urges the church to proclaim the good news to all.
Pastoral Reading
Not many of us will face the prospect of being paralyzed, blind, or having a hemorrhage for twelve years. Loss of hearing, however, is a common problem that accompanies growing older. Sooner or later, most of us will face the growing isolation of hearing impairment. We will be deprived of the beautiful sounds of music playing, birds chirping, and children laughing. Improvements in technology will help mitigate this situation somewhat, but the problems remain. Of all the healing stories, this may be the one that more of us will turn to for comfort and courage at some point in our lives.
One of the most painful aspects of deafness for some elderly people is the loss of full participation in church. People find the sermon hard to follow or the music difficult to enjoy. They can't keep up with conversations when someone speaks to them. They can't keep up in Sunday school. I have sat in the homes of many elderly parishioners who told me that they stopped going to church when their hearing became bad. They missed church terribly, but it was just too awkward and frustrating to keep going.
If we want to expand the range of people who might be able to identify with these healing stories, we might consider how they apply to people other than those who have the specific condition mentioned in the story. People who are shy are not addressed in scripture much (if at all). Even though they can hear perfectly, they may still feel left out of conversations and social situations. They may relate well to the feelings of isolation, loneliness, and frustration that a deaf person feels. This passage can provide a pastoral word to those who are shy or who have some condition such as social anxiety or Asperger's autism. God may open up channels of communication for them. In a variety of ways, God may loosen their tongues.
Needless to say, the church should do all it can to provide for the needs of the deaf and hard of hearing in all of its ministries. Sign language interpreters, special amplifiers, and provision for good acoustics are ways the church can show love and care to persons with hearing impairment. The ability to worship, interact with others, and take part in the life of the church is vital to all people.
The language we use is especially important in dealing with those who have trouble speaking. The old phrase "deaf and dumb" should be tossed away. The implications of "dumb" -- because of the modern meaning of the term -- are just too painful and insulting. Let us use patience and sensitivity when we speak of people with handicapping conditions.
The anonymity of the people who bring the deaf man to Jesus is instructive. That Mark doesn't identify them suggests that the details about them are not important. Let us do our work for the church without seeking attention or credit for ourselves.
Over and over, Jesus admonishes people not to tell about his miracles. Over and over, the people so admonished ignore Jesus' command and proclaim the message anyway. Even Jesus' miracles are not self-interpreting. Some of Jesus' opponents saw the miracles firsthand, but did not comprehend God's power in them. The Gospel of Mark opens by announcing the "good news" of Jesus Christ (Mark 1:1). The overall message of Mark is that once we truly understand the mission of Jesus, cross and all, we should proclaim the good news. Just as Jesus' miracles are not self-interpreting, neither are the church's actions. The role of proclamation is indispensable.
Preaching Strategies
Even though this passage is brief, it is rich in sermon potential. By focusing on different characters or different theological affirmations in the passage, the preacher can find material for several sermons. Although the characters in this story are not especially well developed, their actions are instructive for the church.
A focus on the people who bring the deaf man to Jesus reminds the church of its mediating role between Jesus and the world. In the text, the ones who bring the deaf man to Jesus are not necessarily followers of Jesus. They are not the disciples, who usually represent the church in Mark. Nevertheless, they recognize Jesus as a healer, and bring the man to him. Part of the church's mission is to communicate to a needy world the grace offered by Christ. The church takes the initiative to offer and interpret the grace of God. The church discerns the needs of the world and how the grace of Christ addresses that need. That discernment is important because people's perceived needs are not always their real needs. The man in the story might not have known that Jesus could heal him.
The deaf man is a reminder to Christians that others have mediated the gospel to us. Perhaps someone shared a testimony with us. Maybe a Sunday school teacher or youth director made an impression on us. All Christians owe a debt to others who have preserved the church's witness through the centuries, sometimes at great cost.
The deaf man also reminds us that we are all recipients of grace. Because he might not have realized what would happen to him when he encountered Jesus, he personifies the unexpected joy of receiving grace. Many people have experienced the grace of God when they were not looking for it, or were even intentionally closed to it. God's grace finds us, even when we don't want to be found.
The deaf man is a synecdoche for human isolation. Even with the physical ability to communicate and the impressive technology that makes communication possible, we often feel estranged and lonely. Sometimes we cannot find the words to say to each other, even when we desperately want to communicate.
As is true with each of the miracle stories the healing itself points to a larger theological affirmation. Jesus' ministry is the coming near of the renewal of creation. Because Jesus does all things well he begins the process of restoring the creation to the goodness God intended. Part of that restoration is giving back the ability to enjoy the beauty of the creation and genuine fellowship with one another.
Kathy Black's book, A Healing Homiletic: Preaching and Disability2, is an insightful book about preaching from the healing narratives in the New Testament. Part of her message is a caution about using physical disabilities as metaphors for sin and disobedience. Her book is instructive for all forms of disability but perhaps especially so for deafness. Mark intends this narrative about opening the ears of a deaf man to serve as a synecdoche for bringing the word to the Gentiles. As the man's ears are opened, so are the ears of the Gentiles opened to the proclamation of the word (7:36). Let us remember, however, that the inability to hear is not a good metaphor for the unwillingness to hear.
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1.ÊHans Walter Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, trans. Margaret Kohl (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974), p. 77.
2.ÊKathy Black, A Healing Homiletic: Preaching and Disability (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996). Her chapter on deafness is especially helpful for understanding the needs of deaf people in contemporary society (pp. 88-103).
