Be opened!

 The man who was deaf and impaired in speech - one of my favourite Gospels, and the one for today. Watch and hear the Master at work, giving a lesson in how to be sensitive to one another. Notice especially how the way Jesus heals here seems undignified or even silly, as he puts his fingers in the man’s ears and his spit on the man’s tongue.  But first...

1. He takes the man aside in private, someone who is only too used to being looked at, laughed at etc. Thee then followsd what cane be seen as a silent show. It has to be as Jesus is trying to communicate with someone who can’t hear. In other cases, before Jesus does a miracle, Jesus talks to the person for whom the miracle will be done. In this case, he does charades.

 

2. Jesus' charade begins by letting the deaf man know that he is putting a part of himself into the deaf man - his fingers into the deaf man’s ears, his spit into the deaf man’s mouth. Jesus is inviting the man to accept him into himself, literally.  

3. Then Jesus looks up to heaven to show the deaf man the source of Jesus’ power. It doesn’t come from some magic in Jesus’ fingers or spittle. It comes from God, whose power is in Jesus. 

4.  Even the sighing or groaning and the speech of Jesus to the deaf man make sense if we think of them in this way. First, the deaf man sees Jesus open his mouth to make the inarticulate sound of groaning. This deaf man doesn’t speak, but even those made mute by deafness can groan. In groaning, Jesus joins the deaf man, who can see Jesus groaning even if he can’t hear him. 

5. And then the deaf man sees Jesus speaking an articulate word to him, to the man who cannot hear. In doing this, Jesus is inviting the deaf man to trust in him - to choose to hear the word that Jesus speaks to him.

And so Jesus humbles himself to share the limitations of this man. By an apparently undignified dumb show, the love of the Lord heals the deaf man’s soul as well as his ears.So we can hear and learn from the love of the Lord in this story.