Open to new possibilities

“…Be opened” (Mark 7:34)

Mark 7:24-37 (Year B: 15^th Sunday after Trinity, 9^th September 2018)

A raw request..

Actions speak louder than words. Yet, words are powerful agents. In this gospel passage, we hear the word Ephphatha meaning ‘Be opened’ in the Aramaic language spoken by Jesus.  Very occasionally the gospel writers report the actual word – in Aramaic – spoken by Jesus to give extra effect and depth to what is being recounted. It is like a story in which we imitate the accent or mannerism of the person about whom we are talking. In this case Jesus said Ephphatha ‘with a deep sigh’. With a deep sigh from the cross Jesus would say Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani– ‘my God, my God why have you forsaken me?’(Matthew 27:46).  In this way, a simple and powerful question or request to the Father by Jesus is given extra flavour by repeating it in the original techni-colour.

In anguish a person who was ‘deaf’ and ‘could hardly talk’ was brought to Jesus by strangers in a strange land known as the ten cities (Decapolis). It follows another miracle story (verses 24-30) in alien territory involving a gentile Syrophoenician woman who prevailed on Jesus to cure her daughter (mothers can be persuasive). As happens again and again in the gospels, Jesus walks straight into a situation of acute human distress and need. By now he has acquired some reputation as a healer and dispenser of wisdom. So, when desperate, as the strangers were, they plead with Jesus for help (they ‘begged’ him). The pattern is familiar to us as we read and think about the gospels. It is often composed of five steps:

1. A situation of human distress and need.
2. Pleading sometimes accompanied by a primitive trust or faith.
3. A vigorous and swift response by Jesus often accompanied by a discrete but effective physical outward sign.
4. Healing or rescue often signalled by a miraculous event.
5. A response by these looking on but especially by those healed, rescued or nourished – puzzlement, fear, joy, praise, scandal as the case may be.

Transposed to today..

Applied today in our little world where do we find such stories at work?

1.      In this story, we find ourselves in the company of Jesus who is travelling through ‘foreign territory’. It would be like someone from (Catholic/nationalist) Falls Road walking through the (Protestant/loyalist) Shankill Road in Belfast, Ireland, or vice versa. Let’s say someone doing such a thing would not delay and would probably keep their mouth shut!

2.      Enter someone who is deaf and mainly dumb – the ultimate loneliness of someone who cannot hear or communicate. What to do? The story of Helen Keller captured in a film many years ago tells the story of a young girl who was deaf and dumb but, against all the odds and with the heroic help of an Anne Sullivan learned to communicate. Helen Keller became a famous writer and speaker having learned how to communicate, somehow, with others. She learned to read people’s lips by use of her hands. Using braille she learned to read extensively (she wrote and published 12 books in her lifetime). Acts of faith, perseverance, kindness and determination meant that Helen Keller blossomed and flourished and provided inspiration to millions as well as practical help in developing services for people with disabilities. How many other Helen Kellers might there be today in our world even given a chance?

3.      Jesus is captivated by compassion. He is compassion walking on two feet who brings life and healing so that ‘the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers[a] are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them’  (Matthew 11:5). Jesus acts swiftly to take the man aside ‘in private’ and he uses spittle, touch and prayer from the depth of his heart to perform a healing (while this might not have passed 21^st century Health Authority protocols we should be aware that, apparently, spittle was believed to have medicinal value in primitive societies). 

4.      In this story the miracle is deeply personal to the one healed. Sight and hearing and speech are restored in one go. Life would never be the same again for the one healed. Who was this man? What was his name? Was he even Jewish?  Where was he when Jesus was crucified? Did he become a disciple afterwards?

5.      Many are the reactions of those who have witnessed the power of a loving God in their lives and that of others. But, some will always remain hostile, sceptical or indifferent.  The important lesson, here, is that Jesus kept moving onwards (Jerusalem was to be his ultimate destination here on earth). Many were ‘overwhelmed’ by what Jesus had done. They commented that ‘He has done everything well;’ (verse 37).

In many respects this was a low-key miracle. Sure enough it was an extraordinary and miraculous healing of someone who had been blind and deaf for most (all?) of his life. However, the man was only one person. For everyone healed there were at least another hundred or two in the Decapolis who were not.  And, Jesus insisted on keeping the whole matter private and undisclosed possibly to avoid premature reactions and misunderstanding about who he was and why had come. Jesus preached, healed and loved one person at a time and one moment at a time. What he did he did well (verse 37) but he did not usher in a perfect world or outcome. Rather, in keeping with his humanity and divinity he did what was required of love –  person by person and moment by moment.  In other words, we could say that he loved perfectly in an imperfect world that remains imperfect. Such is God-in-humanity.

And inspiring out actions and thoughts..

In a poem attributed to Waldo Emerson, there is an application of this to those in search of healing such as the strangers in the Decapolis:

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty and to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child or a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded.

However, the attribution is said to be properly to a Bessie A. Stanley:

He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much;Who has enjoyed the trust of pure women, the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children;Who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;Who has never lacked appreciation of Earth's beauty or failed to express it;Who has left the world better than he found it,Whether an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul;Who has always looked for the best in others and given them the best he had;Whose life was an inspiration;Whose memory a benediction.

And so it was for Helen Keller and her helper and associate Anne Sullivan.

Some questions today:

Are we in need of healing spiritually because we think we hear and see but we don’t?How do we respond to situations of acute human distress in the immediate world around us?  (Here is a clip that conveys an extraordinary encounter involving a child whose father had died)Where do we see the discrete healing power of God at work?
What is our response to healing when we see and experience it at first hand?Do the stories of the gospel come alive for us now?