I swear, the more I learn the less I know. Especially when it comes to the Bible. Anybody else notice that?
Seriously, Whenever I sit down to write a sermon I pull up a chair next to my good friend Google, and we begin to search out commentaries and historic facts that might shed some light on the gospel reading of the day.
I learn a lot in that process. Although in all honesty I forget a lot too.
But it’s crazy. The more I learn about stuff the less sure I am about what Jesus intended for us to see. I mean I try to step back and get some sense of what Mark wants us to understand based on the details that he gives or the things he doesn’t tell us.
For instance, why does Jesus sigh, or in other translations groan, when he heals the deaf man and why did Mark find that important enough to record? I don’t know.
Why did Jesus put his fingers in the man’s ears? I don’t know. Or the big question, why did Jesus spit and touch the man’s tongue? I don’t know! It doesn’t really say that he put his spit on the man’s tongue but neither does it say he didn’t . I don’t know! (By the way, I learned a lot of interesting things about the spirituality of spit with Google’s guidance.)
Or how about the woman, why was Jesus so gruff with her? I don’t know! And what exactly was it in what she said that changed Jesus’ mind? Yup…you got it! I don’t know!
So instead of a sermon based on any certainty of what Mark wanted us to get from this, all I can do is tell you where my heart and mind ended up. Are you okay with that?
Mark tells us that Jesus has gone into Gentile territory and found a house where he hoped he could hide away for a while. (I wonder who’s house. I don’t know!) Maybe he hoped that the people he had fed and the Pharisees who were questioning him wouldn’t follow him there and he might get some rest.
Let’s look back in chapter 6 to get a feel for what Jesus has faced. Jesus’ home town tries to throw him off a cliff. Then Jesus sends out the disciples to minister to others and preach the gospel.I wonder if that was as emotional as sending your kids to their first day of school? And then He receives news that John the Baptist has been beheaded.
So when the disciples return, he just wants some down time with his friends. Mark writes: “So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.”
But the crowds follow and find them. Mark writes: “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.” And of course this is where he feeds the 5 thousand.
And then in chapter 7, his disciples are trying to eat and the Pharisees give him a hard time for not washing their hands.
Phew, no wonder he slipped away to Gentile territory. His countrymen will not follow him there. No self respecting Jew would cross that border. He needs a break!
Before we go on and I get myself in trouble, let’s remember that Jesus is human. His body is just like ours. My guess is, he is whooped. So when this woman, this gentile woman finds him, who blames him if he gets a wee bit snarky? Many find this suggestion offensive. But remembering his humanness, at least for me, makes his words from the cross even more holy, sacred, and incredible!
God, in Jesus, is living the human experience. All of it!
Okay maybe he wasn’t snarky as much as he was simply speaking from the teachings of his faith…Judaism…in which he had been raised. His comment to her about being one of the dogs was exactly the way of his culture. In his weariness maybe it was simply a knee jerk reaction.
As I said, I don’t know why Jesus said this. But here is what I heard Mark telling me.
It is easy to make assumptions about people based on our cultural upbringing, our religious teaching, media propaganda, or our friends’ comments and jokes. But maybe, just maybe there is more to the person.
Jesus listens to the woman’s response. He doesn’t just walk away. He doesn’t tell her to be quiet and go away. He listens. And when he listens, there is a healing. When he listens her daughter is healed, and maybe even something in the mother is touched. He listens. And it changes his mind.
Our church in Binghamton NY was in crime central. We had so many felons in the area that we started an evening service for adults only.
Guess what I discovered about these individuals. They were human beings with a story. They had names, families, traumas. That didn’t make their crimes suddenly ok. But it made them human beings God loved as much as he loved me. I changed my mind about them.
When we stop and listen, healing happens. To the one we listen to and maybe to the one who listens. And it's a healing that continues through families and generations. This is what I heard Mark (and hopefully the Holy Spirit) telling me in this story.
And maybe, just maybe, we can then see that we cannot speak love, speak words that are not defiled, until our ears are opened and we can listen. And thus, the truth, the teaching in this second healing.
One of the things Google helped me find is that the word “Ephphatha!” in Aramaic not only means be opened but also could mean be connected. In Aramaic words are often understood by their pronunciation and context. Not unlike our own language.
So, perhaps, when we listen, when we connect to the other, the words we speak will no longer be distorted or defiled by prejudice, but clear and loving and truthful and healing. The man’s ears were opened and perhaps his heart was connected to the God of love so that he could speak well.
Okay, so I don’t know if this is what Jesus and or Mark had in mind. But I believe what I have spoken is true. And I also wonder, if Jesus groaned because he felt the pain of the disconnect that we experience when we refuse or cannot be connected. I don’t know!
May our ears and hearts be opened and connected to the other, even the one we despise, so that our words might bring healing.
Join me in a moment of silence to hear the whisper of the Spirit.
Ephphatha!
Today is 988 day. 988 is the number a person can call if they are struggling with their own demons (so to speak). It is the mental health life line.
If you are struggling, if you know someone who is, please remember this number. It doesn’t have to be suicidal thoughts. Whatever mental health issue, depression, anxiety, hopelessness, there is someone on the other end of that line that will listen.
And perhaps that will bring healing.
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