Healing a Deaf and Mute Man!!!

In order for someone to think of a miracle occurring, they must believe in miracles. The people of Decapolis, the place where this particular miracle takes place, believed that Jesus was a miracle maker. He made these people understand the true meaning of miracles. In Decapolis Jesus was presented a deaf and mute man. The people begged Jesus to heal this man. By placing his hand on the man's ear and touching the man's tongue, Jesus had healed this man from his deafness and muteness (Mark 7:33).

Mark uses this story to teach people different things about Jesus. First, he uses this story to teach the people of Decapolis that Jesus was a miracle maker, by healing a man from his deafness and his muteness. The second thing that Mark teaches is that Jesus is very secretive. He tells the people of Decapolis not to say anything about this miracle, but instead they do it anyway. He pulls the deaf/mute man to the side to heal him, rather than allowing everyone to see the actual occurrence. With Jesus pulling this man to the side, it causes more publicity than he is wanting. Yet, Jesus enjoys the popularity that he has gained, so he does not really do much about the situation (Brown 901).

After Jesus had placed his hand on this man's ear and touched his tongue, "he looked up to the heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, 'Ephphatha', meaning "be opened"" (Mark 7:34). This shows that Jesus still looks up the God (the heaven) for assistance. He always needs God's help with his healing.

With this, the people were amazed. In this story, they had a positive attitude towards the things that Jesus had done for this deaf and mute man. They were "overwhelmed with amazement" by what they had witnessed (Mark 7:37). The people were so amazed by Jesus' actions that went through there town speaking of this miracle saying, "'He has done everything well, he even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak'" (Mark 7:37). They gave the impression of being astonished by anything that Jesus could do. The one thing that holds them back is the ability to keep a secret. They are not able to keep the promise that they had given to Jesus.

The message taken from this passage is that Jesus was a healer of anything. Even medical issues had not stopped Jesus with his miracle making. He can do anything that was brought forth to him. Another message that has been taken from this passage is that Jesus could not say "No" to his people. Whether it is the simple healing of a sick person or a healing such as this, he was willing to help his people regardless of the situation. Also, even though Jesus had asked these people to keep a secret and they do not, he does not seem to mind. He actually enjoys it.