4. EPHPHATHA - BE OPENED (
Mark.7:31-37)
BACKGROUND:
The man in the text had obviously been deaf since his early childhood, because he had not learned to speak.
As a result, he was unable to communicate with other people. (At that time there was no commonly-used sign language
yet.) Isaiah had prophesied 700 years earlier that the Messiah would make the deaf hear and the mute speak
(37, cf.
Is.35:5).
-
Call to mind what kind of sounds and voices you hear during a day. What do you think would be most difficult for you
if you were unable to hear anything?
-
Imagine how the childhood of this man had been. (What means did his parents have available to teach their child, to
guard him from dangers, to make him work etc? What kind of relationships might he have had with his peers? What do you
suppose his self-image was like?)
-
Compare the everyday life of this hearing-impaired person with that of his peers after he had grown up?
- Perhaps this man had also visited a synagogue or the temple a few times. How much do you think he understood about
the unseen God?
-
What were the motives of the people who brought the man to Jesus? Think of various possibilities (31-32).
- If you were the one who wanted to bring this deaf man to Jesus, how would you explain to him where you were going
to take him and why?
-
Why didn’t Jesus heal the man in the way his friends asked him to (32-34)?
- Why didn’t the man protest but instead went along with the unknown rabbi (33)?
- Why did Jesus want to take the deaf man apart, away from the crowd (33)?
-
How much do you think the man understood of the four signs of Jesus’ own sign language in verses 33-34? (What did
Jesus want to convey to the man by touching his ears - his tongue - looking up to heaven - heaving a deep sigh before
healing him?)
- Why do you think Mark recorded the healing word of Jesus in the original Aramaic in his gospel (34)?
-
What are the things that make it difficult for you to hear what other people are trying to say to you, however good
your hearing abilities otherwise may be?
- Jesus is standing in front of you just now and saying: "Ephphatha! Be opened!" to you. What does he mean by that -
think about your communication with other people? (You may answer in your heart.)
-
Usually it takes three years for a child to learn the most important words of a language. How is it possible that
this man gained all that information in a twinkling of an eye (35)?
-
Every miracle of Jesus tells us something about heaven. What can we learn about it through this incident?
-
Why did the people keep talking about this miracle even though Jesus had asked them to keep silent about it (36)?
- What would Jesus have preferred that people had told their friends about him?
- What do you think: is it profitable for the Christian church of our day to advertise miracles in the media?
GLAD TIDINGS:
The deep communication between Jesus and his Father was broken while Jesus was hanging on the cross, and
God closed his ears to his cries. God only hears those who are righteous, and Jesus was at that moment the worst of
sinners, not because of his own sins but ours. God’s silence was the price Jesus had to pay for reestablishing the
communication between us sinners and our righteous God.
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