Jesus Heals The Deaf & Mute Man

00:00:00 Speaker 1: And Jesus charge them to tell no one, but the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. Mark seven thirty six. Heavenly Father, we are moved by the uncontrollable urge to share your greatness and goodness. Your works are too wonderful, ber grace too boundless, and your love too deep for us to keep to ourselves. Like those who witness jesus miracles, our hearts overflow with the desire to sing your praises from the roof tops. Lord, grant us the wisdom to know when to speak and when to listen, that our words may always honor you and edify others. Guide our tongues to share your love and truth in ways that draw people closer to You, while also teaching us the power of silent witness. Through our actions, empower us God to be the messengers of your hope and love, using both our voices and our lives to proclaim the beauty of your holiness. In Jesus name, we pray Amen, Thank you for praying with me today. Welcome back to the Jesus Podcast. Gospel inspired stories created and crafted to entertain and enliven your faith. Has the Jesus podcast. Blessed you? Has it given you hope? We would love it if you'd left us a review. Thanks for giving hope a voice. Jesus and his companions walked the winding path leading to the Diccopolice. Word about jesus teachings had created quite a stir. Each disciple was afraid of what awaited them there. Would it be a mob an army. The entire region was a smattering of Jews, Gentiles, Romans, and barbarians. They warred with each other, clashing over matters of culture, creed, and religion. Yet all of them had one thing in common, curiosity. Word of jesus ministry had stretched beyond the borders of Judaea, intriguing people of all different backgrounds. Hope is known by one people group. The hope of the Gospel was accessible to anyone who would listen, regardless of their national loyalty. That is why Jesus entered the Dicopolis with excitement. He had a pepinist step, as if he knew exactly what awaited them there. The disciples summitted a hill overlooking the Dacopolis. I've been here before, Matthew explained, with trepide. 00:03:00 Speaker 2: It's a tense place with tense people. 00:03:03 Speaker 1: Even the Romans have had a hard time keeping order. Here, no one agrees on anything. The companions looked at each other then the dicopolis. They could all sense that something was awaiting them there, something terrifying. Perhaps. The trail led downward, switchbacking to the bustling streets filled with vendors and shrines to different gods. It was early in the morning. The sky was still a deep blue and the air crisp from the sea of Gallilee. The birds had only just begun to wake and fly from their nests. Traveling in the morning usually gave the group a chance to breathe before the madness of mobs and miracles. However, this time, a divine appointment awaited them on the road. 00:04:01 Speaker 2: It's hard to keep good news to ourselves. There's something special about getting to share our joy with others in the highlights of life. But what if someone told you to keep good news to yourself? What if you were told to keep the greatest news imaginable to yourself. Jesus often commanded those he healed to tell no one of what they had seen. Yet he knew that this was one command that would never be kept. The good news of Jesus can't be contained, and unlikely many of those healed in the Gospels. We're not told to remain silent. We have the joy of sharing the Gospel, the good News with everyone we can. Welcome to the Jesus Podcast, a year of story showcasing the depth of Christ's love and the glory of God's truth. I'm Zach, your host from pray dot Com, and I'm excited to be with you today for another miracle. Help us spread the good News of Jesus by following the podcast as we dive deeper into our story. Jesus's ministry took him all throughout Galilee and the surrounding city. Some places gladly welcomed him, while others met him with hesitancy and rejection. As the disciples entered into Decapolis, it wasn't anyone's guess on how Jesus would be heralded. Decapolis, a grouping of ten cities originally composed of the tribe of Manassa, had become primarily made up of Gentiles, who leaned heavily into Greek influence. In our story today, it's clear that Jesus's fame had already spread to some when a group of people brought a death and mute man to him, hoping that the notorious Rabbi would be able to heal him. Jesus will separate himself from the young man from the crowd before performing a miracle, and then Jesus will give him clear instructions to tell no one. 00:05:44 Speaker 1: Jesus and his companions reached the bottom of the hill just then they heard a strange noise coming from behind a mossy stone wall. The disciples froze, but Jesus stepped forward. A group of gentiles appeared from behind the wall. The noise came from a man making indistinct grunts with his mouth and throat, a sound like an animal's. The tall, older man, presumably his father, stood beside him. He pulled his son forward by the hand over to Jesus. Are you Jesus of Nazareth. As he spoke, a growing crowd began to appear from behind the wall. Who's asking? Peter replied with a paranoid glare. Who are you? 00:06:34 Speaker 3: And what are your intentions? 00:06:36 Speaker 1: Peter asked the grunting man, but the man only made a complicated head gesture. He can't hear you. His father replied, he's deaf and mute. 00:06:47 Speaker 2: He hasn't been able to speak or hear his whole life. 00:06:51 Speaker 1: People looked eagerly at Jesus. He knew what they wanted. They had heard about Jesus, but had yet to see what Jesus could do. They were wanting a sign, a miracle to match the myth. 00:07:08 Speaker 3: Could you heal him? 00:07:10 Speaker 1: Are you able to help? Jesus regarded the man with compassion, but he had to be mindful of his next steps. He knew that even a minor miracle would be a spark in a dry valley. Once he healed this man, an uncontrollable fire would begin. Jesus leaked to smirk and waved bring him forward. The young man looked from the crowd to Jesus with sad, wandering eyes. He was confused, but trusting just the same. They crowded around the mute man and propped his arms up to Jesus as if to make him understand. Jesus took the young man away from the c to a private place, a quiet section just around the corner a few paces down between the two poems. The mute man sat in the grass with a slightly confused expectant look. The sun's rising light shone brightly on the horizon. Jesus knelt by him in silence. The two of them stared out at the sunrise for a while, both appreciating its grandeur and beauty. Jesus crouched beside the man and stared into his eyes. A deep well of sadness could be seen in the man's eyes. He wasn't born with any mental ailment, but his lack of hearing and speech had isolated him from people. He was trapped in his own mind, unable to connect. Jesus knew his mind, and Jesus placed his hands on the man's ears. He held them like a craftsman holds a newly whittled figurine, feeling for blemishes and imperfections. Then Jesus spat into his hands, rubbed them together, and touched the man's tongue. Then, sighing upward to Heaven, Jesus said Father be opened. The man's eyes went wide, and he jumped back in shock. A sound like thunder echoed in the man's ears, followed by the booming, echoing sound of Jesus's voice and the crackling of earbones snapping into place. The man brought his hands to his face with a quick reactive impulse. The sounds of the world roared around him, birds chirping, wind swirling, insects buzzing, and the murmuring of the crowd behind him. The man touched his jaw, Ah, I can I can hear? His words weren't broken coming out of his mouth. It was as if he had been speaking his whole life. Jesus didn't heal just his ears and mouth, but his mind as well. Decades of lost learning had somehow been reclaimed. In an instant, his jaw and tongue made the correct motions, his throat opened and closed at the right time. The man was so startled by the sound of his voice he laid a hand on his chest. 00:10:45 Speaker 2: That's that's me, isn't it. 00:10:48 Speaker 1: It was an odd question, but it didn't feel odd. He had never heard the sound of his voice before. Tears formed in the corners of his eyes. Jesus stood up and helped the man on to his feet. He placed his hands on the man's shoulders and said, I know you. 00:11:08 Speaker 3: Can speak, but tell no one what has happened here. This is just between us. 00:11:13 Speaker 1: The man looked back at the crowd they were watching from a distance in anticipation. He looked back at Jesus and said, how is this possible? So no, try your best. Jesus replied with a wink and smiled. The two of them walked back to the road, where the crowd waited with fated breath to see what had happened. The young man met his father's gaze and immediately welled up with joyful tears. He ran to him and yelled, Father, he couldn't help it, his voice couldn't be tethered any longer. Jesus chuckled, figuring that it was only a matter of time. The crowd collectively gasped, then irrupted in cheers. The old man limped toward his son and held him. The two embraced for a long while, laughing and sobbing. The crowd was amazed. 00:12:17 Speaker 2: What does this mean? 00:12:19 Speaker 3: What else can he do? 00:12:20 Speaker 1: Jesus stretched out his arms and settled them down. 00:12:24 Speaker 3: My friends, please, I pay you not to tell any one what you've seen to day. Let it be a blessing to your hearts. Meditate on this and consider the goodness of God that he would grant this man his ears and voice that it stir you to quiet praise, but please hold your tongues about what you've seen and heard. 00:12:46 Speaker 1: Peter and the others chuckled slightly. They knew better. People never kept quiet, no matter how much Jesus charged them to remain silent. Good news spreads like the common gold. He turned to the others and. 00:13:02 Speaker 3: Said, prepare yourselves for an onslaught of people. 00:13:05 Speaker 1: They all nodded their heads. They wouldn't get another mile without thousands of people flocking to see Jesus. This was the beginning of something glorious. 00:13:22 Speaker 2: As Jesus traveled south from Tire and Sidon, he once again drew close to the Sea of Galilee, into a group of cities called to Capitalis. This would be the next setting of his miracle, though perhaps an unconventional one. As often as happened when Jesus entered into a new area, a group of people had found him and began to flock towards him. This particular group brought with them a man who is death and mute, in hopes that Jesus could bring the change that no one else could. It's likely that these people had tried other means for healing. Perhaps it was medicinal or seeking out. The Greek gods so heavily influenced their culture, but it's evident that all of their attempts had no effect. So it's a beautiful scene to see how their love compelled them to continue to seek healing, and how their faith had brought them to seek Jesus to ask to perform a miracle. Even if this man couldn't share his burden with Jesus on his own, his loved ones would. Just like this man's friends and family, we should all be willing to intercede on behalf of those in need. Life is incredibly difficult, and we'll never be able to get through it alone, certainly not in the way Jesus hopes. We will. At times will be like this deaf and mute man, unable to speak up for ourselves, and so we need advocates on our behalf, willing to fight for us, willing to stand up for us. Other times will be like his friends and family, strengthened with hearts of compassion and care, persevering for the sake of another. To do so is to exemplify and manifest the love of Jesus, whether it's giving to someone you know, who is in need or creating margin to pray regularly for your loved ones. There are endless ways we can intercede on behalf of others and help them where they need it most. Once this group finds Jesus, we're told that he does something he didn't often do when he performed a miracle. He pulls the young man away from the crowd, and then he does something even more bizarre. He first cuts his hands around the deaf man's ears before spitting into his hands and touching the man's mute tongue. We might be left wondering why Jesus would perform the miracle in this way. Jesus rarely stuck to one method of healing. Sometimes he would heal with a word, other times it was a single touch, and sometimes he didn't even need to be around at all. But never before had Jesus healed quite like this, And for good reason. When Jesus heals, he wants to get the true attention of the one he's healing. This man couldn't hear Jesus's words, he couldn't respond to the question like do you want to be made well? So Jesus captured his attention in an unorthodox way, in the same way Jesus wants to capture your attention, maybe not in the exact same way by spitting on you. But every one of us responds in different ways. We're moved in different ways. Some of us are moved through words, others through music, will all others in a particular place, like the outdoors. Jesus is willing to use any of them to get us to enter into his presence, just like this mutant deaf man. We just have to be willing to respond once he does get our attention. Before healing the man, the passage in Mark seven tells us that Jesus looks up at the heavens and sighs. When we think of a sigh, we might equate it with frustration or tiredness, but not wasn't the case here. The sigh of Jesus was released from a place of compassion and empathy. His gaze toward heaven seems to indicate that he was contemplating how broken creation was, how far we had drift him from God's heavenly hope for his creation. He could feel this man's years of pain and sadness, unable to even express love to somebody. Jesus relates to our pain. He knows what it means to be human because he himself became fully man. Did you know you don't have a God who's distant, You have a God who can relate to you. We can't appreciate Jesus from his godhood, but we definitely shouldn't think for a second that he cheated his way through life experience suffering just as we do. He accepted every ounce of humanity physical pain, emotional drainage, tiredness, grief, loneliness. He can fully relate to us and empathize completely with us. In many ways, Jesus's empathy is even greater than we realize, because he does know the joy of heaven and desperately longs for us to experience its goodness. God has given us the same sense of longing, whether we believe in God or not. It doesn't take much of a look around to see that things aren't perfect. Most of us could probably take a drive around our town to see someone without a home or pass by a hospital and be reminded of the countless sick and dying people across the globe. Creation is broken, and wired in our souls is what many call fully discontentment, a desire for things to be different, and for the believer, this discontentment is linked to knowing that things aren't supposed to be this way, but it's also connected to a hope of knowing that things don't always have to be this way. The apostle Paul says in Romans eight twenty two, we know that the whole creation has been grown as if in the pains of childbirth, right up until the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have been the first fruits of the spirit, grown inwardly, as we wait eagerly for the adoption to sonship, to redemption of our bodies, Creation itself groans to be healed from the brokenness that sin causes. And those of us who know the hope of the Gospel inwardly groan for the day that Jesus makes all things new outwardly. But it was a miracle like one in our story today that reminds us Jesus is doing just that. He was paving the way to redeem creation in another magnificent step, and his plans to make all things new. And if we look closely at the passage with a few key insights. We find a little Easter eche of how Mark was showing this to be Jesus's purpose. We read in Mark seven thirty five it says at this time the man's years were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak plainly. The words his tongue was loosened comes from a Greek phrase that is only used once in the New Testament right here. Interestingly, this this phrase is also used once in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. In Isaiah, the prophet wrote Isaiah thirty five to five. Then will the eyes of the blind be open and the ears of the death unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. When Jesus healed this man, he wasn't just giving him the privilege of hearing and speaking. He was in that moment fulfilling prophecy, he was demonstrating that he was, in fact the Messiah. As we learned about the scriptures linking the Old Testament to the New Testament, our faith should be strengthened and seeing Jesus was everything he said he was. And as we come to realize the wonders of Jesus, we should tell everyone about him. Though Jesus commanded this man and the onlookers of the miracle to tell no one, he understood this request wouldn't be kept. He knew quite well that news of this miracle would spread like wildfire. But unlike those people, we haven't been asked to keep quiet. Jesus has given us a great mission of spreading the good news to anyone we can. And what a joy it is to know that we don't have to keep any of it in. As you see God work in your life, be bold and proclaimed the great things God has done for you. We could be his mouthpieces, active parts in this heavenly mission. We get to spread the greatest news possible that Jesus is alive and wants to give us life too. Thanks again for joining me on the Jesus Podcast. We'll continue to press on to the miracles of the Messiah, learning new and wonderful insights about our Lord and perhaps about ourselves.