Jesus: The Compassionate Healer of Our Spiritual Deafness

And Mark tells again of Jesus continuing to be on the move. But his description of the itinerary here in the seventh chapter is one that has frankly baffled Biblical scholars for centuries, because we read that Jesus left Tyre, went north to Sidon, and then made His way east, and came back south, and then back up to the Sea of Galilee, a trip that moved in the shape of a horseshoe and that took 120 miles to go from Tyre back across and down and around, up into the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. [00:02:54]

And it takes us back to chapter 35 of the book of Isaiah, but before I read from chapter 35, let me give you just a little bit of a heads up here. In the preceding chapters, Isaiah has been delivering to the people of Israel an oracle of doom, that God had commissioned Isaiah to pronounce upon the people of Israel and her neighbors that the judgment of God was going to lay the land waste, that the people were going to go through a period of severe desolation. [00:07:34]

But when God gives His announcement of judgment, He almost always gives us an element of future hope because God never abandons His remnant to desolation. And even in this text where Isaiah announces the Day of the Lord, the day of the Lord’s visitation, the day of His destruction that would come upon the land, He then builds upon this. And hear what He says in chapter 35. [00:10:57]

The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them. And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God. [00:11:24]

Then here’s the climax. “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing.” Here is where that word “mogilalos” is used again, where the tongue of the dumb will sing. “For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. [00:13:06]

And when Jesus touched the man on the tongue, He looked up to Heaven, and the Scripture said, “He sighed,” or groaned inwardly, indicating a passionate appeal to the Father to intervene. He touched the man’s tongue, a tongue that was in chains, and then our Savior sighed, and He spoke a word that is left in the original by Mark that simply means, “Be opened.” [00:17:26]

And until the Holy Spirit cleanses our hearts and regenerates our soul, what we have in our mouths is mere filth, the poison of asps is under our lips, and our tongue is used to utter blasphemy and poison until it is made free from the chains of sin. Immediately, Mark tells us his ears were opened. The impediment of his tongue was loosed. [00:19:26]

And they were astonished beyond measure. And in their shock, in their astonishment, notice what they say in this response. Here’s what they say of Jesus, “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.” He has done all things well. What a description of Christ. Jesus never did anything poorly in His life. [00:21:06]

And when God created the heavens, He looked at what He made through the power of His voice, He saw the lights shining into the darkness, and He says, “Well, that’s not too bad.” No, no. He looked at the work of His hands and pronounced His divine benediction upon it, “That’s good.” Because what God does in creation, He does well. [00:23:43]

And in the work of redemption that was accomplished for your souls, Christ did it well. That’s why we can sing in the midst of tribulation, “It is well with our souls.” Not because we make our souls well in the midst of the storm, but because when the Spirit of God comes into the soul of a person and brings His peace and brings His joy, He does it well. [00:24:33]

God doesn’t have to explain anything that pleases Him to bring to pass in this world. He didn’t have to explain to Israel why jackals were inhabiting the land. He didn’t have to explain to Israel why their streams had become like rivers of tar, worthless for navigation, worthless for fishing. The reason for that was clear. They were a sinful nation. [00:26:20]

O Lord, such grace and excellence is indeed amazing, and even if we had ten thousand tongues to sing your praise, we would still seem to ourselves to be inarticulate about it. Take the chains from our mouths that we may show forth Your praise in a manner fitting for Your glory. For we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen. [00:27:15]