SEE THE PURPOSE OF JESUS’ POWER
I was fascinated by magicians when I was a kid. I remember getting a magic kit for my birthday one year. I thought it was the greatest gift! Obviously, we’re really talking about “illusion,” not magic. I promise you that I never called on supernatural, magical forces!
These days I have only one trick, and I only do it when I’m goofing around with little kids. Some of you may know this one. You take a quarter, hold it between your thumb and your first finger, scoop your other hand in there to grab it, then count…1…2…3, and open your hand but it’s gone! Gasps and wide-eyed amazement follow. And when I grab their ear and produce the quarter which “magically” ended up there, it’s “Doitagain!Doitagain!”
“Doitagain!”That’s what the people all around the Sea of Galilee were saying to Jesus wherever he went. They gasped and stood wide-eyed with amazement at the miraculous amount of food he gave them. Astounded, their mouths hung open as they watched him make the blind see, the lame walk, and lepers clean again. “Doitagain!” Food, healing, miracles they wanted him to keep producing whatever they needed. Or whatever they wanted .
Today we also marvel at Jesus’ power as we watch him heal a deaf man whose speech was also impaired. It’s better if we are more clear than the crowds were about Jesus’ purpose as he stepped into people’s lives with divine power. Then we can rightly view him as our Savior and the world’s Savior and accept the ways he uses his power today or chooses not to at times.
Jesus was up on the Phoenician coast of the Mediterranean Sea. If you can picture a map of Israel, think north of the Sea of Galilee and to the west, right on the coast. It’s where Lebanon is today. He left there, coming down and over to the Sea of Galilee and then down farther still, southeast of the Sea to the area of the “10 Cities” or “Decapolis.” Since Jesus had been preaching, teaching, and healing for the better part of three years already, his miraculous powers were well-known. So, when he got there, the people in the area brought him a man who couldn’t hear and could barely talk. They did what you or I might have done if we had been there they begged Jesus to heal the man.
You might imagine how I play up my little trick to the kids. Better than that, think about how Penn and Teller or Criss Angel or David Copperfield would play up their illusions for a Las Vegas crowd. Drawing people in, looking to impress them, to entertain them.
The Decapolis was no Vegas, and what Jesus did was no trick. It was not illusion. He wasn’t looking to impress the crowd. What he did made impression though.
Jesus takes the man away from the crowd. He’s going to do something amazing for him, but he’s going to do it privately. It’s interesting how he heals the man, isn’t it? He could have just said “Youcanhearnow.”He could have looked at the man, healed him, and not said a word. He could have even healed him without being anywhere near him. He had just recently done that for a demon-possessed girl whose mother had come to him up on there on the Phoenician coast. But he doesn’t do any of that.
Jesus’ actions and emotions are remarkable. He made some deliberate and meaningful gestures involving the impaired parts of this man. He pushed his fingers into the man’s ears…spit and touched the man’s tongue. He looked up to heaven and sighed deeply. Was this our sympathetic Savior agonizing over how sin ravages people, how it impairs them and impacts their lives? A compassionate heart…a deep sigh…and then just one word: “Ephphatha!” “Be opened!”
How dramatic this must have been for the man. How could it not be?! Think about the promised Messiah putting his fingers in your ears and having you stick out your tongue so that he could touch it! Imagine him standing in front of you…looking at you… commanding your defective senses to be made right! Yeah, it was dramatic! But it wasn’t for drama’s sake like a grandpa pulling a quarter from a grandchild’s ear or a street magician entertaining people passing by. This was for the sake of one man. And it was no illusion. His ears were opened. His speech was clear. Jesus’ purpose was to help a suffering man.
Do you think he ever forgot what Jesus did for him?
Do you think he used his loosed tongue to tell anyone what happened?! Do you think he enjoyed hearing with his opened ears people’s responses to his story?!
What Jesus did for the man was incredible. And what Jesus did for him caught the attention of the crowd and the people who brought him to the Savior once they heard the man speak. It didn’t matter that Jesus told them not to tell people about this; they did it anyway. They couldn’t help themselves. In fact, the more he told them to be quiet, the more they talked about it! Why? Because they were overwhelmed by this miracle. They were amazed. “He has done everything well,” they said.
Jesus changed this man’s life forever. Let me ask you something though. Hasn’t Jesus also changed your life? Hasn’t he done amazing things for you too? I don’t know if yours is a dramatic story like this man’s, but maybe it is.
• Has he taken your life, which was formerly consumed by addiction to drugs, to alcohol, to pornography, to…something, and turned you away from it?
• Or did you grow up without God and now you can look back on events in your life and see what God was doing to bring you to him?
• Are you one who looks back on your youth and shakes your head thinking about how foolish you were and how undeserving of God’s protective care as he saved you from all sorts of trouble and brought you close to him?
• Was there a time that he brought you or your family through incredibly difficult or painful circumstances?
• Did he take your horrible health problem away?
God continues to do all sorts of things everyday kinds of things, not so dissimilar to his taking care of that troubled man. He does these things out of compassion for us too, out of love for us, to bring or keep us close to him. This is the purpose behind his power. Can you see it?
The exact thing that the Lord does for one of us he does not necessarily do for another one of us. It’s not that his compassion is less. It is certainly not that he lacks the power. But he does have particular reasons which are unknown to us. Remember, there were other deaf people whom Jesus did not heal. Remember, the apostle Paul had something wrong with him that God told him he would not remove. God had specific reasons for those things.
Jesus chose to heal this hurting man AND to handle this man’s healing in a unique way (with the touching and the spitting). He treated him as an individual. He does the same with each of us. In divine wisdom and love, God watches out for and works in the lives of each of his children, treating us as individuals, and doing what he knows is best for us. He has a loving purpose when he does something and when he chooses notto do something.
We could spend a lot of time and emotion being upset or complaining or obsessing over why God does this or that for other people but not for us. That’s wasted time. It’s also an offense to God because it shows a lack of trust in him. And it misses the powerful and loving ways he is working in our lives. We would do much better to see in Scripture the things Jesus did with purpose and power. It can remind us that he still does that with us and maybe then we can see it. And since we have no command of Jesus that restricts us from telling others what he has done, we can let loose our tongues to tell others about his compassion and power that we have experienced.
Even if you think your life story is kind of boring compared to the life of this Decapolis man, you have a story. Part of your story is those everyday kinds of things things you know he has brought you through. The other part of your story is how Jesus reached out and gave you faith to trust in him, and how he took the horrible eternity that awaited you and changed it from a separation from him to life withhim in heaven. If you understand how undeserving of God’s mercy you were and still are, it is overwhelming and amazing to know that God made you his child. He has done everything well for you. You have a story worth telling!
When you tell your story with an appreciation like that man who was healed by Jesus did, tell the wholestory. Tell about his purpose in coming into this world that he chose to come with power to do more than help the world with physical concerns. Yes, he does those things too. While people are doubting his existence or his concern over the world’s problems, we know that he is working through those things…and around those things…and in spite of those things with unseen wisdom and power.
But he came to do something much greater than all that. He came to handle our spiritual concerns. He came to conquer sin and forgive us and release Satan’s grip on us and save us from eternal death. This was his purpose—and with great power he did it all perfect life…painful cross…empty tomb. He handled all of that, and he certainly knows how best to handle the things we deal with in life.
When the crowd saw what Jesus had done, they couldn’t stop talking about it. They had to tell people. And what did they say? “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” This was likely not merely commentary on Jesus’ impact on this one man’s life at least not from everyone. There must have been people who saw what Jesus did and tied it together with the words Isaiah wrote about the coming Messiah—the words we heard earlier: Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unplugged. The crippled will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy (Isaiah 35:5-6). Is it any wonder they couldn’t stop talking about him?!
You have come to see that Jesus is the world’s Savior. The Holy Spirit working through God’s Word has convinced you of it. And you have experienced for yourself the power and love of Jesus in your life. How natural it is for us to also share with others that Jesus has done everything well just right, perfectly for the entire world. Amen.
Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
31 Jesus left the region of Tyre again and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of the Decapolis. 32 They brought a man to him who was deaf and had a speech impediment. They pleaded with Jesus to place his hand on him. 33 Jesus took him aside in private, away from the crowd. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34 After he looked up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha!”(which means “Be opened!”) 35 Immediately the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was set free, and he began to speak plainly. 36 Jesus gave the people strict orders to tell no one, but the more he did so, the more they kept proclaiming it. 37 They were amazed beyond measure and said, “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!”