This coming Sunday we celebrate the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time. In Mark’s narration there is a common element to Jesus’ encounter with Jairus, the deaf man, and others – he often takes the people aside, away from the crowds.  Lane [266-67] comments on this: “He [Jesus] regarded the personal relationship between himself and the sick to be of supreme importance, and in this instance all of his actions are intelligible in the light of the necessity of communicating with a person who had learned to be passive in life. Through touch and the use of spittle Jesus entered into the mental world of the man and gained his confidence.”

The actions described lend themselves to the intimacy of the encounter: “He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue.” These are actions that can only be done in a very personal one-to-one encounter. All the actions of vv.33-34 were mirroring the man’s present need, the process of healing, and the source from which such healing alone could come, in a way which even a deaf mute could understand. Jesus’ gestures are “sacramental” in that they effect what they symbolize, the opening of the man’s ears and the loosening of his tongue. This is all very personal.

There is even the suggestion of intimacy in the other of Jesus’ actions: “then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”).” The gesture of “looking up to heaven” is less one of prayer than a sign of Jesus’ intimacy with God (cf. 6:41; Jn 11:41; 17:1). Similarly, Jesus’ ‘sighing”; it might simply be a sign of his deep emotion over the man’s condition. But then as some scholars hold, it may be a sign of Jesus’ transcendence, which is constrained by human limits foreign to it. In other words, the sighing might reflect a deeper longing for a return to the Father where Jesus too can experience the fullness of existence.

Mark has retained the Aramaic ephphatha. Its Greek equivalent, dianoigō, relatively rare in the NT, occurs 33 times in the LXX, most notably in Ez 24:27: “Your mouth shall be opened, and you shall speak and shall no longer be dumb.” The act of healing itself was accomplished with the word of liberation addressed not to the defective auditory organs but to the man as a whole person. The results of Jesus’ actions are simply described: the ears were opened, the tongue was loosened, and the man began to speak clearly.

The Reaction of the People. They were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and (the) mute speak.” This allusion to Is 35:5-6 brings out the theological lesson of the cure: the age of Messianic salvation, announced by Isaiah, has arrived with Jesus. While the Isaian reference seems clear and is largely agreed upon, there is some interesting speculation about “He has done all things well.”

What could be the extent of “All things”? Given the scale and distance of Jesus’ movement since the beginning of Chapter 6, it is not likely that, apart from the disciples, the crowd present in Nazareth would be present in the region of the Decapolis. But that doesn’t mean the stories haven’t followed Jesus despite the continual theme of “don’t tell anyone” in Mark. There are some commentaries that wonder if this is a reference to divine comment/summary of Creation: “God looked at everything he had made, and found it very good.” (Gen 1:31) This seems to me a bit of a stretch especially since there are no linguistic “hooks.” But then again, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t recognition that Jesus’ actions were revelatory of the Divine.

Image credit: Domenico Maggiotto (1713-1794), “Christ Healing a Deaf and Mute Man” (Public Domain)