“Jesus’ Ministry and
Yours” Mark 7:31-37
SCRIPTURE INTRO: Every word and action of Jesus filled
with significance.
His healing of this
man is a pattern for us to follow.
INTRO: Several years ago I
went to a fund-raiser for a Christian ministry.
Speaker was Johnny Musso, who most of you know was a running back
for
He is a believer and spoke in a
very winsome way about his faith in Christ.
But as he was telling his story, he finally got to the part everybody
was looking forward to—his years under Bear Bryant.
You could have heard a pin drop.
People were enthralled with hearing smallest details about Coach Bryant,
from the mouth of someone who had played for him 30 years ago.
Johnny Musso
said: Coach Bryant said this, he made this comment, this gesture.
I looked around the room and you could tell the true
by the reverent looks on their faces!
Not a single detail was
missed—every word, every gesture—
full of meaning, full of reminders of great glory days that once were.
We are fascinated by the words and
gestures of great people we admire.
We remember them, we ponder them.
That’s exactly what we see in this
passage.
Another healing by Jesus, and a brief but very detailed description
of exactly what he said and did.
It’s a little strange: Putting his fingers in this man’s ears,
Spitting and then touching the man’s tongue,
Looking up to heaven, sighing deeply—what does all that mean?
Mark’s Gospel is full of details
like this.
Early Christian writings tell us
that Mark used Peter as his source.
So you can imagine these two in
Peter telling Mark these stories
about Jesus.
Mark listening to every detail, fascinated.
“He spit and touched the man’s tongue?
Are you sure, Peter?”
“Yes, I was there, I remember it like it was yesterday.”
And then Mark wrote it down. If think about the date—Mark written in 60s.
About 30 years after Jesus’ ascension.
Many other witnesses still living.
Give you all of that background to
say that the details of this passage—
passed down to us from Peter, through Mark, have fascinated
Christians for centuries.
Many preachers and commentators
have make the same observation—
We see in these gestures of Jesus a pattern for ministry.
When I say ministry, don’t mean
pastoral ministry only—
although that is certainly true.
Story very applicable to pastoral ministry.
But really ministry in the broadest
sense.
Jesus gives us a pattern for
dealing with the people that he brings into our lives.
Our children. Our relatives. Friends.
Strangers.
Saved and unsaved. This is a
pattern.
Of course, Jesus is one of a kind,
his ministry unique.
He came to redeem us from sin.
His miracles were foretastes of his eternal kingdom.
In the big sense, it is impossible
to imitate Jesus.
We don’t even try. He is the
second Adam.
We simply put our faith in him.
He does the work and we benefit.
But in another way, as his followers,
we seek to imitate him.
And his life is a pattern for us to
follow.
Let’s look at these four gestures of Jesus, Peter saw, told Mark about,
and that Christians have talked about ever since—
see in them a pattern for ministering to people God brings our way.
1.
His look.
2.
His sigh.
3.
His touch.
4.
His word.
MP#1 His look
Let’s start with his look. This is not the first in order of things
Jesus did,
but it is helpful to look at first because it sets the stage for
everything else.
Mark tells us that Jesus took the
man aside, and looked up to heaven.
What was this look up to
heaven? It was a prayer.
Jesus was appealing to the Father for help.
The needs of this man were so
profound, before he healed him,
looked up for guidance and strength from his heavenly Father.
This shows us that even though
Jesus was and is the eternal Son of God,
he is also a man. So he knew he
needed God’s help.
In that way he is like us. He
depended on God the Father to do ministry.
There is an amazing verse in
Hebrews 2.
Writer quotes Isaiah 8 and puts it in the mouth of Jesus.
“I will put my trust in Him.”
Here we have Jesus, the sinless Son
of God, looking up to heaven,
and trusting God, showing his need for God’s help.
And notice that it’s not a long
prayer—it’s just a look.
Here’s that that tells us—this was an attitude of Jesus, utter
dependence.
He knew his heavenly Father was watching, looked up to him for help.
If Jesus needed the Father’s help
before ministry—
How much more do we, as weak and sinful as we are?
If Jesus cultivated an attitude of
utter dependence—
how much more do we need that attitude?
And yet so often, we go into
ministry, start dealing with people,
without prayer, just trusting our instincts or our experience.
Instead, there has to be that conscious, deliberate look up before we
start.
One of the best biblical examples
of this is Nehemiah.
Remember when the Persian king found out Nehemiah wanted to lead Jews
back to rebuild the walls of
Nehemiah a very competent,
experienced man. Understood palace
politics.
He knew what it would take to rebuild
But he didn’t just speak out, trusting his experience.
“Then I prayed to the God of heaven
and answered the king . . .”
He looked to heaven first, then he spoke.
Parents, when you are dealing with
your child about something, some conflict.
You know exactly what he needs to hear.
You know exactly what you are going to tell him.
Wait. Look up.
Acknowledge that you need God.
You need wisdom. You need grace.
You need him to take your imperfect words and use for good.
You might even need him to lead you to say something very different.
If you are dealing with a person in
your workplace who has come to you
with a problem—person, marital, work related.
They want you to listen to them,
maybe give them some encouragement, advice.
Before you speak, look up. Pray a
silent prayer.
Ask your Father in heaven for wisdom, humility.
If Jesus needed to do that, you do to.
Jesus is our pattern for
ministry.
When he brings people to you, look up to your heavenly Father.
MP#2 His sigh
Now let’s consider his sigh.
He looked up to heaven and sighed.
Animals don’t sigh. Computers
don’t sigh.
Only human beings sigh. Sighing
expresses deep, troubled emotions.
When a person sighs, we ask: What’s wrong?
The question is: Why did Jesus sigh?
He knew that he was about to heal this man.
You would think that Jesus would
have grinned,
as he thought about how happy the man was about to be.
“Just wait till you see what I have planned for you!”
Jesus sighed because he was deeply
moved by human suffering.
Jesus sighed because he knew that this world is not the way it ought to
be.
As a result of the Fall, the world
is cursed—curse touches every part of human life.
We are spiritually broken—separated from God by sin and rebellion.
We are psychologically broken—don’t think right desires/wills go different
ways.
We are socially broken—don’t get along, families, communities,
marriages.
We are physically broken—bodies wearing down to death.
And that brokenness bothered Jesus.
Bothered him so much, that even
though he was about to heal this man—
and in the bigger picture, even though he knew that one day he would
come
and make everything right, wipe away all tears—
he was still moved with pity and compassion for human suffering.
There is a paradox here:
The Bible puts the blame for everything
that is wrong in this world on human race.
Adam’s sin brought the curse. Our
own sins make things worse.
Bible never backs off from that.
Calls us rebels and perpetrators.
And Jesus himself never backs off
from calling sin, sin—
and telling people that they must repent.
But when it comes to Jesus dealing
with individuals in their suffering—
he does not assign blame, but pities them as victims of the curse.
Jesus never looked at a suffering
person and said:
Well, that’s just the way things are some times.
He sighed, he wept over their suffering and the brokenness of God’s good
world.
If we are going to minister to
people like Jesus—must have the same compassion.
Must also be moved by human suffering.
When God brings people across your
path who are broken physically,
or socially, or psychologically, or spiritually—you should be moved.
You can’t harden our hearts toward
suffering by telling yourself:
That’s just the way it is, or
He brought this one himself, or even,
one day Jesus is going to come back and fix things.
So how do you develop this
compassionate spirit
and not get hardened to the suffering of people?
This is the key: Any time you do feel pity for a person’s
suffering—
recognize that your feelings are not from you, they are from the Holy
Spirit.
And He has given you that feeling so that you will act on it.
The more you act to alleviate
suffering, and reach out to hurting people—
the more your compassion will grow.
More you will sigh when see suffering.
But if you just sigh, just
say: That poor person—but don’t do
anything.
Or if you say—She brought this on herself—don’t do anything.
In time, you will quench the Holy
Spirit,
and become hardened toward suffering people.
Jesus is our pattern for
ministry.
You should be moved to compassion, just as he was.
MP#3 His touch
Now, let’s consider His touch. This is the strangest detail of story.
“Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue.”
What was this? We know it wasn’t necessary for healing.
Jesus never used rituals for healing.
Jesus didn’t do these things
because he needed them—
he did this for the man himself—this was for his benefit.
This was simple sign language. The man was deaf and could barely talk.
So Jesus took him side and put his finger in man’s ears.
Communicating to him—I’m going to do something about this.
Then he spit—implication seems to
be that he spit on his fingers—
and touched the man’s tongue—anointed it with his spit.
Communicating to him—I’m going to
do something about this too.
He comes down to the man’s level.
He gets so close, so personal that it’s almost embarrassing.
He touches this man in the places
of his deepest need,
in order to let him know that he truly cares and wants to heal him.
This is a profound lesson about
ministry.
We cannot show people the love of
Christ and meet their needs,
unless we are willing to come down to them and touch them.
This might mean, in some cases,
actually touching a person.
Especially a person who is physically repulsive to you and others.
A person who has not felt a handshake or pat on the back for a long
time.
In fact, if you don’t want to touch someone, probably reason you should.
Jesus didn’t literally touch
everybody.
But he did make a point of touching the untouchables—lepers especially.
When people needed a literal touch, as this man did, Jesus touched them.
But I’m sure you understand that
touching a person really means something deeper.
It means that you come down to him
You get involved with him.
If he has a problem, you don’t throw money at the problem.
You talk. You listen.
You try to ascertain what they really need.
Might not even be the things that they are asking for.
We had a wonderful visit this week
from seminary friends that some of you know.
Paul Billy and Shirley Arnold and their children from
I took Paul Billy to Youth Group
Wednesday night—
told about his arranged marriage.
That’s the way they do it in
Our youth group had some great questions.
But one ministry that his church
has started is to street kids.
Children who have been abandoned, or run away to escape abuse.
Tremendous needs, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
But one thing Paul Billy said was
interesting.
At the beginning, we don’t give these children anything.
We just go where they congregate and play with them—play games.
What the
is that even though these kids are streetwise,
have seen and experienced horrible things—still children.
And the touch that they need is for
adults to play games with them.
It would be much more dignified and
even easier to go and hand out food.
But that’s not the touch they need—adults to come down to their level
and act silly and childlike and play with them in a public place
where everybody who passes by will see you.
I’ll let you make the applications
for yourself.
If there is a needy person who God
has brought into your life—
what is the touch that person needs?
Might not be the touch you want to give.
You might be more than willing to
give a pat on the back,
or financial help with a bill that they have.
But guess what?
The touch they really need is to come and eat supper at your house.
The touch they really need is an hour of you just listening to them.
Jesus is our pattern for
ministry.
You should be willing to touch people just as he did.
MP#4 His word
Now let’s consider his word.
He said to the man, Ephphatha, (which means,
be opened!) (Hebrew word recalled by Peter).
At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he
began to speak plainly.
I told you at the beginning that
many preachers have seen this story
as a pattern for ministry and have preached on these four points.
One, old Scottish preacher Alexander MacLaren,
makes an interesting comment.
There is a sense in which Jesus’
look, sigh, and touch are things that
we can imitate. Not as perfectly
as he did, but we can follow his pattern.
MacLaren
says that when we come to Jesus’ word—
this is something that we cannot imitate.
Because this word, “Be opened” is the command of the Son of God.
With his command comes power to open deaf ears and a mute mouth.
Our words don’t have that power.
When you call your children to come
to supper—
your words do not have power to compel them to the table.
If they are reading or playing with something—have to call several
times.
Sometimes you actually have to go
and get them.
So Jesus word is unique. This is the expression of his divinity.
But, MacLaren
says, there is a connection.
There is a way that we can apply this to ministry.
In our ministry to people,
we are called to speak the Word of God with the same confidence
Jesus had when he spoke to this man.
You might not be too sure of your
own advice, but when speak the Word of God
to people, believe it and speak with confidence. That ministers to people.
I have a friend who grew up in a
Christian home, believed in Jesus at young age.
But went through a time when was terrified was going to die and go to
hell.
Finally one night he confided in his dad.
I’ve never forgotten what my dad
said. He opened Bible to John 10.
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life and they shall never perish; no one can snatch
them out of my hand.”
Son, you are one of Jesus little
lambs.
No one can snatch you out of his hand.
Go to sleep.
The Bible is full of promises, and
warnings, and examples, and teachings.
In your ministry to people—children, spouse, friends—believers or
unbelievers.
There are words in here for them that will speak to their needs.
Remember once reading something
that a Christian man wrote about a conversation
he had with a friend. This friend
of his was determined to do something wrong.
Can’t remember now what it was.
But anyway, this Christian man went
to talk to his friend,
try to talk him out of it. But
went knowing probably wouldn’t change his mind.
So he memorized one verse—Proverbs 13—
“The way of the transgressor is hard.”
Argued, pleaded, and tried to show
his friend how foolish this was.
Finally he said, well, you may not listen to me but I have one thing to
say to you.
The Bible says: The way of the transgressor is hard.
For the rest of the conversation, every time friend made an excuse.
“The way of the transgressor is hard.”
Several months later, friend came
to him, telling all the consequences—
every time these things happened, I remembered what you said.
The way of the transgressor is hard.
Doesn’t always work like that—words
of comfort are sometimes ignored—
just as words of warning are. But
if we are going to minister to the hearts
of people God brings to us—must know the Word and speak with confidence,
just as Jesus did.
CONC: Where do you get the
motivation for this kind of ministry?
Where do you get the motivation to
touch people and have compassion
for their suffering?
Mark gives us a clue. The word he uses for deaf/mute is a peculiar
word—
used only one other time in the Bible—we read it earlier in service.
It’s in Isaiah 35.
Mark wants his readers to make the
connection.
Isaiah 35 is about the Messiah.
When he comes, the ears of the deaf will be opened,
and the mute tongue will shout for joy.
But it then it tell us how He will
do this.
He will come to save with vengeance and divine retribution.
How can that be? We don’t see Jesus striking down his enemies.
Here’s the key: He came to save us by receiving vengeance and
divine retribution,
through his death on the cross.
He took God’s curse on
himself—suffered in body and soul—
to minister to your deepest need—your spiritual deafness—
your alienation from God.
When you see that he did that for
you—
the cross, and the cross alone will motivate you to minister to people.
The cross alone will move you
outside of your selfishness and give you Jesus’
spirit of pity and make you willing to touch suffering people.
If he did that for me, surely I can
walk in his steps.
So let’s come to him now, at the
Table, and ask him to give us
a fresh view of his cross.