WEBVTT 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:16.960 Mark chapter 7, verse 31, Jesus returned from the region of Tyre, went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of Decapolis. 00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:21.600 They brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment. 00:00:22.079 --> 00:00:25.120 They begged him to lay his hand on him. 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:32.399 Taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting, touched his tongue. 00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:38.320 Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, Apaphatha, that is, be opened. 00:00:38.560 --> 00:00:42.560 And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:45.759 Jesus charged them to tell no one. 00:00:46.240 --> 00:00:49.439 The more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:54.159 They were astonished beyond measure, saying, He has done all things well. 00:00:54.799 --> 00:00:58.799 He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak. 00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:12.000 Until the 1800s, with the advent, mostly in France, of sign language, there was nobody in the world more to be pitied than a deaf mute. 00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:17.439 Unable to hear, the person would be unable to speak. 00:01:17.760 --> 00:01:26.319 Born without the nerve connections in the head, allowing audio waves to register in the brain, just clinically deaf. 00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:31.840 The child wouldn't be able to hear speech and so wouldn't be able to develop his own speech. 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:39.280 Now, in a world without hearing tests, there would be no indication that what was wrong with the child was auditory. 00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:44.079 He would have a fully functioning brain, fully functioning vocal cords. 00:01:44.319 --> 00:01:49.760 Nothing's wrong in his mind, nothing would be wrong with his speech if only he could hear. 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:55.439 But because he can't hear, he's unable to learn vocabulary, unable to learn how to talk. 00:01:55.599 --> 00:02:00.079 And for the first several months of life, that wouldn't necessarily be evident. 00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:11.599 He could make uh different baby sounds, goo goo and gaga and whatnot, and a parent, even with other children, other fully functioning children, wouldn't possibly even notice a difference. 00:02:12.319 --> 00:02:18.080 But it starts around the age where you would expect children to respond to commands. 00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:26.960 Prohibitions, don't do that, don't touch that, etc., where the child wouldn't be able to comprehend, wouldn't hear. 00:02:27.439 --> 00:02:31.599 Other children around those ages would start speaking, and this child wouldn't. 00:02:31.680 --> 00:02:33.680 Maybe he's just a late developer. 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:38.560 What the child would be able to perceive better than his peers is facial expressions. 00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:45.039 The child would become an expert at reading the room to compensate for his lack of being able to hear. 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:52.000 And of course, the first expression the child would pick up on and become an expert in is that of disappointment. 00:02:52.319 --> 00:03:11.439 The baby would be disappointing his or her parents, the playmates, brothers and sisters, who again aren't aware that there's an auditory deficiency, only recognize that the child doesn't seem to be listening, doesn't seem to be obeying, is uncapable of responding to the sound of voices. 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:16.240 When other kids are speaking, this child wouldn't. 00:03:16.879 --> 00:03:22.719 The child, probably around the age of two or so, would become aware that he's missing something. 00:03:22.879 --> 00:03:27.120 There's something wrong with him, not with the others. 00:03:29.199 --> 00:03:35.680 In most nations, that kind of child would be put to death, abandoned in the woods, left to the wolves. 00:03:35.919 --> 00:03:38.159 In the Roman world, they would build asylums. 00:03:38.319 --> 00:03:48.319 In fact, the Roman Empire had built asylums in uh Israel for these kind of people, not just these kind of people, but all you know, all kinds of illnesses were placed there. 00:03:48.400 --> 00:03:50.240 In some parts of the world, they'd be left as beggars. 00:03:50.319 --> 00:04:00.800 Those who were parents would sometimes hide kids from the authorities to keep them from being put to death until they were old enough to beg for their own life and then be turned onto the streets. 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:03.759 In Israel, these people were considered unclean. 00:04:03.919 --> 00:04:05.280 You weren't supposed to touch them. 00:04:05.360 --> 00:04:09.599 You definitely were not allowed to teach them to read or write, as if that were even possible. 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:16.319 Again, you're not able to hear sounds, you can't phonetically connect letters to sounds, it just makes it impossible. 00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:24.639 I had somebody tell me after first hour, the first deaf mute who learned to read was in the 1800s from the United States, but taught by some French doctors. 00:04:24.800 --> 00:04:26.560 Until that, it never happens. 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:28.560 It never happens. 00:04:28.879 --> 00:04:36.319 The Jews had forbidden teaching them or showing them written words, because the idea is that written words contain the words of God. 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:45.439 You're not able to tell what's going on in the person's mind, so you don't want to put them in a situation where they could blaspheme by reading things that are holy but without understanding them. 00:04:46.319 --> 00:04:54.160 Basically, these people were treated like spectacles, mentally dysfunctional, is what everybody assumed. 00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:57.360 And again, that would become a self-fulfilling prophecy. 00:04:57.439 --> 00:05:00.319 They'd be treated like they were crazy, they would become crazy. 00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:11.600 Their brain, able to develop, hinged or restricted by the lack of proper nouns, not knowing what things are called. 00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:16.079 Left to a life of despair and ridicule. 00:05:16.800 --> 00:05:20.240 That's the kind of person Jesus meets in verse 32. 00:05:20.639 --> 00:05:23.839 They brought to him one of these deaf mutes. 00:05:24.079 --> 00:05:27.120 He was deaf, unable to hear, and he had a speech impediment. 00:05:27.279 --> 00:05:28.959 It's an interesting word in the Greek here. 00:05:29.199 --> 00:05:31.439 Earlier I said their tongue is perfectly fine. 00:05:31.519 --> 00:05:33.360 There's nothing wrong with their actual speech. 00:05:33.600 --> 00:05:38.480 I've heard people say, you know, see, the Bible doesn't understand what's really happening in the medical world. 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:42.879 It calls them a deaf, you know, with a speech impediment, but we know they don't actually have a speech impediment. 00:05:42.959 --> 00:05:45.839 But when you look carefully, it's an odd Greek word that's used here. 00:05:46.240 --> 00:05:52.160 The word that's used here is chains, that their tongue is chained as if it's chained to the back of their mouth. 00:05:52.240 --> 00:05:57.040 There's nothing wrong with their vocal cords, their tongue is just tied up to the back of their mouth. 00:05:57.199 --> 00:06:00.800 Because they don't have the vocabulary, they're not able to speak. 00:06:00.879 --> 00:06:07.360 And so I just draw your attention to that because even in those kind of details, the Bible is inerrant and exactly correct. 00:06:07.519 --> 00:06:09.680 His tongue is chained to him. 00:06:10.079 --> 00:06:11.759 They bring him to Jesus. 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:16.000 And even the phrase they brought him to Jesus, the word is thrown. 00:06:16.160 --> 00:06:18.560 They threw this guy at Jesus' feet. 00:06:19.279 --> 00:06:21.040 The setting here is important. 00:06:21.279 --> 00:06:25.600 This is in the Decapolis, the Decapolis, Decca 10, Polis City. 00:06:25.680 --> 00:06:33.600 It's a collection of ten cities built by uh Pompeii to be a testimony of Roman culture into the Arab world. 00:06:33.759 --> 00:06:41.199 These ten cities are built on the uh peninsula, the edge of the desert, before the desert hits the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. 00:06:41.279 --> 00:06:44.720 It's supposed to be really a pillar of Roman culture. 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:50.480 When you understand these cities, they were, if anything, a pillar of Roman decadence and depravity. 00:06:50.560 --> 00:07:00.879 They had gymnasiums were the focal point of these cities, the saunas and the nudity and everything that went with this kind of Roman uh decadent lifestyle was on full display in the decapolis. 00:07:01.040 --> 00:07:05.120 One of the cities, the decapolis is was devastated by an earthquake, Vashan. 00:07:05.360 --> 00:07:06.639 And if you go to Israel, you can tour it. 00:07:06.720 --> 00:07:08.879 It's one of the largest uh ruins in the world. 00:07:08.959 --> 00:07:15.439 It was a fully occupied and functioning city until it was really overnight destroyed, and it remains there today. 00:07:15.519 --> 00:07:17.839 So you get to see what the Decapolis is is like. 00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:29.439 But there were 10 of these cities, and they varied in you know in strengths, and there's probably 12 or 13 cities that claim to be part of the Decapolis, like the, you know, those college football conferences where the numbers do not match the number of cities. 00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:33.040 There are certainly like 12 or 13 of these cities in the Decapolis. 00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:35.120 That's where Jesus goes. 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:39.199 Why he's going to the Decapolis is also noteworthy. 00:07:39.439 --> 00:07:51.600 He had been doing ministry in Galilee, he had multiplied the fish and the loaves, he had fed the masses, he had raised the dead, he had healed the blind, he'd done miracle after miracle, and yet the Jews were not embracing his witness. 00:07:51.680 --> 00:07:52.959 They weren't listening to his message. 00:07:53.040 --> 00:07:57.759 They wanted the bread from him, but they didn't want to surrender their lives to him. 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:00.560 And, you know, he was rejected in Nazareth, thrown out of town. 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:02.399 They tried to kill him already at this point. 00:08:02.560 --> 00:08:06.560 And so after the fish and the loaves, Jesus said, That's it, we're out of here. 00:08:06.720 --> 00:08:09.040 And he takes his show on the road, so to speak. 00:08:09.199 --> 00:08:10.079 He leaves Israel. 00:08:10.160 --> 00:08:13.519 He goes from Galilee, where he had been ministering for around two years at this point. 00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:21.680 He goes from Galilee up uh up north, up to modern-day Lebanon, over through Jordan and Syria, and he's entering back over six months. 00:08:21.759 --> 00:08:26.319 He was gone in Gentile land for probably six months if you track the timeline in Mark's gospel. 00:08:26.639 --> 00:08:31.360 He re-enters the orbit of Israel through the Decapolis, which is about where he started. 00:08:31.519 --> 00:08:33.759 It's only on the other side of the Dead Sea. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:37.679 So he makes a six-month detour to get to this place. 00:08:37.759 --> 00:08:42.879 That would be like me telling you, I'm gonna go to lunch today in Baltimore, next stop, Richmond. 00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:45.679 You would wonder about my navigational capacity. 00:08:46.240 --> 00:08:50.240 And that scale right there is about the scale that Jesus covers. 00:08:50.399 --> 00:08:57.360 From the edge of the Decapolis, it's not that far away from Galilee, and yet he goes so far out of the way to get there. 00:08:57.440 --> 00:09:02.000 And while he's going through these Gentile areas, he is healing people. 00:09:02.159 --> 00:09:03.440 He is teaching and healing. 00:09:03.519 --> 00:09:06.399 In fact, the story just before this was a Syrio-Phoenician woman. 00:09:06.480 --> 00:09:11.039 That's a woman from Syria with a Phoenician background, Phoenician Philistines. 00:09:11.120 --> 00:09:13.200 This is the old school nemesis of Israel. 00:09:13.360 --> 00:09:16.240 She's a citizen of Syria. 00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:21.279 She comes to Jesus and asks for healing, specifically for her daughter. 00:09:21.759 --> 00:09:26.559 And Jesus tells her that I came for the Israelites, not for the Gentiles. 00:09:26.799 --> 00:09:30.559 Which is a bit of an ironic exchange in the middle of Gentile land. 00:09:30.639 --> 00:09:34.879 He's in, you know, Tyre and Sidon, and he's telling you, Oh, I'm here for the Jews. 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:36.879 He's meaning this as a teaching opportunity. 00:09:36.960 --> 00:09:38.799 And you remember what she tells him back. 00:09:39.039 --> 00:09:42.480 Like when the kids don't want the food, you feed the dogs, right? 00:09:42.879 --> 00:09:45.600 And parents of toddlers have this image in their mind. 00:09:45.679 --> 00:09:48.080 You know, the kids are like, I'm never eating this, this is awful and gross. 00:09:48.240 --> 00:09:50.960 And the happy dog who loves you is just sitting there smiling. 00:09:51.519 --> 00:09:57.279 All right, I'll have a full dog, an angry child, and a content heart, and I can go to bed with a clean conscience. 00:09:57.840 --> 00:09:59.519 That's what Jesus tells the woman. 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:05.039 The dogs, I'm here for the Israelites, not the dogs of the Gentiles. 00:10:05.279 --> 00:10:07.759 And she says, Yeah, but even dogs eat the crumbs. 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:09.840 In other words, the Jews rejected you, Jesus. 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:10.639 Remember? 00:10:10.960 --> 00:10:12.480 That's why you're here. 00:10:13.679 --> 00:10:20.240 And Jesus grants her her healing, extols her faith, and moves on. 00:10:20.799 --> 00:10:22.639 Now he's in the Decapolis. 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:25.200 He's in one of these cities, we don't know which one. 00:10:25.440 --> 00:10:27.519 And the word of Jesus has traveled here. 00:10:27.600 --> 00:10:32.720 The demoniac who had the demons cast out of him, if you remember that, into the pigs and all that, that was in this part of the world. 00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:34.000 That was in the Decapolis. 00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:35.759 And so they know who Jesus is. 00:10:35.919 --> 00:10:39.360 He's back now, and he's re-entering the Galilee region. 00:10:39.679 --> 00:10:44.240 And they bring to him this deaf mute and they throw him at the feet of Jesus. 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:47.600 And Jesus looks at him. 00:10:48.960 --> 00:10:51.120 They're begging him to lay his hand on him. 00:10:51.200 --> 00:10:52.639 They know he has the power to heal. 00:10:53.600 --> 00:10:56.639 But Jesus takes this person aside. 00:10:58.559 --> 00:11:02.720 Takes him privately, it says in verse 33, separates him from the crowd. 00:11:02.879 --> 00:11:05.200 I don't know how he was able to pull that off. 00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:06.000 There's a big crowd there. 00:11:06.080 --> 00:11:10.879 I don't know if he had a tent with him, perhaps, which wouldn't be as crazy as it sounds. 00:11:10.960 --> 00:11:12.960 There's traveling for six months on the road. 00:11:13.039 --> 00:11:13.679 They're sleeping. 00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:16.080 He says during this time period he has no place to lay his head. 00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:18.159 It's likely they did bring some kind of tent with him. 00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:19.919 So maybe he brought him into a tent. 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:22.879 Maybe he left the crowd on the hill and led him by the hand somewhere. 00:11:23.120 --> 00:11:26.000 Doesn't say, but he took him privately, and that's important. 00:11:26.399 --> 00:11:29.519 Because this guy has been a spectacle his whole life. 00:11:29.759 --> 00:11:33.759 He has been ridiculed, he has been mocked, he's been on public display. 00:11:33.919 --> 00:11:36.799 His source of food has been begging publicly, probably. 00:11:36.960 --> 00:11:40.080 He's this isn't the Jewish world, so it's not like he has this unclean stigma. 00:11:40.240 --> 00:11:43.440 Obviously, they're touching him and throwing him at him, which would not have happened in Israel. 00:11:43.600 --> 00:11:47.519 This is a Gentile land, but he would have been reduced to begging. 00:11:47.679 --> 00:11:50.559 He would have been like a carnival show kind of guy. 00:11:52.000 --> 00:12:00.799 And now, probably for the first time in his life, he's encountered somebody who sees him as an individual and cares for him as a person. 00:12:01.360 --> 00:12:02.559 Jesus takes him aside. 00:12:02.639 --> 00:12:05.039 This is not a show for the crowd, in other words. 00:12:05.200 --> 00:12:10.799 Jesus is not exploiting this person's deficiency for the audience. 00:12:11.120 --> 00:12:13.360 This is a one-on-one encounter. 00:12:14.320 --> 00:12:21.279 This might be the first time in this guy's life that he's ever been treated with this kind of personal care and dignity. 00:12:21.840 --> 00:12:28.000 Jesus takes him aside and puts his fingers, it says, in the dude's ears. 00:12:29.039 --> 00:12:30.480 So that's weird. 00:12:31.600 --> 00:12:33.360 They're nose to nose. 00:12:33.519 --> 00:12:37.039 I mean, how far do arms reach for you to get your fingers in somebody's ears? 00:12:37.200 --> 00:12:42.080 They're looking eyeball to eyeball, and Jesus grabs his ears. 00:12:43.120 --> 00:12:50.879 This is showing the guy, again, probably for the first time in his life, that Jesus knows what is wrong with him. 00:12:51.200 --> 00:12:53.279 Other people don't know what's wrong with him. 00:12:53.519 --> 00:12:58.639 He's not able to tell other people what's wrong with him, but Jesus knows what's wrong with him. 00:12:58.799 --> 00:13:00.960 Jesus reads this guy perfectly. 00:13:01.200 --> 00:13:02.559 Never met him before. 00:13:02.799 --> 00:13:10.080 But is able to diagnose and knows, of course, through his sovereignty, what exactly the ailment of this person is. 00:13:10.159 --> 00:13:10.799 It's his ears. 00:13:10.879 --> 00:13:12.399 Jesus knows it's not his brain. 00:13:12.559 --> 00:13:14.960 Jesus knows it's not his tongue, primarily. 00:13:15.039 --> 00:13:16.320 We'll get to the tongue in a second. 00:13:16.559 --> 00:13:20.639 Jesus knows the main problem with this individual is that of the ear. 00:13:20.799 --> 00:13:22.320 Other people don't know that. 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:23.840 Jesus knows that. 00:13:24.080 --> 00:13:36.720 And so he puts his fingers in the guy's ear, nose to nose, eye to eye, hand in the ears, as a testimony to the fact that Jesus knows what is wrong with him. 00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:40.559 What a picture of the sympathy of our Lord. 00:13:42.399 --> 00:13:43.600 It gets weirder. 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:50.399 He spits and touches his tongue. 00:13:51.919 --> 00:13:56.320 Literally, the Greek says he spits into his tongue. 00:13:57.200 --> 00:14:01.200 His hands are in the ears, so I I mean you have the same information I do. 00:14:01.279 --> 00:14:02.080 I don't know what. 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:06.080 It doesn't seem like he spits on his hand and touches the tongue. 00:14:06.159 --> 00:14:09.039 It seems like he spits on the tongue. 00:14:09.200 --> 00:14:12.240 That's how it reads in both English, but it's even more clear in Greek. 00:14:12.320 --> 00:14:14.159 It's he spits into the tongue. 00:14:15.120 --> 00:14:16.879 Why does he do that? 00:14:18.399 --> 00:14:24.799 Well, it's demonstrating that whatever is about to happen to this guy comes from Jesus. 00:14:25.120 --> 00:14:28.799 Jesus is the source of what is going to happen to this guy. 00:14:28.960 --> 00:14:39.840 At this moment, the guy doesn't know he's going to be healed, but he now is having a personal encounter with the Lord, and Jesus is engaging with him in such a way it's very evident Jesus is not getting medicine. 00:14:39.919 --> 00:14:42.879 There's no potion from this, there's no homeopathic remedy. 00:14:42.960 --> 00:14:47.600 It's not, you know, dip a cactus in flour and lick it twice a day or something like that. 00:14:47.759 --> 00:14:50.960 He's, or essential oil, which is even weirder than the cactus looking. 00:14:51.120 --> 00:14:53.519 Jesus doesn't engage him at that level. 00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:58.799 He doesn't say, here's a potion, here's a medicine, even. 00:14:58.960 --> 00:15:00.559 No medicine is involved. 00:15:00.799 --> 00:15:05.440 It's only Jesus and Jesus' personal power. 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:13.039 And he's communicating that to a deaf mute who's, you know, not able to communicate anything back. 00:15:13.279 --> 00:15:15.200 Jesus is able to communicate to him. 00:15:15.279 --> 00:15:18.399 And Jesus can't tell the guy, hey, what's going to happen to you is from me. 00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:19.919 I'm doing this, not medicine. 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:21.519 The guy can't hear. 00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:28.480 So Jesus, by spitting on his tongue, is demonstrating to him what is about to happen to you is all from me. 00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:34.399 Even in the Roman world at this time, there were so many of these fake faith healers, not unlike Christian television today. 00:15:34.639 --> 00:15:37.919 You could send them money and they would send you potion. 00:15:38.159 --> 00:15:40.159 A lot of their potions were of their spit. 00:15:40.320 --> 00:15:42.240 They would spit in these vials and sell it. 00:15:42.320 --> 00:15:45.360 They put snake venom in with their own spit, sell that. 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:50.559 There's a whole market going on in the Roman Empire this time with these fake healer remedies. 00:15:50.720 --> 00:15:53.600 I don't call them faith healers, I call them fake healers. 00:15:54.080 --> 00:15:55.519 And that was certainly evident. 00:15:55.679 --> 00:16:00.960 Jesus doesn't send it away for something like this, he's doing it himself. 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:04.320 The power is all from him. 00:16:06.080 --> 00:16:10.000 Then Jesus looks up to heaven, verse 34. 00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:12.240 Looks up to heaven. 00:16:12.399 --> 00:16:14.000 Why does he look to heaven? 00:16:14.799 --> 00:16:23.519 He's again communicating to the deaf mute that what's about to happen to him, we've already established, is from Jesus, but it's also from God. 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:26.480 Jesus is operating here in his humanity. 00:16:26.639 --> 00:16:32.159 I mean, spitting on someone is a human characteristic, not a divine characteristic. 00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:36.559 But by looking to heaven, he's explaining to the deaf mute that what's about to happen to you. 00:16:36.639 --> 00:16:39.679 It's from me, that's the spit, but it's also from God. 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:43.679 Jesus is operating here in concert with his heavenly father. 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:50.000 The will of God the Father for this deaf mute is the same as the will of God the Son for this deaf mute. 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:53.360 Jesus is communicating, it sounds too technical, but it's not. 00:16:53.519 --> 00:16:59.039 Jesus is communicating to this deaf mute that he has two natures, that Jesus is God and he is man. 00:16:59.200 --> 00:17:03.039 He's in communion with our Heavenly Father, and he's operating in the will of the Father. 00:17:03.200 --> 00:17:06.480 He has a true human nature, and it's demonstrated by the Spit. 00:17:06.640 --> 00:17:14.319 This guy has never had a theology lesson in his life, but he's being put on full display in front of him that the Savior has two natures. 00:17:14.400 --> 00:17:15.920 He is both God and man. 00:17:16.079 --> 00:17:20.720 He can look to God for help, and he has the power within him to heal. 00:17:21.200 --> 00:17:23.920 We sometimes act like that kind of theology is too complex. 00:17:24.079 --> 00:17:26.319 It's not too complex for a deaf mute. 00:17:27.039 --> 00:17:35.759 Jesus is communicating to him in such a way that shows when I speak to God, he hears, because God and I are one. 00:17:36.400 --> 00:17:39.039 When I spit, I'm healing you. 00:17:39.119 --> 00:17:45.759 It is from God and it is from me, one person, two natures, human and divine. 00:17:48.160 --> 00:17:52.000 God hears Jesus' prayer, sees Jesus' look. 00:17:52.160 --> 00:17:58.240 Jesus says in John's gospel, if you've seen the Son working, you've seen the Father working, you've seen the Father working, you've seen the Son working. 00:17:58.400 --> 00:18:01.759 You cannot separate the works of God the Father from the works of God the Son. 00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:03.920 They are the same works. 00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:06.880 Jesus' look to heaven communicates that. 00:18:07.039 --> 00:18:16.000 What he is doing here, often the decapitus, and again, the decapitus is like the least likely place to encounter the Jewish Messiah in the whole world. 00:18:16.799 --> 00:18:25.359 And that's where Jesus is giving this Gentile deaf mute a lesson in messianic theology. 00:18:25.920 --> 00:18:28.640 God and man joined in the person of Jesus Christ. 00:18:28.720 --> 00:18:33.119 He looks to heaven, and then he sighed. 00:18:34.400 --> 00:18:35.359 He sighed. 00:18:36.640 --> 00:18:38.559 What does a sigh communicate? 00:18:39.519 --> 00:18:48.000 You saw in the video earlier, if you ask somebody, you know, how are you doing, and they say busy, that communicates to you that they live in Northern Virginia. 00:18:49.759 --> 00:19:03.839 But if you ask somebody, how are you doing, and they go, okay, well, that's communicating to you that they're not okay. 00:19:04.160 --> 00:19:08.480 The only worse answer than that is fine. 00:19:09.200 --> 00:19:09.920 Oh no. 00:19:12.480 --> 00:19:13.599 Jesus sighs. 00:19:13.759 --> 00:19:16.160 He looks to heaven and he sighs. 00:19:16.400 --> 00:19:20.400 He's communicating that this is not okay. 00:19:21.039 --> 00:19:26.880 That Jesus in his sovereignty is aware of what is wrong with the deaf mute. 00:19:27.039 --> 00:19:29.839 Jesus, as God, is fully aware of this guy's condition. 00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:32.160 He's sovereign over his condition, isn't he? 00:19:32.319 --> 00:19:36.480 You think of Exodus chapter 4, where Moses tells Yahweh, I can't speak for you. 00:19:36.559 --> 00:19:38.799 I can't go be your messenger because I don't speak well. 00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:40.960 And remember Exodus 4, I think it's verse 11. 00:19:41.119 --> 00:19:43.920 Yahweh really rebukes Moses and says, Who are you, Moses? 00:19:44.160 --> 00:19:46.640 Like who do you think made the mute person? 00:19:46.799 --> 00:19:48.240 Who do you think makes the deaf? 00:19:48.400 --> 00:19:49.200 Who gives life? 00:19:49.359 --> 00:19:50.319 Who takes it away? 00:19:50.480 --> 00:19:51.839 Isn't it I, Yahweh? 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:54.960 Of course, God is sovereign over the deaf mute. 00:19:55.680 --> 00:19:58.799 Obviously, God appoints the number of our days. 00:19:58.960 --> 00:20:00.799 God is sovereign over the deaf mute. 00:20:01.039 --> 00:20:17.119 And so we in our fallen reasoning often extrapolate and we say, if God is sovereign over my son who's deaf, or my daughter who's mute, or over whatever ailment or deficiency is physical deficiencies in our children, we think if God is sovereign over that, that means he must not care. 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:24.960 If God is sovereign over the deaf mute, that means he doesn't care about all the suffering the deaf mute goes through because he's sovereign over it. 00:20:25.039 --> 00:20:32.880 And Jesus, again, is communicating with such clarity and specificity here that he is sovereign over the deaf mute. 00:20:33.039 --> 00:20:37.599 He knows it's the ears, he knows it's the tongue, and he cares about the suffering. 00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:42.079 He sighs, communicating this is not how it was meant to be. 00:20:42.319 --> 00:20:45.519 When Adam was in the garden, there were no deaf mutes. 00:20:45.759 --> 00:20:49.359 Sin entered the world, and sin brought suffering into the world. 00:20:49.519 --> 00:20:59.039 Sin is the reason there is so much decay, so much physical decline, which God is sovereign over, and yet still his heart grieves in that sense. 00:20:59.200 --> 00:21:00.400 Genesis chapter 6. 00:21:00.559 --> 00:21:06.000 The Lord relented or regretted that he had made man for this kind of suffering where he was going to flood the earth. 00:21:06.240 --> 00:21:12.000 The Lord is sovereign over the flood and he cares about the suffering that it causes. 00:21:12.240 --> 00:21:13.839 Both are true. 00:21:14.079 --> 00:21:17.599 You can't pit God's sovereignty against his compassion. 00:21:18.160 --> 00:21:23.359 God is sovereign over the deaf mute, and Jesus sighs when face to face with the deaf mute. 00:21:24.480 --> 00:21:34.079 Remember in John's gospel where they brought Jesus the blind man and they asked with the question, who sinned that this man would be born blind? 00:21:34.880 --> 00:21:36.799 And Jesus said, Nobody sins. 00:21:37.119 --> 00:21:39.920 In that sense, it wasn't that he sinned or his parents sinned. 00:21:40.400 --> 00:21:41.920 You want to blame sin for this. 00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:43.119 It's Adam's sin. 00:21:43.359 --> 00:21:44.799 Sin is in the world. 00:21:45.119 --> 00:21:48.160 Who sinned that this guy, that this guy would be a deaf mute? 00:21:48.720 --> 00:21:55.599 Certainly this guy has sinned, certainly his parents have sinned, but this deaf muteness is not a punishment for sin. 00:21:55.839 --> 00:21:58.160 The punishment for sin is for Adam's sin. 00:21:58.240 --> 00:21:59.680 We live in a decaying, fallen world. 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:06.960 My family right now for our family devotionals is reading through Genesis, and we just read yesterday Genesis 10 and 11, and it stands out. 00:22:07.039 --> 00:22:18.640 It's the genealogy there after the flood, and they're coming off the ark and they're living 490 years and 420 years and 405 years and then 200 years and 150 years. 00:22:19.039 --> 00:22:24.240 The lifespan is declining because sin is in the world. 00:22:24.720 --> 00:22:25.759 Sin is in the world. 00:22:25.920 --> 00:22:27.519 Sin makes you live less time. 00:22:27.759 --> 00:22:30.240 Sin is why there are deaf mutes in the world. 00:22:30.400 --> 00:22:32.640 Sin is why there's physical deficiencies in the world. 00:22:32.799 --> 00:22:37.359 Not your personal sin, but human sin. 00:22:39.359 --> 00:22:41.039 And Jesus knows that. 00:22:41.359 --> 00:22:43.680 Jesus is about to go die for sin. 00:22:44.559 --> 00:22:46.319 Another six-month time from here. 00:22:46.559 --> 00:22:48.480 He's gonna go to the cross for sin. 00:22:49.119 --> 00:22:50.640 He knows the power of sin. 00:22:50.799 --> 00:22:53.119 And so it's right that he sighs. 00:22:53.839 --> 00:22:57.519 He doesn't complain to God, he doesn't grumble against the divine plan. 00:22:57.599 --> 00:22:59.200 He's the author of the divine plan. 00:23:00.960 --> 00:23:04.400 But he does sigh in the face of human suffering. 00:23:05.440 --> 00:23:09.440 And like I said, every phrase of this miracle gets more strange. 00:23:09.599 --> 00:23:14.400 After this, he then says, apathetha, which is in Aramaic. 00:23:14.640 --> 00:23:16.400 He speaks to the guy in Aramaic. 00:23:16.640 --> 00:23:18.720 Mark's gospel was written in Greek. 00:23:18.960 --> 00:23:23.279 The Jews spoke Hebrew and Aramaic and Greek, but this is the decapolis. 00:23:23.359 --> 00:23:25.279 The Greek would have been the language they spoke there. 00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:26.880 They didn't speak Aramaic. 00:23:27.200 --> 00:23:36.880 So Jesus speaks to the guy saying, Let your tongue be open, your ears be opened, your tongue loose, speaks to him in Aramaic, which is not his language. 00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:39.039 In mitigation, he has no language. 00:23:39.119 --> 00:23:40.480 I'll grant you that point. 00:23:41.599 --> 00:23:44.720 But everybody around him would be speaking Greek. 00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:50.640 Of course, it doesn't matter what language Jesus speaks to him until he says it, the guy can't hear anything. 00:23:51.440 --> 00:23:55.119 Makes me wonder why he chose to say it in Aramaic. 00:23:55.279 --> 00:23:56.160 It was significant. 00:23:56.319 --> 00:23:57.759 Mark brings it across in Aramaic. 00:23:57.839 --> 00:23:58.880 Mark doesn't translate it to Greek. 00:23:58.960 --> 00:24:00.880 Mark brings in the Aramaic word and leaves it there. 00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:02.160 And the ESV does the same thing. 00:24:02.240 --> 00:24:05.680 The ESV just gives you the Aramaic word and says, you can figure it out. 00:24:07.440 --> 00:24:09.359 I think it's, this is my guess. 00:24:09.680 --> 00:24:13.759 He's demonstrating that he is the Lord of both the Jews and the Gentiles. 00:24:13.920 --> 00:24:15.279 He's a savior in both places. 00:24:15.359 --> 00:24:19.680 I think part of it is to demonstrate the totality of the healing the guy's about to experience. 00:24:20.240 --> 00:24:22.640 But regardless, he speaks to him in Aramaic. 00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:26.400 Mark translates it for you into Greek and says it means be opened. 00:24:26.720 --> 00:24:30.480 And at that point, verse 35, his ears were opened. 00:24:31.440 --> 00:24:33.839 His tongue was released. 00:24:34.079 --> 00:24:35.680 There's a sense of immediacy. 00:24:35.839 --> 00:24:40.720 As soon as the words left Jesus' mouth, they probably met the ears of the guy. 00:24:40.960 --> 00:24:46.000 And as soon as they met his ears, his tongue was freed, unchained. 00:24:47.519 --> 00:24:50.079 And then he spoke plainly. 00:24:50.799 --> 00:24:53.200 Probably in both Aramaic and Greek. 00:24:56.079 --> 00:25:12.720 In our world, if somebody was a deaf mute and pretend we were able to invent a hearing aid that can circumvent the neural deficiency that's causing it and allow the brain to understand the audio waves and they could be healed in that sense, they could hear right away. 00:25:13.039 --> 00:25:21.599 It would probably take, according to one journal article I read this week, about two years for the person to be able to make the full range of human sounds. 00:25:21.839 --> 00:25:29.920 Two years of speech therapy, two years of learning how to form the lips, how to roll their R's if they speak Spanish, how to make the gutturals if they speak Hebrew. 00:25:30.960 --> 00:25:31.920 Two years. 00:25:33.119 --> 00:25:39.759 Jesus at this point heals this person, and immediately he's speaking plainly, is the word. 00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:42.240 Speaks clear as a bell. 00:25:43.200 --> 00:25:46.559 I don't know if he had the Galilean accent with him, I don't know. 00:25:47.440 --> 00:25:49.519 But he spoke perfect. 00:25:51.680 --> 00:25:53.519 There's no speech therapy here. 00:25:53.759 --> 00:25:56.880 This is an instantaneous miracle. 00:25:57.680 --> 00:25:58.720 Right away. 00:25:59.519 --> 00:26:04.079 And then to cap this all off, the strangest thing yet. 00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:12.240 Jesus then charges them, speaking of the crowd, he's bringing him back to the crowd now, to tell nobody about what happened. 00:26:12.480 --> 00:26:13.920 I mean, come on. 00:26:14.880 --> 00:26:17.920 The guy hasn't been able to speak his whole life. 00:26:18.400 --> 00:26:24.559 And now he's he has a conversation with Jesus, so he goes back to the crowd, and now Jesus says, end no more talking. 00:26:25.759 --> 00:26:27.519 It's kind of a riddle. 00:26:28.000 --> 00:26:33.039 Who has something to say but can't speak, and then can speak but is not permitted? 00:26:33.279 --> 00:26:34.240 This guy. 00:26:35.039 --> 00:26:36.720 It's an impossible command. 00:26:36.880 --> 00:26:38.640 Don't say anything about this. 00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:40.559 It's the one thing he would want to do. 00:26:40.720 --> 00:26:46.799 Earlier in the decapitals, the same thing happened when he cast the demons into the pigs and they ran away, and Jesus said, Don't tell anybody about this. 00:26:46.880 --> 00:26:51.279 And the guy wants to go with Jesus, and he says, Go tell your family and your friends what the Lord has done for you. 00:26:51.440 --> 00:26:52.799 And that's that's the message here. 00:26:52.960 --> 00:26:54.319 He's telling them, don't tell anybody. 00:26:54.400 --> 00:26:59.440 Remember earlier in Mark's gospel, even Jesus raised a girl from the dead at her funeral. 00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:02.720 He goes to the house, there's all the mourners. 00:27:02.799 --> 00:27:17.839 Remember, he cuts through the crowd of mourners to get into the bedroom where the little girl who died and her parents are there, and the whole family is outside, and the professional wailers are outside, and Jesus is in the bedroom and he resurrects her back to life and then tells them not to tell anybody. 00:27:18.160 --> 00:27:21.119 Well, she's gonna have to come out of the bedroom eventually. 00:27:21.359 --> 00:27:28.319 The funeral is going on, and when you're at the funeral for somebody who then walks in and gets a piece of cake or whatever, it's gonna raise questions. 00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:31.839 Jesus says, Don't tell anyone. 00:27:32.240 --> 00:27:35.839 Hey, deaf mute, don't tell anybody that you can speak now. 00:27:37.359 --> 00:27:38.480 And why is that? 00:27:38.720 --> 00:27:44.240 The answer is because Jesus' ministry is not about the healing. 00:27:44.319 --> 00:27:46.079 He didn't come as a healer. 00:27:46.319 --> 00:27:52.160 He healed to validate and underscore the true message, which is the death and resurrection of Christ. 00:27:52.319 --> 00:27:54.720 And through Mark's gospel, you see this over and over again. 00:27:54.960 --> 00:28:10.640 Mark keeps describing miracles Jesus does, and then Jesus says, Don't tell anyone, don't tell anyone, don't tell anyone, until ultimately the resurrection, and then they're freed to go into the world and tell everybody about the Lord who died on the cross, bearing the penalty for their sin, and rose from the grave. 00:28:10.799 --> 00:28:13.519 That's the message for the whole world to hear. 00:28:14.079 --> 00:28:20.400 But until then, the message we bring to the world is not that Jesus can heal you because he doesn't heal everybody. 00:28:20.559 --> 00:28:23.599 There are deaf mutes today that Jesus doesn't heal. 00:28:23.759 --> 00:28:30.400 So the message would be wrong to bring come to parents of a deaf mut and say, if you put your faith in Jesus, Jesus would heal your son or daughter. 00:28:30.559 --> 00:28:31.440 That's not the message. 00:28:31.599 --> 00:28:36.000 And Jesus makes it clear that's not the message by saying, don't tell anybody this. 00:28:37.519 --> 00:28:44.480 But once he bears the penalty for sin and rises from the grave, then the stops are removed. 00:28:44.559 --> 00:28:48.960 Then it's all systems go, full throttle, tell the world about what the Lord has done. 00:28:49.119 --> 00:28:55.839 And verse 37 or verse 36, the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 00:28:56.079 --> 00:29:00.240 The more sternly Jesus said, don't tell anybody, the more ramped up they were to tell everybody. 00:29:00.319 --> 00:29:03.680 It's this language of uh equality here. 00:29:03.839 --> 00:29:06.880 The more sternly Jesus spoke, the more sternly they disobeyed. 00:29:07.119 --> 00:29:11.359 You picture the argument with the parent and their rebellious child in Walmart. 00:29:11.440 --> 00:29:16.160 They're always in Walmart, those arguments, and the parent says, you know, keep your voice down. 00:29:16.319 --> 00:29:17.279 No, you keep your voice down. 00:29:17.359 --> 00:29:18.240 No, you keep your voice down. 00:29:18.319 --> 00:29:19.680