Mark 7:31-37-- Speech Renewed

"Say 'Ahh'"

Again He went out from the region of Tyre, and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of Decapolis. They brought to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, and they implored Him to lay His hand on him. Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva; and looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, He said to him, "Ephphatha!" that is, "Be opened!" And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly. And He gave them orders not to tell anyone; but the more He ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it. They were utterly astonished, saying, "He has done all things well; He makes even the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."

This is one of two sufferers of deafness and muteness in Mark’s gospel. Again, Jesus wants privacy to keep people from knowing how much of God’s authority he can wield.  He sighs before he heals him—which is elsewhere an indication of displeasure or exasperation (Mark 8:12).  He speaks a command in Aramaic and uses saliva to heal him. Jesus sometimes uses his saliva as a healing agent in his miracles (Mark 8:23; John 9:6). It is an amazing miracle, as the response from the crowd shows.  The crowds opinion is very broad—that Jesus does nothing wrong, everything he does is good.  This is comparable to God’s work, which is all good (Genesis 1:31). 

We may not do everything well.  Frankly, Jesus called all fathers "evil" (Luke 11:13), so at least guys are in trouble in the morality department. Some like to think that everything we do is evil, but I think the Bible gives freedom to say that some of our actions are right and some are wrong.  Sometimes we have good intentions and sometimes not so good.  Sometimes our intentions are so mixed we don't even know. 

And that goes for our speech as well.  James said that our tongue is a fire lit by hell.  That's pretty strong.  At the very least, though, we can say that our speech is at times wrong-headed.  Sometimes we say just the wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong way.  Sometimes it's more than sometimes.  Perhaps the mute guy had the right idea?

If Jesus can take a man of silence and give him speech-- that even without asking-- surely he can take our wrong-headed speech and turn it into good.  All things that Jesus does is good, and he is in the healing and transformation business.  He can take our tongue spurred by an evil heart and turn it into something good.  He can take that which destroys and transform it into construction.  He can take a conflict-maker and transform it into a peace maker.  

And since we CAN ask for it, we should.  If we need our mouth to express wisdom, all we have to do is ask for it, and we will receive.