Matthew 15.29-31 Mark 7.31-37

Matthew 15:29-31 29 Departing from there, Jesus went along by the Sea of Galilee, and having gone up on the mountain, He was sitting there. 30 And large crowds came to Him, bringing with them those who were lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others, and they laid them down at His feet; and He healed them. 31 So the crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.

Mark 7:31-37 31 Again He went out from the region of Tyre, and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of Decapolis. 32 They brought to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, and they implored Him to lay His hand on him. 33 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;34 and looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, He said to him, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be opened!” 35 And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly. 36 And He gave them orders not to tell anyone; but the more He ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it. 37 They were utterly astonished, saying, “He has done all things well; He makes even the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

The ministry is all about people.  The souls of men are eternal and so are of inestimable value to God and should be to us as well.  We all recognize the value and importance of people to a certain extent, but we also enjoy and strive to protect our privacy.  There are times when we just want to be alone. It usually is quite easy for us to find “alone time” because we have our homes and, quite frankly, we are not in such high demand.  This was not the case with Jesus.  He did not have a home and He had abilities that people desperately needed which He graciously met.  In some respects, it is impossible for us to follow His example but it other ways, it is vitally important that we do.

RESTING: It is easy for us to forget that Jesus was a man who had physical needs just like we do.  He felt hunger, thirst and exhaustion.  There were times where He needed to rest and desired to get away from the crowds of people.  The Sea of Galilee is one of those places where most of us would love to be able to take a vacation.  It can more accurately be described as a lake.  The water is fresh, cool, crystal clear and refreshing.  There are several mountains and cliffs that look out over the water.  It is one of those unique places in the world where you can enjoy mountains and beaches.  We find Jesus and His disciples coming here regularly for times of rest.  However, the super-natural abilities of Jesus made in virtually impossible for Him to find privacy unless it was the middle of the night where Jesus would frequently get away for the purpose of prayer.  I am always amazed and challenged by the graciousness and patience of Jesus when His times of rest are interrupted.  There are times when rest, relaxation and privacy can become idols in our lives that diminish the effectiveness of our ministries to people.  Often times our “alone time” is not spent in rest or prayer but with endless hours of very forms of entertainment that have become the true objects of worship in our lives.

RESTORING: It seems that it all started with just one deaf and mute man.  They brought Him to Jesus and his need was very obvious.  Jesus wets His fingers with saliva, places them in his years, commands the ears to open and both his hearing and speech are restored.  There is no real pattern to the way Jesus healed.  At times He simply spoke, other times He would touch them, sometimes healing occurred when people simply reached out to touch Him and then on other occasions He would use saliva to apply to blind eyes or in this case, deaf ears.  Perhaps the reason for this side variety of methods was used was to prevent others from trying to imitate a certain method.  When He healed the man He implored him not to tell others about it.  However, that instruction might as well have been given to him before he could hear because it went completely ignored.  Perhaps Jesus regretted giving him such clear speech because he told everyone what had happened with brought an avalanche of people who also desperately needed restoration.  Jesus patiently and lovingly ministers to their needs and heals the lame, blind and diseased.  The people marvel at His power and the crowd begins to grow.

APPLICATION: Set aside times of rest but take advantage of those times to rest and not spend endless hours on mindless entertainment.  Recognize the priority of people and graciously seek to minister to them in the best way possible.  Take our needs to Jesus knowing that He has the ability to meet our needs in amazing ways.