He Does All Things Well
Bible Reading: Mark 7:31-37
We’ve had some hospice patients who have suffered from severe hearing loss or dementia to such an extent that they could no longer communicate. In one case, we used a whiteboard and marker to interact. Another patient’s dementia was so debilitating that she couldn’t respond verbally at all, so I sang hymns to her and prayed. How incredibly difficult it must be for such folks! We tend, I suppose, to sometimes take our ability to hear and speak for granted.
We are not told how long he’d been that way, but the deaf man of Mark chapter 7 could not hear or speak plainly. One can only imagine how difficult his life must have been. Cut off from normal conversation, making his needs and wishes known would have involved incredible effort and much frustration. He could not hear a singer sing or a teacher teach and was an alien to the ordinary banter of everyday discourse. Others could use words to express their love, but he could neither hear such words nor speak them. He was undoubtedly much dependent on help from others, for how else would he arrange for food and clothing and other essentials. He was a desperate and lonely man in a time and place when there was little reason for hope!
“They” brought the deaf man to Jesus and begged him “to lay his hand on him” (Mark 7:32). Note how Jesus dealt with the man. He respected his dignity, taking him aside privately. He compassionately used symbolic gestures as he condescended to the man’s lack of hearing–putting his fingers in the man’s ears, touching his tongue, and looking up to heaven. And so Jesus unstopped the man’s ears and unleashed the man’s tongue. Laura Bridgman (1829-1889) was left deaf-blind at the age of two after contracting scarlet fever. Having entered the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston at age eight, it took two years for her to learn to write her own name. She was never healed of her disabilities. Still, she became world famous after Charles Dickens visited and wrote about her. She was taught to cope with her disability, whereas Jesus healed the deaf man immediately and completely.
The crowd saw what happened “and they were astonished beyond all measure, saying, ‘He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak’ (Mark 7:37).” Amongst other things, it was prophesied that the Messiah would open the eyes of the blind and unstop the ears of the deaf (Isaiah 35:5). The miracles of Jesus authenticated His identity as the promised Messiah (Matthew 11:4-6).
Not only was Jesus able to physically open deaf ears and loosen chained tongues, He can do the same in a spiritual way for those who trust in Him, that they might be given ears to hear and tongues to worship! Years ago there was a deaf and mute shoemaker by the name of Henry Plunkett, who lived in Ireland. He was a man of faith, and when it neared time for him to die, Henry rejoiced at the thought of meeting his Savior. During the last few hours of his life he suffered much pain, but he was quite sensible, and made signs indicating that if the house was piled up with gold, he would not take it all and live, for he said, pointing his hand to heaven, “I wish to go up!” To the woman attending him he signed, “Do not fear, not never; I am going to be with Jesus!” In heaven, all impediments to speech will be no more!
“Jesus indeed, ‘has done all things well.’ One strong evidence of His deity is this very fact. No matter how carefully one studies His words and His deeds, no real flaw can be found in any of them–no deficiency, nothing to retract, nothing to change at all. Everything He did or said was exactly right for each occasion.”
Henry Morris
FAIREST LORD JESUS
Fairest Lord Jesus,
ruler of all nature,
O thou of God and man the Son,
Thee will I cherish,
Thee will I honor,
thou, my soul’s glory, joy, and crown.
Fair are the meadows,
fairer still the woodlands,
robed in the blooming garb of spring:
Jesus is fairer,
Jesus is purer
who makes the woeful heart to sing.
Fair is the sunshine,
fairer still the moonlight,
and all the twinkling starry host:
Jesus shines brighter,
Jesus shines purer
than all the angels heaven can boast.
Beautiful Savior!
Lord of all the nations!
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor,
praise, adoration,
now and forevermore be thine.
LookingtoJesus 