How many parents in the congregation this morning understand the power of spit? I know that mothers do! A little bit of spit on a mother’s thumb can remove almost anything on a child’s face or a husband’s tie! And it is quite useful in helping to calm those runaway cowlicks that pop up. Even in iconography, we teach that a bit of spit on the end of an eraser or Q-tip miraculously removes paint from the canvas. Or lines haphazardly drawn. It can make a fast ball easier to clutch.
But the power of spit is not a modern day discovery. Several Roman writers and Jewish rabbis considered saliva to be a valid treatment for blindness. Since the people of that day had a high view of saliva’s healing properties, Jesus used spit to communicate His intention to heal. Those being healed would have naturally interpreted Jesus’ spitting as a sign that they would soon be cured which is especially useful when healing someone who is deaf or blind. Jesus used many signs to communicate to those around him: Not only to increase faith in those healed and present, but to teach them about the healing power of God.
This morning we see Jesus’ use of His saliva for the healing of a deaf man who could barely talk. “Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue” (Mark 7:33). Later, in Chapter 8 in the town of Bethsaida, Jesus healed a blind man. Again, the miracle was preceded by spitting: “He . . . spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him” Jesus uses spit and dust of the ground… possibly meant to parallel God’s original creation of man.(Mark 8:23).
We read this morning that when Jesus laid hands on this man, he looked up to heaven, sighed and said Ephphatha (ef fa the) Ephphatha. Sounds almost like a sigh just saying the word. Ephphatha is an Aramaic (or Syriac) word found only once in the New Testament, here in Mark. It means, be opened, just as Mark told us. Thou Be opened. Ears, be opened to hear the word. Heart, be opened to love others. Mouth, be opened to praise God and share the gospel. Ephphatha.
Jesus says this word almost as a prayer to God the Father. I can imagine the feeling he had as he prayed… seeing the hurt and pain that people bore …often not of their own doing. Having an ailment like this man had, would have “marked” him in his culture as being unclean. He would have been shunned, ignored, become the “other” that Jesus preaches so much for us to reach out and help.
I can only imagine the discouragement Jesus experienced to see how people treated others… that instead of reaching out in love and understanding… they shunned and belittled and called them cursed.
I know that we are not supposed to preach on two themes at the same time, but I see these two as so entwined, they cannot be separated. One is that God has the power to heal whatever our distress might be. And secondly, the theme on the importance of Mission to the other. Over and over in scripture we see God show favoritism to the other.
Our reading from Proverbs says, “Do not rob the poor because they are poor,
or crush the afflicted at the gate; for the Lord pleads their cause and despoils of life those who despoil them.”
And James warns us, “My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.”
Ephphatha. Thou be opened…. To God and to each other. This is where true healing begins….
Twice in our gospel do we see folks who represent the other. The deaf man I have already spoken about , but I cannot finish this sermon without at least speaking to the Syrophoenecian woman.
We are all familiar with this story of a local woman who argues with Jesus. Like the deaf man, she is an outsider, an other. In desperation, she finds Jesus and appeals to him to heal her daughter, who is possessed by an "unclean spirit." At first Jesus denies her request. But he does not just say no. He insults her. Imagine Jesus offering an insult to someone whose only wrongdoing is that she is a Gentile. He insults her saying that he has come to feed the children... children here are refers to the Jews .... the children of Israel...that Jesus has come to teach and lead. He continues that he has not come to feed the dogs... referring to the Gentiles... of which she is one. Dogs were unclean animals and so to be called a dog was a great insult. And so, he insults her twice... calling her a dog and saying that as a Gentile she is not a priority.
But the woman does not back down. You see, she is a mother... of a sick child. We never stop until our children are taken care of. And so, the woman continues to press her case, replying that even the dogs are allowed the leftovers. That even though she is a Gentile, she deserves the blessings that God gives. Even if the Gentiles take only the leftovers... there is plenty to go around. In staying with the metaphor... even the dogs under the table are within the household... they are not strangers of the family. Jews or Gentiles... we are all God's children. She does not challenge Jesus' priority to the Jews.... but she points to the claims that the Gentiles deserve help.
His response? He acquiesces to her argument... and declares that her daughter has been healed "because she (the mother) said that." She has not backed down but has challenged Jesus... and therefore gotten what she asked for. His blessing and healing of her daughter. Interestingly, we never see the daughter. And Jesus never sees the daughter but heals her from a distance. almost as if he is not yet ready to include the Gentiles.... but realizes that what she says is true. And when the woman returns home, the child is in her bed and the demon is gone.
Jesus is compassionate and merciful even to someone who is considered an enemy... to someone who is different. In her persistence, this unnamed Gentile woman stands her ground and bests Jesus in a verbal exchange. In this reading, the focus is not so much on the exorcism itself.... as on the establishment of a basis for the mission to include the Gentiles in the teachings and blessings of Jesus.
We know that in his ministry to all, Jesus continues to challenge and cross the boundaries of geography, gender, ethnicity, and religious purity to extend the Kingdom of God to all who will listen and receive it.
We see Jesus opening the ears and mouth of a Gentile man to enable him to hear and speak of what he knows of God’s healing grace. And we see an example of Jesus realizing that he too needs to stop and listen and hear the story of someone who is different from those he thought he came to serve.
We have this theme of reaching out to outsiders... those who are different from us... those who on first glance represent that which we dislike or represent that with which we disagree. And we may struggle with that, just as Jesus did.
But the good news is that ALL deserve God's grace and mercy.... and that there is plenty to go around.... And that we find evidence of it in the strangest and sometimes darkest places in our lives. And we may be faced with challenges before realizing that grace.
A few years ago, I came across an organization called The Human Library. This library lets you check out people instead of books. Let me explain….
The Human Library® is, in the true sense of the word, a library of people. They host events where readers can borrow human beings serving as open books and have conversations, they would not normally have access to. Every human book from their bookshelf, represents a group in our society that is often subjected to prejudice, stigmatization or discrimination because of their lifestyle, diagnosis, belief, disability, social status, ethnic origin etc.
The HL originated in Denmark in the year 2000 as a part of a youth organization called “Stop the Violence.” The idea is straight forward: library guests can choose which volunteer they’d like to “check out” based on titles the human books assign themselves. Past titles include “Olympic Athlete, Biking Agoraphobic, Fat Woman, and Questioning Christian. Visitors then sit down with their books for half an hour or so to listen to them share their personal stories.
The project is meant to combat prejudice by giving people a chance to connect with someone they may have never had a chance to speak with otherwise. A chance to meet the other… and understand what it means to be different… to get and understand different perspectives on life and living. (WWW.humanlibrary.org). These are real people having real conversations.
This weekend has been really a nice one. My husband is out of town, but that’s not why it was so nice! It was nice because I have had the remote control all to myself! And as I surfed through the channels Friday morning and moved through the talk shows and 24 hour news rants, I realized that it has become the norm to shout our opinions as facts and to speak over others whose ideas differ from ours. And I wondered if it were now even possible to stop and listen, really listen to what others have to say. To “check out” someone else’s story and then to share ours. To have God spit in our ears and our hearts. I wonder what the world could be if listened to the voice of life and opened ourselves to the word of God and the cries of our brothers and sisters.
Imagine what humanity could do if we lived out the truth of our baptism and nurtured the graces of that sacrament, we allow ourselves to hear each day the command of Jesus – Ephphatha!
Sources:
2. The Lectionary Lab Podcast. www.twobb.substack.com
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