Series: Mark,#20                                                                                                                    

October 21, 2007

A MODEL FOR MINISTRY

Mark 7:31-37

Mark 7:31-37  NIV

    Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis.  [32] There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk and they begged him to place his hand on the man.

    [33] After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the man's tongue. [34] He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, "Ephphatha!" (which means, "Be opened!"). [35] At this, the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.

    [36] Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. [37] People were overwhelmed with amazement. "He has done everything well," they said. "He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."

I.        It’s Not Magic    Matthew 9:28-30; John 9:6-7; Mark 8:23-25; 10:51-52

We’re all familiar with magic in fairy tales and fictional stories, especially for children.  In C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, Lucy heals everything from sea sickness to battle wounds with a drop of her magic cordial in a crystal bottle.  In Cinderella, a pumpkin is magically turned into a gleaming coach to take her to the ball.  In Jack and the Bean Stalk, Jack goes to town to sell their cow, but instead, exchanges it for some magic beans which grow right up to a magical world where he encounters a giant who owns a magic goose that lays golden eggs.  Authors have a lot of fun creating worlds where the rules of physics are different than they are here, and we enjoy these kinds of stories for their entertainment value. 

The danger is that when we read the New Testament, and find Jesus healing people, we might think that these stories are like the fairy tales—it’s just fictional magic at work.  It’s really important that we understand Jesus was on the same planet we live on, with the same rules of physics and biology, but as the Creator, He could bend the rules when He wanted to.

Almost every time Jesus healed someone, He used a different process.  Take healing the blind, for example.  In Matthew 9:28-30, two blind men approached Jesus, and he touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith will it be done to you"; and their sight was restored.  In John 9:6-7, Jesus spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on a man's eyes, and told him to go wash it off in the Pool of Siloam.   In Mark 8:23-25, He took a blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?" [24] He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." [25] Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.   And in Mark 10:51-52, Jesus didn’t touch the man or do anything with him; He just said, "Go, your faith has healed you."  It was different every time.

The lesson we draw from this is that Jesus’ healing is not magic.  Magic typically depends on saying the correct incantations, or using the proper mixture of potions, or going through a set ritual in just the right way.  The displays of power in the Harry Potter books and movies are a case in point; the students have to learn to say the incantations and hold their wands in just the right way.  But in Scripture, Jesus is the healer, not the method, and He adapted the process He used to the specific individuals. 

While Jesus used a different method and process in almost every healing miracle that is recorded in the New Testament, this one in Mark 7 suggests a model for our ministry that could be really helpful for us.  When we have a opportunity to minister to someone in our church, or our neighborhood, this example has some principles that can help us be effective. 

II.       He Looked Up[1]    Mark 7:34; John 5:19; 14:10

          [34] “He looked up to heaven…” No doubt, this visible action was intended to communicate to the man that Jesus was getting His power to heal from heaven.  It’s an action that suggests prayer in almost every culture.  And we know that Jesus did pray—a lot!  He made it clear that He got the agenda for His life from God the Father.  He said, John 5:19, "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”  And John 14:10, “… The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.”  It was Jesus’ incredibly close relationship with the Father in prayer that made it possible for Him to say that.  And that challenges me.  I want to walk so closely to God that His Holy Spirit can have freedom to direct me to do and say anything at any time.  But it takes the consistency of a daily time with the Lord, and periodic times away, and a life of constant communion with God, all of which Jesus modeled for us. 

          How’s your prayer life?  I  think all of us would love to be used by God to bring healing to someone we care about, but are we willing to pay the price of a life spent in constant communication with the Father?  Perhaps the greatest sin, and the greatest weakness of the American Church, is our prayerlessness.  I know many very godly, and otherwise mature, Christians, who admit that they hardly ever pray, or if they do, it is very perfunctory, routine, mechanical, and short!—and therefore completely devoid of any spiritual life or power.  It’s the difference between reading a grocery list, or reciting a memorized poem, and talking with a close friend about meaningful things in your life.  One is relational and connects you with that person; the other is completely empty.  I praise God for the prayer-warriors we have in our church—and there are many. But I know that for many others, prayer is the thing that we constantly struggle with.  We can read the Bible, do in-depth studies of doctrines and passages, read theology and other weighty books about the Bible; but our prayer lives are pitifully thin.  Friends, if we want to be able to minister in Jesus’ name, as effectively as Jesus did, we are going to have to “look up to heaven” more regularly than we do. 

III.      He Sighed   Mark 7:34;  John 11:33-36

          [34] “He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh…” I have read that it is very difficult to be deaf – perhaps even more so than to be blind.  The deaf have no obvious impediment, like blindness.  This often results in people shouting at them, or thinking they are stupid, and that leads to frequent embarrassment in social situations.  That may explain why Jesus took him aside.  Most of His miracles were done right in the center of the crowd, so that all could see and be impressed with the power of God.  But here, Jesus is more concerned about the battered psyche of the deaf man, and takes him away a little bit so as to deal with him more privately. 

          He lets out a deep sigh.  I’d love to know exactly what feelings that was expressing.  Was He just grieved for this man?  Was He angry at the sin that had broken God’s perfect plan for the world and led to things like ears that didn’t work, and people who rejected those who couldn’t hear?  Certainly, we know that He felt deeply for those who hurt, and unlike most men, wasn’t afraid to show His feelings.

          In John 11:33-36, Jesus was at the graveside of His friend, Lazarus, and when He saw Martha and the other people who had gathered there weeping, “he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. [34] "Where have you laid him?" he asked. "Come and see, Lord," they replied. [35] Jesus wept. [36] Then the Jews said, "See how he loved him!"   I think this deep sigh with the deaf man is another expression of Jesus’ love and compassion for the hurting people of this world.  You know how some people seem to gravitate to the rich and powerful in a society?  Jesus was drawn to weakness.  And it broke His heart.

          If we are to be Christ’s ministers, serving people in His name, it needs to be with this kind of broken heart.  The man who founded World Vision often prayed, “Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God,” and that’s a good place to start.  Do you grieve over the marriages that are breaking up all around you?  Does your heart go out to children who don’t have loving parents?  Do  you weep over the meth addicts in our town, or the many young people who will commit suicide this year?  (Did you know that Larimer County has one of the highest suicide rates in the country?[2])  How about the young women with unplanned pregnancies, or the men and women whose lives are controlled by alcohol, or the women who suffer abuse at the hands of their partners? 

          We need to pray that God would break our hearts, that He would cause us to sigh deeply over the brokenness of the lives all around us, to feel their pain as Jesus did.  And then we need to pray that He will lead us to do something about that.  Which leads us to the touch of Christ.

IV.     He Touched Him   Mark 7:33

Mark 7:33, “After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the man's tongue.”  In this case, the man can’t hear, so even though Jesus could have simply willed him to be well, He wanted the man to know what He was doing for him.  So Jesus put his fingers in his ears, signifying that He was going to open them, and touched his tongue, to indicate that He was going to heal his speech impediment, too.  He looked up to heaven to indicate that He was getting His power from God, and to direct the man’s attention to God as well.  

          The question is, what are we going to do for those we encounter who need help?  True compassion doesn’t just feel for the hurting; it does something about it.  It reaches out and touches them.  And sometimes, that touch can be a bit challenging.  If you think about the condition of this man, I doubt that he had bathed every day like most of us do.  How many of us would be willing to put our finger in someone else’s mouth (no rubber gloves)?  There is something very personal, and even risky about Jesus’ touch of this man.  Of course, this was not nearly as risky as when He touched the leper who came to Him.  But the point is that if our compassion is going to find outward expression, it will often put us in uncomfortable contact with people who are sick, dirty, impolite, handicapped, foul-mouthed, contagious, etc. 

          But that has always been the Christian way.  From A.D. 251 to 266, the plague hit the Roman Empire, and at the peak of it, 5,000 people a day were said to be dying in Rome.  Two-thirds of Alexandria’s population most likely perished….In response, the earliest Christians expended themselves in works of mercy that simply dumbfounded the pagans. For them God loved humanity, and in order to love God back they believed they needed to love others. God did not demand ritual sacrifices like the Roman gods; he wanted his love expressed in deeds of compassion on earth.  This love took on very practical, concrete forms. In Rome, Christians buried not just their own, but pagans who had died without funds for a proper burial. They also supplied food for 1,500 poor people on a daily basis. In Antioch of Syria, the church was feeding 3,000 people a day. …During the plague in Alexandria when nearly everyone else fled, the early Christians risked their lives … by staying.  They served people through simple deeds of washing the sick, offering water and food, and consoling the dying.[3] 

          The point is that if we are going to be Christ’s hands and feet in our neighborhoods and community, we can’t do it from the “ivory palaces”, or from antiseptic board rooms and committee meetings, or even the isolation of our own homes; we will have to get “down and dirty” with the people who need our help, like Jesus did. 

V.      He Spoke   Mark 7:34;  Mark 1:41; 2:11; 4:39; Acts 3:6

          Then, finally, Jesus spoke.  It is interesting to me (and I wish I understood this better) that when Jesus performed miracles, He sometimes spoke to the person—like when He said to the leper, Mark 1:41, "Be clean!" Or when He told the paralytic, Mark 2:11, "…get up, take your mat and go home."   But sometimes He directly addressed inanimate, insensible things.  In Mark 4:39, He rebuked the wind and told the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’”  So here in this case, Jesus apparently speaks to the man’s ears: Mark 7:34, “He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, ‘Ephphatha!’ (which means, ‘Be opened!’).”  He just orders the man’s ears to be opened!  It’s a powerful demonstration of the authority of Jesus.  He has authority over all aspects of the creation, and He can order it around if He wants. 

          We don’t have the kind of authority Jesus had, but we can speak to Him about the needs around us.  He assured us that He now has “all authority in heaven and earth”, and is therefore able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine.  So if we were to follow this general outline in our ministry with others, we would want to bring their needs to Jesus, and ask Him to exercise His authority on their behalf. 

VI.     The Excellency of Christ   Mark 7:32; Isaiah 35:5,6; Gen 1:31

          The people there that day were “overwhelmed with amazement”, Mark says.  They couldn’t believe that Jesus could heal the man so miraculously and immediately.  He did everything so well!  But they didn’t know the half of it.  Only later, perhaps, did the disciples come to understand the deeper meaning of that miracle.[4]  In Isaiah 35, there is a description of the Messiah’s reign: Isaiah 35:5-6

    Then will the eyes of the blind be opened

        and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

    [6] Then will the lame leap like a deer,

        and the mute tongue shout for joy.

          It appears that in addition to showing compassion on the deaf and mute man, Jesus was trying to say that He is the Messiah, and He has begun to exercise His authority on earth, just as Isaiah had prophesied seven hundred years before.[5] 

          As we look around our world today, we see so many things that are wrong, that are broken, that are evil, it is sometimes hard to see the work of God.  But with the eyes of faith, we can see that God is still in control, that He is very much at work, and we insist that one day we will be able to see clearly how “He has done everything well.”  We’re going to see the grand sweep of history, and understand how God has sovereignly worked through even the free will of people who were adamantly opposed to Him to accomplish His will.  We’re going to be able to review the details of our own lives, and the lives of our loved ones, and see how God was working in all things “for the good of those who love Him.” 

          But between now and then, let’s be about the Lord’s business.  This pattern in Mark 7 is not the only model for ministry that we find in the Scripture, but it is one that certainly has some good points.  Let’s ask God to show us who the people are that He has brought into our sphere of influence so we can minister to them in Jesus’ name.  Who are the hurting, the poor, the sick, the discouraged, the needy?  And when we find them, let’s look up to heaven, from where every good and perfect gift comes, feel with the compassion of Jesus the hurts of others, reach out to touch them in practical ways that demonstrate the love of God for them, and speak to God on their behalf, to do that which we cannot do for them. 

          Right now we’re going to have an opportunity to practice this with each other.  We have some folks in our church who have agreed to practice this model of ministry with anyone who needs it today.  And I know that in a group of this size, there are many who have serious needs.  So I’ll ask the prayer-team to come forward now, and just stand here in front, and then I want to ask you to let someone here minister to you today in Jesus’ name.  Maybe you’ve got trouble at work, or you can’t get along with your parents, or your relationship with a close friend is on the rocks.  Maybe you need God’s grace to forgive someone, or your finances are in a shambles, or there’s a serious illness.  Whatever it is, come up to one of these friends and let them minister to you in Jesus’ name.  You just briefly describe the situation, and then they are going to follow the model Jesus demonstrated with the deaf and mute man:  they’ll look to heaven in a time of silence, looking to God for wisdom and direction; they’ll give themselves time to feel your hurt with you; they will put their hand on your arm or shoulder as an expression of their love; and then they will lift your need to the One who has all authority in heaven and earth, the Messiah who has begun to reign, and who does all things well.

          I really hope that many of you will take advantage of this opportunity to be prayed for this morning.  We are going to do this sort of thing regularly from now on in all our services, and today seemed like a good time to introduce it.  We need to minister to one another, and this is a great way to do it.  We all need prayer from time to time; none of us is so strong that we never need help from our brothers and sisters.  So come.  Leave your pride in the pew, and come.

          In the name of Christ, the compassionate and powerful One, come.