Jesus Came To Heal Our Suffering Bodies and Our Broken Souls
Taken from a Red Rock News Article (8/14/24)
Rev. Dona Johnson | Sept 15, 2024
If you have ever had a spouse, a child or someone you loved become seriously ill with no assurance of a good outcome, you understand what it’s like to live in between hope and despair. As you sit alone waiting for something to change, it is truly a place of vacillation. Many emotions (fear, grief, sadness) each having a say in the matter, surface one by one or all at the same time. At times like these, our prayers can take on a sense of bold-urgency. In times of fear and uncertainty, our prayers may also turn to begging or bargaining with God. There is nothing wrong with begging or bargaining for God’s help. In fact, begging for God’s help is a sign of faith. At the death of Martin Luther, a small scrap of paper was found in his pocket which read, ‘We are beggars, this is true.’
In Mark 7:24-37, we are told crowds traveled near and far to have Jesus heal them or heal their loved ones. A mother, who was very emotional came begging Jesus to heal her daughter from demon possession. Traumatic as it was, out of desperation, she threw herself at Jesus’ feet. He didn’t think the woman’s behavior was strange, instead he praised the woman’s faith. Although the daughter was at home, the women’s begging became a powerful prayer. When the woman returned home, she found her daughter completely healed resting, calm and at peace—the demon was nowhere to be found.
Immediately following this healing, there was a man brought to Jesus who was deaf and could not speak. Jesus’s tender heart didn’t want to embarrass the man. So, he took him aside. Many times people with disabilities are sensitive and get a bit embarrassed. Deaf people know they cannot hear. The excitement of the crowd shouting at the man didn’t do any good except render him helpless. Imagine for a moment, what that might have felt like—not being able to hear or speak, being taken by a stranger not knowing why or what would happen. It was probably somewhat frightening. But Jesus knew exactly what he was about to do.
Then Jesus spit on his fingers and placed his hands on the man’s mouth and thrust his fingers into his ears. He looked up to heaven, sighed (groaned) and said, ‘Ephphatha!’ which means, ‘Be open!’ And immediately his ears were opened, sounds came into his ears, and his mouth and tongue were loosed from the bondage of a lifelong crippling impediment. The man’s health and well being were restored.
The whole story, the woman begging for her daughter to be saved from demon possession, the man who was deaf and could not speak show us vividly that Jesus did not consider the girl or the man as mere cases to be dealt with; he considered them individuals, people who had who had suffered and had very specials needs. The story also tells us that the daughter and the man had people advocating for them, prayerfully begging and prayerfully insisting that Jesus heal their loved one—bold, unashamed prayer requests. Sometimes when we pray, we can sense Jesus’ heart in the matter, like when he outwardly groaned for the deaf man. We also need to learn to pray with boldness and urgency. We need to get on our knees, unashamed and unafraid. God who is kind-hearted and merciful hears the cries of our hearts, and we feel God’s promises of redemption and salvation flowing through us.
The God who spoke creation into being, also proclaims “Be opened” to all humanity while looking up to heaven. Jesus came to bring healing to broken bodies and salvation to our suffering souls—here we see Jesus begin the work of creation all over again.