I love traveling along with Jesus in Mark’s gospel, the first one written. Mark gets excited easily as he sees and hears and learns new things. He moves along fast, hopping from place to place. His astonishment is catching. Jesus is going where? Saying what? OMG! Why does Jesus tell them not to tell? It’s almost as if Jesus himself hardly knows what he’s doing or exactly why? Some leaders love crowds. Not this one! He’s a follower himself.
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Notice the comeuppance the Syrophoenician woman received when she begged him for healing. He has neither time nor inclination NOR divine commission to do this.Why? Because this woman is NOT one of his people, those with whom he is affiliated, those to whom he has been sent.
He sends her away, saying, “Let the children of the household satisfy themselves at table first. It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.”
She counters: “Yes, Rabbi, but even the the dogs under the table eat the family’s scraps.”
Jesus replies: "For saying this, you may go home happy; the demon has left your daughter.” When she got home, she found the daughter in bed and the demon gone.”
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Jesus moves along and is hard to follow. But you’re a reporter! He’s news! BUT there’s no travel plan, no AAA. Why here? Why now? Does he know what he’s doing? It’s impossible NOT to follow and just as impossible to follow. What do you do? I’d follow.
Pretty soon some others brought a man deaf and with speech impediments to him for healing if possible. This time Jesus did much more than place his hands on the deaf man, though first he took the man aside and away from the crowd, placed his fingers into the deaf ears, spat and then touched the mute’s tongue with his saliva. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and, with a deep sigh, said Ephphatha!—that is, “Be opened.” At once the deaf ears were opened and the impediment cured; the one who had been healed began to speak plainly.
Why did Jesus move away from the crowds? Did he know what he was doing? What if it didn’t work? His healing gesture was so radical, so intimate, even dangerous. He looks to heaven and “sighs” deeply. Is he looking to his Abba for an assist? Assurance? Help? Ephphatha! Jesus “ordered” them to tell no one. They raced home to tell. Wouldn’t you?
