Chapter 31
section thirty one of expository thoughts on the gospel of st mark by j c ryle chapter seven verses thirty one to thirty seven healing of one who was deaf and dumb this librivox recording is in the public domain read by marianne mark chapter seven verses thirty one to thirty seven and again departing from the coasts of tyre and sidon he came unto the sea of galilee through the midst of the coast of decapolis and they bring unto him one that was deaf and had an impediment in his speech and they beseech him to put his hand upon him and he took him aside from the multitude and put his fingers into his ears and he spit and touched his tongue and looking up to heaven he sighed and said unto him aprotha that is be opened and straightway his ears were opened and the string of his tongue was loosed and he spake plain and he charged them that they should tell no man but the more he charged them so much the more a great deal they published it and were beyond measure astonished saying he hath done all things well he maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak the first thing that demands our notice in these verses is the mighty miracle that is here recorded
we read that they brought unto our lord one that was deaf and had an impediment in his speech and besought him that he would put his hand upon him at once the petition is granted and the cure is wrought speech and hearing are instantaneously given to the man by a word and a touch straightway his ears were opened and the string of his tongue was loosed and he spake plain we see but half the instruction of this passage if we only regard it as an example of our lord's divine power it is such an example beyond doubt but it is something more than that we must look further deeper and lower than the surface and we shall find in the passage precious spiritual truths here we are meant to see our lord's power to heal the spiritually deaf he can give the chief of sinners a hearing ear he can make him delight in listening to the very gospel which he once ridiculed and despised here also we are meant to see our lord's power to heal the spiritually dumb he can teach the hardest of transgressors to call upon god he can put a new song in the mouths of him whose talk was once only of this world he can make the vilest of men speak of spiritual things and testify the gospel of the grace of god
when jesus pours forth his spirit nothing is impossible we must never despair of others we must never regard our own hearts as too bad to be changed he that healed the deaf and dumb still lives the cases which moral philosophy pronounces hopeless are not incurable if they are brought to christ the second thing which demands our notice in these verses is the peculiar manner in which our lord thought good to work the miracle here recorded we are told that when the deaf and dumb person was brought to jesus he took him aside from the multitude and put his fingers into his ears and he spit and touched his tongue and looking up to heaven he sighed and then and not till then came the words of commanding power efritha that is be opened there is undoubtedly much that is mysterious in these actions we know not why they were used it would have been as easy to our lord to speak the word and command health to return at once as to do what he here did his reasons for the course he adopted are not recorded we only know that the result was the same as on other occasions the man was cured
but there is one simple lesson to be learned from our lord's conduct on this occasion that lesson is that christ is not tied to the use of any one means in doing his work among men sometimes he thought fit to work in one way sometimes in another his enemies were never able to say that unless he employed certain invariable agency he could not work at all we see the same thing going on still in the church of christ we see continual proof that the lord is not tied to the use of any one means exclusively in conveying grace to the soul sometimes he is pleased to work by the word preached publicly sometimes by the word read privately sometimes he awakens people by sickness and affliction sometimes by the rebukes or counsel of friends sometimes he employs means of grace to turn people out of the way of sin sometimes he arrests their attention by some providence without any means of grace at all he will not have any means of grace made an idol and exalted to the disparagement of other means he will not have any means despised as useless and neglected as of no value all are good and valuable all are in their turn employed for the same great end the conversion of souls all are in the hands of him who giveth not account of his matters
and knows best which to use in each separate case that he heals the last thing which demands our notice in these verses is the remarkable testimony which was borne by those who saw the miracle he recorded they said of our lord he hath done all things well it is more than probable that those who said these words were little sensible of their full meaning when applied to christ like caiaphas they spoke not of themselves john chapter eleven verse fifty one but the truth to which they gave utterance is full of deep and unspeakable comfort and ought to be daily remembered by all true christians let us remember it as we look back over the days past of our lives from the hour of our conversion our lord hath done all things well in the first bringing us out of darkness into marvellous light in humbling us and teaching us our weakness guilt and folly in stripping us of our idols and choosing all our portions in placing us where we are and giving us what we have how well everything has been done how great the mercy that we have not had our own way
let us remember it as we look forward to the days yet to come we know not what they may be bright or dark many or few but we know that we are in the hands of him who doeth all things well he will not err in any of his dealings with us he will take away and give he will afflict and bereave he will move and he will settle with perfect wisdom at the right time in the right way the great shepherd of the sheep makes no mistakes he leads every lamb of his flock by the right way to the city of habitation we shall never see the full beauty of these words till the resurrection morning we shall then look back over our lives and know the meaning of everything that happened from first to last we shall remember all the way by which we were led and confess that all was well done the why and the wherefore the causes and the reasons of everything which now perplexes will be clear and plain as the sun at noonday we shall wonder at our own past blindness and marvel that we ever could have doubted our lord's love
now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face now we know in part but then we shall know even as we are known first corinthians chapter thirteen first thirteen the reason why our lord made use of the previous actions recorded in this miracle spitting looking up to heaven and sighing is a question that has often perplexed commentators some observations of luther quoted by stein are worth reading this sigh was not drawn from christ on account of the single tongue and ear of this poor man but it is a common sigh over all tongues and ears yea over all hearts bodies and souls and over all men from adam to his last descendant our beloved lord saw well what an amount of suffering and sorrow would be occasioned by tongues and ears for the greatest mischief which has been inflicted on christianity has not arisen from tyrants with persecution murder and pride against the world but from that little bit of flesh which abides between the jaws this it is that inflicts the greatest injury upon the kingdom of god and footnote and a section thirty one
