Themes: : Quotes Of
Interest ----Ministry Minute. Commentary on Sunday's Gospel- Theme:
Quotes Of Interest
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Sinclair Ferguson – When
the Wonder Breaks In
When the wonder of the
gospel breaks into your life, you feel as though you are the first person to
discover its power and glory. Where has Christ been hidden all these years? He
seems so fresh, so new, so full of grace. Then comes a second discovery-it is
you who have been blind, but now you have experienced exactly the same as
countless others before you. You compare notes. Sure enough, you are not the
first! Thankfully you will not be the last.
~Sinclair Ferguson~
In Christ Alone (Lake
Mary, FL; Reformation Trust Publishing; 2007) p. 37.
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MINISTRY MINUTE
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John Calvin – The Witness
of the Holy Spirit
For even if it [Scripture]
wins reverence for itself by its own majesty, it seriously affects us only when
it is sealed upon our hearts through the Spirit. Therefore, illumined by his
power, we believe neither by our own nor by anyone else’s judgment that Scripture
is from God. But above human judgment we affirm with utter certainty (just as
if we were gazing upon the majesty of God himself) that it has flowed to us
from the very mouth of God by the ministry of men.
~John Calvin~
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Commentary on Sunday's
Gospel
Mark 7:31
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Now, Decapolis is to the
southwest and southeast of the Sea so His route is of interest. The majority is
on the east of Jordan. It is a group of ten towns and their surrounding areas.
Evidently He was trying to
avoid crowds or at least the Jewish leadership so was not traveling the normal
point to point route. It is also possible that he was ministering as he went
since Sidon is north of Tyre.
From the map the most
logical route would have been to travel south from Sidon past the towns and
then east into Decapolis then north to the Sea of Galilee. To have gone east
from Sidon would have taken Him out of the way to get to the Sea via Decapolis.
Robertson agrees that Christ approached the Sea from the southwest when he
makes note that Christ avoided the area east of the Sea due to the ruler over
that area.
Further information that
may relate comes from Matthew when he mentions that Christ went up into the
mountain after the trip in Mat 15:29. Mt Tabor is just southwest of the Sea.
Christ encounters another
in need of His miracle power.
One might assume that the
speech impediment might have been due to the deafness and this might well be
so. The deaf have a hard time learning to speak due to the lack of being able
to hear how words are formed. The text mentions that the man spoke plainly thus
there was a double miracle. There was the miracle of healing his hearing and
the other miracle in allowing him to be able to speak normally. A deaf person
that begins to hear must learn to speak plainly it is not automatic.
The people asked Christ to
touch the man, evidently knowing that this was a possibility with the Lord's
healing abilities. Indeed, we know that Christ could speak or will someone
healed but in this case He chose to go through another method. He chose to take
the man aside and then touch him in two different ways. It is of interest that
Christ spoke to one of the Trinity during this healing. It is recorded
"And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that
is, Be opened." Gill and Matthew Henry understand this to have been the
Father, however I would lean toward it being the Spirit the power behind the
miracles of the Lord.
Wesley takes it completely
different - that it was not a request but that "This was a word of
SOVEREIGN AUTHORITY, not an address to God for power to heal: such an address
was needless; for Christ had a perpetual fund of power residing in himself, to
work all miracles whenever he pleased, even to the raising the dead, Joh 5:21,
Joh 5:26."
Robertson mentions that
"Ephphatha" was an Aramaic word brought into the Greek that related
to being unbarred. It has the idea of be opened thoroughly and it is a passive
indicating that the opening would come from without.
It mentions that He again
wanted little notoriety over the occurrence. Verse 36 tells us "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;"
It would seem from the
wording that Christ spoke to them more than once indicating a length of time
that He was around the man and his acquaintances.
We have no further
information relating to this incident since Mark is the only one to record it
for us.
Now to the part that
everyone is looking for an answer for. Well relax as there will be no answer
here either. Why Christ touched the man's ears and touched his tongue after
spitting on His finger is unknown to me as well as all others that read the
passage. We just are not told so we are left to speculation.
If I were to speculate it
was a form of nonverbal communication. This man was brought to the Lord for
healing even though the man had no faith, nor knowledge of the person he was
taken too. Now Christ knew this and so He would have wanted to put the man at
ease. How would you put a man at ease, by gestures that were non-threatening.
By touching his ears before there was hearing would have drawn the man's
attention to something relating to his ears and might have softened the shock
of hearing sound all of a sudden. Why touch his tongue? Which man's tongue was
touched. My guess would be that Christ spit and touched His own tongue. This
might have signified to the man that Christ was getting rid of something
distasteful from the tongue such as the impediment.
Some feel that saliva was
thought to have had medicinal effects in this time of history. One commentary
mentioned that cultic healers used saliva in their incantations. I suspect it
was just how Christ communicated with the man to the man's benefit.
Some feel Christ took the
man aside as something secretive, yet if Christ knew of this man's uneasiness
He may have taken him aside just as a calming effect.Just as an aside, we tried
a new church recently and the special music was introduced. The pastor stepped
to a boom box stereo and turned it on. A heavy set teen was at the front by
then. As the music began the girl began to sign. Now the first thing that
struck me was that no one or at least few in the congregation knew signing so
there was absolutely no edification. Further, as the music got to rockin and
the girl got to swayin, I noticed I could not make out the words to the music
due to the loudness of the loud instruments.
Result of the
"special music" - we were treated to seeing an overweight young woman
swaying to a rock beat in the middle of worship. Edification? Not so much. Now
I trust that this might sharpen the pastor's resolve to create a music policy
for his church that states that he will clear all music performed in the
church.
One last point to the
section - the man was deaf and dumb so most likely knew little of Christ or
what/who He was. He probably did not know much, if anything about Judaism
either. Why make such points? Because many of the phony "Faith
Healers" when they cannot heal someone suggest that the person did not
have enough faith to be healed. This is not so. In this case there most likely
was no faith on the part of the man.
Healing in the time of
Christ due to the gift of healing was a gift, not dependent upon the faith of
the person healed but simply the power of God manifested through the gift. In
James it mentions prayer in relation to healing. Again it seems that the faith
is on the part of others praying for the sick. The one healed does not
necessarily need to have the faith. Jam 5:14-16 "Is any sick among you?
let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him,
anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 15 And the prayer of faith
shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed
sins, they shall be forgiven him. 16 Confess [your] faults one to another, and
pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much."
We have seen much of the
Lord's work and of His travels to reach others with His message. We have seen
His compassion for the plight of others. We have seen His power presented
before multitudes, yet He is still not seen as the one that He truly is, the
Lamb of God present to take away the sins of the world. He presented Himself
and all the people were interested in was the hype and show of the miracles
that could benefit them.
It is sure that the
apostles and some of the followers were learning of Him, but as to recognizing
Him as the supreme sacrifice, no they did not. They had no concept that He was
there to die, that He was there to suffer. They were still looking for Him to
make political hay and set the Jews free of their oppressors.
From Mr. D''s Notes on
Selected Books
Reverend George (Geordie) Menzies- Grierson
