Jesus the Speech-Language Pathologist
How He adapted His miracle for a deaf man with speech difficulties
Recently, I had the opportunity to teach a Sunday School lesson and I wanted to share this one while it was fresh for a couple of reasons. First, I’d never heard this story before so I imagine many other people haven’t either. Second, my wife is an SLP herself and I found this story very compelling in regard to the work she’s dedicated her life toward.
As you study the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John you learn a great deal about the intended audience for the writing style of each one. Here’s a high level “Original Audience” summary straight from my Life Application Study Bible.
Matthew - Matthew wrote especially to the Jews
Mark - The Christians in Rome, where the Gospel was written
Luke - Theophilus (“one who loves God”), Gentiles
John - New Christians and searching non-Christians
Within each Gospel you will see many of the same stories referenced, some with more detail than others. The story that we’re covering today is covered in detail in Mark 7:31-37 and briefly mentioned in Matthew 15:29-31.
Mark 7
Then Jesus left the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. Some people brought to Him a man who was deaf and hardly able to speak, and they begged Jesus to place His hand on him.
So Jesus took him aside privately, away from the crowd, and put His fingers into the man’s ears. Then He spit and touched the man’s tongue. And looking up to heaven, He sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means, “Be opened!”). Immediately the man’s ears were opened and his tongue was released, and he began to speak plainly.
Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more He ordered them, the more widely they proclaimed it. The people were utterly astonished and said, “He has done all things well! He makes even the deaf hear and the mute speak!”
- Mark 7:31-37
The first time I read this, what was happening here did not stand out to me. After a couple of rereadings and some study assistance from Lifeway, it hit me though.
Try to put yourself in the shoes of the deaf man who can barely speak. What is his experience through this? What do you see through his eyes?
In order to illustrate this in our Sunday School class I asked for some volunteers to re-enact the scene for us. We needed somebody to play Jesus, somebody to play the deaf man, a couple of people to bring the man to Jesus and the rest of the class would be the crowd. After some negotiation, we agreed to skip the “He spit and touched the man’s tongue” part.
The point of this is to visualize what’s going on here from the perspective of the deaf man.
Some people brought to Him a man who was deaf and hardly able to speak, and they begged Jesus to place His hand on him.
First, he was brought to Jesus in front of a crowd by friends who begged Jesus to heal him. Would the deaf man have any idea why he was there? These people, presumably friends, brought him along to Jesus because they believed He could heal him. How would that have been communicated to the man himself though?
So Jesus took him aside privately, away from the crowd
Next Jesus moves the man away from the watching crowd. This man would have certainly been aware that he was in front of an audience and potentially would be embarrassed by being made into a spectacle. The crowd themselves may have wanted to see a show, to be entertained by witnessing a miracle first hand.
By moving this man away from the crowd, Jesus is able to address him directly for only his benefit without the man being concerned that he was an unwilling star of a show.
and put His fingers into the man’s ears. Then He spit and touched the man’s tongue. And looking up to heaven, He sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means, “Be opened!”).
This next part is what I didn’t catch on the first read. As we read about the miracles of Jesus throughout the Gospel it’s easy to read this and think “He’s doing this as part of the process of the miracle. Touching his ears and tongue to heal his ears and tongue.”
But that is not what’s happening here. Jesus doesn’t need to perform specific rituals to do any of this. In the story that directly precedes this one in Mark, he removes a demon from a child who is not even present [Mark 7:29-30]!
Read it again and you’ll realize, Jesus is communicating with the deaf man.
He pulls him away from the crowd so that he can address him directly.
He puts his fingers in his ears to indicate that he is about to do something to his ears.
Spitting (while gross) was an indication of cleansing.
He touched the man’s tongue to indicate that he is about to do something to his tongue.
He looks up to heaven, which the man can see. This directs the man’s attention to God.
Then He sighs deeply, which is body language that the man would also be able to see indicating something is about to happen.
Finally he says “Ephphatha!” or “Be opened!”
Through all of this, Jesus is altering His communication style to address the man in a manner than he can understand. He’s telling him what is about to happen and where it is coming from.
If Jesus had not done it this way, what would this man have perceived? He was put in front of a crowd and all of a sudden he’s able to hear and speak? How? Who? His first sounds would have been the noise of the crowd itself. Imagine how overwhelming, scary and confusing a sensory overload like that would have been for the man!
Instead he’s taken away to a quiet place. Calmly communicated with to prepare him for the miracle that is about to happen…and then it happens!
Immediately the man’s ears were opened and his tongue was released, and he began to speak plainly.
Now the Bible doesn’t proclaim the order of events here, regarding whether the man begins to hear before or after Jesus speaks. Since we know that Jesus doesn’t actually need to say a word to perform this miracle, I like to imagine that his hearing is restored in time that Jesus words are the first thing he hears.
Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more He ordered them, the more widely they proclaimed it. The people were utterly astonished and said, “He has done all things well! He makes even the deaf hear and the mute speak!”
Jesus brings the man back to the crowd and to his friends, who can see the change for themselves. Then He orders them not to tell anyone…but they do it anyway.
There are a couple of ways to interpret that. First, that Jesus actually didn’t want them to tell anyone because crowds were following Him everywhere at this point. There is definitely some truth to that. Additionally, His focus was His message…not the miracles and He did not want to distract from that message.
There’s another way to interpret this and that is to realize that Jesus fully understands human nature. He regularly tells people not to tell anyone.
When you know something amazing, but you’re not supposed to tell anyone…how does it feel? You’ve got a great present for somebody and you can’t wait til their birthday. Some huge surprise that you want to share with a loved one. You’ll feel like you’re about to explode because you want to tell somebody so badly. When you finally do share it, that building excitement comes through with the message as well and adds to it!
And how differently do you treat information you get when you hear, “I’m not supposed to say anything, but I just have to tell somebody…”
You’re the lucky one who got the secret! And then you want to share that secret with somebody too.
Jesus Christ, Speech-Language Pathologist and Marketing guru all in one!