How can the Deaf “HEAR” the Gospel? (Mark 7:31-37)
Hello.
Today I want to discuss Mark chapter 7. It’s the story of when Jesus met a deaf man. Next month, I’ll go more in depth with that, but today I want to share with you a person named Tyler Sorensen. He wrote his senior thesis on this story, and it’s just so fantastic! I had to share it immediately and I’ll explain why.
Typically when I present, give training, am chatting, or at a counseling session, I’m often discussing Deafhood and what it feels like to be Deaf. What does that mean? How do I connect with God? What’s my purpose? That’s typically what we share.
In all of that, I see a spirit of healing through sign language. That might be a little bit confusing.
I’m accustomed to discussions of Mark 7 having a common problem. My voice seems…mmm…. a little too…It’s not really represented, because many practitioners, theologians, and pastors typically frame this story around that person’s ability to hear. But that’s not it at all. Yet, is my voice enough? No. I need more voices.
So when Tyler showed up, I was so excited!
There’s another, a CODA, whose work isn’t published yet. I’m waiting anxiously to show you that, too. We need to show more examples that Deaf culture and Deaf language exist. The deaf person in the Bible exists. Many writers, pastors, and presenters talk about this story as if deaf people don’t exist. More on that later.When I was reading different articles published about this, it really got to me. They were written by hearing people with no experience, no idea, no relationships with deaf people. None. They just saw this story from the Bible and they said, “oh it’s the spirit of healing.” That’s not right. No.
Again, when you see something and get carried away with the miracle, that’s not the whole story.
The Bible is clear. When we go to a people group and we teach them about Jesus, we must first build a relationship. That’s first. We incorporate their thoughts, experiences, life, their views, their language, their culture, everything. We have to build that relationship and then we can go and share the gospel. We can’t just go into a place saying, “Oh I feel so sorry for these people who don’t know about Jesus. I’m gonna go in and save them, and I’m gonna lead, and I’m gonna do that.” It doesn’t work. You have to build a relationship.
Mark chapter 7 is a very short story, yet very deep. Maybe you know it or maybe not. In this town and surrounding area where Jesus showed up, the people were abuzz — they had heard about His miracle work, so it was a town emergency. Of course, there was a deaf man there, and the people grabbed him and brought him to Jesus. With this deaf man and Jesus face to face, people surrounded them, staring, and asking “What’s going to happen?” and “What will He do?”
Jesus looked, called the man to Him, and together they stepped away from the crowd. Understand, the Bible says they went together in private.
Who wrote that book? Mark. Did Mark see what happened? We’re not really sure. There’s no hard proof. But of course, when we discuss this story, is the writer hearing or deaf? He’s hearing. Perhaps after it was over, Mark asked Jesus what happened and Jesus gave him a short explanation. But what really happened in that private moment? Who can truly express that well and explain it? We, the Deaf people, because we understand the story.
We can see the true character of Jesus in this story. He actually developed a relationship with this man.
For example, with the blind, we have several stories, and can discuss them with hearing blind people. DeafBlind? Notsomuch. But the hearing blind people understand and can express well from their own perspective, because they know what it’s like to be blind. They understand. They can explain the beautiful character of Jesus, effectively. It’s interesting.
Many just read the scripture & assume they understand well enough to tell the story. Don’t do that. You can tell the story, but to apply it, own it, frame it… it’s not your place. Again that’s just my opinion, feel free to disagree with me.
But anyway, I need a deaf writer. Again, my voice was alone…I wasn’t seeing it represented, until I met with Marissa Sorenson and Rebecca Diley Triplett. The three of us were discussing how to connect to deaf values and what that might look like. Many people just bring in a deaf a random deaf person and say “good enough,” but it goes much deeper. So when Marissa said “My brother wrote his senior project on this.” she had my full attention! “Wait. He wrote on Mark chapter 7?! I want to read that!” She said, “I’ll ask him for permission to give you a copy.”
He sent us copies, I read it, and it’s SO GOOD! At last! It raised the voice of a whole people group. YES!! How he expressed the story of this deaf man…he understands.
Tyler and I discussed it a little at the Deaf Missions Leadership Conference recently. We tend to be the last people to know and the first people to leave. Because we understand that frustration, oppression, not knowing, fishing for information… all of that we already know because we’re always pushed to the side. We understand what it’s like to be deaf. And Tyler’s writing blows me away, so beautiful. As I said, it was a short discussion.
I MUST share his work, I must.
So please, take your time, watch his presentation. It’s not the entire thesis, just an excerpt. But do take the time to click his link, read his paper, and soak it in. See the beautiful character of Jesus, how He took the time to connect with and invest in this man, not just his ears and his ability to speak, but as a whole person, as God made him.
Look.
Thank you.
Jesus Heals a Deaf and Mute Man
31 Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. 32 There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him. 33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34 He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!”(which means “Be opened!”). 35 At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. 36 Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. 37 People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
This material is an excerpt and translation from a Biblical Studies Senior Project, written and signed by Tyler Sorenson. We are thankful to Mr. Sorenson for sharing this material with us. Footnotes are listed at the bottom of the article.
Most of Jesus’ actual healings take place through his authoritative word, but this time he uses special gestures for the healing of the deaf man. The gestures, in which Jesus “put His fingers into the man’s ears, and He spat and touched his tongue” (Mark 7:33b), are related to the deaf-mute’s condition.85 His compassionate touch, calming and instructive words, and acknowledgement of His Father as the source of all restoration are the hallmarks of Jesus’ way of caring for the person as a whole human being. This story recalls the intimacy of the scene in which God creates Adam by working the earth with His bare hands (Gen. 2:7).86
He put his fingers into his ears, as if he would syringe them, and fetch out that which stopped them up. He spit upon his own finger, and then touched his tongue, as if he would moisten his mouth, and so loosen that with which his tongue was tied; these were no causes that could in the least contribute to his cure, but only signs of the exerting of that power which Christ had in himself to cure him, for the encouraging of his faith, and theirs that brought him. The application was all from himself, it was his own fingers that he put into his ears, and his own spittle that he put upon his tongue; for he alone heals.”87
To the deaf man, it may not necessarily have been easy to understand the unusual intimate gesture. However, he must have been somewhat aware of the significance of all of Jesus’ gestures. According to sign linguists, gesture is one of several elements of sign language; there are sign words, finger spelling, gesture, and sign markers.88 Touching the man’s ears and tongue might mean that Jesus intended to deal with these needs and the man had faith by allowing Jesus to pray for him.
Jesus’ interactions with other people reveal that He truly understood them. A great example would be in Matthew 4, when Jesus called Simon Peter and Andrew to follow Him on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. He used a metaphor that was meant only for fishermen to understand for He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19; NASB, 1977). There was also the story in Matthew 8, where a leper came to Jesus and asked Him to be healed. This was a man who everyone looked upon in horror and ran from his presence but Jesus did the opposite. Jesus did not turn away but He came to the leper, “Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’ Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy” (Matt. 8:3a). In the case of Jesus and the deaf man, Jesus took him aside and communicated to him using symbolic signs, i.e. the pointing to his ears, the touching of his mouth, looking up to the heaven, and sighing. He did those things solely for the deaf man to understand what Jesus was doing, and Jesus was able to do this because He fully understood the pain and the ostracism the deaf man had gone through.
The calling of Simon Peter and Andrew, the healing of the leper and the deaf man shows that Jesus fully understands the people and their unique situations without Jesus experiencing it Himself. He was not a fisherman, yet He used a fishing metaphor that they would understand; He was never a leper, yet He touched the leper because He knew they longed to be touched by another human being; and Jesus was not deaf, yet He knew that the deaf man longed to understand the world around him. These instances served as a testimony to who Jesus was as the Messiah, the power of the Holy Spirit working through Him for the glory of the Father. Unlike Foster’s statement on how deaf people are always the “last to know,”89 Jesus communicated with the deaf man alone so he would be the first to know. This reverses the role of being the last to know, specifically referring to the chatter among the country folk about the wondrous things that Jesus had done in the past, and instead was directly impacted by Jesus Himself.
The man can only see and touch and so Jesus does not speak with him, but rather simply looks up towards heaven in a physical act. Many Deaf people have explained that this story exemplifies someone who communicates with the Deaf man in a way he would have understood. The act of healing itself was accomplished with the word of liberation addressed not to the defective auditory organs but to the man as a whole person: ephphatha (“be opened”).90 Deaf people have noted that the word “Ephphatha” can easily be lipread in a way that the Greek “Dianoichtheti” cannot (because the noises and sounds are created inside the mouth).91 The most widely shared view is that ephphatha is Aramaic, although some scholars disagree, suggesting it is Hebrew.92 Whether or not it was Aramaic or Hebrew, Jesus’ choice of words was deliberate and only adds to the list of heartfelt elements that can be seen in this story.
When the crowd saw what Jesus had done for the deaf man, they were in awe and saw that it was good. The parallelism between the words of the crowd and Genesis 1:31 may have been unnoticed by the original speakers, but can hardly have escaped unseen by the Early Church.93 This may be why the Church believed that deaf people were not a part of God’s holy people because it was not good that the man was deaf, and then it was good that he was healed. They looked upon the man and thought it good as God had looked upon His creation in Genesis.94 All God’s creative works are perfect, and so is the manifestation of his Son’s power. For the Lord said to Moses in Exodus 4, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” (Ex. 4:11). This is a comforting thought and a blessing for every man and woman, young and old, no matter what condition they might be in, to know that the Lord is God.
Likewise, through sign language, members of the Deaf community would be able to understand what Jesus says to them in the Bible. As Jesus was well aware, sign language is language that differs from any spoken language.95 In order to participate in the ministry of Jesus, we have to understand Jesus’ healing method toward the deaf: sign language.96 The first miracle in this story is not that the Deaf man can suddenly hear, but rather that for once there is someone who understands the life of a Deaf person and is able to communicate with him in a meaningful way.
85 Cho, “Jesus’ Healing of the Deaf-Mute,” 147.
86 Kenneth (Lance) Tyler. “Principles of Jesus ’Healing Ministry.” JACL Vol. 7, No. 3 (2013): 9. https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1142&context=jacl
87 Matthew Henry. An Exposition of the Old and New Testament. In Six Volumes … By Matthew Henry … Volume 5. containing Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (Edinburgh, UK: Bell and Bradfute, J. Dickson, and J. McCliesh, 1791), 415.
88 Dong-il Suk. A Linguistic Analysis of Korean Sign Language [in Korean]. Daegu: Daegu University, 1989.
89 Foster, Employment Experiences, 3.
90 Lane, The Gospel According to Mark, 267.
91 Wayne Morris, “Christian Salvation in a Multi-Faith World: Challenging the Cult of Normalcy,” Pages 121-131 in Alternative Salvations: Engaging the Sacred and the Secular, eds. Hannah Ba- con, Wendy Dossett, and Steve Knowles. (Bloomsbury: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017), 129.
92 Larry W. Hurtado. Mark. New International Biblical Commentary Vol. 2 (Peabody, MA: Hen- Hendrickson, 1983), 120. See also Lane, The Gospel According to Mark, 267.
93 R. A. Cole. Mark: An Introduction and Commentary (Nottingham: IVP, 2008), 195.
94 The good work that God saw is referenced to Gen. 1:4.
95 Cho, “Jesus’ Healing of the Deaf-Mute,” 148.