But we have a muteness that is a problem, one that only the gospel can cure. We were born to know and love the Lord, to praise our Maker while he gives us breath. And to discover in doing so that we are becoming more like him (it is a settled law, revealed in scripture, that we become like the objects of our worship). But sin mutes us, robs us of speech worthy of God, makes the soul stammer its way into silence. A silent soul shrivels, calcifies in ignorance of the One whose love makes alive.
In Mark 7:31-37, our Lord Jesus encountered a man who was deaf and mute. Unable to hear others praising God, detached from all teaching of God’s Word. And without any means to make himself known and understood. This is not how it was meant to be. The gravity of the man’s condition was such that Jesus looks to heaven and sighs deeply before he speaks words of release.
There is something so moving about how the Lord meets the man in all his need. A man who cannot hear will not be able to understand the commotion and will likely be distressed and confused by the crowds. So Jesus takes him aside - he isn’t going to make a show of him. And he then enacts wordlessly what he is going to do for him - he puts his fingers in the man’s ears, he spits (saliva was believed to have healing properties), he touches the man’s tongue. Each movement communicating something of what this is about.
And then he looks up to heaven, sighs and speaks to open the man’s ears and loose his tongue. This is not the work of a showman or a magician; this is the Lord himself, coming to set free and restore the helpless, those separated and silenced by the scourge of sin.
This beautiful moment is recognised by the crowd. They praise God, rejoicing that Jesus has done all things well. Perhaps they knew - or maybe they didn’t - that this scene is a clear and compelling fulfilment of Isaiah 35:6, where the coming of the Messiah will mean that “the mute tongue [will] shout for joy”. The equivalent term in Greek for the one used there only occurs once in all the New Testament, here in Mark 7.
This is what the Messiah has come to do - to set people free so that we might be able to listen as the Lord speaks to us and respond with glad shouts of praise. And then to use our mouths as a blessing to others, speaking words of hope and healing, words of gospel grace and kingly kindness.
This beautiful moment is recognised by the crowd. They praise God, rejoicing that Jesus has done all things well. Perhaps they knew - or maybe they didn’t - that this scene is a clear and compelling fulfilment of Isaiah 35:6, where the coming of the Messiah will mean that “the mute tongue [will] shout for joy”. The equivalent term in Greek for the one used there only occurs once in all the New Testament, here in Mark 7.
This is what the Messiah has come to do - to set people free so that we might be able to listen as the Lord speaks to us and respond with glad shouts of praise. And then to use our mouths as a blessing to others, speaking words of hope and healing, words of gospel grace and kingly kindness.
We've been unmuted.
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O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace.
My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honours of Thy name.
Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease;
’Tis music in the sinner’s ears,
’Tis life, and health, and peace.
He breaks the power of cancelled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean;
His blood availed for me.
He speaks, and listening to His voice,
New life the dead receive,
The mournful, broken hearts rejoice,
The humble poor believe.
Hear Him, ye deaf, His praise, ye dumb,
Your loosened tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Saviour come,
And leap, ye lame, for joy.
Look unto Him, ye nations, own
Your God, ye fallen race;
Look, and be saved through faith alone,
Be justified by grace.
(Charles Wesley, 1707-88)
************
O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace.
My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honours of Thy name.
Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease;
’Tis music in the sinner’s ears,
’Tis life, and health, and peace.
He breaks the power of cancelled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean;
His blood availed for me.
He speaks, and listening to His voice,
New life the dead receive,
The mournful, broken hearts rejoice,
The humble poor believe.
Hear Him, ye deaf, His praise, ye dumb,
Your loosened tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Saviour come,
And leap, ye lame, for joy.
Look unto Him, ye nations, own
Your God, ye fallen race;
Look, and be saved through faith alone,
Be justified by grace.
(Charles Wesley, 1707-88)
