Flashback Episode — Speaking Up for Jesus: Mark 7:31-37

As we continue our first year chronologically looking at events from Jesus’ life and ministry, we come to an event where Jesus heals someone, gives the person He healed a specific instruction, and then finds out later that the man He healed completely disregarded Jesus’ request.

While on the surface this seems almost unbelievable, what we’ll soon discover as we read our passage for this episode is that this is exactly what happened, and one of the most amazing themes in this event is surprisingly relevant for our lives today.

If you have ever felt shy, uneasy, or unsure about sharing Jesus with someone in your life, this passage may gain new significance in your life after we read it together.

Our passage for this episode is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 7, and we will read it using the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 31, Mark tells us:

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.”

In this passage, we find a very counter-cultural idea. Perhaps counter-cultural might not be the best way to describe it, but it is a very counter-cultural-to-our-current-world idea. In this passage, when a group of people eagerly bring a deaf and almost completely mute man to Jesus, the first thing Jesus does is lead the man away from the crowd. Jesus feels love and compassion for this disabled man, but while we might expect Jesus to heal the man because of His compassion for this child of God as soon as he is brought to Jesus, there is something bigger at play in this scene, which prompts Jesus to pull the man aside to heal him apart from the crowd.

As we read this event, I cannot escape a clear counter-cultural idea in Jesus’ actions. When many people in the world today are clamoring for the spotlight, the stage, and for attention from others, Jesus steps off stage, and He takes the man needing help away from the crowd in order to heal him.

While Jesus heals this man with a strange set of actions, I don’t for an instant believed this was the reason Jesus pulled the man aside. Instead, I suspect that Jesus pulls the man aside because He isn’t looking for fame or glory in this event. While healing and helping others was making Jesus famous, Jesus isn’t interested in the fame. By taking the man away from the crowd to heal him, Jesus appears to be actively pushing fame away. Fame and glory are being pushed towards Him, and Jesus understands that the glory for all the miracles and help He was providing should never rest on Him. Jesus wanted all the fame and glory to point upwards towards His Father. Jesus wanted God the Father to receive all the glory.

If you have hesitations in your mind about this angle of looking at this miracle, what Jesus does immediately after healing this man is significant. After healing the deaf and mostly mute man, Jesus tells everyone present to not tell others what happened.

Looking from the perspective of our culture of fame, glory, and status, Jesus’ actions don’t make any sense. If Jesus wanted to draw attention to Himself, as culture pressures us to do, then Jesus should welcome all the publicity He can. Jesus’ miracles prompted people to talk and it was the best free publicity any marketer would dream to get. If Jesus came to this world as a marketer or a PR manager, we would discover He would not stop talking about God the Father and how amazing God is.

I suspect that something about the crowd present for this miracle prompted Jesus to know that they weren’t as interested in glorifying God through Jesus’ miracle. I suspect that Jesus could discern selfish motives in their hearts while also understanding that they wanted Him to receive all the credit for this healing.

Because of this, Jesus heals the man away from the crowd, and then Jesus challenges all those who knew about the miracle to not share it with others.

It is at this point in our passage where things get extra interesting. After Jesus asks the people to be quiet, this small group disobeyed Jesus in order to share what God had done for this formerly disabled man. They went against Jesus’ instructions in order to share what God had done.

In an odd twist of events, what happens in this event is 100% opposite of where most people are today. Too often, when given the opportunity to share Jesus with others, we minimize, ignore, or shy away from the subject. Before ascending to Heaven, Jesus challenged His followers to share the great news about Him with the world. When thinking about the great commission, many of us don’t share Jesus with others. However, when Jesus asks a small group of people to stay silent, they disobey Jesus in order to share what Jesus did.

This group of people disobeyed Jesus to give glory to what God had done through Him. They probably gave all the credit and glory to Jesus, which is what He was trying to avoid, but like the passage says, the more Jesus tried to get the people to stay quiet, the more these people talked about it.

Oddly enough though, Jesus never has told you and I to be quiet about what God has done for us. Instead, as followers of Jesus, we are challenged to share Jesus with the world. As I think about this, I don’t recall any event where Jesus asked His followers to be quiet and not to tell others about Him. In this passage, the instruction was given to people who were not followers of Jesus. The only exception to this that I can think of is Jesus asking Peter and the disciples to stay quiet about Peter’s declaration about Jesus until after Jesus was raised back to life. Since Jesus has now been resurrected, there is no God directed limit regarding if we should share the truth about Jesus!

God did amazing miracles through Jesus, and people could not help but talk about what happened. When God does miracles in our lives today through the Holy Spirit, will we stay silent, selectively share it with only those who already believe in God, or will we tell everyone we meet about what God did for us?

Regardless of what would happen, whether we would lose friends, or whether we would be rejected by people, as followers of Jesus, we have been given the command to go and make disciples, and disciples are not made by people who stay quiet.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always begin each set of challenges by saying in one way or another, remember to keep God first in your life. Intentionally follow through with the challenge Jesus gives us to follow Him and to invite other people to follow as well.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, intentionally pray and study the Bible for yourself and learn who Jesus is through what He taught and what He did. Through the gospels, discover what God is really like and just how much He loves you through what Jesus did for you, both during His ministry as well as on the cross.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!