Mark 7:24-37 Commentary

Past sermon commentaries have talked about the uneasy conversation between Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman so I invite you to explore those by using the passage filter on our website. This week, I’d like to think about the things that are similar in both of the healings in our lectionary passage.

In Mark the Messianic Secret intensifies each of the stories that it appears in. It appears clearly in the second of our pair of healing stories, as Jesus orders the people and the man he healed to keep quiet about what they have witnessed and experienced.

But it also seems present in the first story as Jesus heals a woman’s daughter and praises the mother’s faith. Mark describes Jesus as a man who just wants some time alone. Jesus doesn’t want anyone to know where he is, but as Mark says, “he could not escape notice” and this woman “immediately heard about him.” In a time before the internet and social media posts, you have to wonder how word spread so quickly…

Jesus doesn’t tell this woman to keep the miracle to herself. However, just as the miracle began in private—with the woman tracking Jesus down and then bowing down to him—it ends in private. The woman goes back to her own home and finds her child freed from a demonic spirit.

Similarly, the next healing story takes place in private. Or more literally, Jesus takes the man in need of healing away from the crowd, on his own, even away from the people who brought the man to be healed. Jesus takes the man away from all of the expectant eyes and gets quite intimate with a man who cannot communicate.

Can you imagine what that might have felt like—not being able to hear or speak, being taken to a stranger who then takes you off to the side and spits on his hands before putting his fingers in your ears and mouth? Can you imagine being that young child, one minute tortured and the next minute back to yourself, without any explanation? Or what it would be like to be the woman when she comes home and finds her child finally resting in their bed, their body, mind, and spirit at peace?

These private, odd, weird, uncomfortable moments change everything because God hears and heals. It seems to me that the woman’s request and the friends’ begging are prayers, whether they knew it at the time or not.

Different words are used to describe both of their “begging.” Interestingly, the woman’s request is not nearly as intense as the friends’ call to action, hers being more like asking a question and the group’s more like calling upon Jesus to act. And even more intense is the prayer that Jesus offers up towards heaven while he is healing the man. Jesus “sighed” or groaned as he looked up to heaven and then commanded the man’s ears and mouth to “be opened.” As Jesus and the Spirit continues to do for us now in heaven, here our Lord groans in prayer.

I find it interesting to consider these stories as not just miracles, but miracles brought on through prayer. It helps me think through the nature of them: in private, in conjunction with the entreaties of loved ones, sometimes with the person present and other times with them far away. Sometimes the prayers are intense, like the way the friends of the man acted, and other times it is more personal—yet just as resolute and persistent—like the woman was for her daughter.

Sometimes when I pray, I can sense Jesus’s heart on the matter, like the way he groans for the man; and sometimes I am reminded of the truth of God, like what occurs with the woman. And all the time, I know that God’s not into answering prayers for the show of it. At least, this is one of the ways that I understand the Messianic Secret motif… Jesus doesn’t need his fame to spread so that he can start a movement; the Spirit is taking care of that. Jesus answers prayers because he is our God, full of compassion. We see it when he acts in public, and now we’ve seen it as he acts in private. Jesus is the same person no matter where he is or who is watching.

The crowd is zealous about the good news of Jesus’s excellence. Are they sinning as they disobey a direct command of Christ by witnessing to what they saw? I’m not sure we can make the Messianic Secret as clear cut as that, especially when we look at the word Mark uses when he translates the Aramaic command, “Ephphatha.” Mark chooses the Greek word dianoigō which is about an opening that is a new beginning, like a birth, perception/understanding, and even understanding and explaining the Scriptures themselves. Jesus looks up to heaven when he gives the command, so could it be that he is commanding so much more than this man’s ears and mouth to be opened. Here in the heart of a new people’s territory as the crowds are coming to him and he is compelled to act by his compassion, Jesus proclaims “Be opened” to humanity while looking up at heaven.

Maybe he’s unleashing the power of heaven through this private moment of prayer. And maybe he’s still doing so, whether we meet him with a question or beg him for help.

Textual Points

Most of us don’t read the Gospels with a map open, but Mark seems to have purposefully given us details about Jesus’s location to make the point that Jesus’s ministry expands beyond Israel. Some scholars point out that the route Mark describes makes little geographical sense, but that only points to the larger meaning: Jesus is deep in Gentile territory here, acknowledging truth from an outsider’s lips and seeing the good news spread—even if it is against his command.

Plus, there’s another detail about setting to note. Jesus is said to be in a house, which Mark uses to indicate a teaching setting for the disciples. Any time Jesus is in a house, his disciples—past and present—learn something really significant about the Kingdom of God.

Illustration Idea

As a new mom I have experienced for the first time what it’s like to never be left alone. In fact, over the last half year, there’s only been a few hours when I’ve actually been alone—something that used to happen quite regularly. But now, I have this other little human sharing this space with me, needing things from me, unable to communicate those needs very clearly, succinctly, or even quietly. So when the text says that Jesus was “unable to escape” people with little ones can probably relate… One of the things that has helped me cope is remembering how important this time is, and how much my child is learning to trust me through my presence. The same can be said of our relationship with God. We grow our attachment and trust by being with God, which is the essence of prayer.