Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

As we move through Mark’s gospel, we encounter a couple strange miracles.  

When Jesus met a deaf mute, he put his fingers in the man’s ears, took them out, spat on his finger, touched the man’s tongue, looked to heaven, sighed, and said, “Be opened.”  It worked! The man’s ears were opened and he spoke plainly (Mark 7:35).  

Weird, eh? 

Jesus did most miracles with a word or simple action. He healed Peter’s mother-in-law by taking her hand and helping her up (Mark 1:31). He healed a leper with a touch and the words, “Be clean” (Mark 1:41). He healed a paralytic by commanding, “Get up. Take your mat. Go home” (Mark 2:11). 

So why, this time, did Jesus stick his fingers in the man’s ears and spit and sigh? 

Mark 8 has another unusual healing. This time Jesus spat on a blind man’s eyes, touched them, and asked, “Do you see anything?” 

The man replied, “I see people. They look like trees walking” (Mark 8:24). 

Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes again, completely healing them.  

John’s gospel also tells about an unusual healing. Jesus spat on the ground, made some mud, applied it to a blind man’s eyes, and told him to go wash in a pool (John 9:6-7). He did and his sight was restored.  

That’s three times Jesus healed with saliva. I wonder why. And I wonder why Matthew and Luke didn’t mention this in any of their stories about Jesus. Perhaps they too found it odd.   

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, I’m not sure why you used your saliva to heal. But it’s a profoundly human action. Not like the God of creation speaking the universe into being. More like a man in a body of clay, using saliva and simple words.  

I think you are teaching us that healing can be a process. Like the man who was halfway healed so people looked like walking trees. Like the man with mud on his eyes, stumbling to the pool to wash. Like the man with your fingers in his ears. 

How often we hear but fail to understand. We see, but our vision is muddy.  

O Jesus, heal us. Help us hear, and understand, and obey your voice. Give us clear vision and true hearing and intelligent speech as we journey through life’s impediments.   

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

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