Brief synopsis of the readings: Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, God encourages his people to be strong and fear not. God will vindicate and the eyes of the blind will see, the ears of the deaf will hear. The lame will leap and the mute will sing. Burning sands will become pools. In Mark’s Gospel we see Jesus at the Sea of Galilee. He was brought a deaf man with a speech impediment and they asked Jesus for healing for him. Jesus took him off by themselves and Jesus healed him of both his deafness and his speech impediment. Jesus ordered the people not to tell anyone about this but “the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it.” All were astonished by this.

Throughout Scripture there are several physical healings. People who are blind, or deaf, or barren, or suffering from seizures, are healed by God’s power in a number of ways. Today we read about a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment. I think many of us read these accounts and wonder about their selectivity. Like this passage we generally know nothing or very little about the person who is healed. And hard as we try, we never seem to avoid the question: “Why them, and why not me, or someone I love?” Frankly I don’t think this is a bad question and we shouldn’t feel guilty about these feelings, but we also need to understand that we need to go deeper, beyond our own needs.

These healings, particularly those that cure one of our senses, should show us that we are complete in God’s love. When one of our senses is removed we feel its absence. Three weeks ago I had surgery to repair a detached retina and while it’s healing I’m essentially seeing with only one eye; suffice it to say that simple tasks have become more difficult and I’m eager to become whole again. This has reminded me that someone who can’t see or hear well have a more difficult time getting through life.

As I said, accounts of physical healing are numerous in Scripture but there is at least one unique aspect of this healing. Normally the sufferer approaches Jesus and asks for healing but here others brought the deaf man; here the man speaks only after being healed and we don’t know what he said. Jesus did not say his faith, or anything else he did, healed him. It was his friends who showed the faith to ask Jesus. Additionally Jesus did not perform his healing in the crowd but “took him off by himself from the crowd.”

So what can we glean from this restoration of hearing and speech? I suspect this was set up by the man’s friends as a way of showing that other people’s faith can benefit us. This is hardly new: the idea that we can pray for each other to their benefit goes back as far as we can remember. And maybe we can take this a step further and say this may not require the faith of the person we’re praying for. If this is true it’s pretty astounding. We often find ourselves praying for healing for someone who may not wish it themselves. I’ve spoken with countless people who live with the reality that a loved one suffers from addiction or just a series of bad choices. We balance our desire for their healing with the recognition that we want to respect them even if we don’t respect their choices. We know their ears are closed to us but we pray that the God’s voice and healing will overcome any impediment.

Also, the fact that Jesus took him away by himself may give us a glimpse that healing may happen outside of our sight and awareness. When I was a youth minister I chuckled to myself when a parent insisted that their child “never listens.” I chuckled because I knew that wasn’t true. They always listen. They don’t always give us the response we want, but they always listen. Change may well be happening even if we can’t see immediate results.

We are a community. We have good days and bad days with each other and we certainly don’t lack for ways to hurt each other. But God has committed us to each other and each other’s benefit. Healing can take strange or unpredictable paths. The fact that we don’t see the results of our prayers doesn’t mean God is ignoring our pleas and it certainly does not give us permission to stop praying. When I offer to pray for someone I often tell them I intend to keep praying “until I get other instructions.” It reminds me that I’m working on God’s timeline, not mine.

I also can’t help but notice that Jesus instructed the man and his friends not to tell anyone about this healing. Of course it didn’t work and frankly it never did. We’ve always been a little puzzled by this and even have a name for it: Messianic secret. But why on earth would Jesus tell them to keep it secret? “But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it.”

People had to have noticed that this man was healed and would have asked. And who wouldn’t proclaim news this good. I don’t have the answer but perhaps Jesus was trying to point the light away from himself and toward God. In Matthew, Mark and Luke it’s not always clear how much Jesus knew about his role as the Messiah and he was still getting used to this reality. Jesus clearly had no patience for braggarts and perhaps didn’t feel as comfortable as he would being recognized as the healer.

The good news at the end of the day is that a man who was both deaf and mute was able to communicate. His life certainly changed and it probably took some getting used to but Jesus’ healing made a profound and wonderful change in his life.