Lenten Mercy~Meditation: Ephphatha ~ Be Opened!

Be opened!

On his return journey from Tyrian territory he went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee through the territory of the Ten Towns. They brought to him a man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, with the request that he would lay his hand on him. He took the man aside, away from the crowd, put his fingers into his ears, spat, and touched his tongue. Then, looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, Ephphatha, which means Be opened. With that his ears were opened, and at the same time the impediment was removed and he spoke plainly. Jesus forbade them to tell anyone; but the more he forbade them, the more they published it. Mark 7: 31-36

From Tyrian territory he went by way of Sidon.  Jesus doesn't play it safe; he's passing through, and active in, a non-Jewish area. And it's in these non-Jewish areas that he often encounters remarkable faith. Surprise!

They brought to him a man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech. This was probably a poor Greek man, but his greater poverty was his inability to hear and speak. And if he had suffered the handicaps from birth, the poverty would be deeper still.

He took the man aside. Jesus is trying to avoid the crowds because what he does is easily misconstrued. But I like this image of Jesus taking the man aside because it suggests a great sensitivity and intimacy on the part of Jesus. The man has likely endured a lifetime of ridicule and torment. In this moment Jesus gives him a break from all of that. 

Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears, looked up to heaven and sighed. A sigh can be a prayer. A groan. A tear. A shudder. A laugh. 

Ephphatha ~ Be opened! We open lots of things: the refrigerator, a book, the mail, the spring time windows, our wallets. Then it gets personal: Open your heart. Open your mind. But I'd suggest there's more than just the opening of the man's physical ears and his no longer being tongue-tied. Be opened can signify a great readiness, an eager willingness, a felt desire to become an individuated person. Remember the definition:

Individuation is the process by which the individual in the course of his life is pressed to realize his innate capacities to the full and become what he has it in him to become.

Innate means: what we're born with. What could be more pleasing to God than that! Saint Irenaeus wrote: The glory of God is the human person fully alive. Sad when the culture thinks this means, "Oh thank God, I now have the nose I always dreamed of, the whitest teeth, the shiniest hair, the softest skin, the sexiest physique, the most fabulous job...."

Lenten Mercy~Meditation: Religion Resides

Religion resides in our eyes rather than in our minds. We see; then we love. Alun Lewis ~ poet ~ 1915-1944

We see that Alun Lewis was only twenty-nine when he died a tragic death towards the end of the Second World War, yet  even at that young age he had this wonderful spiritual insight. Resides is a good word with rich meanings: abides, is present, exists, rests, lives, has a home in, occupies, settles, stays ~ as in a residence, dwells, endures, inhabits, is located in, nests, remains.

This sense of religion as inhabiting and nesting in our eyes is totally biblical. The whole religion of the Hebrews is based on what their ancestors saw: the sea opening up, the thunder cloud over Sinai, the fire-torch leading them through the wilderness by night, the bread from heaven, the water from the rock. And seeing is prominent in the Gospels. Every time Jesus speaks a parable he's giving us a picture we can see with our interior eyes:

A man who was on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho fell in with robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and went off leaving him half dead. Luke 10: 30

And at other times Jesus tells us to see, actually see, with our ocular eye sight. 

I say to you, then, do not fret over your life, how to support it with food and drink; or your body, how to keep it clothed. Is not life itself a greater gift than food, the body than clothing? See how the birds of the air never sow, or reap, or gather grain into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Matthew 6: 25,26

And the wonders of Jesus, full of love, begin with his noticing and seeing. The raising up of the widow's son at Naim comes to mind:

And now it happened that he was going into a city called Naim, attended by his disciples and by a great multitude of people. And just as he drew near the gate of the city, a dead man was being carried out to his burial; the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a crowd of folk from the city went with her. When the Lord saw her, he had pity on her, and said, Do not weep.  Luke 7:11

Maybe today: think less; look more. A picture's worth a thousand words, we say. That's really a religious truism. 

Religion resides in our eyes rather than in our minds. We see; then we love.

Lenten Mercy~Meditation: The Love of Jesus Beyond Boundaries

Note the scene within the scene - the child's sick room off to the right

Then he left that place and went away into the territory of Tyre. He found a house to stay in, and he would have liked to remain unrecognized, but this was impossible. Almost at once a woman whose young daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit heard of him, came in, and fell at his feet. (She was a Gentile, a Phoenician of Syria by nationality.) She begged him to drive the spirit out of her daughter. He said to her, "Let the children be satisfied first; it is not fair to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." "Sir," she answered, "even the dogs under the table eat the children's scraps." He said to her, "For saying that, you may go home content; the unclean spirit has gone out of your daughter." And when she returned home, she found the child lying in bed; the spirit had left her. Mark 7: 24-30

Then he left that place. This of course is the geographical place, but we might say it's also the place of argument with the religious leaders over ritual things. Jesus moves on from all of that. Twenty-three verses of arguing with religious leaders who are already suspicious of Jesus, if not already set against him - we might call that a place. 

Jesus wanted to remain unrecognized, but this was impossible. In Mark's Gospel Jesus often requires people to be silent about what he's done for them. It's called the Marcan Secret. He knows we often misinterpret or get it wrong, so he tries to keep things under wraps as long as he can. Jesus also likely knows that if he is well known, his enemies will set themselves against him even more quickly. 

Almost at once a woman whose young daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit heard of him, came in, and fell at his feet. It doesn't really matter what the child's ailment was - someone was in trouble and that was enough for Jesus. There are two troubled people in this story: the mother and the daughter. The girl was young, Mark tells us. No other religious leader or teacher or philosopher ever made children as important as Jesus did. This needs to be very much part of the Christian teaching: in all things, children first.

This woman is a Gentile, a Phoenician of Syria. This is a long way of saying she isn't Jewish. All the more reason for Jesus not to be talking with her and a set up: how vast God's kindness is. No one is left out!

She begged him. I have witnessed this begging prayer often, especially as a hospital chaplain. A wrenching prayer. Archbishop Anthony Bloom wrote: "Don't pray until you feel something." 

And then there is this wonderful banter between Jesus and the woman. I think he was goofing on her when he used the word dogs. It was, and still is, a common insult in that part of the world. Jesus was drawing her out! If he wasn't interested in her, he would have sent her away.

Jesus recognizes she's not Jewish and lets her know that what God is offering through him is for the Jews first. But she's astute and heard Jesus say the word first, thinking, "Well then, I don't mind seconds." 

Jesus said to her, "For saying that, you may go home content..."  It seems she's passed the test! She gets the best miracle a mom could ever hope for - a healed child! And from a distance!