Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 7:34
And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.
34. looking up to heaven ] This upturned look expressive of an act of prayer and an acknowledgment of His oneness with the Father, occurs also (1) in the blessing of the five loaves and two fishes (Mat 14:19; Mar 6:41), (2) at the raising of Lazarus (Joh 11:41), and (3) before the great high-priestly prayer for the Apostles (Joh 17:1).
he sighed ] or “groaned” as in the Rhemish Version. The sigh of the “First-born among many brethren” (Rom 8:29), attesting that the Human sympathies of the Saviour were co-extensive with human suffering and sorrow. Comp. Joh 11:33.
Ephphatha ] The actual Aramaic word used by our Lord, like the “Talitha cumi” of Mar 5:41, treasured up by actual eye and ear witnesses, on whom the actions used and the word spoken made an indelible impression.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Looked up to heaven – To lift up the eyes to heaven is an act imploring aid from God, and is an attitude of prayer, Psa 121:1-2; Mar 6:41; Joh 11:41.
He sighed – Pitying the sufferings of the man who stood before him.
Ephphatha – This word is Syriac, the language which our Lord used in addressing the man, and means Be opened.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 34. Ephphatha] Ethphathach, [Syriac] Syriac. It is likely that it was in this language that our Lord spoke to this poor man: and because he had pronounced the word Ephphathach with peculiar and authoritative emphasis, the evangelist thought proper to retain the original word; though the last letter in it could not be expressed by any letter in the Greek alphabet.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
34. And looking up to heaveneveracknowledging His Father, even while the healing was seen to flowfrom Himself (see on Joh 5:19).
he sighed“overthe wreck,” says TRENCH,”which sin had brought about, and the malice of the devil indeforming the fair features of God’s original creation.” But, wetake it, there was a yet more painful impression of that “evilthing and bitter” whence all our ills have sprung, and which,when “Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses”(Mt 8:17), became mysteriouslyHis own.
“In thought ofthese his brows benign,
Not even in healing,cloudless shine.”
KEBLE
and saith unto him,Ephphatha, that is, Be openedOur Evangelist, as remarked on Mr5:41, loves to give such wonderful words just as they werespoken.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And looking up to heaven,…. To his Father there, by whom he was sent, and from whom, as man, he received his authority and power; though this was not for assistance in the working of this miracle, which he had power to do of himself; nor do we find that he put up any request to his Father: but he seems to have made use of this motion, not for his own sake, but for the sake of the man: to teach him, that every good gift, blessing, mercy, and favour, and so this he was about to partake of, was from above:
he sighed; not as unequal to the work of healing the man, or as despairing of doing it; but as commiserating the case of the poor man, and reflecting with concern upon his sin, that had been the occasion of it. These actions of looking up to heaven and sighing, as they may be understood in a spiritual sense, or with relation to the spiritual healing of a sinner, may show that such a blessing comes from above: it is received from heaven; it is God that gives the hearing ear, as well as the seeing eye; and that in a spiritual, as well as in a natural sense: and therefore this directs to apply to God for it, whether for a man’s self, or for others; and when enjoyed, to look up again to heaven, and return thanks for it: and also that such a favour flows from divine mercy and compassion, Christ pitying the case of persons in such a condition; and he being an high priest that can have compassion on those that are in distress, and having ability to help them, makes use of it, and expresses both his pity and his power, as in the following manner.
And saith unto him; in the Syriac language, which he then spoke,
,
Ethphatha, or “Ephphatha”;
that is, being interpreted,
be opened, both ears and mouth. And this way of speaking is used by the Jews, of a deaf man being restored to hearing, as of a blind man’s being restored to sight; of which, take the following instance d;
“a minor that receives (i.e. a divorce), and afterwards becomes adult, or a deaf man, , “and is opened” (i.e. his ears are opened, or his hearing is restored), or a blind man, , “and is opened” (has his sight again), or a fool, and he is restored to his reason, or a Gentile, and he becomes a proselyte, is unfit or unlawful (to carry a divorce from a man to his wife), but , “one that is open”, and afterwards becomes deaf, and then again “opened”; , or “open”, and afterwards become blind, and again “opened”; or a fool, and is restored to his senses, and again becomes a fool, he is right or fit”
(for the above purpose). It is common with them to call one that hears well, in distinction from a deaf man, “one that is open” e. This is an instance of the power of Christ in curing disorders, merely by a word speaking, without the use of means; for what he did before, were not as means of healing, but significative of his power; which now went along with his word, and which was expressed with great majesty and authority: and such a power attends the word of his grace, to the opening of the heart, to give heed to the things which are spoken; and to the opening of the ear to discipline, and sealing instruction to it; land to the opening of the mouth and lips, in praise and thankfulness.
d Gittin, c. 2. sect. 6. e Vid. Misn. Yebamot, c. 14. scct. 10. & T. Bab. Yebamot, fol. 114. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Ephphatha (, be opened). Another one of Mark’s Aramaic words preserved and transliterated and then translated into Greek. “Be thou unbarred” (Braid Scots). Jesus sighed () as he looked up into heaven and spoke the word . Somehow he felt a nervous strain in this complex case (deaf, dumb, demoniac) that we may not quite comprehend.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And looking up to heaven, He sighed,” (kai anablepsas eis ton ouranon estenaksen) “And having looked up into heaven He groaned,” in sympathy and compassion, and with great mental and emotional exhaustion, as also expressed, Luk 19:41; Joh 11:33; Joh 11:35; Joh 11:38. He looked up. into heaven to signify that His power to heal was from His Father, Mar 6:41; Joh 11:41; Joh 17:1.
2) “And saith unto him,” (Ephphatha kai legei auto ephphatha) “And said to him Ephphatha,” an Aramaic word in which our Lord actually spoke, meaning ”be opened,” addressing or speaking to the ears of the deaf one, as also used Mar 5:41-43.
3) “That is, be opened.” (ho estin eianoichtheti) ”Which means (is) you be opened, be thou, or come thou, to be opened,” which also resulted in the loosing of the tongue impediment, Mar 7:35.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(34) Looking up to heaven, he sighed.The look, it is clear, implied prayer, as in Joh. 11:41. The sigh, too, has its counterpart in the groans and tears of Joh. 11:33; Joh. 11:35; Joh. 11:38, and finds its analogue in the sadness of sympathy which we feel at the sight of suffering, even when we know that we have the power to remove its cause.
Ephphatha.Another instance of St. Marks reproduction of the very syllables uttered by our Lord. (See Introduction, and Note on Mar. 5:41.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
34. Looking up to heaven He thereby declares that it is by no earthly or demoniac power that he performs this work, but by his oneness with the Father in heaven. Sighed Either a deep aspiration to God, or a sigh for the woes which it is his mission to compassionate. Ephphatha Here, as in the case of the words “Talitha cumi,” which pierced the dead ear of the maiden, Mark preserves the very word in the very language uttered. These words, which were impregnated with a power to pierce the unhearing, he thinks, are memorable words. The tradition of the Church had preserved them to him, and he deems them worthy to be preserved in the true written tradition of the Church of all ages. Memorable words they are, reminding us of those dread tones which shall pierce the ears of a slumbering race and wake it to a final resurrection.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Mar 7:34. And looking up to heaven, Our Lord did this, that the deaf man, whom he could not instruct by language, might consider whence all benefits proceed. After this, he sighed. Perhaps the circumstances mentioned in the former note, or some others unknown to us, made this man a peculiar object of pity: or by the example of bodily deafness and dumbness, our Lord might be led to reflect on the spiritual deafness and dumbness of men; but whatever was the cause, Christ’s sighing on this occasion evidently displayed the tender love that he bore to mankind; for certainly it could be nothing else which moved him to condole our miseries, whether general or particular, in so affectionate a manner. See more instances of his compassion, Luk 19:41. Joh 11:33. After this he said, Ephphatha, “Be opened:” which Grotius applies by observing, that the internal impediments of the mind are removed by the Spirit of Christ; as those bodily impediments were by the word of his power. He opens the heart, as he did Lydia’s, and thereby opens the ear to receive the word of God, and opens the mouth in prayer and praise. See Critic. Sacra in Loc.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.
Ver. 34. He sighed ] As if himself had felt and fainted under the same burden; so the word signifieth. And he was so much the more sensible, as well weighing the cause.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
34. ] He looked to heaven in prayer : see Joh 11:41-42 . He sighed, as Chrysostom (or Pseudo-Chrys.) in Cramer’s Catena, h. l., says, , , : see Joh 11:36-38 .
= (Sy [30] .-chald.), imperative Hithp. from , aperuit : the word used in Isa 35:5 , “ Then shall the ears of the deaf be unstopped, and the tongue of the dumb sing .”
[30] yr the Peschito (or simple) Syriac version. Supposed to have been made as early as the second century . The text as edited is in a most unsatisfactory state.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mar 7:34 . , : Jesus looked up in prayer, and sighed or groaned in sympathy. In this case a number of acts, bodily and mental, are specified. Were these peculiar to it, or do we here get a glimpse into Christ’s modus operandi in many unrecorded cases? On the latter view one can understand the exhausting nature of the healing ministry. It meant a great mental strain. , an Aramaic word = as Mk. explains, ; doubtless the word actually spoken = Be opened, in reference to the ears, though the loosing of the tongue was part of the result ensuing.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
heaven = the heaven. Singular. See note on Mat 6:9, Mat 6:10
sighs = groaned.
Ephphatha. An Aramaic word. See App-94.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
34.] He looked to heaven in prayer: see Joh 11:41-42. He sighed, as Chrysostom (or Pseudo-Chrys.) in Cramers Catena, h. l., says, , , : see Joh 11:36-38.
= (Sy[30].-chald.), imperative Hithp. from , aperuit: the word used in Isa 35:5, Then shall the ears of the deaf be unstopped, and the tongue of the dumb sing.
[30] yr the Peschito (or simple) Syriac version. Supposed to have been made as early as the second century. The text as edited is in a most unsatisfactory state.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mar 7:34. , He groaned) The power of sighs is great when the heart is straitened, [whence ]. He who groans, .[54] This is a [not a feeling which we can command at will; see Append.]; for which reason we never find it said in the Psalms, I will sigh, as we find, I will pray, I will cry aloud, I will lament (flebo). Even sudden tears are not under our control. But I will lament, in the Psalms, is an act of deliberate purpose. [That groan moved the wretched sufferer, and awakened in him the desire of relief.-V. g.]-, Ephphatha) The first word heard by the deaf man.
[54] , to be full of a thing; Latin, gemo. Comp. , to straiten by over-fulness; hence to groan. This shows the connection of and gemo.-ED. and TRANSL.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
looking: Mar 6:41, Joh 11:41, Joh 17:1
he sighed: Mar 8:12, Isa 53:3, Eze 21:6, Eze 21:7, Luk 19:41, Joh 11:33, Joh 11:35, Joh 11:38, Heb 4:15
Ephphatha: Mar 5:41, Mar 15:34
Be opened: Mar 1:41, Luk 7:14, Luk 18:42, Joh 11:43, Act 9:34, Act 9:40
Reciprocal: 2Ki 6:6 – he cut down Psa 51:15 – open Isa 42:18 – ye deaf Mat 8:3 – I will Mat 14:19 – looking Luk 9:16 – and looking
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
WHY DID CHRIST SIGH?
Looking up to heaven, He sighed.
Mar 7:34
It may be that Christ sighed because there was some struggle or exhaustion in His human nature, and whenever He exerted His omnipotence He felt the virtue to go out of Him. But, passing by this consideration, may we not suppose that the sigh was occasioned by His foreknowledge of the abuse of that good gift He was about to bestowan abuse which could scarcely fail to happen when the blessing was conferred upon a fallen man?
I. Good clogged with evil.It is a cause of sadness at all times that no good can be done without its being mingled and clogged with evil. When, for instance, a child is baptized, there is joy and gladness in the Church. But, alas! that very child may, in after years, sin away baptismal grace, may crucify afresh the Lord of Life, and become twofold more the child of hell than before. This man had an impediment in his speech; not that which afflicts stammerers, but such as prevented him from uttering articulate sounds, so that he was, in effect, dumb; and our Lord was about to give him the gift of speech.
II. Precious and perilous.And what a precious gift is this; but yet what a perilous gift! Is there any one here present who has thought earnestly of the Day of Judgment, and reckoned at all the account he will have to render, and not felt his heart sink within him, as he recalls the solemn text, By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned? I speak not of the liar. Neither will I pause to consider profane swearing, licentious jests, filthy conversation. But setting these aside, the awful text recurs, Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the Day of Judgment. Alas! how often do we find honourable business men still acting dishonestly with their tongues; robbing their neighbour of that good name which is dearer to him than the property of his calumniators.
III. Out of the abundance of the heart.Here, then, we come to the point: Out of the abundance of the heart, saith He Who made the heart, the mouth speaketh. A good man bringeth forth good things (Mat 12:34-35). And is it not so? Do we not see this exemplified whenever we look into our own hearts, or make inquiry into the spiritual condition of others? What says the heart of the blasphemer, of the filthy jester, of the scandalmonger? Whatbut thisthat not only has he not the love of God within him, but that he has altogether ceased to fear God. Never forget that for our words, as well as for our works, we shall have to give an account at the Day of Judgment. The thought is one which may well solemnise the best of us.
Our Saviour sighed, then, to think how the gift He was conferring might be abused. But He looked to Heaven, to have the comfort of seeing there the joys awaiting all the blessed, who, having been redeemed by His blood, shall have passed faithfully the time of their probation here, and so, through much tribulation, have entered into glory.
Dean Hook.
Illustration
Mr. Ruskin has spoken of truth as that golden and narrow line which the very powers and virtues that lean upon it bend, which policy and prudence conceal, which kindness and courtesy modify, which courage overshadows with its shield, imagination covers with her wings, and charity dims with her tears. There are some faults slight in the sight of love, some errors slight in the estimate of wisdom; but truth forgives no insult, and endures no stain. Lord Bacon, on the other hand, speaks quaintly of the indignity of falsehood: There is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame as to be found false and perfidious, and therefore Montaigne said prettily, when he inquires the reason why the word of the lie should be such a disgrace and such an odious charge, saith he, If it be well weighed to say that a man lieth is as much as to say as that he is brave towards God and a coward towards men. For a lie faces God and shrinks from man.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
THE SIGH OF SYMPATHY
There was something in the sigh of Christ profoundly significant in its meaning, inexpressibly touching in its character.
I. The sigh of compassion.Why did Christ sigh? It was an outgush of sympathy bursting from a humanity kindred to our own. It was a sigh of compassion. As He benignantly bent over this suffering form, the hidden spring of emotion was moved, and it gave vent in a deep upbreathed sigh.
II. The sigh of sorrow.The sigh of Jesus was awakened, too, by a view of the ravages of sin. In that spectacle He beheld the humanity He had originally cast into a perfect, peerless mould, and had pronounced very good, bruised and crushedits organs impaired, its beauty marred, its nature taintedand, Himself lovely and sinless, He could not look upon that wretched, defaced, paralysed specimen of our nature without emotionwithout a sigh.
III. The sigh of practical benevolence.Have we not remarked upon the hollow, vapid nature of human pity and compassion? How much of it evaporates in thin air! Not so was the emotion of Christ. His was a real, tangible, practical principle. It was always connected with some sorrow comforted, some want supplied, some burden unclasped, some help needed, some blessing bestowed.
Rev. Octavius Winslow, d.d.
Illustration
Learn from this what should be your true attitude when the pressure upon your emotional nature forces the deep-drawn sigh from your lips. We sigh, and look withinJesus sighed, and looked without. We sigh, and look downJesus sighed, and looked up. We sigh, and look to earthJesus sighed, and looked to heaven. We sigh, and look to manJesus sighed, and looked to God!
(THIRD OUTLINE)
THE SIGH INTERPRETED
The sigh of Jesus has been made to speak many languages. I will arrange them under four heads.
I. The sigh of earnestness.Because it says that looking up to heaven, He sighed, some connect the two words, and account that the sigh is a part of the prayer. If the Son of God sighed when He prayed, surely they have most of the spirit of adoptionnot who offer up an apathetic form, but they who have such a sense of what communion with God is, that they bring their whole concentrated powers to the great work.
II. The sigh of beneficence.But it has been said again, that He who never gave us anything but what was bought by His own sufferingso that every pleasure is a spoil purchased by His blooddid now by the sigh, and under the feeling that He sighed, indicate that He purchased the privilege to restore to that poor man the senses he had lost.
III. The sigh of brotherhood.The scene before our Lord would be to His mind but a representative of thousands of thousands. And yet He did not do (as we too often act)He did not do nothing, because He could not do all. He sighedand He saved one. That is true brotherhood.
IV. The sigh of holiness.All this still lay on the surface. Do you suppose that our Saviours mind could think of all the physical evil, and not go on to the deeper moral causes from which it sprang?
Illustration
How much of the real force of prayer was concentrated in this one sigh! Let us not measure the power of prayer by the time it occupies, or by the noise it makes. Sad to see the liberties which some take with the great God in prayer. They pray as though they imagined He was to be influenced by happy turns of thought, by fine rhetorical periods, or by loud, boisterous, or chattering appeal! How different from all this that gentle sigh of Christs!
(FOURTH OUTLINE)
THE SYMPATHIES OF CHRIST
The sigh of Christ is full of sacred and instructive meaning.
I. It reveals the reality and intensity of the Saviours love to individual sufferers.There are many philanthropists whose benevolence takes the form of liberal money-giving, but which never comes into direct contact with the suffering it is intended to relieve.
II. It shows the keenness with which the Saviour felt the evil of sin.He could not be called upon to do even a small service to an individual sufferer without finding Himself face to face with the universal curse.
III. The sigh reminds us of the essential central principle of the philosophy of salvation.Christ never relieves a man of any curse the misery of which He does not appropriate to Himself. In all our afflictions, He is afflicted. He takes the affliction in order the more effectually to work the cure.
IV. That sigh may well suggest to us the holy sadness of doing good.The law of Christs life ought, as far as possible, to be the law of oursthe genius of His experience that of ours.
Illustration
Some professors of Christs religion can only be stigmatised as lackadaisical, epicurean, luxurious people. They like to lap themselves up in spiritual blankets, and to loll themselves to sleep on spiritual feather beds. What know they, what care they about the sublime solicitudes which moved the heart of Him Whom they call Saviour and Lord, but of Whom they forget that He suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in His steps?
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Chapter 10.
The Deaf and Dumb Man
“And looking up to heaven, He sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. And He charged them that they should tell no man: but the more He charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it; And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: He maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.”-Mar 7:34-37.
These two points already dealt with do not exhaust the details of our Lord’s action in the case of this miracle. The Evangelist-deriving, no doubt, his information from Peter-says that before He performed the very act of healing our Lord looked up to heaven, and then He sighed, or rather groaned, and then He spoke the word of power, “Ephphatha” “Be opened.” Dr. Maclaren has made these details of our Lord’s action the basis of one of his most exquisite sermons, and it is almost impossible to say anything about them without following, however imperfectly, in his steps. But, at the risk of unfavourable comparison, let me say something about these details of our Lord’s conduct, the light they throw upon His character, and the permanent lessons they have to teach us.
The Heavenward Look.
The first thing Jesus did after He had taken the man aside, and by His symbolic action stirred hope within his breast, was this, “He looked up to heaven.” It was not the only time that Jesus looked up to heaven before performing an act of power. I turn back to the account of the feeding of the five thousand, and read, “He took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, He blessed, and brake the loaves” (Mar 6:41). Now why did Jesus look up to heaven? And what did He do when He looked up to heaven? I think the answer is plain and unmistakeable. He looked up to heaven because it was the source of His power, and what He did when He looked up was to pray.
The Secret of Power.
What a lesson there is in all this for us! The heavenward look is still the secret of power. In other words, we can only do our work and win our triumphs in conscious dependence upon God. It is upon Him we must wait. It is to Him we must call. “As the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their master,… so our eyes look unto the Lord our God” (Psa 123:2); for apart from Him we can do nothing. Prayer is the thermometer of the Church, people are very fond of saying. It is much more than that-it is the power-gauge of the Church. “This kind,” the kind of ills the Church has to fight against and expel, “cometh forth by nothing save by prayer.”
-And some Substitutes for it.
Do we cultivate this heavenward look? In what is it that we put our trust? To what is it that we look for power and success? I wonder sometimes whether we do not put our trust overmuch, in these days, in mere mechanical and human devices. I think of some of the methods Churches use to win the crowds-advertisements, music, popular lectures, socials, and the rest. They are, no doubt, all right in their way and place. But conquering power does not come that way. “My soul, wait thou only upon God, from Him cometh my salvation.” Notice the sequence in our paragraph: Jesus looked up to heaven, and saith unto him, “Ephphatha” (Mar 7:34). I The heavenward look issued in the word of power. And still the Church that “looks up” shall be able to speak the word of power: it shall be able to free the prisoner, to cleanse the leper, to save the sinner, to quicken the dead, and nothing shall be impossible to it.
The Groan.
“Looking up to heaven, He sighed.” What is the meaning of this sigh, or rather groan, that escaped the lips of Jesus? It is surely a strange thing that, at the very moment our Lord was about to exercise His triumphant power, He should sigh. Some commentators explain it by saying that it was the deep voice of the prayer in which He was at that moment engaged. And others, again, say that what He sighed for was the unbelief of the multitude, upon whom every work of power seemed to be wasted, in that it failed to convince them. Others, again, hold that He sighed at the thought of those deeper ills of the soul which could not be healed by a word, as physical deafness could. And, yet again, Stier ingeniously suggests that Jesus sighed because He realised that the gifts of speech and hearing were so often abused, and might be abused by the very man on whom He was about to confer them-He sighed because He knew that “the gift of hearing is so doubtful a blessing, and the faculty of speech is so apt to be perverted.”
-And its Meaning.
But the simplest explanation is the truest and the best. The “groan” expressed, as Dr. Salmond puts it, “Christ’s deep, pained sympathy.” Our Lord was touched with the feeling of all our infirmities. He was full of the deepest and keenest sympathy. He was “moved with compassion” at every sight of sorrow. His eyes had been lifted up to heaven the moment before-the land where there is no sickness, no suffering, no pain. And now they are fixed upon an example of the woes and miseries of earth; and possibly the contrast between heaven, with its happiness and perfect health, and earth, with its suffering and pain, called forth this “groan.” Our Lord “groaned” over this poor creature before Him, deaf and partially dumb, the mere wreck and ruin of a man. This was not man as God had made him. God looked on all that He had made, and behold it was “very good.” This maimed and marred being was man as sin had damaged, defaced and disfigured him. And our Lord “groaned” at the thought of the ravages sin had made in God’s fair world.
-Not a Solitary Incident.
There is another illustration of the same kind of thing in the story of the raising of Lazarus. When our Lord saw the sisters weeping, and the Jews who had come to comfort them also weeping, John tells us, “He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.” And again when He came to the grave He groaned in Himself. In the Greek word there is a suggestion of anger and indignation. He groaned with indignant emotion. What was it that stirred this emotion within Him? He groaned with indignant emotion at the disorder of the world, at the pain and suffering and sorrow and death that sin had brought into the world. And so in this deaf and dumb man He saw an illustration of the work of the devil, of the ravage and havoc wrought by sin, and He “groaned “; He sighed-not so much with indignation this time (for the Greek word is not identical with that in John), but with pity and sympathy.
The Pitifulness of Christ.
In this “sigh” you have our Lord’s pitifulness for all needy, suffering, sin-burdened men. He did not walk through life with unheeding eyes and an unfeeling heart. He had eyes to see and a heart to feel. Sorrow always stirred His sympathies. He was “full of compassion.” And we too need the pitiful heart, if we are to do Christ’s work in the world. The world is full to-day of the sick and the poor and the suffering and the sinful. We ought not to be able to walk along life’s ways with unmoved compassion. We want a “heart at leisure from itself, to soothe and sympathise.” “A heart of compassion” is the first thing Paul mentions in that list of the shining garments of the new man. “Put on therefore, as God’s elect, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion” (Col 3:12). For we can do nothing towards the redemption of the world unless we have the pitiful soul.
The Groan and the Upward Look.
It is worth noticing that the “sigh” or “groan” of our Lord came immediately after the heavenward look. As Dr. Morison beautifully puts it, “The deepest sympathy for man springs from the loftiest communion with God.” The fact is, we shall only learn to pity as we look up. It is only as we think of God that we learn something of His purpose with reference to man; it is only as we see man as he was meant to be, that we shall pity man as he is. I can conceive of one, who never lifts his eyes above earth and its things, having the springs of pity dried up within him. Here, for instance, is a man who writes, “This world is the best possible of worlds; man as he is, is as good as he can be; sin and misery are essentially human.” We have only to hold a creed like that, and pity will die within us. But if we “look up,” and see man as God meant him to be, we shall be filled with deep and unutterable pity for man as he is. Pity springing from communion with God is like a stream which, having its source high up in the eternal snows, flows cool and full, bringing refreshing verdure to the parched fields in the hottest days of summer.
The Look away from Despair.
Then again, as Dr. Maclaren suggests, the heavenward look is necessary to guard us from the pit of despair. If we look simply and only at this world and its miseries, we may easily fall into despair. There is a profound pity in the heart of some of our great Pessimists. Thomas Hardy, for instance, has a deep concern for the sorrows and sadnesses of this world, which with such terrible realism he describes for us in his Wessex novels. It is such a hopeless pity; he sees no remedy or cure. But the heavenward look flashes the gleam of hope into the very eye of pity. “Jesus groaned”; He sighed over the plight of this deaf and dumb man; but it was not a hopeless sigh, for He knew at the very moment that God would enable Him to repair the ravages which sin had made. And so exactly will it be with us; the sight of the world’s sin and pain ought always to stir us to deepest and tenderest pity; but if we look up to God it will never stir us to despair, for we shall know then that God can save to the uttermost, that He can undo and repair the ravages of sin, that He can set the most broken and marred perfect before His throne.
Christ’s Word.
Then, following the heavenward look and the sigh, came the word of power. “Looking up to heaven, He sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened” (Mar 7:34). You notice that in this case, as in that of the daughter of Jairus, the very Aramaic word that Jesus spoke has stamped itself upon Peter’s memory and is reproduced here. There is a close connection between the word of power and the sigh and the heavenward look that preceded it. It was the pity of His heart that prompted the desire to help. It was His union with God that gave Him the power to help. Looking up to heaven, “He sighed, and saith, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And his ears were opened, and the bond of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.”
Pitifulness, Prayerfulness an Power.
The lesson of all this for us is obvious. Pitifulness and prayerfulness are the conditions of power. For without pitifulness we shall not have the wish to save the burdened and sin-stained all about us; and without prayer we shall not have the power. But supposing we have the pitifulness, and supposing we have the prayerfulness, supposing we have the sensitive heart and the expectant faith, then we too shall be able to speak the word of power, and we too shall see God’s saving and restoring grace exercised through and by us. Do you not long to see the Church of Jesus Christ speaking the word of power? Do you not long to see it declaring its Gospel with such authoritativeness that men would be convinced and converted by it? Do you not long to see blind eyes opened, deaf ears unstopped, dead hearts quickened? Here are the conditions-a great pity and a great faith. A Church that has great pity for men, and great faith in God, shall have great and irresistible power. And when once the Church of Christ shows that it possesses that power, men will cease to scoff at it and think lightly of it.
-And Results.
Notice what happened as a result of the deed of mercy Christ performed on this deaf and dumb man. “And they were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: He maketh even the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak” (Mar 7:37). The sight of our Lord’s redeeming power extorted praise from the people, and quickened faith amongst them. “He hath done all things well,” they said. And Matthew adds, “And they glorified the God of Israel.” Praise and faith on the part of the people will always be the result, when the effects of Christ’s redeeming power are seen. It is only an impotent Church that men scoff at. It is only because the Church has to some extent lost its power of working moral miracles that men treat God with indifference, and speak as if there was nothing in the Christian faith.
Fuente: The Gospel According to St. Mark: A Devotional Commentary
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EPHPHATHA is a Greek word and the King James translators retained it in the text, then gave the definition of it which is the same that is in Thayer’s lexicon, namely, “be thou opened.” Looking up to heaven indicated that he was looking to God for cooperation as he always worked as a partner with his Father.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mar 7:34. And looking up to heaven. In prayer, perhaps to show His connection with God the Father in heaven, over against the magical influences which may have been assumed by the people of that district; perhaps to affect the deaf and dumb man, who could perceive this.
He sighed. In sympathy, always felt, but here expressed; perhaps also in distress at the ignorance and superstition He would overcome.
Ephphatha. The precise word used, translated into Greek by Mark, meaning be thou opened (thoroughly). It is closely related to the Hebrew word used in Isa 35:5. The command was addressed to the man, as shut up from the world by the defect of these two senses.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Looking up to heaven and sighing were also acts intended to communicate with the man. By looking up Jesus associated the coming healing with God. By sighing or groaning He conveyed His compassion for the man and the fact that the healing involved spiritual warfare. [Note: Cranfield, p. 252.] Jesus spoke in Aramaic since this was the language that was common in Palestine (cf. Mar 5:41). Probably the man could read Jesus’ lips. Jesus’ healing was again instantaneous. Not only could the man now speak, but he spoke without any defect. Jesus’ elaborate use of means to heal this man would have minimized the possibility of magic and focused attention on Him as the healer.