Commentary - Mark 7:31-37

Bird's-eye view

In this brief but potent account, Mark shows us the Lord Jesus continuing His ministry in Gentile territory, a significant detail. Having just ministered to a Syrophoenician woman, He now travels through the Decapolis, a league of ten Gentile cities. Here, a man who is both deaf and mute is brought to Him. The healing that follows is remarkable not only for its result but for its method. Jesus takes the man aside privately, uses physical touch and even spittle, groans, and speaks a word of creative power, "Ephphatha." The result is instantaneous and complete restoration. The passage concludes with the familiar "messianic secret" motif, where Jesus commands silence, a command which is promptly and exuberantly disobeyed. The crowd's reaction is one of utter astonishment, and their conclusion, "He has done all things well", is a profound theological statement that echoes the creation account in Genesis and points to Jesus as the one who brings true re-creation and restoration to a broken world.

This healing is a powerful, enacted parable of salvation. Man, in his fallen state, is deaf to the word of God and his tongue is tied, unable to offer true praise. Jesus, the incarnate Word, must open our ears to hear the gospel and loosen our tongues to proclaim His goodness. The very personal, physical, and almost earthy nature of the healing demonstrates God's willingness to condescend to our brokenness, to meet us where we are in our messy humanity, and to restore us from the inside out.

Outline

Context In Mark

This passage follows Jesus' sharp confrontation with the Pharisees over traditions and true defilement (Mark 7:1-23) and His encounter with the Syrophoenician woman (Mark 7:24-30). Both events highlight a key theme in Mark: the gospel is breaking out beyond the borders of ethnic Israel. Jesus has declared all foods clean, and He has ministered to a Gentile woman. Now, He deliberately travels through the Decapolis, another Gentile region. This is the same area where He had previously cast a legion of demons out of a man, who was then told to go and proclaim what the Lord had done for him (Mark 5:19-20). It seems that man's testimony has borne fruit, as the people are now bringing their afflicted to Jesus. This healing, therefore, serves as another powerful sign that the kingdom of God is advancing into the nations, fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies that the Messiah would be a light to the Gentiles. It sets the stage for the feeding of the four thousand, which also takes place in this Gentile region, mirroring the feeding of the five thousand for the Jews.

Key Issues

He Has Done All Things Well

The final verdict of the crowd is the central theological point of this entire account. "He has done all things well." This is a direct echo of Genesis 1:31, where God looks upon His completed creation and declares it "very good." The people of the Decapolis, likely without realizing the full weight of their words, are identifying Jesus as the agent of a new creation. Sin has brought deafness, muteness, brokenness, and disorder into the world. The fall has rendered creation "not good." But here comes Jesus, and wherever He goes, He reverses the curse. He brings order out of disorder, healing out of brokenness, and life out of death.

This is not just about fixing a man's ears and tongue. It is about restoring the whole creation. The sigh of Jesus in verse 34 is crucial here. It is not a sigh of exasperation or weariness. It is the groan of the Creator over the marring of His handiwork by sin. It is the groan of empathy with the suffering of this man, and by extension, all of humanity. It is the groan of the Spirit within Him, interceding against the bondage of decay (Rom. 8:22-23). And out of that groan comes the word of power, "Be opened!" This is the pattern of redemption. God enters into our suffering, takes it upon Himself, and speaks a word of re-creative power that makes all things new. The crowd saw it in a microcosm, and we who have the whole story know that what Jesus did for this one man, He did for the whole cosmos on the cross.

Verse by Verse Commentary

31 And again He went out from the region of Tyre, and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of the Decapolis.

Mark is careful to chart the Lord's geography. This is not an aimless wandering. Jesus makes a long, roundabout journey, going north from Tyre up to Sidon, and then looping back down to the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee, into the Decapolis. This was a league of ten cities that were culturally Hellenistic, which is to say, Gentile. Jesus is deliberately pressing His ministry into pagan territory. He is not simply waiting for Gentiles to come to Him; He is going to them. This is the gospel on the march, claiming territory for the kingdom. We should also remember that the last time He was here, He healed the Gerasene demoniac and sent him home to be a missionary (Mark 5:20). Jesus is now returning to a mission field that has been prepared by testimony.

32 And they brought to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, and they pleaded with Him to lay His hand on him.

The fruit of the previous mission is seen here. "They" brought him. A community of people, having heard of Jesus, likely from the man formerly known as Legion, now acts in faith. They bring a man with a severe condition. He was deaf, and as a result, he had a speech impediment. The word mogilalon means he could make sounds, but not speak plainly. His deafness cut him off from the world of communication, and his speech impediment cut him off from expressing himself. He is a picture of profound isolation. Their request is simple and full of faith: they just want Jesus to lay His hand on him. They believe His touch is sufficient.

33 And Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue;

Jesus' method here is strikingly personal and physical. First, He separates the man from the crowd. This is an act of kindness. He is not making a public spectacle of this man's need, but dealing with him intimately. Then comes the physical actions. He puts His fingers in the man's ears, a clear sign language communicating, "I am going to deal with your deafness." Then He spits and touches the man's tongue. In our sanitized age, this seems strange, but in the ancient world, saliva was sometimes thought to have medicinal properties. But that is not the point. Jesus does not need props. He is communicating with a man who cannot hear words. He is using touch to build a bridge of faith and understanding. This is the incarnation in miniature: the holy God condescends to our physical, messy reality to bring healing.

34 and looking up to heaven with a sigh, He said to him, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be opened!”

Three things happen here. First, Jesus looks up to heaven, showing His complete dependence on and communion with His Father. He is acting as the Father's agent. Second, He sighed, or groaned. This is a deep, visceral reaction to the brokenness of the world. He sees this man, deaf and mute, as a casualty in a cosmic war, a victim of the fall. His sigh is a sigh of holy grief and righteous anger against sin and its consequences. It is the Creator groaning over His marred creation. Third, He speaks. Mark preserves the original Aramaic word, Ephphatha, which adds a sense of immediacy and authenticity to the account. This is not a magic incantation; it is a word of sovereign, creative power. Just as God said "Let there be light," Jesus says "Be opened."

35 And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly.

The result is immediate and complete. The Greek is emphatic. His ears were opened. The "bond" or "chain" of his tongue was loosed. And he began to speak plainly, or correctly. This was not a gradual recovery. He did not need speech therapy. The healing was total. The one who was isolated is now brought into the world of sound and communication. The one whose tongue was bound can now speak. And what do you suppose he spoke? We are not told, but it is not hard to imagine that his first words were words of praise. This is a picture of what Christ does for every sinner. He opens our ears to hear the gospel and loosens our tongues to sing His praise.

36 And He gave them orders not to tell anyone; but the more He was ordering them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it.

Here we have the so called "messianic secret" again. Jesus commands them, the man and those who brought him, to keep it quiet. Why? Because His timing was not yet complete. He did not want to be known primarily as a miracle worker, which would stir up the wrong kind of political, messianic fervor. He was on a trajectory to the cross, not to an earthly throne. But the command is spectacularly disobeyed. Their joy and astonishment cannot be contained. The more He insists on silence, the more they become irrepressible town criers for the kingdom. This is a wonderful, sanctified disobedience born of overwhelming gratitude. When you have been truly touched by the grace of God, keeping quiet is not really an option.

37 And they were utterly astonished, saying, “He has done all things well; He makes even the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

The crowd's reaction is not just surprise; it is astonishment "beyond all measure." They are completely overwhelmed. And their astonishment leads them to a profound theological conclusion. "He has done all things well." As noted before, this links Jesus' work to God's original work of creation. They are saying that this man's work has the same quality as God's work. They then specify the miracle, fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 35:5-6, "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy." They were witnessing the signs of the messianic age, the great restoration, breaking into their world through the person of Jesus Christ.

Application

This passage is a beautiful portrait of the gospel. Like the man in the Decapolis, we are all born spiritually deaf and mute. We cannot hear the voice of God, and our tongues are tied by sin, unable to offer true praise. We are isolated from God and from one another. The world cannot heal us; our friends and family, for all their good intentions, can only do what these people did: bring us to Jesus. And what does Jesus do? He deals with us personally. He does not save us in a faceless crowd, but takes us aside.

He meets us in our messy, physical reality. The gospel is not an abstract philosophy; it is about the Word becoming flesh. He touches our uncleanness and is not defiled, but rather makes us clean. He groans over our broken state, demonstrating a compassion that is not detached pity but a deep, personal entering into our sorrow. And then He speaks a word of power. He does not suggest or recommend; He commands. "Be opened!" And when Christ speaks, deaf ears are opened to the truth of the gospel, and tied tongues are loosed to confess that Jesus is Lord and to sing His praises. Our response should be like that of the crowd. We should be utterly astonished at the grace of God in our lives, and this astonishment should overflow into proclamation, even if the world tells us to be quiet about it. We must declare to all who will listen the glorious truth that our Lord, Jesus Christ, has indeed done all things well.