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the years I have had opportunities to counsel people over a wide range
of issues. I have counseled married couples and singles. Sometimes I
have had to deal with matters of fact and on other occasions issues involving
great emotion. Sometimes the counseling was stretched out over multiple
sessions. Typically, counseling deals with personal information and it
involves great emotion as the counselor connects with the person. Those
who come for counseling usually do not know what to expect and are hesitant
to open up. The counselor must be patient, compassionate, caring and
prepared to give a great deal of time in some situations. This study
is about compassion. It is about one who was very compassionate. It is
about One who did all things well - Jesus Christ. He was more than the
perfect counselor. He was the Healer of healers. The study is also about
a man who could not help himself. He was deaf and unable to speak very
well. Getting help in such a situation is very difficult. How did Jesus
communicate with him?
Background. The events described in this historical account occurred after Jesus healed the Syrophoenician’s daughter of demon-possession. Jesus had escaped the region of
Galilee in favor of the region of Tyre and Sidon in order to get some rest but He encountered a persistent woman, desperate to have her daughter healed. At first, Jesus seemed cold
and heartless. His disciples repeatedly asked Him to send her away, but Jesus didn’t. That was the first clue that Jesus was not unloving and uncaring. He was already at work
- a divine counseling technique. Jesus continued to ignore her for a while. Finally, He told her that she was like a Gentile dog and nothing should be done for her. Then she stopped
demanding, admitted she was like a dog, and was willing to accept whatever Jesus was willing to give her. Then Jesus healed her daughter.
After healing the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter of the demon, Jesus left the region of Sidon and Tyre and went to the region known as the Decapolis in an attempt to
get the vacation that He sought.
Again He went out from the region of Tyre, and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of Decapolis. Mark 7:31 (NAS95S)
Sitting on a Mountain. Matthew 15:29 tells us that sometime after Jesus arrived, He was sitting on a mountain, probably teaching, maybe alone, when two or more large crowds
arrived.
And large crowds came to Him, bringing with them those who were lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others, and they laid them down at His feet; and He healed them. Matt 15:30 (NAS95S) Most likely two different crowds came from different directions, having
learned that Jesus was sitting there. That means He had been there for
awhile. How long? We do not know. Jesus had very little opportunity for
rest and relaxation. This reveals his great popularity and how extensively
His fame had spread. People came from all over, and they brought the
sick and those with physical defects. The lame, crippled, blind, and
others came and lay down at His feet. We will see in the next several
verses that they lay down at His feet in order to be healed. Apparently,
one would lie down and after being healed they move so that another could
lie down to be healed. It was clearly an act of submission.
According to the gospel of Mark, a man who could not hear and could not speak very well was finally brought to Him. He is the focus of this historical account.
They brought to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, and they implored Him to lay His hand on him. Mark 7:32 (NAS95S) Someone cared for this man. The man would not have ever known that Jesus was in the region of Sidon, or even be sitting on the hill. He would not have been able to hear about
Jesus. Someone had to care for him and help him. Someone had compassion for him.
There is a story told about a man named Hugh Rudd, a newsman, who came home late one night after putting on the CBS late news. He was getting out of a taxi at his home on the
East Side of New York.
As he stepped away from the cab, four scruffy-looking youths surrounded him and said, “Give us your money.” He did. Then one of them took a pistol and beat him over the head. Rudd fell into the gutter, just a few steps from home. For seven hours on the fashionable East Side of New York, he lay on that street. He was semi-conscious. A whole parade of people went by: milkmen, people coming home from parties, people going out to work on an early shift. As they passed by him, he kept saying, “Help me, help me.” They would shrug and look the other way. His wife, worried sick, finally called the police. They came and found him at 7:00 the next morning.[1]
References:
 1. R. Kent Hughes. Mark. Crossway Books. vol. 1, 1995. pp. 179-180. |
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