A Closer Look at Two of Jesus' Healing Miracles

Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’ And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.’ (Mark 7:31-37)

They came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, ‘Can you see anything?’ And the man looked up and said, ‘I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.’ Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Then he sent him away to his home, saying, ‘Do not even go into the village.’ (Mark 8:22-26)

The two passages above are examples of the familiar healing miracles of the Gospel of Mark. What new things can we learn from them? More than you might guess. These brief stories appear to be simple, but if we take a closer look at the details, we can find a wealth of information in them.

For instance, the people who get healed are a deaf-mute and a blind man. What is the significance of that? It turns out that the types of people who are cured here are part of a prophecy about the Messianic age, found in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah said: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.” (Isaiah 35:5-6) Jesus’ healing of these particular people is in fulfillment of prophecy. Matthew’s Gospel sums up this fulfillment in the following passage: “After Jesus had left that place, he passed along the Sea of Galilee, and he went up the mountain, where he sat down. Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he cured them, so that the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.” (Matthew 1529-31)

Another curious detail is the use of Jesus’ saliva to heal in both passages. Why did he use his own saliva? If you read the rest of the Gospel, you can see that it apparently wasn’t strictly necessary for the healing. Jesus heals all the other people in the Gospel without using any saliva at all. In Mark 10:46-52, for example, Jesus heals another blind man without laying hands on him at all, let alone using any spittle. “They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here.’ And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart; get up, he is calling you.’ So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man said to him, ‘My teacher, let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.”

So why was the saliva mentioned in our first two passages? In Jesus’ time, saliva was considered by physicians to be a medicinal substance, useful in the treatment of eye diseases. Amusingly, the Talmud says that the saliva of the firstborn son of a father, in particular, has these curative properties. Jesus may not have needed to use saliva, but he may have known that the people he was healing believed it to be medicinal. The act of applying saliva may have strengthened the belief, and helped the faith, of the two men so that they would be cured. After all, faith is an essential part of Jesus’ healing miracles. “Go, your faith has made you well,” says Jesus to the other blind man. Perhaps the other man’s faith did not need any help.

Did Jesus use a magic word when he said Ephphatha? Accounts of so-called wonder-workers which were written after the time of Jesus, mention that lengthy and elaborate incantations in magic languages were used to accomplish miracles such as exorcisms. Jesus really cannot be compared to those people. He never used magic or spells. All he did by looking to Heaven and saying “Ephphatha” was simply to ask God to open up the man’s closed senses. It was God the Father who was doing the healings in the Gospel, working through Jesus. Ephphatha is actually just a word in Jesus’ language, Aramaic, translated for Greek language readers.

In both of our passages, Jesus performs a healing in private, away from the village, away from the crowds, then asks the people who were healed not to talk about it. As the following Gospel passage from Matthew shows, Jesus often asked for secrecy from those he healed. “Many crowds followed him, and he cured all of them, and he ordered them not to make him known. This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah: ‘Here is my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not wrangle or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. He will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick until he brings justice to victory. And in his name the Gentiles will hope.’ (Matthew 12:15-21)

Apparently, Jesus asked for secrecy because he did not want to be “known”, to be famous, or infamous as the case may be, for his healing miracles. Being too well known could bring trouble from the authorities, or crowds that were too large. Of course people did talk, and crowds and trouble came just as expected. The Isaiah prophecy mentioned above suggests that Jesus also wanted as much secrecy as he could get in order to delay the full and open proclamation of his true nature until he had fulfilled his mission, died, and returned.

The main point of the healings for the Gospel reader to understand is that they are signs of the coming of the Kingdom of God. The following passage from Luke’s Gospel shows that healing the blind was a sign of the Kingdom. “When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’” (Luke 4:16-21)

Healing miracles were visible signs that the Kingdom was at hand. They were also evidence that the personal claims of Jesus were true. When the healings happened, they restored sight and hearing to a few people long ago. As Gospel stories, they can have a continuing effect on people in the present day. Gospel readers past and present can easily see the symbolism in the healings in our passages. Men gained sight, speech, and hearing. Likewise, people who have faith in the Gospel accounts and in Jesus can also have their eyes, voices, and ears opened to see, speak, and hear the truth of God’s word. Our eyes may be opened to the truth in stages, just like the blind man’s sight was restored in part at first, then completely. God is willing to lay hands on us for as many times as it takes.