And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.
The setting is the return from Tyre and Sidon through Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee. The man brought for healing was deaf and had an impediment in his speech that made him stammer. Unlike His custom of healing by a word only, He took the man apart from the multitude, put His fingers in his ears, and touched his tongue with spit.
Before speaking, He looked up to heaven and sighed. The sigh expressed grief over the spiritual condition of Israel, whose ears would not be open to the truth and whose tongues refused to acknowledge the Redeemer. Ephphatha was an Aramaic word spoken as a command meaning Be opened.
At that word his ears were immediately opened and his tongue was loosened, so his speech was restored and he spoke plainly. Though He charged them to tell no one, the witnesses published the cure the more, declaring in astonishment that He does all things well by making the deaf hear and the dumb speak. The healing demonstrates His work of restoring the sick and disabled. Opening the deaf man's ears displays His greatness and compassion, and His attention to small things is an even higher proof of both.
The setting is the return from Tyre and Sidon through Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee. The man brought for healing was deaf and had an impediment in his speech that made him stammer. Unlike His custom of healing by a word only, He took the man apart from the multitude, put His fingers in his ears, and touched his tongue with spit.
Before speaking, He looked up to heaven and sighed. The sigh expressed grief over the spiritual condition of Israel, whose ears would not be open to the truth and whose tongues refused to acknowledge the Redeemer. Ephphatha was an Aramaic word spoken as a command meaning Be opened.
At that word his ears were immediately opened and his tongue was loosened, so his speech was restored and he spoke plainly. Though He charged them to tell no one, the witnesses published the cure the more, declaring in astonishment that He does all things well by making the deaf hear and the dumb speak. The healing demonstrates His work of restoring the sick and disabled. Opening the deaf man's ears displays His greatness and compassion, and His attention to small things is an even higher proof of both.