A Lenten Reflection
With a sigh
I love when a word catches my eye in reading Scripture....it is usually something I've read over many a time before, but in one particular moment, something makes me pause. A word, a phrase catches me, and I turn it over and over in my heart...pondering it.
Today, that happened...because the reading involved Jesus doing something I do far too often.....
Let's look at the Scripture in question: it comes from Mark 7:31-35. Jesus is brought a man who is deaf and can hardly talk, and the people beg that he be healed. So far, quite a bit like any other story of healing....and one expects it to proceed normally....Jesus will touch the man, and he will be healed, and people will exclaim and be amazed...
Jesus draws the man away from the crowd a little ways. I wonder what this poor man felt, what he was thinking. Did he have a desperate, hope against hope, feeling beating in his chest...wondering if Jesus could really do all that people were saying He did? Did the man keep a little of himself tucked away, trying not to be disappointed if nothing happened and he remained in his soundless world? Or did he have true faith? We don't really know...we're not given insight into what he thought.
Why did Jesus draw the man away from the crowd? The Matthew Henry commentary gives us a clue: "Christ took him aside from the multitude, Mark 7:33. Ordinarily, he wrought his miracles publicly before all the people, to show that they would bear the strictest scrutiny and inspection; but this he did privately, to show that he did not seek his own glory, and to teach us to avoid every thing that savors of ostentation. Let us learn of Christ to be humble, and to do good where no eye sees, but his that is all eye."
The verses of the healing come next; " After He took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then He spit and touched the man’s tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly." (Mark 7:33-35)
I've read this chapter before...many times...but today the words, "He looked up to heaven and with a *deep sigh*" hit me.
Jesus sighed.
He didn't look up to heaven and verbally pray. He didn't look up and praise aloud the Father. I do think the action of His looking to heaven was to acknowledge His Father, and to give Him the glory for what was to happen......but before the healing took place....He sighed.
He sighed.
Why?
I think He sighed because of the brokenness of the world; of a man trapped in silence and unable to speak clearly. That the Father's perfect world had been reduced to such a place where a man was born into a state of such. I think Jesus sighed with pity for the miseries of mankind....we are told in other verses that Jesus was moved with compassion, and I think it is His compassion here which causes Him to sigh. As we are told in Hebrews, He knows of our infirmities and is able to sympathize with us. He cares...as He cared for that man; and out of compassion and perhaps sorrow at the state of man's condition....He sighed.
I sigh a lot. Sometimes for selfish motives...when the pain gets to be a heavy burden. Sometimes a sigh is the only answer when I hear heavy news of a loved one, and there are no adequate words to express the sorrow and dismay that news can bring. And I often sigh when reading the news of the world....of the myriad of tragedies, and how cruelty and greed run rampant at the expense of other's very lives. When I see men beheaded and women sold into slavery...when I read of starving children. I sigh...because words are feeble and insufficient.
There are times I consider such sighs as groanings of the soul, and I am comforted by this verse, "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans." Romans 8:26
We sigh when we see pain, when we encounter broken lives, or are faced with things that simply make no sense to us.
When Jesus sighed, I have no doubt it was because of the compassion welling up in Him for the deaf and mute man before Him....and that compassion leads to the man's healing.
We're like that man...you and I. We have ears, but often they are spiritually deaf. We have ears but we hear not the Word of God, for we have filled them with the noise of the world, of sin, of our own condition. We have a tongue, but so often we stammer and stumble in our speech...for in our tongue, upon our lips, is the poison of sin. We are unable to hear God's message clearly, and unable to speak the words of life because our mouths are closed. Our hearts are not engraved with the Word of the Lord, and we meander in this world, lost and awkward.
I have no doubt that in compassion for us, Jesus very well might have sighed. He knows our misery.. He knows the ravages of our sin. We read in Isaiah 53 that He (that is, the Savior) shall be the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, thus He has compassion and sympathy for us. The Savior sighed for that deaf and mute man, and for us.
Behold the love of God, in that He gave His Son to be like unto us, to be acquainted with all of our woe, our misery and guilt, and ultimately of death. He came under it all. It is because He went through all of this that He can sympathize; He stoops down to us in mercy....we see the compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ.
As He opened the man's ears and restored to him the gift of speech, He opens our ears to hear His call and His Word, and He gives us strength to speak His Gospel to a maimed world. By His powerful grace, His deep mercy and the gift of the Holy Spirit He conforms us unto His image, making us a new creation.
And as He sighed for the broken man, He wants us not to give into the risk of becoming callous...our inherent sinful natures will urge us to become immune to the suffering around us. To train ourselves not to see those in need, to walk past slums and blame it upon the poor instead of being moved to help them. To turn off newscasts and say, "well, it's in another country, it's not my concern," when we should be moved to groaning sighs of the soul, praying fervently to God when we see such things.
A sigh can be a powerful thing; how much emotion does it convey?! How deeply it can go in us. When we see our own sin, let us be grieved and sigh in repentance to the Lord. When we see sorrow and heartache, let us not turn a blind eye, but in compassion, sigh unto the Lord, and set to help if we can. When we see wretchedness in the world, let us sigh in deep prayer, moved to compassion and woe.
He will not turn us, our prayers and sighs, away. He who made our ears will hear us. He will give us grace in our times of struggle, and in mercy, He bestows upon us His love. He who has suffered knows our sufferings; He who faced torture and death knows our fears. He will not forsake us, nor leave us broken and sin mired....He washes our sin away and cleanses us, healing us with His love and power.
So the next time you are flooded with grief at the world, do not sigh and look inward, do as Jesus did, sigh and look towards heaven; for our High Priest will hear our sighs and have compassion upon us.
On towards the Cross,
-Beth Haynes Butler
With a sigh
I love when a word catches my eye in reading Scripture....it is usually something I've read over many a time before, but in one particular moment, something makes me pause. A word, a phrase catches me, and I turn it over and over in my heart...pondering it.
Today, that happened...because the reading involved Jesus doing something I do far too often.....
Let's look at the Scripture in question: it comes from Mark 7:31-35. Jesus is brought a man who is deaf and can hardly talk, and the people beg that he be healed. So far, quite a bit like any other story of healing....and one expects it to proceed normally....Jesus will touch the man, and he will be healed, and people will exclaim and be amazed...
Jesus draws the man away from the crowd a little ways. I wonder what this poor man felt, what he was thinking. Did he have a desperate, hope against hope, feeling beating in his chest...wondering if Jesus could really do all that people were saying He did? Did the man keep a little of himself tucked away, trying not to be disappointed if nothing happened and he remained in his soundless world? Or did he have true faith? We don't really know...we're not given insight into what he thought.
Why did Jesus draw the man away from the crowd? The Matthew Henry commentary gives us a clue: "Christ took him aside from the multitude, Mark 7:33. Ordinarily, he wrought his miracles publicly before all the people, to show that they would bear the strictest scrutiny and inspection; but this he did privately, to show that he did not seek his own glory, and to teach us to avoid every thing that savors of ostentation. Let us learn of Christ to be humble, and to do good where no eye sees, but his that is all eye."
The verses of the healing come next; " After He took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then He spit and touched the man’s tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly." (Mark 7:33-35)
I've read this chapter before...many times...but today the words, "He looked up to heaven and with a *deep sigh*" hit me.
Jesus sighed.
He didn't look up to heaven and verbally pray. He didn't look up and praise aloud the Father. I do think the action of His looking to heaven was to acknowledge His Father, and to give Him the glory for what was to happen......but before the healing took place....He sighed.
He sighed.
Why?
I think He sighed because of the brokenness of the world; of a man trapped in silence and unable to speak clearly. That the Father's perfect world had been reduced to such a place where a man was born into a state of such. I think Jesus sighed with pity for the miseries of mankind....we are told in other verses that Jesus was moved with compassion, and I think it is His compassion here which causes Him to sigh. As we are told in Hebrews, He knows of our infirmities and is able to sympathize with us. He cares...as He cared for that man; and out of compassion and perhaps sorrow at the state of man's condition....He sighed.
I sigh a lot. Sometimes for selfish motives...when the pain gets to be a heavy burden. Sometimes a sigh is the only answer when I hear heavy news of a loved one, and there are no adequate words to express the sorrow and dismay that news can bring. And I often sigh when reading the news of the world....of the myriad of tragedies, and how cruelty and greed run rampant at the expense of other's very lives. When I see men beheaded and women sold into slavery...when I read of starving children. I sigh...because words are feeble and insufficient.
There are times I consider such sighs as groanings of the soul, and I am comforted by this verse, "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans." Romans 8:26
We sigh when we see pain, when we encounter broken lives, or are faced with things that simply make no sense to us.
When Jesus sighed, I have no doubt it was because of the compassion welling up in Him for the deaf and mute man before Him....and that compassion leads to the man's healing.
We're like that man...you and I. We have ears, but often they are spiritually deaf. We have ears but we hear not the Word of God, for we have filled them with the noise of the world, of sin, of our own condition. We have a tongue, but so often we stammer and stumble in our speech...for in our tongue, upon our lips, is the poison of sin. We are unable to hear God's message clearly, and unable to speak the words of life because our mouths are closed. Our hearts are not engraved with the Word of the Lord, and we meander in this world, lost and awkward.
I have no doubt that in compassion for us, Jesus very well might have sighed. He knows our misery.. He knows the ravages of our sin. We read in Isaiah 53 that He (that is, the Savior) shall be the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, thus He has compassion and sympathy for us. The Savior sighed for that deaf and mute man, and for us.
Behold the love of God, in that He gave His Son to be like unto us, to be acquainted with all of our woe, our misery and guilt, and ultimately of death. He came under it all. It is because He went through all of this that He can sympathize; He stoops down to us in mercy....we see the compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ.
As He opened the man's ears and restored to him the gift of speech, He opens our ears to hear His call and His Word, and He gives us strength to speak His Gospel to a maimed world. By His powerful grace, His deep mercy and the gift of the Holy Spirit He conforms us unto His image, making us a new creation.
And as He sighed for the broken man, He wants us not to give into the risk of becoming callous...our inherent sinful natures will urge us to become immune to the suffering around us. To train ourselves not to see those in need, to walk past slums and blame it upon the poor instead of being moved to help them. To turn off newscasts and say, "well, it's in another country, it's not my concern," when we should be moved to groaning sighs of the soul, praying fervently to God when we see such things.
A sigh can be a powerful thing; how much emotion does it convey?! How deeply it can go in us. When we see our own sin, let us be grieved and sigh in repentance to the Lord. When we see sorrow and heartache, let us not turn a blind eye, but in compassion, sigh unto the Lord, and set to help if we can. When we see wretchedness in the world, let us sigh in deep prayer, moved to compassion and woe.
He will not turn us, our prayers and sighs, away. He who made our ears will hear us. He will give us grace in our times of struggle, and in mercy, He bestows upon us His love. He who has suffered knows our sufferings; He who faced torture and death knows our fears. He will not forsake us, nor leave us broken and sin mired....He washes our sin away and cleanses us, healing us with His love and power.
So the next time you are flooded with grief at the world, do not sigh and look inward, do as Jesus did, sigh and look towards heaven; for our High Priest will hear our sighs and have compassion upon us.
On towards the Cross,
-Beth Haynes Butler
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