Mark 7:31–37 | Jesus Heals the Deaf and Mute

Preacher: Joel Fair
Scripture: Mark 7:31–37

1. Ministry to the Gentiles - VS 31-32
2. Isaiah 35:5&6
3. Empathetic Healer - VS 33-34
4. Jesus does EVERYTHING Well!!! - VS 35-37

PNTC James Edwards
The presence of mogilalos in v. 32 links our story unmistakably to the Isaiah quotation. Since Mark is writing for Roman Gentiles, he only infrequently appeals to OT proof texts. On the few occasions when he fortifies his literary architecture with OT reinforcements, however, they are load-bearing beams. .... The allusion to Isaiah 35 is of supreme significance for Mark’s presentation of Jesus, not only because the restoration of speech to a mogilalos signals the eschatological arrival of the Day of the Lord but also because the desert wastelands of Lebanon (Isa 35:2) will receive the joy of God. The regions of Tyre and Sidon are, of course, precisely the Lebanon of Isaiah 35. Jesus’ healing of this particular mogilalos in the Decapolis becomes the firstfruit of the fulfillment of Isa 35:10, that Gentile Lebanon will join “the ransomed of the Lord [and] enter Zion with singing”! Salvation thus comes to the Gentile world in Jesus, who is God’s eschatological redeemer from Zion. As we have noted before, the only categories adequate for Mark to describe the person and work of Jesus are ultimately the categories of God. Once again, as in the story of the Syrophoenician woman (7:24–30), “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22).
Psalm 121:1-2 "I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

Psalm 121:1-2
I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

Acts 3:18-21 - 18
But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. 19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.

Tim Keller in Kings Cross
Isaiah says the Messiah will come to save us “with divine retribution.” But Jesus isn’t smiting people. He’s not taking out his sword. He’s not taking power; he’s giving it away. He’s not taking over the world; he’s serving it. Where’s the divine retribution? And the answer is, he didn’t come to bring divine retribution; he came to bear it.

Mark 10:45
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Isaiah 35:9-10
No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. 10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.