“Will We Hear?” – MARK 7:31-37

Mark points us to Jesus as a servant of men. He serves in His healing ministry (as in this passage) and He serves in His teaching ministry. One of His great challenges was to get the two connected.

So many were willing to go to tremendous sacrifice to receive His healing, yet they would not listen to the Words of Life. This was but one burden that Jesus carried as He served all men on the cross where He died. I wonder with distressed amazement how we could have been worth it to Him.

“He does all things well!” (7:37) was the response when Jesus told them not to speak of the miraculous restoration of hearing to the deaf and mute man. At His touch and by His heavenward request Jesus gave the man this precious gift (7:33-35). The truth be told, few of us could have kept quiet if we had witnessed such a thing as this. The miracle, it seemed, got in the way of His words spoken sternly to them (7:36). He had His reasons for making this request, as it was not yet His time.

The people had no excuse because they simply did not take the time to listen.

When we get all caught up in the “Jesus thing”, we are no different from these people. They had every reason to be amazed and astonished. They had witnessed His wonder. Centuries ago, Jesus pronounced a blessing upon us who believe without seeing. Even so, we fall into the same trap as those who saw Him in person.

In proclaiming the marvels of His miracles, we casually ignore the magnitude of His mandates.

We are so amazed at His suffering on the cross, that we will not hear His Sermon of the Mount. The power of His horrible death on the cross astounds us to the point that it keeps us from appreciating His soul-saving commission. So many are distracted by the “shock and awe” of Jesus, that His life-changing doctrine is overlooked.

The miracles are nothing without the cross.

The message is nothing without the resurrection.

The combination of these, however, lays bare our sins and our helpless situation as it simultaneously shines a glorious light upon the awesome power of His grace. We cannot reject the Servant Teacher while accepting the Servant Miracle-worker. Too many people try to claim His power while ignoring His preaching, just as the people who witnesses this healing went out and “told of it the more” (7:36).

If we are willing to try to have one without the other, we are willing to reject our Savior.