September 8 2024 at Saint Peter the Apostle Church in Naples, FL
Isaiah 35: 4-7 + Psalm 146 + James 2: 1-5 + Mark 7: 31-37
The route Marks provides at the beginning of these verses would suggest that he knew nothing of that geography or that there was something wrong with his GPS. It would be like going to Baltimore via Seattle and Houston. For Mark, travel details are just a way of moving the story along. What matters is the destination. Jesus is out of his own neighborhood. He has gone to the other side of the tracks, so to speak. He is not now in friendly territory among his own kind. His compassion and healing presence are in no way limited to a select or privileged few. The inclusiveness of the Kingdom cannot be ignored or dismissed.
The early church Mark writes for originally was struggling with the challenge of including people who were different, who spoke other languages, had other customs and different color skin. What Mark reveals here is just as important for us as it was for them, and we may not dismiss the Word of God and still claim our faith in Jesus who so easily ignores all borders and boundaries. He does not see them.
For those who first witnessed this event and for those who heard of it from them, their excitement is not hard to understand. As promised in the book of Isaiah, the Messiah’s arrival would be marked by the blind receiving their sight and the deaf being able to hear. What Jesus is doing fulfills this promise in a way that no one can miss. It’s no wonder people can’t stop proclaiming what he has done.
The whole point of these verses though is not the disability of that man, but the identity of Jesus as the Christ who heals and redeems bringing a new creation of mercy and wholeness. As the story goes on, more details reveal the human tenderness and compassion that leads Jesus to take this man away from the crowd. There is a suggestion of personal intimacy as Jesus he touches him, and by taking him away from the crowd Jesus saves him from embarrassment and the stares of onlookers. There is here a wonderful suggestion of respect for someone often avoided and ignored. Then with that, Mark describes a very real human emotion when he tells us that Jesus sighed. There is here a solidarity with human suffering that leads Jesus to sigh with distress and sadness.
All of these details clarify the identity of Jesus Christ as God’s presence, giving us every reason to believe that God knows no limits or borders, and that God still looks with distress upon any of us who suffer and with compassion on anyone who has been pushed to the sidelines for whatever reason. That personal relationship nurtured in the privacy of one’s trust in Jesus will save, restore, and open our ears to the Good News we find in the Gospel and open our mouths to proclaim God’s love and mercy.