A Sigh of Grief and Compassion

There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man. 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 7:32-25

The prophet Isaiah foretold the coming of Christ in Isaiah 35: 5, 6 when he said: “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer and the mute tongue shout for joy.” So this miracle was just one of many miracles that proved that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. The interesting thing to me about this passage is the sigh that Jesus takes as he looks up to Heaven for power from the Father to perform the miracle. It could certainly be a sigh of compassion and grief for this man and all that he has suffered as a result of his iniquity. I however read it also as a sigh of grief and compassion for all of the unbelief that exists in the world, a sigh for the brokenness of people’s hearts as a result of being separated from their Creator, a sigh for the realization of what He is about to do to save mankind and to bridge the gap between us and God through His very own death on a cross. I find it encouraging through these stories that it is indeed in brokenness and in pain and suffering that we reach out to Jesus for help, even today. Paula and I had a horrible argument the other evening concerning a friend who is lost and broken and making choices that we had varying opinions on. The next day, feeling the pain and sorrow for words that I said to my wife that should never have been said and can never be taken back, I came to Jesus, on my knees and just wallowed in his unconditional love and grace and asked for healing of the brokenness of my heart that would cause me to speak such selfish words to the love of my life. It was only in this pain and humility that I began to understand again how much God loves me and how much He wants to interact with me every minute of every day through the power of His Spirit in order to protect me from losing my way in this fallen world. So, yesterday, I had the most amazing day with Jesus. I listened to his Spirit as I went about my day doing ordinary things and saw Him work in amazing ways that I hope to tell you about later on in this book. In addition, I had the most awesome conversation with my wife last night as I called her from Dallas – I was actually attentive and my heart longed to be with her as I genuinely missed the beautiful treasure that God has blessed me with to journey together through this crazy life. Bring to Jesus today all of your brokenness and all of your heart and he will meet you and you will be renewed in the power of His beautiful and amazing Spirit that lives inside!

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