A HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS

KK. Christ’s Help To The Very Needy

(Matthew 15:29-38; Mark 7:31-8:9a)

I. Introduction

A. Hostility from Israel’s religious leaders had led Jesus to go north to Phoenicia, so when He left there, He still kept away from the religious leaders by going southeast to Decapolis east of the Sea of Galilee that was highly populated by Gentiles, Mark 7:31 (J. D. Pentecost, The Words and Works of Jesus Christ, 1991, p. 243-245).

B. The plight of the spiritually needy people of highly Gentile orientation in Decapolis was at least as great if not greater than that of Israel’s Hebrews, and Jesus graciously provided great help to its very needy people group.

C. We view His ministry in Decapolis in Matthew 15:21-28 and Mark 7:24-30 for our insight and application:

II. Christ’s Help To The Very Needy, Matthew 15:29-38; Mark 7:31-8:9a.

A. Jesus helped a very needy deaf and dumb man in Decapolis, Mark 7:31-37:

1. The crowd brought to Jesus a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, Mark 7:31-32a.

2. They asked Jesus to put His hand on the man to heal him (Mark 7:32b).

3. However, Christ ministered to people who believed in Him and in His ability to heal them, for without faith, it is impossible to please God, cf. Hebrews 11:6. For this reason, Jesus sought to communicate to the man what He was able to do that the man might believe in Jesus for healing, and to communicate to a deaf man with a speech impediment, Jesus used of a form of sign language, Mark 7:33-34:

a. First, Christ took the man away from the crowd so he could focus on what Jesus was doing, Mark 7:33a.

b. Next, Jesus put His fingers into the man’s ears, signaling He would open his ears so he might hear, v. 33b.

c. Third, Christ spat, a signal of rejection, and touched the man’s tongue, signaling that He was able to remove the man’s unwanted speech impediment so that he could speak, Mark 7:33c.

d. Fourth, Jesus looked up to heaven, signaling to the man that He was going to address the man’s hearing and speech problems with the power of God Who resides in heaven, Mark 7:34a.

e. Fifth, Jesus visibly sighed, showing the afflicted man that He sympathized with his suffering, and that God in heaven was going to correct his hearing and speech problems in His merciful kindness, Mark 7:34b.

f. Sixth, Jesus spoke a word that the man could easily lip-read, saying in Aramaic, the language of post-exilic Israel, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be completely opened,” M.k 7:34c (Bib. Know. Com., N. T., p. 136).

4. The man understood and believed Jesus, so his ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed and he spoke plainly, Mark 7:35. Jesus charged the crowd to tell no one about the healing, but the crowd only spread news of the deed, marveling that Jesus made the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak, Mark 7:36-37.

B. Jesus then helped many other infirmed people who were brought to Him in the Decapolis area, Matt. 15:29-31.

C. Jesus helped a very hungry Decapolis crowd that had been with Him for three days without food, Mark 8:1-9a:

1. The crowds around Jesus were so impressed with His ministry that they had gone without food for three days, and Christ was concerned about their physical welfare since some of them had come from a great distance, and were He to dismiss them without food, they would faint on their way back home, Mk. 8:1-3.

2. Christ’s disciples asked Him where anyone could obtain food for the people since they were in a wilderness area away from any adequate food supply, Mark 8:4. The disciples had apparently forgotten the significance and lesson of Christ’s past miracle of His feeding of the five thousand, cf. Mark 6:30-44.

3. Jesus asked them how many loaves of bread they had, and when they replied that they had seven loaves, Christ ordered that the people were to sit on the ground. He then took the loaves, He gave thanks, He broke them and He then gave them to His disciples who in turn distributed them to the people, Mark 8:5-6.

4. The disciples also had a few small fish, so Jesus gave a blessing for them and gave them to the crowd, v. 7.

5. The 4,000 men besides women and children ate and were filled, and the disciples picked up seven baskets of leftovers, the word for “baskets” being a large basket used for letting the Apostle Paul down over the wall of Damascus in Acts 9:25 (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Mark 8:8-9a; Matthew 15:38). The leftovers from this feeding were likely greater than the leftovers from the feeding of the five thousand.

Lesson: When confronted by a very needy deaf and dumb man in largely Gentile Decapolis, Jesus ministered with sign language to teach him to believe in God’s healing to minister to his welfare. Christ then helped many other of the physically impaired and thousands of very hungry people in that largely Gentile realm of Decapolis.

Application: May we trust Christ’s gracious willingness and power to help anyone anywhere who is in great need.