The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 330

written, "They bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech." II. TBm BI0Ne WBIOB THE SAVIOUR USED, 1. What these signs were. After taking him aside, he "put hie fingers into hie ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue." 'l'hese signs which he employed did in no way contribute to the cure be effected, and yet they were significant of what he was about to do. They were far from meaning- less manreuvres or purposeless displays of power. They were no empty make-believes. Our Lord meant to arrest the man's attention and excite his expectations. He did so with the impotent man when he said," Wilt thou be made whole?" He did so with the blind men when he asked them, "What will ye that I should do unto you?" and when he added, "Believe ye that I am able to do this?" He does the same in the case before us. But as this man knew nothing of the language of sounds, our Lord addressed him in the language of signs. He touched the parts affected to apprise him of his intention to reach the seats of the infirmities and remove the maladies. He put his fingers into the ears to signify that he would take away the obstructions that were therein, and open up the way for sound to enter-that he would penetrate every opposing barrier, and bestow a new acoustic power. lie touched the tongue with moisture from his own mouth to lubricate the stiffened member, to loosen whatever impediment confined it, and restore its agility of motion. Thus by signs he gave the man some indic:i.tion of what he meant to do. But by these signs he taught him another lesson. The second lessen was one of faith in our Lord himself 83 the Author of his recovery, as the Source from which healing power flowed, and as able to do all and accomplish all fully and perfectly which he had signified. A third thing, perhaps, he meant to convey was that he sanctions the use of those means which he himself appoints. Here the means are all bis own. His own fingers he inserted into the deaf man's ears; with his own saliva he moistened bis tongue. The power of healing is all his own. He can work without means, or against means, or by means; he here directs to the use of'means, but only such means as he himself devises. These he sanctions, these he consecrates, sanctifies, and crowns with success. Further, our Lord adapts his signs to the source of the ailment, and accomplishes a perfect cure. It might seem sufficient to insert his finger into the deaf ear without touching the tongue with saliva; and likewise, in the account of the cure, it might be thought enough to say "his ears were opened," without adding that " the string of his tongue was loosed, and he sp:ike plain." 'l'he touching and consequent opening of the ear would undoubtedly have reached the origin of the ailment, and cured the defect at its source; but there woulcl not have been a complete cure. The sufferer would only have been put into the condition of one learning to speak; but the cure, in the very mode of it, was meant to save him this trouble, and to secure to him the ability to speak at once. Hence it is not only said of him ill.r!l.u, "be spake," that is, bad now the power of speaking, but the term ~pOiiis is subjoined, from which we learn that, without any loss of time, and without any process of educating the ear, he spake correctly and normally, as if be bad been accustomed tu do so from his youth, and not as one exercising a power just bestowed. The distinction between the sense of bearing and the organ of hearing in this passage is noticeable: the former is asco¾,, and the latter o?ir11. 2. Symbolic actions. Another and a different symbolic action follows the signs we have been considering. 'l'he Saviour turned his eyes to heaven. Dy this time the Saviour had familiarized the sufferer to the use of signs, and 11ccustomed him to the language which they conveyed. He guards him against any misinterpretation of the fore-mentioned signs. lie turns his mind from those signs, as though by themselves they were in any way conducive to hie cure. He raises his thoughts to heaven, to remind him that all relief was to be looked for from thence; that the blessing which made the means effectual came from above ; that "every good gift and every perfect boon is from above coming down from the Father of lights;" that the power to cure in this case wa~ Divine ; and that, as the Lord from heaven, he himself had brouirlit that power down to earth. While, on the one hand, he showed that the power emanated from himself, he, on the other, hand, acknowledged the Father who had ent him to put forth such power. While he was manifesting by certain signs or one kind of symbolic action that power proceeded from his own person, he was proving by another kind that iu that person divinity was shrined; that "it pleased the Father that in him "-the Sou- S28 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO S'i.'. MARK. [oH. v11. 1-31.