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Hearing Affects our Speech
Hearing Affects our Speech
Jesus’ miracles were teaching moments. He used them to teach people about Him: His power (Mark 4:41), His authority (1:27), His compassion (1:41), and His nature (15:39). Further, Jesus used miracles to teach people about themselves; their need for mercy (10:47), their futile attempts to trust in man’s power to save (5:26), and their own spiritual blindness (8:17,23). One miracle has puzzled me for years. In Mark 7, a man was brought to Jesus who was deaf and couldn’t speak right, yet when Jesus was done with Him, “his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly.” (7:35). I finally understand.
Deaf people have trouble speaking because they have no standard for sound. They can’t hear other people’s voices, so they have no standard against which to measure their own. What’s worse, they can’t even hear themselves speak. When toddlers start to talk, they compare their words to the words of others and make adjustments. That’s why children raised by parents with a British accent grow up with the same accent. The sound of the British accent was their standard, and what they heard affected their own speech. Consequently, if you have faulty hearing, you’ll have faulty speech.
I believe this miracle in Mark 7 is an indictment against the Pharisees and a warning to the disciples. The Pharisees did not hear God’s word properly, and as a result it affected their speech. It led them to say things like, “Hey you need to wash your hands before dinner if you want to be right with God.” (7:5). Instead of listening to Moses, who said, “Honor your father and mother,” they said to their ailing parents, “Sorry, but I can’t help you; I’m giving this money to God.” (7:10-13). The Law of Moses was supposed to be their standard for hearing, but instead they heard only their own traditions which they put in an even higher place than God’s Law (7:7-9). Because they listened to the wrong standard, they spoke the wrong things. Hence, Jesus warned the disciples to beware of the teaching of the Pharisees (8:15).
What we hear affects our speech. If we’re deaf to God’s truth, our spiritual speech will always be askew. If we listen to the wrong standard, our words will be wrong because our words always echoes the standard we hear. If we grow up hearing we’re clumsy and dumb, we’ll go around saying that about ourselves. If we grow up hearing we’re unlovable, we’ll go around saying that. If we grow up hearing “there is no God,” or “God doesn’t care” or some other falsity, we’ll go around saying that. The good news is Jesus is here to fix our hearing so He can fix our speaking. “He has done all things well; He makes even the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.” (Mk. 7:37).
