Daily Thought

Few passages are peculiar to the Gospel of Mark, but this is one of them. So, we might well expect to find a distinctive note here, a particular emphasis, which fits well with the writer’s overall scheme, as guided by God’s Spirit, and so it is. The perfect Servant is here shown performing a miracle using means at His own disposal, costing nothing - His own saliva. He performs it in seven stages:

• He takes the deaf man aside;
• He puts His fingers in his ears;
• He spits;
• He touches his tongue;
• He looks up to heaven;
• He sighs;
• He says, ‘Be opened’.

The sigh expresses the sorrows and problems of earth which the Lord felt keenly, the burden of the world’s sin which op pressed His spirit. The look expresses the resources and interest of heaven, for there is a heart in heaven that feels keenly, and the Lord Himself brings the two together. Similarly, when the Lord arrives at the sepulchre at Bethany, we read that ‘he groaned in the spirit and was troubled’; and of another look and silent supplication: the Lord ‘lifted up his eyes’ and said, ‘Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me’, John 11. 33, 38, 41. ‘To [God] fine language is as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, but a groan has music in it’, C. H. SPURGEON. As we find ourselves amidst such sorrows and problems, we too must enlist the resources of heaven; and in the actual dealing with such things, a simple look shows where the answer is to be found. Similarly, as the Lord ministered to the multitude, just prior to breaking the loaves, He looked up to heaven, Mark 6. 41, exhibiting a dependent attitude Godward. What worthy example for all of God’s imperfect servants! So, we read of Nehemiah’s brief, simple look to the God of heaven, and his silent supplication, Neh. 2. 4, in a spirit of mourning, 1. 4, and sadness, 2. 2. God hears our sighing and responds to our groans of supplication.