Looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened"

 From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon.   And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.  For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet.  The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.  But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs." And she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs."  Then He said to her, "For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter."  And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.

Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee.  Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him.  And he took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and he spat and touched His tongue.  Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened."  Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.  Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it.  And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well.  He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak." 

- Mark 7:24-37

On Saturday, we read that the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to Jesus, having come from Jerusalem.  Now when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault.  For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders.  When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.  And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches.  Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?"  He answered and said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:  'This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.  And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'  For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men -- the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do."     He said to them, "All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.  For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and 'He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.'  But you say, 'If a man says to his father or mother, "Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban" -- '(that is, a gift to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down.  And many such things you do."  When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, "Hear Me, everyone, and understand:  There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man.  If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!"  When He had entered a house away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him concerning the parable.  So He said to them, "Are you thus without understanding also?  Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?"  And He said, "What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.  For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within and defile a man."

 From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon.   And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.  For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet.  The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.  But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs." And she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs."  Then He said to her, "For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter."  And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.  Christ travels north of Galilee, to a Gentile region.  He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, because as we read on Saturday, the Pharisees now begin to come to Him and to attack His ministry.  He is essentially withdrawing from them.  In Matthew's version of this story (Matthew 15:21-28), Jesus makes it clear that the "children" are the Jews, those whom He calls "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" to whom He's been sent.  Tradition sees in this story a deliberate evocation of this woman's faith by Christ's response to her; He reveals her humility.  She accepts her place beneath the Jews (the chosen people of God), but illustrates the New Covenant ministry to come -- she still desires a share in God's grace.  My study bible says that Christ's hesitancy wasn't a lack of compassion, but rather a conscious means of revealing the virtues of this woman.  (In Matthew's story, that also means to the disciples, who complain to Him that she is pestering them.)  A note says her ultimate acceptance by Christ also points to the gathering of the Gentiles into the Church after Pentecost, no longer as dogs, but as children who are invited to eat the bread of life.  It should be noted that the English reads little dogs.  In the Greek, there is a distinction between the word indicating "dogs" and this one used in the  diminutive, which more truly means puppies, house dogs -- those which would be insistently begging under a table.

Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee.  Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him.  And he took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and he spat and touched His tongue.  Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened."  Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.  Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it.  And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well.  He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."   Jesus' sigh, in this reading, is understood as a sigh of divine compassion for the sufferings of our "fallen human nature," says my study bible.  This passage also teaches us that we do good to others for the sake of obedience and love of God, and not to seek praise or acclaim.  One commentator, however, Theophylact, upholds those who disobey Christ in this situation, seeing them as a good example, that we should proclaim those who have done good to us even if they do not want us to.

It's interesting to consider the actions of "impediment" that we see in today's reading.  Jesus Himself acts as an impediment to the Syro-Phoenician woman seeking a healing for her daughter.  He tells her in Matthew's Gospel that He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  Here in Mark, as in Matthew, He says that the children should be filled first.  He says that the children's bread should not be thrown to the little dogs.  Historically, this impediment thrown by Christ to this woman has been seen as a way of pushing her faith and her persistence in faith.  When she replies to Him, assertively and cleverly, that even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs, He rewards her specifically for doing so, and tells her as much when He says, "For this saying..."  It is a sign, first of all, that like the historical figures of Israel, specifically Jacob, who struggled with God, and who was renamed Israel, meaning "struggles with God" (see Genesis 12:22-32), this woman also struggles with God.  It reminds us of the struggle with faith on the Sea of Galilee undergone by the disciples on two different occasions (see this reading, and also Friday's), when Jesus had set them out on a path with a fearfully stormy sea as "impediment."   In the earlier reading, my study bible stated that God allows challenges to our faith in order to build and perfect it.  We can see Christ's words to this woman in the same light.  She is forced to redouble her faith and persistence, using her heart, mind, and soul in replying to Christ.  Involved also is the love she has for her daughter.  When our faith is challenged, we are similarly engaged in a full-fledged struggle of heart, mind, and soul -- our energies, intelligence, persistence, and heart will be fully needed to meet such challenges.  In the second story in today's reading, the whole story is couched in language of impediment.  The man's mute condition is called an impediment to his tongue, and Jesus' command for hearing is a way of "unstopping" his ears:  "Be opened," Jesus says.  It's almost as if the things that impede are here in today's reading specifically in order to challenge and test our faith -- and so that Jesus can remove the impediments.  There is a sense that the energies that Jesus'
 brings into the world are those things that "flow" -- that get things moving, that bring healing and movement and opening.  The deaf and mute cry for impediments to wholeness be removed, the woman cries for impediments to the healing of her daughter (possessed by a demon that must be "removed" by one with the power to do so) be removed.  In the language of Greek theology, mercy itself is seen as the "energies" of God.  Grace is this energy.  This concept is understood as that which allows God's action in the world, and even in us, although we cannot know God in God's essence.  Christ's entire ministry is one of bringing God's energies into the world, merging them into our worldly lives, allowing us to participate in God's energy as volunteers who wish to follow His way and be a part of this Kingdom.  The energy of God is compared to a fire in a famous traditional explanation.  A metal object may be put into a fire and rendered hot and purified in it, taking on properties of heat and light, but it does not become the fire itself.  So are we in these energies of God.  This Greek word "energy" appears many times in the New Testament, but was not translated using the word in English.  In 1 Thessalonians 2:13, St. Paul writes that "the word of God . . . works in you who believe" (that is, by faith).  The word translated as works is the Greek word for energizes, indicating the action of the energies of God which are activated in us through faith.   In Galatians 3:5, St. Paul asks, "Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?"  The phrase works miracles can be understood as "energizing power" in the Greek and in the original uses again this root word, energy.  Once again, we note that this energy works through faith.  In the Greek original text, as we can see, there is a strong sense that God's activities, or energies in the world, manifest through interaction with our faith.  If we begin to understand impediments in life as those things we encounter in our struggle for faith which allow the energies of God to be at work in us, purifying and rendering us closer to God, then we will take on a very different attitude toward struggle itself.  We have to understand this struggle for faith as a positive opportunity for growth, stretching us, and helping us to grow in the energies that make us whole, healed, more fully what we are meant to become as beings created with the potential to be "God-like."  Let us remember the refining fire of God's energies of love.  They are at work in us, engaged through the struggle of faith.