He has done Everything Well

In the scripture below is the account of when Jesus called a woman a dog and healed a man by what looks like giving him a wet willie. You know what that is, right? Where you lick your fingers and you go up behind your friends and stick your wet fingers in their ears. So, Jesus sticks his fingers in the man's ears, spits, and touches his tongue—very strange, right?

As we read through these stories, we should remember, Jesus was Jewish, and all this took place in a time and in a culture that can feel very foreign to us. Mark gives some translations and explanations for non-Jews to help bridge the gap, but still, this comes across as very strange, if not offensive to us.

We shouldn't let that throw us off, because if you can see past the offensiveness of the first part and the weirdness of the second part, we find a clear picture of how to come to Jesus and why Jesus is certainly the one we need to come to.

Mark 7:24-37
 24 He got up and departed from there to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it, but he could not escape notice. 25 Instead, immediately after hearing about him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit came and fell at his feet. 26 The woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she was asking him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, because it isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
 28 But she replied to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
 29 Then he told her, “Because of this reply, you may go. The demon has left your daughter.” 30 When she went back to her home, she found her child lying on the bed, and the demon was gone.
31 Again, leaving the region of Tyre, he went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decapolis. 32 They brought to him a deaf man who had difficulty speaking and begged Jesus to lay his hand on him. 33 So he took him away from the crowd in private. After putting his fingers in the man’s ears and spitting, he touched his tongue. 34 Looking up to heaven, he sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphatha! ” (that is, “Be opened! ”). 35 Immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak clearly. 36 He ordered them to tell no one, but the more he ordered them, the more they proclaimed it.
 37 They were extremely astonished and said, “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

GOING DEEPER 
Parallel, Related and Referenced Passages 
Parallel Accounts: Matthew 15:1-20 
 
1) HOW TO COME TO JESUS 

• Isa. 23, Jer. 47:4, Ezek. 26-28, Joel 3:4, Amos 1:9-10, Zech. 9:2-4 – Tyre as godless oppressor of Israel 
• James 4:6 – “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 
• Luke 18:9–14 – The Pharisee and the tax collector (humility before God) 
• Matt. 15:24 – “I was sent only to the lost sheep of… Israel.” 
• Acts 10:9–16 – Peter’s vision of the sheet with unclean animals 
• Acts 10:28 – “I must not call any person impure or unclean.” 
• Acts 10:34–36 – “God shows no favoritism…” 
• Gen. 12:1–3 – God’s promise that all nations would be blessed through Abraham 
• Rom. 1:16 – “First to the Jew, and also to the Greek.” 
• Eph. 2:12–13 – Gentiles once far off, now brought near in Christ 

 
2) WHY JESUS IS THE ONE TO COME TO 

• Rom. 8:23 – Creation and believers groan awaiting redemption 
• 2 Cor. 5:2 – “We groan in this tent…” 
• Heb. 4:15–16 – Our high priest who sympathizes with our weakness 
• Exo. 4:11 – “Who gave man his mouth… Is it not I, the LORD?”  
• John 11:25 – “I am the resurrection and the life.” 
• Eph. 1:19–20 – The immeasurable greatness of God’s power in Christ 
• Gen. 1:31 – “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” 
• Isa. 35:4–6 – The deaf hear and the mute sing when God comes to save 
• John 1:14 – The Word became flesh and dwelt among us