by Dr. Lani Wilson

Good Morning! We must keep praying for God’s little East Oakland outpost and God’s world. Contemporary times have seemed perilous for every generation and our time is no different. We seek God’s presence in the struggle for those who cannot fight for themselves.

The word given for our consideration is deep. It is a beautiful word that has more meanings than simply physical measurement. Say it slowly and it’s almost calming. Deep. It alludes to something not easily observable.

God has revealed these to us by the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
I Corinthians 2:10 (NET)

What makes us think that we are privy to the “deep things of God?” Prior to the birth of Jesus the Christ, we weren’t. The priestly class and prophets were intermediaries between humankind and God. With the birth, sacrifice, and especially the resurrection of The Christ, all of us have access to God through The Christ. Christianity was not Jesus’ idea but founded on His message and His purpose, it is obviously something that we needed and still need. So…just how deep can we go?

He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, "Ephphatha!" (which means "Be opened!").
Mark 7:34 (NIV)

It has always seemed a little odd in this healing miracle to talk about opening a man’s ears to hear. Wouldn’t we say that one’s hearing was cleared or unblocked but ephphatha? To “be opened?” We open our eyelids so that our eyes can see but do we open our ears? No. And why would the translators be motivated to keep that Aramaic word, ephphatha from the original words that Christ probably spoke?

But he sighed even then; for he was touched with the feeling of human infirmity, and no doubt his comprehensive eye would take in the vast amount of misery, both bodily and spiritual, which has come upon the world through sin; and this, too, immediately after having looked up to heaven, and thought of the realm of bliss which for a time he had left "for us men, and for our salvation. Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. This word is, of course, addressed to the man himself; and the evangelist has retained the original Syro- Chaldaic word, as he has retained "Talitha cumi" elsewhere: so that the actual word which passed through the Saviour's lips, and restored speech and hearing to the afflicted, might be handed on, as doubtless it will be, to the end of time.
Pulpit Commentary
biblehub.com/mark/7-34.htm

There are only a couple of instances when we have the original language that Christ probably used in our multiply translated English version of the Bible. If one believes that even in its humanly imperfect translations, God, through Jesus’ Holy Spirit, speaks to us, S/He must have wanted us to pay attention, beyond just the obvious power of the story.

Then Jesus looked up in prayer, groaned mightily, and commanded, “Ephphatha!—Open up!” And it happened. The man’s hearing was clear and his speech plain—just like that.
Mark 7:34-35 (TMB)

Most translations say Jesus “sighed” but a couple (CEV, EXB, TMB, for example) translated that part of the passage as “groaned.” We will never know exactly what The Nazarene’s intentions were, but clearly, something about how He acted in performing this miracle is meant for our attention.

People were completely astounded and said, “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
Mark 7:37 (NET)

Jesus was in the region of Tyre and Sidon, Lebanon near The Decapolis. These two cities have a 5000 year old history that predates Jesus. The bystanders who said these things about Jesus lived in thriving Roman port cities. This meant that there were people from all over the Roman Empire who populated and came through the area.

hurstrobert.wordpress.com

In New Testament times, Tyre was the main seaport of the Roman Province of Syria and Phoenicia – a prosperous city with pagan Temples and twin harbours build on either side of a small island (see Map 8). The Roman settlement, to the south of the island, was constructed adjacent to the causeway linking it to the mainland, built by Alexander the Great during his siege [sic] in 332 BC. Tyre became part of the Roman Empire in 64 BC and was one of the first Roman cities in the region to embrace Christianity.
thebiblejourney.org

Clearly, there were all kinds of people in this area of Palestine and Jesus seemed to prefer areas where there was great diversity, the great diversity of the Roman Empire. Tyre and Sidon were also great centers for the trade of purple dye.

 

Apparently, Jesus would leave the cities around the Sea of Galilee and head north for respite with the disciples.

 

From Bethsaida, Jesus and his disciples travel north beside the River Jordan to the Gentile villages around Caesarea Philippi,
leaving behind the bustling activity of the Jewish towns beside Lake Galilee (see 1 on Map 9).
thebiblejourney.org, Who is Jesus?

And yet, in this great diversity, away from Galilee, Jesus finds respite. He was probably relieved to be away from the pressures of the plots of temple cult against Him. Still, His fame and deeds preceded Him everywhere and He heals the deaf/blind man and the Syro-phoenician woman’s daughter.

They use the words of Isaiah 35 [verse 5: Then blind eyes will open, deaf ears will hear], from a part of the book that is clearly related in content and style to Isaiah 40–55, which celebrates the prospect of God leading his people back home from exile in Bablylon [sic].
Daniel J. Harrington, America
8/28/2006, Vol. 195 Issue 5, p39-39. 2/3p.

The details of where Jesus healed, rested, and visited are important only in that they confirm that He really lived and walked the earth. What cannot be firmly established by science are all the deeper meanings of what He did – and what He means for us to do.

By linking Jesus’ healing actions to the Old Testament hopes for the redemption and salvation of God’s people, the words of the bystanders suggest that Jesus represents God’s kingdom in action. In Jesus, God is at work for the “poor” and shows his loving care for them. Thus the principle of God’s preferential love for the poor is incarnated in the healing action of Jesus.
Ibid.

At face value, we know that God says we must help the poor: Some say this means the “poor in spirit;” some say it’s the socio-economic poor. It is absolutely true that there are many who suffer psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually, but is that the deeper meaning of why God sent Jesus to the world? And what if you suffer psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually because you are socio-economically poor? Is it a chicken-or-the-egg thing? Are we making something superficial or are we digging too deep? Is tossing some money toward a problem what Jesus intended for us as Christians? Is it enough to give every Sunday toward the Benevolence Fund or the Food Basket and know that we are good Christians? Is our unpayable debt toward God through The Nazarene partially satisfied every time we volunteer for a program or a concert? What is the deepest meaning of Jesus’ sacrificial death in terms of what we do if we call ourselves Christians? In other words, do we really have to get our hands dirty and help the poor, whoever they are? Is dropping off a turkey or a casserole or a cake to the church at Thanksgiving before we go to eat our own feast among our beloveds the deepest meaning of what Jesus told us?

“What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?” "The one who treated him kindly," the religion scholar responded. Jesus said, "Go and do the same."
Luke 10:36-37 (TMB)

The Good Samaritan story is famous across cultures and millennia, and yes, the Samaritan gave money to the innkeeper and went on his way, promising on his return to payoff the balance for taking care of that victim of roadside violence. But first, he stopped his travels and got down on the ground to help the victim. He had to look the victim in the eye and then he got his hands dirty. So is the deepest meaning of this famous and beloved story that we must make sure we give money or donations, both good things, to take care of victims? Or is it that we must first get down on the ground, eye-level, with the poor of any kind and get our hands dirty? And why? Isn’t it enough that we give?

For many of us, it is uncomfortable to work with people who are in dire need, not just want, but true need. Many of us are just one generation from a level of need that we don’t really want to remember. We talk and joke about how we didn’t have material security growing up, but because we’ve been blessed to move out of those dire straits, it’s just history. And for some of us, it is always a reality that is not that far…maybe a paycheck, pension or stock market drop away. So it is easier and more comfortable to give money or volunteer at a church function or sing in a choir or serve on a board, all of which are not to be undervalued? But is that the deepest meaning of Jesus’ mission and message to us? Have we made it our habit to do in proxy what Jesus the Christ wants us to do in person? And just who is helping whom?

Jesus went everywhere and sought out all those unacceptable, low-class, impoverished, unclean, uneducated, crude, bleeding, coarse, ranting, crazy, feverish, poor, dirty people. And He washed their feet. And ate dinner with them. And sat on hillsides with them. And touched them. And bent down on the ground and wrote in the dirt for them. And put spit on their tongues and in their eyes to heal them. And put His fingers in their filthy ears to cure them. And He loved them. What are we missing here and exactly who is “them?” Is this not how we African-Americans were once (and given the tenor of the GOP Republican Presidential race, how we may still be) considered? How deep did Jesus have to descend to come for us? And are we His soldiers on the “battlefield for my Lord” if we do a few acts of “distant generosity” or are we cowards running from the deep trenches of real need out there?

Poverty among blacks has fallen sharply: In 1966, two years after Johnson’s speech, four-in-ten (41.8%) of African-Americans were poor; blacks constituted nearly a third (31.1%) of all poor Americans. By 2012, poverty among African-Americans had fallen to 27.2% — still more than double the rate among whites (12.7%, 1.4 percentage points higher than in 1966). But poverty has risen among Hispanics. Poverty data for Hispanics, who can be of any race, wasn’t collected until 1972. That year, 22.8% lived below the poverty threshold. In 2012, the share of Hispanics in poverty had risen to 25.6%. But the U.S. Hispanic population has quintupled over that time. As a result, more than half of the 22 million-person increase in official poverty between 1972 and 2012 was among Hispanics.
Pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/01/13/whos-poor-in- america-50-years-into-the-war-on-poverty-a-data-portrait/

However, there is a possibility that this data is skewed because of the way the census treats the incarcerated.

African-Americans, who make up around 13 percent of the U.S. population but account for almost 40 percent of the inmates, are significantly affected by these issues. According to Harvard sociologist Bruce Western: “Prison has become the new poverty trap. It has become a routine event for poor African-American men and their families, creating an enduring disadvantage at the very bottom of American society.” http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/01/overcriminalization-of-america-113991#ixzz41Aum876u

Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age."
Mathew 28:20 (TMB)

Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks. You’ll be-and experience-a blessing. They won’t be able to return the favor, but the favor will be returned-oh, how it will be returned!-at the resurrection of God’s people."
Luke 14:13-14 (TMB)

LORD, help us figure out where You want us to work. Push us forward to unfamiliar territories. Lead us back to the deepest of needs where we started when You came and got us. Open our eyes and unclog our ears for us to see the real needs of our people who are suffering more than ever. Give us courage and sensibility to get our hands dirty because that is where You are. Make us Your true workers and not just Christian window dressing. We have a lot to do.

Take us deep, Jesus.
Deep where you are.
Take us deep, Jesus.
Deep where you are.

Because where you are
Is where we have to be.
Where you are
Is where I have to be.

Deep river.
Deep with You
Is where I have to be.

Amen.