Yesterday, cancer took another young person, and my heart just breaks for her family. As I was considering the weight of this heavy matter, a passage from Mark’s gospel came to mind. Let me share it with you:
32. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33. And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. 34. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35. And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. (Mark 7:32-35)
There are several wonderful things we can learn about our Savior in this passage, but I want to focus on one thing that is easy to overlook. Verse 34 says “He looked up to heaven, he sighed…” now stop right there for moment. He sighed? Why did he do that? Did this miracle take more energy or effort than others? Was this miracle harder for Jesus to perform? We know that cannot be, so clearly there is more. Here we see Jesus revealing his heart for a broken and fallen world. Jesus knows how it was in the beginning. This holy sigh came straight from the heart of God and was an expression of deep sorrow and anger at the effects of the Fall in this world. Disease and sickness are results of sin. Now let’s be careful. The Bible is not saying a person’s sin and their sickness are always directly related. Jesus himself tells us in John 9 the man was not made blind because of his sin or his parents’ sin, but that the glory of God might be shown in the healing. The point remains: Jesus’ heart breaks because sin has broken this world.
The good news is, like many other miracles, this is also prophesy. This is a glimpse of what Jesus will do when He returns: He will make ALL things right. There will be a day when we our eyes and ears will be opened, and we will see Him as He is. There will be no more sickness, no more disease, no more cancer, and most importantly, no more sin.
but joy comes with the morning.
I thank God for using you in His Kingdom.