Ephphatha!

John Prine tells the story that one Christmas after his divorce he and a friend took out his model trains and nailed the track to the dining room table – “Just because I could!” In such a spirit, as I was exiting Macy’s I passed by the Nike sector of the store and purchased myself a brand-new Nike tee with large Swoosh, 25% off – just because I could.

As the seventh chapter of Mark comes to a close, we find Jesus in foreign, Gentile territory looking to get some rest, but instead he ends up spending time alone in a house with a woman. Not just a woman, but a Gentile woman. And then heads off to the big Greek cities of the Decapolis, which are all temples to Greek gods like Dionysius, and whore houses, and who knows what, and they bring him another Gentile, a man this time, who is deaf and mute. At which point Jesus sticks his finger in the man’s ears, and then spits and touches the man’s tongue. Then he sighs, looks up to heaven, and says “Ephphatha!” Which, we are told, means “Be opened!” All this comes after his encounter with some religious authorities who had complained that he and his disciples were not washing their hands before meals.

And we need to remember the meal before the authorities lodge their complaint was for 5,000 people out of doors in Jewish territory, and after opening the man’s ears and tongue he has his disciples feed another 4,000 people in Gentile territory. These are big meals with a lot of bussing of “tables” to be done! Who has time to wash their hands. Besides, as Jesus points out with a word from the prophet Isaiah who had to deal with similarly churlish and adulterous religious authorities, is it more important to take care of the poor and the afflicted at the gate by sharing your bread with them? Or, to make them wait to be fed to make sure everyone’s hands have been washed?

Now he goes on to heal a Gentile woman’s daughter; spit and touch a Gentile man’s tongue; has the disciples feed 4,000 more gentiles. That is, he doubles down and continues to defile his hands - just because he could! AND, because what he was doing was the right thing to do. He believes the Proverbs, “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favour is better than silver or gold. The rich and the poor have this in common: the Lord is the maker of them all. Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of anger will fail. Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor. Do not rob the poor because they are poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate; for the Lord pleads their cause and despoils of life those who despoil them.” [Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23] People are free to make of this what they will in the midst of the various and sundry controversies of the day.

Yet, I have been long haunted and intrigued by his encounter with this woman in Tyre. For all we know, he is hiding out because he is in foreign territory and has perhaps run across a lone Jewish household. He is getting away from all these crowds, and who can blame him? It is exhausting work and we have already learned that one single solitary healing can sap him of much power and energy.

The woman is persistent, and believes or even knows that Jesus can help. And she is not asking help for herself, but for her demon possessed daughter. She is obviously willing to risk breaking with all social custom to be alone with this foreign man in this foreign household to plead her daughter’s case. We might note, Jesus is outside Jewish territory and inside a house. Not just any Gentile territory, but the territory of the descendants of numerous oppressors of his people going back to the time of Elijah and King Ahab and his Baal worshipping wife Jezebel, as well as the Seleucids, of Antiochus IV whom the Maccabees had had to route from the land. The woman, is inside her territory, but outside the social norms and customs of both their peoples.

Jesus is immediately dismissive declaring, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” That is, I am here to take care of Israel First before caring for anyone else. It shocks some people to learn that Jesus, the Christ in whom we sing there is not East or West, would turn away foreigners and label “others” with nasty epithets. And “dog” was as nasty an epithet as there was in the time of Jesus. Why does he say this? Does he recall that after Ahab and Jezebel right here in Tyre had set up temples to idols and foreign gods, the result being that Jehu led a revolt in which Ahab was killed in battle, and Jehu had ordered a couple of eunuchs to throw Jezebel out a window; wherein horses trample her and the dogs consume her remains and lick up her blood? Might that somehow have stuck with him as he looks at this desperate woman of Tyre? Is she another Jezebel?

Nevertheless, the woman takes it. She even owns this epithet and runs with it. Why? Maybe just because she could! “But kind sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs!” She knows well what it is like to raise children and the role of dogs in the household down to this very day! Jesus is moved. We might even say he has been opened – Ephphatha! Perhaps he realizes he has been acting like his accusers by considering this woman and her daughter defiled and unworthy of his attention let alone the powers of his Father that could heal her affliction – which is her afflicted heart that she has been unable to help her daughter on her own. He declares the daughter healed. And so is he. Thanks to this faithful mother, Jesus becomes Ephphatha.

I have often wondered just how this woman ended up inside the house anyway? And why? Later Mark tells us that there was a large group of women following Jesus and providing for his every need. They remain invisible through much of the story until we read in chapter 15:40 they are there at the cross looking on from a distance. And we are told they are diakoneow – we might say they are deaconing. This means, like all deacons in the history of the church to this day, they are charged with connecting need with resources to meet that need.

Might the woman have known to approach them? Might they have urged her to go into the house no matter what the results might be? Might they have sent her to Jesus because he, like the deaf and mute man and many many others he had already served, he, Jesus also needed to hear the word Ephphatha? Be Opened? We might well ask ourselves, who in this story was really in need of healing; of being opened? Who in our lives and in our time is in such desperate need of healing here and now? Who are those who despoil the cause of the poor and afflicted at the gate?

Maybe Jesus was just having a bad day. Or, maybe, just maybe he needed to be further opened to the full scope of extending his mission of healing and repairing the world to the whole world and everyone and everything therein. Like the women we are later told in 15:40 were always there decaoning day in and day out but don’t see, we don’t actually see or hear Jesus repent of how he initially treats this woman. But his actions, which surely further defile him in the eyes of the religious authorities, demonstrate that there are no boundaries for those who live in the way of the Lord who advocates for all who are poor, and afflicted, and waiting at the gate. One day may we all be opened – may we all become Ephphatha. Because we can. Amen