Ephphatha

Observe. People bring Jesus a man who is deaf and can hardly talk, and beg him to lay a hand on him. Jesus takes the man aside, away from the crowd. He puts his fingers in the man's ears, spits, touches his tongue, looks up to heaven, sighs deeply, and says one Aramaic word, Ephphatha, which Mark translates: be opened. The man's ears open, his tongue is loosened, and he speaks plainly. Jesus orders silence; the people cannot keep it.

Interpret. Nothing in this method was necessary. Jesus healed at a distance the day before. The touch, the spit, the fingers, the upward look, and the sigh are for the man, who cannot hear a word of explanation. Jesus speaks to him in the only language he has, touch and gesture, telling him where the healing will happen and where it comes from. The deep sigh may be grief at what sin and sickness have done to a creature made to hear.

Apply. Jesus meets people in the language they can receive, and he is not hurried about it. Where have you assumed that God can only reach you through the channels you find comfortable? Who in your life needs to be taken aside and spoken to in a way they can actually take in, rather than talked at? And what part of you has been closed that you might ask him, in one word, to open?