Mark 7:31-37
“He took him off by himself away from the crowd.” (Mark 7:33)
In one way or another, we’ve all been the man in this Gospel. He was born into a world made dark by the silence and the walls that existed between him and the life he could see yet maybe never seemed able to enter. How often our own pains and crosses seem a barrier to entering the abundance of life we dare to hope exists but so easily push aside. But that’s often where comparisons end in this story. To experience pain on earth, of course we can relate. To find healing like this man does seems a different story entirely.
We might desire, even envy, such a healing encounter from Jesus. If we long for healing, it can be painful to read of Jesus healing another, with such obvious love and concern, and then look to our own lives and wonder where our own healing has gone. Is the same Jesus, who is never once recorded in the Gospels as refusing to heal anyone, the same one who hears our desperate pleas and secret tears? Unquestionably. While this man left Jesus a different person, hearing and speech restored, his greatest healing is left unmentioned, left for us to infer: the healing of his heart and restoration of his wholeness. No one leaves an encounter with our Lord without experiencing that kind of healing.
We haven’t missed out on our healing. We don’t have to live two thousand years ago to let Jesus change us. He is, and always will be, waiting for us to approach Him with his heart full of more love than we’d ever thought possible. It’s in this intimate, vulnerable encounter where we truly let Him see us. He breaks down all the barriers, all the facades. The love in His eyes negates any need for pretending. His look takes us far past trudging along or compromising on just being fine; it speaks deep to the need of our heart our eternal identity as healed, beloved, and fought for. He feels every ounce of the weight you carry that seems to get heavier every single day. And that pain, whether visible or invisible, known by all or never shared with a soul, is known by Him because as He’s healing your heart, He carries your cross with you.
By Maddie Garcia
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