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Isaiah 35:4-7
This reading follows the announcement of judgment on the nations (ch 34) and a song celebrating the joy of the redeemed people of Israel by Yahweh (ch 35). The deliverance of Yahweh vanquishes evil. In Hebrew thought, evil is disguised in various forms: physical illness, handicaps, burned and scorched land without vegetation, sinful conduct, and death itself. Restoring life (water) to the desert is crucial here (vv 6-7; Isa 41:18ff). Aridity and drought give way to abundant irrigation. Yahweh’s strength brings new life to the physically impaired as well. This “era of grace” is more than a spiritual experience; it has physical results as well. The blind, the deaf, the lame, and the mute are major beneficiaries. Their restored health, coupled with the desert’s irrigation and fertility, becomes an eschatological sign. God makes all things new.
James 2:1-5
In this reading, James speaks against discrimination within the Christian community. A higher place should not be accorded to a person based on appearances, be it wealth or status, while the poorly clad person is practically dismissed (v2ff). The case is one of self-serving favoritism. The determining factor is faith in the “glorious Lord Jesus Christ,” whose singular status excludes all other considerations of rank or privilege (v1). Anyone who discriminates is judging by human and corrupt standards (v4), not by God’s norms.
Mark 7:31-37
What Prophet Isaiah sees about Israel’s future liberation is realized in Jesus as he heals a man’s deafness, a sign of the end-time’s arrival. The account is a typical miracle story, beginning with the general description of the illness (deafness, speech defect) (v32), the action of Jesus (v33f), and the completeness of the cure (v35). The itinerary setting (Jesus going through gentile territory, v31) alludes to the fact that Christ’s mission is for everyone.
Jesus becomes physically involved in the story (v33f). The use of such contact in healings would not have been considered unusual. The fingers were inserted in the ears, and spittle was placed on the tongue (cf. Mark 8:23; John 9:6). Jesus groans out of compassion, and his gaze goes upward in prayer. The word of cure is Aramaic, editorially translated. The cure is immediate and complete. Jesus again tries to impose secrecy (verse 36). This is part of the “Messianic secret” in Mark. The injunction to silence, however, is thwarted; the cure produces the opposite effect (verses 36f). The account closes by echoing the Isaiah text of fulfillment (verse 37).
Isaiah sees Israel’s future liberation as a healing of human illness, a restoration of wholeness. In the gospel, Jesus, the fulfillment of Isaiah’s hope, came to cast out evil from the arena where it held sway- in sickness, disease, disability, and death, finally putting sin itself to death on the cross. May we always be able to listen to him, the source of everyone’s salvation. Amen.
