Who is Jesus? chapter 22 Jesus Heals a young girl and Opens Deaf Ears.

Who is Jesus? chapter 22 Jesus Heals a young girl and Opens Deaf Ears. Our message today is taken from Mark's gospel chapter 7. When their boat had crossed over, they came to the land at Gennesaret. And the people immediately recognized Jesus and ran about the whole region to bring the sick people to where he was. And wherever he came, to the villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the market places and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched him were made well. Now when the Pharisees with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they criticized Jesus and his disciples for not washing their hands in the traditional manner before eating. Please understand it is always good to wash your hands before you eat. Jesus was concerned about needless tradition because The Pharisees and all the Jews did not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash this special way. And they observe many other traditions, such as certain methods of the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles. Jesus said to them, "You hypocrites have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!  For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what could have been used to help their father or mother is set aside for to God — then you no longer do anything to help your father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many other things like that.” Jesus went on to speak of defilement as to what is in your heart; "What comes out of a person's heart is what defiles him. For from within the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person." Jesus turned his back on them, and moved on - - - away from them. And after they had a time of rest, Jesus arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon, and entered a house and tried not to let anyone know where he was, but he could not be hid.  Immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of Jesus and came and fell down at his feet.  Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged Jesus to cast the demon out of her daughter.  And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”  But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”  And Jesus said to her,  “For this wise statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” And she went home and found her child resting quietly and the demon was gone. Then Jesus returned from the region of Tyre and going through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, the people gathered and they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a problem with his speech, begging Jesus to lay his hands on the man. So Jesus took him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting - - He touched the man's tongue.  And looking up to heaven, with a deep sigh Jesus spoke the word; “Ephphatha,” that means, “Be opened.”  And the man's ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly and could hear. Amazing enough was the fact that those who suffered, blindness, deafness and not being able to speak was viewed by the culture of the Nation, as a “Curse,” and it was customary for people to spit on them in disgust. Jesus used his spit to bless the man by touching his tongue and healing his speech and also healed his deafness. And the people were astonished beyond measure, saying, “Jesus has done all things well. He even makes the deaf to be able to hear and the mute to speak.” My prayer today for you - - is that your spiritual eyes and ears will be opened to Listen to Jesus for He is saying: “Come onto me and I will heal your broken heart, I will open your spiritual blind eyes and your spiritual deaf ears, and cause you to understand how much God loves you. Jesus will cause you to become a new and different person as you follow our Lord Christ Jesus.”