The Deaf and Mute Man Loudly Proclaims His Healing

Julia Stankova, Healing of the Deaf and Dumb Man, 2017. Acrylic on wood panel.

Studies of the Nose and Mouth
Jusepe de Ribera
1622
Engraving
Harvard Museum of Art
Cambridge, MA
Public Domain

“O For a Thousand Tongues To Sing” from the album “Worship”
Composers: Lyrics composed by Charles Wesley, Music composed by Thomas Jarman
Performers: The New Irish Choir and Orchestra

“Counting My Blessings”
Composer/Performer: Seph Schlueter

Poetry

“Deaf-Mute in the Pear Tree”
by P.K. Page

His clumsy body is a golden fruit
pendulous in the pear tree

Blunt fingers among the multitudinous buds

Adriatic blue the sky above and through
the forking twigs

Sun ruddying tree’s trunk, his trunk
his massive head thick-nobbed with burnished curls
tight-clenched in bud

(Painting by Generalíc. Primitive.)

I watch him prune with silent secateurs

Boots in the crotch of branches shift their weight
heavily as oxen in a stall

Hear small inarticulate mews from his locked mouth
a kitten in a box

Pear clippings fall
soundlessly on the ground
Spring finches sing
soundlessly in the leaves

A stone. A stone in ears and on his tongue

Through palm and fingertip he knows the tree’s
quick springtime pulse

Smells in its sap the sweet incipient pears

Pale sunlight’s choppy water glistens on
his mutely snipping blades

and flags and scraps of blue
above him make regatta of the day

But when he sees his wife’s foreshortened shape
sudden and silent in the grass below
uptilt its face to him

then air is kisses, kisses

stone dissolves

his locked throat finds a little door

and through it feathered joy
flies screaming like a jay

The Deaf and Mute Man Loudly Proclaims His Healing

An opening scene in Disney’s animated comedyThe Emperor’s New Groove shows Yzma—the film’s villain—sitting on the Emperor's throne, pretending to be Emperor for a day. Yzma rolls her eyes at the peasant standing before her and says, “It is no concern of mine whether your family has…” She pauses. “What was it again?” “Um, food,” the peasant stammers. “Ha!” Yzma laughs. “You really should have thought ofthat before you became peasants!”

This scene—stripped of animated silliness—makes me wince. It strikes at something deep about what kingship is, and what kingship is not. Yzma’s cruel dismissiveness stands in stark contrast to Jesus’ mercy: true Servant Kingship.

P.K. Page’s poem depicts a simple, unremarkable scene of a deaf, mute man pruning his pear tree. He is able-bodied, though he cannot hear the birds singing. He notices his wife, though he cannot speak to her. The story of Mark 7 tells us that Jesus sees this man and heals him—however strange the scene of his healing appeared.

Over the course of my life, I have witnessed extraordinary miracles of Jesus’ healing. Yet, the testimony of one woman from a prayer conference stands out. As her group prayed for a man with advanced cancer, she thought:We should focus prayer time on big requests, like cancer, even though she quietly hoped the Lord would heal her of a hand injury that had caused years of pain. When her group finished praying for the man, she started to move her wrists and could not believe it! Her hands were completely healed! She rejoiced as she shared her story, reminding all of us there is no scarcity of healing available in Jesus.

I have my own wrestling matches with God in the midst of pain. For example, I have a knee issue which, on occasion, leaves me hardly able to walk. When I began to encounter the Lord’s miracles of healing in others’ lives, I cried out to Him in my pain. I have had friends, ministers, and even strangers pray for me over the years. The pain has not gone away. Yet, each time someone asks out of nowhere whether I have knee pain and if they can pray for me, I know Jesus sees me. And my goodness, how He loves me. It was actually some of these memories related to my knee that brought tears of gratitude as I listened to today’s song, “Counting My Blessings.”

Lent is a season to drop everything that hinders us as we run after Jesus. Much of what has hindered me in my own life is the resignation to endure things—both inward and outward—I believed were too unimportant for Jesus to heal. However, unlike Yzma and the peasant, King Jesus rises and flies down the throne room steps to draw near to us. His mercy has healed me in ways I could not have hoped for in my wildest dreams. Day by day, I’m being set free!

May you take heart this Lenten season and ask boldly of the Servant King for whom nothing is too small.

Prayer

O Lord, resurrect my hope by the testimony of your saints and the touch of our beloved Jesus. You have done all things well. You make both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak. For the timid places in me, wait with loving patience. Draw near, Lord, and draw to the surface those areas of my life you long to heal. Set me free to receive all you freely give. You are able.

Grace Shaw
Executive Assistant to the President
Biola University

For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, please visit our website via the link in our bio.