There is a story recorded in the Bible in Mark chapter seven, where Jesus put His fingers into a deaf and mute man’s ears, then spit into His own hands and touched the man’s tongue as He looked up to heaven and sighed. After this, He pronounced the man had been healed. This passage, very unique in it’s details, is one of the most misinterpreted passages in the Bible.  It is mostly interpreted to mean that, “God works in mysterious ways”, or even that Jesus is demonstrating an unorthodox “methodology” for healing that should be emulated.  I don’t think it is really that complex.

I believe that what Jesus was doing, was simply communicating with this man at his level.  The man could not hear or speak.  This story shows us that Jesus was willing to do what was necessary to be understood by this man — to be creative in order to effectively communicate with him.  He accomplished this by separating the man from the crowd and communicating through a type of sign language that involved the ears and the tongue, that He was going to heal him.  There would be no room for doubt that Jesus did what He “signed”, because the man was healed by Jesus!

Effective communication can be a challenge.  Think about it, to effectively communicate requires that both the sender and the receiver understand and perceive information in the same way.  When you add the dynamics of age, experience, culture, and education, one has to work hard at being understood.

For example, I remember many years ago when our son Greg (who at the time was about 7), was with my mother on the back porch.  They were keeping their eyes out for someone who was “on the run” from the police (who had been actively circling above our neighborhood in a helicopter).  From a description the police made known, we knew that they were looking for an “un-armed man, wearing a white shirt and blue jeans.”  After a while, we realized that grandmother and grandson were looking for two different things – Greg was actually looking for a man with no arms, because of the “un-armed man” description.  Communicating effectively takes work!

As Christians, we must understand that the most effective form of communication is love. Love will help us make the needed adjustments in our life in order to effectively communicate like Jesus did with this man. Each person and circumstance is different. When we love, we learn to change and grow in godly character.  The Bible says that love suffers long and is kind.  This means that love will cause us to retreat and be patient when there is conflict or suffering, and then love will help us advance in kindness.  It is between the retreat and the advance that we learn about each other, about ourselves, and about the Lord.  We learn how to effectively communicate and relate to others for God’s glory.

Today the Lord has someone for you to love and communicate effectively with.  Be ready to adjust and be flexible in order effectively communicate God’s love and the Gospel with others, and in so doing, you will become more like Jesus.