Skin in the game

The people have great faith in the healing capacities of Jesus:

They brought him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech, and they asked Jesus to lay his hand on him (Mark 7).

What ensues is dramatic and graphic:

Jesus took him aside in private, away from the crowd, put his fingers into the man’s ears and touched his tongue with spittle.

Jesus is not content with a simple laying on of hands. No, Jesus inserts his fingers into the man’s ears and remarkably, places his fingers on his own tongue and transfers his spittle to the man’s tongue.

Liberation abounds:

Looking up to heaven Jesus sighed and he said to him, ‘Ephphatha,’ that is, ‘Be opened.’ And his ears were opened, and the ligament of his tongue was loosened and he spoke clearly.

Jesus has ‘skin in the game.’ He is involved in this man’s life in the most vivid fashion.

No wonder the early Christians placed the Ephphatha Prayer just after the baptism of a believer. That prayer is a call to get involved, helping family and friends to receive healing from Jesus.

Have we got ‘skin in the game’?

Amen.