“Thanks for this good posting.
When I read that Jesus sighed, I relate it to Him weeping at the grave of Lazarus, and Him saying “Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem…” He so deeply felt the effects of the ravages of sin.
That’s just an additional thought.
Blessings”

This is feedback from my best friend and accountability partner. I want you to focus on one important aspect of his comment, “I relate..”. Relative meaning abounds in the Word. It was relative to him through the scriptures in a different place than mine. How we relate to any aspect of scripture like those two words, “He Sighed”, is a personal relevance based on experience. Neither relative meanings are truth in what Jesus was thinking or feeling in that moment. It is how we relate to the Word in that moment.

The scripture that I related to yesterday was Matthew 8:8-9 “The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.”

When I try to put myself in Jesus’ shoes I relate to that moment in terms of who I am and how I feel. That is what makes it relative meaning. I related to the moment through scriptures. This is the same thing my brother did and he put it so clearly and kindly that there was no hint of accusation. It is when we take those relative moments that are personal and insist that this is what scripture means that we risk offending others. We should never insist that ambiguous words hold special meaning beyond that which is personal to any individual.

Mark 7:32-34 And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.

Right there in the last of today’s verses Jesus sighed. It seems innocuous but it tells me something. It says to me that Jesus was asked to do something unnecessary, that the acts He performed would look a little silly, might lead to misunderstanding, and from His own person point of view He could just say “Be opened.”

Have you ever baulked at doing something that God is asking of you because it doesn’t make sense. I once hugged a man who threw a beer bottle at me. He collapsed in my arms crying. It was not the normal human reaction to violent behavior but the result was God at work.

Parents with a dying child are asked to roll and spin on the floor as playing like a child. Make sense? No but when they did their child laughed and was healed. The truth in any of these matters from Jesus on down thru to you and me is this one thing, obedience of faith is what matters, not whether it makes sense or not.

The difficult part in all this is in believing you have heard God at all, much less rightly. That still small voice can be very hard to hear when people are screaming at you. It is even more difficult to hear through your own tears.

You cannot be obedient to what you do not hear.

Be still and know He is God.