Jesus, Sighed

Scripture Reference: Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said, "Ephphatha," which means, "Be opened!" Mark 7:34

We know the story well.  Jesus takes a man with a speech impediment away from the crowd, as not to make a spectacle of His healing.  But did you catch what He did?  Something we usually pass right over without a thought.  But there is it in plain sight, "He sighed."

Yes there are many types of sighs.   Some of disgust, some of relief, some of expectancy, and even some of joy.  However this "Sigh" was a recognition of pain that was never intended, and of a hope deferred.  He knew it was never meant to be this way; the man was not to be impaired, the halt were to be whole, the love to never cease to overflow.  The Bible tells us He was in touch with our infinities.  (Hebrews 4:15)  The Creation was never intended to be inhabited by evil, so she sighs, yearning for the Garden.  Conversations with the Father were never intended to depend upon a translator, so the Holy Spirit groans on our behalf, looking for the day when Man will see God face to face.  Man was never created to be separated from his creator, so he sighs looking for home.  

When Jesus looks into the eyes of Satan's victim here, the only appropriate thing to do was sigh, "It was never intended to be this way." Our ears were never made to be deaf and our tongue not to stumble.  The imbalance of it all caused the Master to languish.

However in Jesus' agony, lies our hope.  Had He not sighed, we would never know He felt the burden of our infirmities, the things which were never intended, and we would be in pitiful condition.  Had He simply chalked it up to the inevitable or washed His hands of the whole mess, what hope would we have? But He didn't.  The holy sigh assures us God still groans for his children.  He groans for the day when all sighs will cease, when what was intended to be will be.