Mk 7:33    After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the man's tongue

This is in respect of a deaf man who could also hardly speak, who they have brought to Jesus. Now something to be noted here is that when we go to Jesus with a need, we must realise that we are not dealing with a machine and so we will not get the same response every time. Jesus deals with us differently every time we go to him because he sees there are different needs and different things to be learnt.

 

This time, rather than healing him publicly as he so often did, he took the man away from the crowd. Presumably he knew that this man would prefer privacy. God knows our particular needs and meets us at them. Now sometimes Jesus simply spoke words and that was enough. Other times he did specific things. This is one of those latter times.

 

Putting his fingers in the man's ears was like sign language saying, “I will deal with your deafness.” Then he spat, probably on his own finger and touched the man's tongue. Again perhaps sign language saying, “I will deal with your speaking difficulty.” What follows is that he looked up to heaven, relying on Father, and then spoke the words of healing – and the man was completely healed. This is an example of Jesus completely understanding this man and his particular needs and meeting him at the point of those needs. Jesus knows your inabilities and comes to you, as you are, to meet you in them.