Mark 7:34 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Mark 7:34. And looking up to heaven,— Our Lord did this, that the deaf man, whom he could not instruct by language, might consider whence all benefits proceed. After this, he sighed. Perhaps the circumstances mentioned in the former note, or some others unknown to us, made this man a peculiar object of pity: or by the example of bodily deafness and dumbness, our Lord might be led to reflect on the spiritual deafness and dumbness of men; but whatever was the cause, Christ's sighing on this occasion evidently displayed the tender love that he bore to mankind; for certainly it could be nothing else which moved him to condole our miseries, whether general or particular, in so affectionate a manner. See more instances of his compassion, Luke 19:41. John 11:33. After this he said, Ephphatha, "Be opened:" which Grotius applies by observing, that the internal impediments of the mind are removed by the Spirit of Christ; as those bodily impediments were by the word of his power. He opens the heart, as he did Lydia's, and thereby opens the ear to receive the word of God, and opens the mouth in prayer and praise. See Critic. Sacra in Loc.