Mark 7:31-37

³¹ Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. ³² They brought a deaf man to him who had a speech impediment; and they pleaded for him to lay his hand on him. ³³ He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. ³⁴ Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” in other words, “Open up.” ³⁵ And just then his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke clearly. ³⁶ Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. ³⁷ They were astounded beyond all measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

private power

The Gospels give us scene after scene like this one—moments when Jesus heals, restores, or delivers someone, and then immediately urges silence. In this story, He even pulls the deaf man aside, away from the crowd, into a private space. It’s easy to read that as part of the “messianic secret,” but there’s something deeper happening. Jesus is quietly modelling how intercession works. When He prayed for others, He often stepped away from the noise, the expectations, and the watching eyes. He sought a hidden place where His attention could rest fully on His Father. And when He taught His disciples to pray, He told them to do the same—to go into the secret place, to shut the door, to let prayer be something real rather than something performed.

This private healing is a living parable. Prayer is not a stage. It is not a performance. It is not a way to impress others with our spirituality. It is a retreat into the presence of God, where the heart can settle, the mind can focus, and the soul can listen. When we pray for others, especially, we need that quiet space. Not because God can’t hear us in public, but because we can’t hear Him as clearly when we’re distracted by everything around us. Jesus shows us that the power of God flows most freely through a heart that has stepped away from the crowd long enough to be fully present with Him.

Lord, teach us how to slip away into Your presence. Draw us into the quiet places where Your power becomes real, where our hearts align with Yours, and where we learn to pray for others with the same love and focus that Jesus showed.