"Jesus Did What?!"

They brought to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, and they implored Him to lay His hand on him. Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva; and looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, He said to him, "Ephphatha!" that is, "Be opened!" And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly.
~ Mark 7:32-35

I have a very vivid imagination that tends to work overtime as I read the gospel accounts of the life of Jesus. I like to put myself right there where the action is. I'm in the crowd, right up near the front so I won't miss anything. I try to imagine the scene, see the looks of the faces, and hear the words being spoken and the murmur of the crowds. Sometimes I can even feel the mood of the people around Jesus - wonder, awe, excitement, hurt, despair, and yes, even anger.

I've put myself on the scene in Mark 7 before. I've been there as they brought the man who was deaf and struggled to speak with any clarity. I've felt that man's trepidation and the deep desire of those who brought him to Jesus to see him healed. They knew Jesus could. It was His season of miracles.
When Jesus took the man by the arm and led him away from the crowd, in my mind, I went with them. Jesus put His fingers in the man's ears (Without washing his hands?), and then spit and touched the man's tongue with the saliva (Oooo! Gross, huh?) I'd seen this scene all before.
But there is something here that I had never seen until today.

"... and looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, He said ..." With a deep sigh? I'd missed that before. Jesus let out a deep sigh, then He prayed and healed the man.

Now I know what it usually means when I sigh deeply. Usually it means I'm angry and beginning to lose patience with something or someone. Sometimes a deep, exaggerated sigh let's everyone know how superior I am to everyone else and how gracious I'm being to even give the little people the time of day. I sigh when I don't like something, don't agree with something, or decide to dig in my heels and be stubborn about something.

But I don't think Jesus' sigh was anything like my sighs. His was the sigh of a Creator who's creation was broken. It was a somewhat sad, maybe a bit mournful, even a little frustrated kind of sigh. A sigh that said, "It's not supposed to be like this. This isn't what My creation is supposed to look like."

I wonder how often Jesus looks at our lives and sighs that same kind of sigh. Even as He makes intercession with the Father for us, I can almost hear it. How often He must look at us with all of our issues, and the baggage we drag around with us, and say, "It's not supposed to be like that. I didn't make him like that."
People in the midst of the pain of separation and divorce. Lonely people. Sick people. Addicted. Homeless. Helpless. Prisoners. People hurting and causing so much hurt for others. It wasn't supposed to be like that.
I think we all illicit a sigh from our Savior every now and again. But then He prays ...