The Sighs of the Savior

Charles Spurgeon, et al.

(You will find it helpful to LISTEN to the Audio, as you READ the text below.)

The sighs of Jesus--brief yet profound--reveal more about His heart than many lengthy sermons ever could. They are not the sighs of weariness or despair, but of holy sorrow and tender compassion. In the space of just two chapters in Mark's Gospel, we hear our Lord sigh twice--once over human suffering, and once over human sin. Both sighs speak volumes of the Savior's perfect heart.

Mark 7:34, "He looked up to Heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, 'Ephphatha!' (which means, 'Be opened!')."

In Mark 7:34, Jesus heals a man who is deaf and mute. Before speaking the word of healing, He looks up to Heaven and sighs. Why? Because He sees beyond the man's immediate affliction. He sees the deeper cause--the brokenness of a world cursed by sin. Every disease, every disability, every tear, is a consequence of mankind's fall into sin. Jesus does not sigh in frustration but in sympathetic grief. He feels the weight of this man's misery, and through that sigh, He enters into it. Our Savior is not distant or unsympathetic. He is "a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering." (Isaiah 53:3) Every sigh of the suffering believer, finds a sympathetic echo in the soul of the Son of God.

Mark 8:12 tells us, "He sighed deeply and said, 'Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign?'"

In Mark 8, however, the sigh is different. The Pharisees demand a sign--though they have seen countless miracles already. Their request does not spring from faith, but from unbelief and obstinacy. And so Jesus sighs deeply. This is not the sigh of grief over physical suffering, but over spiritual blindness--a willful refusal to believe. It is the sigh of divine sorrow over hardened hearts. What pain it must have brought Him to walk among those who would not see, to preach to those who would not hear. Still today, the Savior grieves over unbelief--not with frustration, but with righteous lamentation.

What can we learn from the sighs of Jesus?

First, that He truly cares. He is not indifferent to our pain. The groans of a believer, brings sympathetic sighs of the Creator in human flesh.

Second, that He is grieved by unbelief. Let us not be like the Pharisees, cold and demanding. Let us be like the deaf man--helpless, needy, and ready to be touched by grace.

And how do these sighs point us to the cross? There, Jesus uttered His final cry and yielded up His life--not in defeat, but in victory. The sighs of the Savior were absorbed into the great groan of Calvary, where He bore the full weight of sin and sorrow. Now, because He sighed for us, we can sing to Him: "You are my hiding place; You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance." (Psalm 32:7)

Let us bow in wonder and gratitude before such a Savior--who sighs, who suffers, who saves!

"Lord Jesus, thank You for entering into our pain and bearing our sorrows. Forgive us for the hardness of our hearts. Let us never take lightly, the deep groans You uttered on our behalf. Amen."