Mark 7:34

And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.

And looking up to heaven - ever acknowledging His Father, even while the Healing was seen to flow from Himself (see the note at ), "he sighed" - `over the Wreck,' says Trench, 'which sin had brought about, and the malice of the devil in deforming the fair features of God's original creation.' But, we take it, there was a yet more painful impression of that "evil thing and bitter" whence all our ills have sprung, and which, when Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses" (), became mysteriously His own.

`In thought of these His brows benign, Not even in healing, cloudless shine.'

(-KEELE)

And saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. Our Evangelist, as remarked at , loves to give such wonderful words just as they were spoken.