Mark 7:31 Then Jesus left the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. 32 Some people brought to Him a man who was deaf and hardly able to speak, and they begged Jesus to place His hand on him. 33 So Jesus took him aside privately, away from the crowd, and put His fingers into the man’s ears. Then He spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34And looking up to heaven, He sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means, “Be opened!”). 35Immediately the man’s ears were opened and his tongue was released, and he began to speak plainly. 36 Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more He ordered them, the more widely they proclaimed it. 37 The people were utterly astonished and said, “He has done all things well! He makes even the deaf hear and the mute speak!” BSB
In the verses just prior to these, Jesus has left Capernaum and traveled northwest to the seaport of Tyre. While there, He encounters a Canaanite woman and heals her daughter as a result of the woman’s faith. (Her response is not unlike that of the woman touching the robe of Jesus). The scribes and Pharisees have been hammering Jesus on what is clean and unclean (i.e., acceptable and not acceptable). This Gentile woman is clearly unacceptable yet Jesus heals her daughter.
After this rather startling miracle, Jesus goes on a long walk heading about 20 miles to the north to coastal city of Sidon before turning back southeast toward the Sea of Galilee and the Decapolis. Both Tyre and Sidon were originally part of Phoenicia but by the time of Jesus are part of the Roman empire. Sidon, as you might recall, is where Jezebel hails from before she marries Ahab. It is also the home of the Temple of Eshmun, the ancient Phoenician god of healing. The Decapolis is a group of 10 (or more) predominately Greek/Gentile oriented cities that came under the control of the Romans in 64-63 B.C. Suffice to say that there was no love lost between the Jews and Gentiles in the area as Greek culture and Jewish culture mix like oil and water. Things came to a head in 175 B.C. when Antiochus IV, the ruler of the Seleucid Empire, outlawed Jewish religious practice and later defiled the Temple. The result was the Maccabean Revolt after which the Jews began to take control of the area until the time of the Romans. All in all, the trip takes Jesus through a number of Gentile dominated areas.
Although there are some theories, the truth is that we don’t know why Jesus spat. One explanation is that the magicians of the ancient world used spit as part of their show so perhaps Jesus is adopting this in order to reach the common man. Another thought is that Jewish thought considered spit medicinal. The problem is that this particular reference dates from about 300 years after Jesus.
Mark is an editor and is selecting the stories that best make his point. This chapter begins with the Pharisees accusing the disciples of being ritually unclean because they did not wash their hands prior to eating. Jesus replies that nothing that is on the outside can defile us by going in rather it is the things that come from within that defile us. It is our hearts that matter and not our stomachs. In the Old Testament, when you spat it was considered unclean (any fluid from the body is unclean if you come in contact with it). So Jesus could just be provoking them as no part of Him is unclean. (Spit will show up again in chapter 8 in regards to a blind man. Jesus also creates mud out of spit to cure a blind man in John 9:6). Mark is bringing these stories together to make a point as he wants people who have been considered unclean to accept the Jewish savior. In other words, Mark is writing to people who wouldn’t understand that they are also the audience of this message.
Ray Stedman describes this section of Mark being about the efforts of Jesus to train the disciples who as we see, just aren’t getting it. This would include spending time with Gentiles and even the miracles that He performs. Brother Ray goes on to describe every miracle of Jesus as being symbolic; a sign of something bigger. In the miracle we have before us, Jesus is demonstrating that there must be a healing in us before we can hear and understand the Gospel. The physical healings that are taking place during this trip may also be geared to counter the Greco/Roman mindset of thinking that the body is bad and is the source of sin and corruption of the soul. It is inconceivable to a Jew that the soul could operate without the body (and vice versa) or that death would be desirable as a way of freeing the soul from the body.