He looked to heaven and said to the man, "be opened!" and his ears were opened and his speech impediment was removed. Jesus then ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them the more they proclaimed it. Did Jesus really believe that the crowds were going to keep silent following his healing of the deaf and mute man? Maybe the crowds might have kept silent, but what about the healed man? Was he also supposed to keep silent about his healing? What then would have been the whole point of his healing? How could they keep from proclaiming this man Jesus of Nazareth yet he had "done all things well?"
The healing of the deaf and the mute is integral to the ministry of Jesus for two reasons. The first reason is quite obvious. Jesus comes to restore wholeness – be it physical, spiritual, emotional, social, or psychological. The deaf and the mute thus become beneficiaries of this restoration to wholeness. The second reason is rather symbolic and somehow hidden. Inability to hear and speak was considered a curse in the society in which Jesus was raised. Human persons are created to sing the praises of God and to proclaim his goodness. Deaf and mute individuals are “physically” hampered from sharing in this ministry: they cannot hear (literally) the good news about God, and consequently cannot pass through the word of their mouth that good news. Jesus’ ministry ushered in the kingdom of God, a kingdom in which the good news of God's goodness is proclaimed. Jesus invites us to join him in ushering in the kingdom by proclaiming God. We can do that only if we can hear and speak. We have to be open to receiving God ("be opened") so that we can pass to others the God we have received.