+ 16thSunday after Pentecost – September 9th, 2018 +
Series B: Isaiah 35:4-7; James 2:1-10, 14-18; Mark 7:24-37
Beautiful Savior Lutheran, Milton
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
God delivers his Word in many ways throughout Scripture. We sing hymns rich in poetry and prose in the Psalms. The Lord is the strength of his people; he is the saving refuge of his anointed.
We hear God’s commands and promises from the prophets, like Isaiah: The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
Epistles, like James, teach and apply Christian doctrine for our lives. My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
Mark’s account of Jesus healing of a deaf-mute man is rich in prose, fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, and thoroughly doctrinal. Yet it is not a Psalm, a prophecy, or an epistle. St. Mark uses one of God’s favorite ways to deliver his Word. He tells us a story. The miraculous, sacramental, story of salvation.
Jesus returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.
Jesus is in Gentile territory, a route that makes little sense geographically. His motivation, however is mercy, not convenience. Regardless of territory, language, or ancestry, the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. For Tyre. Sidon. Galilee. The Decapolis. Milton. For you. And for the deaf-mute man.
And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him.
As this story unfolds, we wonder, “How can a deaf man hear the Gospel?” For some, hearing isn’t an issue. For others it is. I imagine this man felt like I do without my glasses. Lost. Lonely. Isolated. Afraid. Anxious.
A few Sunday’s back when the microphones weren’t working, we experienced a glimpse of what this man’s daily life. Without hearing we feel lost. Separated. This is what sin does to us spiritually. Apart from our Lord’s blessing, we’re lost. Yet in his precious hands, scarred and wounded, and in his living and active Word, we find the same life-restoring healing that Jesus brought to the deaf-mute man.
And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue.
Jesus comes to this man personally, as if he came all the way from the north in Tyre and Sidon to heal this man. He does the same for us.Who for us men and for all salvation came down from heaven… incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, made man, crucified for us under Pontius Pilate. Suffered. Buried. Risen. Ascended.
Just imagine the man’s surprise. For the first time in his life he could hear and speak. Afterwards, Mark states, He spoke plainly, most English versions say. Mark uses a better word: orthos. Orthodontist, straight teeth. This man had orthos; straight speech. The Church is called to speak the same way: orthodoxy. Straight, right praise in Word, song, and deed.
Mark tells us in a story what St. Paul declares doctrinally in Romans 10: Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. How can a deaf man hear the Gospel? The same way any of us can. By grace. The Gospel creates hearing where there was silence. God’s Word creates faith where we only had unbelief. Jesus opens once closed our ears, and hearts, and minds to hear and believe his Word.
Physical hearing can often be treated with medicines or technology. Thankfully, even if our hearing is completely gone, we cannot lose the divine hearing and divine speech of Jesus’ Word. We don’t receive Divine hearing and speaking from a speech class but it’s worked in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Hearing the Gospel and believing God’s Word is a miracle only God can perform.
Like the deaf-mute man, in hearing the Gospel we become different people. God opens our ears to hear his Word and our mouths to declare his praise to give a reason to anyone who asks us for the hope that is within us. That’s evangelism. We may speak the Word, but God performs the miracle of opening ears, hearts, and minds to the Gospel. It’s a miracle he performs daily, weekly; Whenever you invite a friend to Sunday School or Bible class or when our preschoolers hear God’s Word in the classroom and chapel time.
Jesus healing the deaf man is not only a miraculous story, it’s a thoroughly physical story.
Jesus put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. “Eww, gross,” we say. “How can spittle do such great things? Certainly not just the spittle, but the Word of God in and with the spittle does such great things.” Same is true of Baptism, our divine spittle.
Jesus joins his ear-opening, tongue-loosening Word to his physical creation. He opens our ears to his Word and loosens our tongues for his praise, just as he did that deaf man. God does this, not with abstractions, but with gifts for our senses; we touch, taste, hear, see, and smell that the Lord is good. Words in our ears (or hands for braille and sign language). Water and Word in Baptism. Words that pronounce forgiveness in Absolution. Words with bread and wine that deliver Jesus’ body and blood.
This story reveals the delightful surprise that God’s promises are as hard as the nails of the cross and as solid as the stone rolled away from his grave. As real as a finger in the ear and spit on the tongue.
And looking up to heaven, Jesus sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”
Jesus did more than open the deaf-man’s ears. He opened the kingdom of heaven to us. Be opened.
When Adam and Eve left Eden, it was closed. Paradise is no longer closed. The way is open. At Jesus’ Baptism and Transfiguration, heaven opened. The Father spoke: T”his is my beloved Son!” Jesus kept the Law for us, heaven opened. Jesus suffered the punishment of the Law for us, heaven opened. Jesus cried out on the cross: “It is finished”, heaven opened. The stone was rolled away, heaven opened. Jesus showed his hands to the disciples on Easter Sunday, heaven opened.,” You are baptized in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, heaven opened. “Ephphatha. Be opened.”
Indeed, "He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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