+15th Sunday after Pentecost – September 5, 2021 +
Series B: Isaiah 35:4-7; James 2:1-10, 14-18; Mark 7:31-37
Beautiful Savior Lutheran
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
As a kid I loved reading the Indian in the Cupboard books. Little plastic toy soldiers, cowboys, and Indians would come alive. More recently our family has enjoyed the Toy Story films or the Night at the Museum movies. The toys, characters, come to life.
Reading or watching that kind of story makes you wonder, wouldn’t it be something if the story and its characters came to life…if the very word you read or heard came to life?
Well, that’s exactly what’s happening in Mark 7. As this true story unfolds, Jesus opens a man’s ears to hear for the first time in his life. But this man’s ears aren’t the only thing opened when it comes to Jesus. In Jesus, what he says happens. In Jesus the Word of God comes to life and brings life. And not just to this deaf mute man in the Decapolis. But for you. Jesus comes to open and bring in a new creation for this man and for you and for all.
Then Jesus returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.
Before Mark gets to the miraculous healing, he drops a little hint of its significance. In the Scriptures, geography is almost always theological. Not only what happens, but where it happens is significant.
Jesus in the region of Tyre, Sidon, and finally the Decapolis. This is Gentile territory. Jesus is bringing his new creation, his good news, his salvation, his word that comes to life and brings life – to the nations. To all people.
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.
Imagine the isolation this man must have felt. A life without words. A life where communication was difficult, if not impossible at times. I imagine for this man silence was not golden but left him feeling terribly lonely and lost. Perhaps he longed for words to come to life in his ears and on his lips.
Thankfully wherever you find the lost and least and last ones, that’s where you’ll find Jesus.
And taking him aside from the crowd privately…After all, Jesus didn’t come to be a traveling magician sort of Messiah. Not to be a spectacle, but a Savior.
So Jesus proceeds. Like a good director, St. Mark deliberately slows down pace of his narration. Jesus put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. Sounds strange to our ears, but it was common for rabbis and healers to use a little spittle and physical touch in their care. More importantly, this whole scene is a reminder that Jesus is not afraid of his physical creation. He loves it. Jesus is the God who loves to get his hands dirty in saving creation. Jesus is a hands on kind of Savior. Just as he formed and fashioned Adam and Eve out of the earth and a rib, the Creator in human flesh puts his finger in the ear of his deaf man to heal him.
And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”
Ever wondered why Jesus sighed? It’s a sign of the past, Israel sighing/groaning in the wilderness. It’s also a sign of things to come. Jesus sighing as he breathes his last breath on the cross. A foreshadowing of the day Isaiah foretold later on in vs. 10 of Isaiah 35. A day when sighing and groaning will have gone away. A day when creation and we along with it, will come to life…all by the Word of Jesus.
Now in the Decapolis for this deaf man, that day has begun. And now, for you in Jesus, that day has begun too. The new creation has arrived. The future promise of eternal life has broken into the present in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
Jesus speaks an Aramaic word. “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” That’s all it takes from Jesus. A word. The man’s ears were opened, his tongue released. He could hear; he spoke plainly. In that man’s ears, Jesus’ word came to life and brought life.
Miraculous to be sure. But this is more than Jesus revealing his divine power. It’s the Old Testament come to life. What Isaiah foretells, Jesus fulfills. “Then 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.” These were messianic signs. Signs that the kingdom of God had come, the age of messiah had dawned, the forces of darkness and death had met the match and were defeated. At long last, the Son of David had arrived bringing with him a new creation in his life, death, and resurrection.
Signs that leads us to the greatest sign of all, the cross. But all of that hadn’t happened yet in Mark 7 in the Decapolis. So that’s why Jesus charges this man and his friends to tell no one. He wasn’t finished yet. He hadn’t breathed His last great sigh. “It is finished.”
The seal of deafness is not the only one Jesus comes to break. For on the third day, after all his suffering and rest in the tomb, Jesus had a new and better ephphatha to complete. Jesus came not only to open the ears of this deaf man, but to open the grave for all people. He came not only to loose this man’s tongue but to loosen death’s grip on you. To deafen the devil. To silence the grave. To mute your sin forever. To get his hands dirty with our sin. To be a hands on Savior with his outstretched arms on the cross. To make good the bad creation. To heal the wounded creation. To bring life where there was death. To open. In Jesus, the Word comes to life for you.
Jesus’ ephphatha is your ephphatha. His empty tomb foreshadows your own. When he comes again in glory with all his angels, with the final trumpet call and the glorious shout of victory, then the dead in Christ will rise. He will say the greater ephphatha to all the graves of his people.
When God completed his first creation he looked upon everything that he had made and behold it was very good. He had done all things well. When Jesus healed the deaf-mute man, the crowds echoed Genesis 1. He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
And what was said then will be said for all eternity in the new creation. “He has done all things well.”
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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