“O Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall declare Your praise.”  These words from Psalm 51:15 are the opening words to Matins and Vespers service.  Each Friday in our chapel service at Zion Christian School, we start with these words. And powerful words they are, a prayer that God would open up our mouths.  The Lord must open up our mouths in order for us to declare His praise.  But before we can speak of God’s praise, we must first know it, experience it, hear it.

Consider our Gospel reading for this morning from Mark 7.  Here is recorded the account of Jesus healing a deaf and mute man.   This account is one of the most stunning of all Jesus’ miracles, fulfilling the promises of God over 700 years earlier through the prophet Isaiah.  This isn’t just any miracle, but this is a sign from God that this Jesus is the one who comes to restore a broken creation.  Jesus took the man aside, He put His fingers in the man’s ears, and after spitting touched His tongue.  And looking up to heaven, He sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”  Here was a man who could not hear Jesus’ Word and could not confess His name, so Jesus made the man receptive to His Word and able to bear witness.

Many people are a thousand times worse off than this poor deaf and mute man.  They have ears that are really stopped up.  They hear God's Word and yet really do not hear it, nor do they want to.  Spiritually, we have no sight, hearing, speech or other abilities. We are dead in our sins. However, like the deaf-mute, we do not have to be lost for Jesus still does all things well.

For those who hear God's Word gladly and to whom Christ says, as to the deaf man, "Ephphatha (Be opened)," are helped by the Son of God against the devil himself.  God has shown us no other way by which we can come into heaven than through His precious Word, the Holy Gospel. Whoever gladly and diligently hears and receives it and who loves and delights in it will be helped.  This is what God taught at the time He spoke from heaven at Jesus’ baptism and His transfiguration, "This is My beloved Son; listen to Him." 

And this is how Jesus continues to bring about restoration for a sin broken world and lives. The Holy Spirit through the means of grace in the church, administered by the pastor, upon an individual.  Our tongues will not be loosed, our ears opened, faith in our hearts begun without the outward, oral preaching of the Word and external Sacraments.  Everyone should take care to be found on this path and gladly hear God's Word.  Without the Word, God does not reveal Himself.  But not only do we have the words of our lord, but also His actions in front of our very eyes.  Through water combined with the Word, God acts to save from the sin in our Baptism. Through bread and wine combined with the Word, we may taste and see the goodness of our Lord in His very body and blood. To see and know Him can happen only through the external Word and Sacraments.  The Holy Spirit works in no other way.

And once He does, His work continues throughout our lives.  God does not just open us up to His Word and Sacraments and then leave us to our own devices. He continues to work through those same means to preserve us in the faith, to lead us in truth, and to stand steadfast upon Christ through this life and into eternity.

When Jesus commanded “be opened” He was not just talking about his ears, but also his mouth.  Again, this is nothing other than what we pray in Psalm 51, “O Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall declare Your praise.” After Jesus healed the deaf and mute man, He charges the man to tell no one.  The time wasn’t right yet.  But this man cannot help but use the gifts and the grace that Jesus has given him and proclaims what Jesus did for him.  Today, Jesus gives us the same grace and mercy and healing, but without the restrictions.  In fact, He now commands us to open our mouths.  Christ commands His disciples to go into all the world, baptizing and teaching.  When the apostles Peter and John were arrested for preaching the Word, they said, "We cannot stop talking about what we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:20). For as Jeuss says, "Whoever hears you, hears Me."  How much more zealously can we tell others about what He has done for us!

The deaf-mute had friends who brought him to Jesus.  And Jesus, knowing that this man could not hear Him, touched him, gestured for Him, so that he might know that Jesus was the Son of God who was promised to come and to save.  Just as we were brought to the faith by others with faith, whether it be our parents, grandparents, friends, or whomever, we have that joy and privilege to do the same.  Often times, as the pastor, I hear people talking about the need for the church, and for our congregation to grow in numbers.  And there is a need, so go out and open your mouth. Invite your neighbors, your friends, your family, to meet Jesus.  Bring them to church. Bring them to one of the several Bible studies we hold throughout the week.  Take them out for a cup of coffee and tell them how Jesus has opened up your ears and your mouth.  Telling others about Christ often begins with telling others what Christ has personally done for me, just like the formerly deaf and mute man did.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, our ears have been opened by the Gospel.  And so too your mouths, to declare the praise of Jesus the Christ. Let us thank God, then, for His Word and the sacraments, by which God transforms us from deaf-mutes to those who hear the Word and respond with praise. Amen.