Trinity 12 2019
Mark 7:31-37; Romans 10:9-17
September 8, 2019
Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID
God works by means of His Word. And without God’s word no one can truly know or believe in God. This is why St. Paul says, “How are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? (Rom 10:14). From the natural world we know that there is a creator. The creation points to its creator no matter how hard some want to deny it. From our consciences we know that there is a lawgiver. There could be no right or wrong if there were no God. There is no true morality without God. When the natural knowledge of God’s law is suppressed all hell breaks loose on earth.
But the knowledge of God that we have from nature and from conscience is not enough for us to know and believe who God really is. No amount of feelings or insight can reveal God’s nature or attitude toward a person. To know God personally requires God to reveal Himself to us. He reveals Himself by speaking, by His Word. If we are to heed God’s Word and hear it to a good effect, then He must first open the ears of our heart. Until He does, we cannot hear Him and we cannot speak to Him.
This was the problem for the deaf and mute man. He couldn’t hear Jesus nor speak to Him. The deaf mute was shut out. And He knew it, and so did His friends. So they brought this man to Jesus, because they knew that only Jesus could give him his hearing and enable him to speak plainly.
Jesus tells the man what He was going to do. He uses simple sign language. Jesus put His fingers in the man’s ears to tell him that He would give him the ability to hear. Jesus spat and touched the man’s tongue to tell him that He would give him the ability to speak. Jesus looked up to heaven to tell him that the power by which He is doing this is divine power. Jesus sighed.
And then He spoke. Putting His fingers in the man’s ears did not give him his hearing. Touching the man’s tongue did not give him his speech. Looking up into heaven did not give Jesus the power to do what he did. Jesus, the eternal Word of God, incarnate, in the flesh, by whose word all things were made, spoke. He said: “Ephphatha!” Be opened. He spoke and it was done. He who was deaf could hear. He who was mute could speak. And others noticed. Jesus does all things well.
And isn’t this just the way that Jesus operates? From creation, He simply spoke and it came to be. And He looks around at His creation and notices, “It is good.” And when sin taints His creation, twists it, perverts it from its created intent, God’s Word comes down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man so that He may speak to His Word to His creation.
This is a bitter truth that we must confront. Here is what we confessional Lutherans confess about our natural spiritual abilities in the Formula of Concord: “That original sin in human nature is not only a total lack of good in spiritual, divine things, but that at the same time it replaces the lost image of God in man with a deep, wicked, abominable, bottomless, inscrutable, and inexpressible corruption of the entire nature in all its powers, especially of the highest and foremost powers of the soul in mind, heart, and will” (SD I, 11). Such is humanity’s natural spiritual condition after the Fall into sin. St. Paul writes: “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).
That’s the universal human condition without the Word of Christ. Hearing, we do not hear. We hear the lies of men and think they are wisdom. Seeing, we do not see. We see the temptation of the world and it entices the sinful flesh. As little as a deaf man can choose to hear, so little can an unbeliever make himself into a believer. As little as a mute man can speak clearly, so little can an unbeliever confess the truth. Our ears must be opened so that we can hear God’s Word because He wants to heal. If our tongues are to be loosed so that we can speak God’s praise, we must depart from the broad road of this sinful world and no longer conform ourselves to sin by it. Only God can bring us to faith. Only God can enable us to make the good confession. We often sing with King David in Psalm 51, “O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise.” And He does so through His word, the Word of Christ.
When Jesus healed the deaf and mute man, He told those who saw not to tell anyone, but they did anyway. This miracle was only a part of the work He was to do, and He was not done. The true healing, the lasting healing, would take place on the cross. There, in Christ’s crucifixion, is perfect healing for our bodies and souls. Christ’s death destroyed our death. His resurrection from the dead is our absolution and the word of our salvation. The declaration of forgiveness that we hear, believe, and confess as God’s word of truth and life comes to us from the crucified and risen Lord Jesus. That is why we seek it out and listen to it. That is why we believe and confess it. Since God chooses to deal with us through His Word, His Word is what we should hear, and His Word is what we should confess for His Word is what we believe. He who opened the deaf mute’s ears and tongue, has overcome the sharpness of death and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
Ephphatha! Be opened! Our Lord speaks and we listen. He opens our ears to hear in faith His Word. His Word bestows what it says. Faith that is born from what is heard from God acknowledges the gifts received with eager thankfulness and praise (LW Introduction). God’s word opens our ears to hear and our tongues to confess. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” May it always be so among us.