Trinity 12 2020
Isaiah 29:17-24; Mark 7:31-37
August 30, 2020
Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID
Jesus had undertaken a trip to the borders of the Gentiles, to teach and preach there and to indicate that the time had come for the wall between Jews and Gentiles to be torn down. It was time for His Gospel to be preached in all the world.
While He was on His way, some people brought to Him a deaf and mute man. Notice something very important here. This man was brought by others, by the faith of others who wished the man to encounter Jesus. This is no different than parents who bring a child to Jesus to be baptized, you who bring a friend to hear the Word of God and receive His healing. To bring others to Jesus in prayer, asking for those who cannot help themselves, who are lost and isolated, trapped in a world of darkness and silence from God.
A person doesn’t come to Jesus of his own accord, by his own strength or reason. It isn’t the person’s choice, but faith in Christ comes by hearing the Word of Christ, and so those who have heard and believe bring a man who cannot hear so that his ears will be opened to the Word of God and his tongue loosed to sing praise of God.
Notice the bulletin cover. The man depicted is tongue tied. He is bound. His hands and his feet are crossed. He’s a mess - deaf, dumb, hopeless, and hamstrung to sin. Jesus approaches the unapproachable, He touches, He gestures, He speaks, and it happens. Long before COVID, Jesus doesn’t social distance. He isn’t worried about getting sick, he has come to take the sickness away.
Jesus’ ministry to the deaf and mute man fulfills Isaiah 29:18, “on that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book.” Elsewhere Jesus also alludes to this passage as evidence of His ministry and His identity as the Messiah. And so here in this miracle, Jesus is demonstrating His power over a fallen creation and His compassion.
The devil had stopped up the poor man’s ears so that he could not hear God’s Word, and had bound his tongues so that he could not speak God’s praise. Jesus wished to open the man’s ears so that the Lord God could speak to Him by His Word. He wished to untie the bond of his tongues that the in prayer he would speak with God and express his praise and thanksgiving.
Jesus could have performed this with one word, as it is written in Psalm 33:9 “For He spoke and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm.” Even so, He wanted to accompany this miracle with special means.
First, He took the man aside to Himself. This is an indication of the man being brought from a fallen world of corruption and under the grace and reign of Christ. People can see what is happening, and Jesus motions and touch communicate divine blessing.
Second, Christ placed His fingers in the man’s ears. God created ears so that we could hear His Word. Because Jesus has assumed human flesh which is a life-giving flesh, He gets up close and personal in order to enable within the man what he is unable to do himself.
Third, after spitting Jesus touched the man’s tongue. According to Jewish (Talmudic) tradition of the day, could be seen as a healing agent. If this is the case, then the man would be aware of the connection between spitting and healing and know what Jesus was getting at. Regardless, it is not the spit that unties the man’s tongue, but what comes next.
Fourth, Jesus looks up to heaven and He sighs, or groans. This is exactly what Jesus does in the miracle of feeding the five thousand. He does this to show that what He is about to do is not some magical trick, but that as the Son of God, He is doing the will of His Father in fulfillment of God’s promises in the past.
And then the Word of God speaks. “Ephaphtha,” “be opened.” By His word the man’s ears are opened to hear God’s Word and his tongue is untied to sing God’s praise.
Since all bodily miracles that Christ performed on earth are pictures of spiritual benefits, we should also regard this miracle as such. For by nature, all humanity is deaf and mute before the Lord God. Because of the corruption of human nature from Adam’s sin, we are unable to hear the Word of God in faith, and if we are to be helped, it must be through Christ alone. If we are to heed the word of God and hear it to good effect, then He must first open up the ears of our hearts. If we are to proclaim God’s glory, He must first open our mouths and untie our tongues. This is why David says in Psalm 51:14, “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall declare Your praise.”
This miracle “shows us that if we are to be loosed from the devil’s bonds, and possess ready tongues and good ears, this can happen only through the external Word and preaching, through external means. We must, first of all, hear the Word, not neglecting baptism or the Sacrament either, and the Holy Spirit will then be present to free the ears and tongues.” (Luther’s House Postils (1533), 398-99).
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.
This sermon is partially based off of one from Johann Gerhard, “On the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity”, Postilla Vol 2 (Malone, TX: Repristination Press: 2007), 129-136.