Sermon: Trinity 12 - 2018

19 August 2018

Text: Mark 7:31-37 (Isa 29:17-24, 2 Cor 3:4-11)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

We live in confused times.  In our day and age, we are eager to describe moral failings not as sins to be repented of, but of diseases to be treated or cured.  This gets the sinner off the hook, and can even become a source of empathy.  After all, we wouldn’t blame a man who had a heart attack while driving and killed someone, so why would we treat a person diagnosed with alcoholism or drug addiction the same way if he were also to cause an accident?  Or if a person threatens others or is a persistent thief, maybe we can call this “mental illness”: diagnosing it as bipolar disorder or kleptomania – and then it’s really nobody’s fault when crimes just so happen against person or property.

We live in a world where apparently none need to repent; they merely need treatment.  None are held accountable, but all are entitled to excuses for their behavior.  None are perpetrators, but all are somehow victims.

But even though this is a demonic distortion, there is some truth to the relationship between sin and sickness.

But this too, is offensive.  To say that deafness or blindness or being crippled are related to sin makes people angry.  It is as though we are insulting the hard-of-hearing, the visually-impaired, and the person in the wheelchair. What a confused culture we have, dear friends!  It’s okay to reimagine sins as illness, but not acceptable to say that illness is the result of sin.

Sins (meaning sinful acts of our own will and fallen nature) and illness (meaning things that ail us in mind or body that we have no control over) have a common source: the fallenness of our world and of ourselves.  This is not to say that the deaf-mute committed a specific sin that he was being punished for.  Far from it.  But everything that makes us suffer is a deviation from the perfection that was, and is, God’s will for us!  

Think about it, dear friends.  We were created to live in a perfect world without deafness, blindness, or lameness, without colds and allergies and upset stomachs, with not even the knowledge of cancer and ALS and heart disease.  This is because we were free from anything that could lead to death in both body and mind.  Those things didn’t even exist. We were mentally and physically perfect, just as God is perfect – and just as was the world that He had created.

But now, dear brothers and sisters, we are mortal.  Ever since the fall in Eden, we live with the inevitability of death.  Each day that we live on this side of the grave is one less that we will live.  We are terminal.  Our bodies wear out.  We have diseases.  We have accidents.  Many of us have defects that we were born with.  All of us will have some kind of disease or disorder or turn of events that will kill us.  And this is because of our will, not God’s will.  God gave us the freedom to choose, and we chose badly.  We still do.

This is the harsh reality.  And it not only affects our bodies, but also our minds.  Thanks to our fallen nature, we make bad, and even deadly, choices.  When we sin, we are acting contrary to what God has in mind for us in His love, in His all-knowing mercy for us, in His plan for us.  When we sin, it is as though we are beating ourselves in the head with a hammer – and then cursing God for the pain that we experience.

Once again, this is not to say that every ache and pain and disease and disorder is because we have committed some individual sin that we’re being punished for.  This is a Satanic lie.  The truth is that we are simply broken.  And far from desiring our punishment, God is interested in our restoration – because He is not only just, but also merciful.

And this is why Jesus comes into our broken world of disease and disorder: to fix it.  In our Gospel, we get a little preview of what is to come in eternity.  The deaf and mute man is suffering.  His friends beg Jesus to “lay His hand on him.”  For they know that Jesus has authority, and His authority usually carried out through direct physical contact.  Jesus is not just a spirit, but is fully human.  He inhabits space and time with us, in flesh and blood.  And His real presence disrupts the universe, and does so in a good and wonderful way, beyond our understanding.

So, Jesus “put His fingers into his [the man’s] ears, and after spitting, touched his tongue.”  Jesus uses His physical nature to deliver physical and spiritual blessings.  Jesus is perfect in body and soul.  In His perfection, He has come to perfect us.

And through the same means by which the universe was created: a spoken Word, a command from God – we see reality conform to what Christ, the enfleshed Word of God, has uttered.  For God said, “Be opened,” and it was opened.  “His ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.”

Once again, dear friends, this restoration of the man’s hearing and speaking is just a little preview of the world to come: a world without death and disease, because it is a world without sin.  How can this be?  Because Jesus has broken into our broken world in order to forgive sin and heal us from its consequences.  He allows Himself to be broken so that we might be perfected as a consequence.  He does this at the cross.  He declares victory over death.  He does this walking out of His own tomb.  He continues to speak and forgive and give Himself to us.  He does this through the Church, through the ministers of the Church, men whom He calls and sends with this same command on their lips, this same message: Ephphatha: “be opened.”

This is the fulfillment of Isaiah, whose words rang out again among us: the barren desert will become a field, and the field will become a forest – teeming with life.  The deaf shall hear and the blind shall see.  “The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord.”  The poor shall exult.  All of those who suffer on account of sin will be restored.  But the prophet also has a warning: “the ruthless shall come to nothing and the scoffer cease.”  For being ruthless is not a disease to be cured, but rather a sin to be repented of.  And likewise for being a scoffer: for those who mock the Word of God are unbelievers.  Jesus won’t cure unbelief in the way that He gives hearing to the deaf.  For unbelief is rooted in the stubborn will of an unrepentant man.  

Jesus only heals the unbeliever if the unbeliever yields to Jesus.  Jesus will not compel you.  You are free to reject Him.  But you are not free to reject Him without consequence.  So if you are ruthless and unbelieving, you are in need of repentance.  But in this repentance, there is hope, dear friends.  For Isaiah says: “Those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction.”

If you are on the outs of the church’s proclamation, come back in!  If you murmur against Christ, submit to His instruction!  For His instruction is His Word: the same Word that said, “Be opened!”  His Word is still opening hearts and minds today.

And that Word, dear friends, is a double-edged sword!  St. Paul spoke of this two-fold purpose of the Word when instructed the Corinthians: “For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life…. For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.”

For the Law that condemns us, and the Gospel that redeems us – are both the Lord’s Word.  They’re both His “ephphatha.”  The Law opens us to the horrific truth that we are “poor, miserable sinners,” that we are in rebellion against the Word of God, that we justly suffer the effects of the fall, and that as sinners, we are destined to die.  But, dear friends, the Gospel opens us to healing: the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, the forgiveness of sins that makes us whole, just as the laying on of hands and the Word of Jesus opened the ears and mouth of the deaf and mute man – bringing him to health and wholeness through forgiveness and restoration.

This Word is for you, dear friends!  This Word still forgives, still redeems, still renews, and still heals!  Jesus speaks to you here and now, dear brothers and sisters, opening your body and mind to cleansing and eternal life: “‘Ephphatha,’ that is, ‘Be opened.’”  Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.