Sermon: Trinity 12 - 2019

8 September 2019

Text: Mark 7:31-37

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Deafness deprives people of a full participation in many things that most of us take for granted: verbal communication, music, audio books, movies, and even things like hearing one’s children snoring, or a bolt of lightning, or someone calling for help.  The deaf are deprived of hearing laughter and things like rain hitting the ground.  

The worst part for people in the ancient world was being deprived of hearing the Word of God.  Most people were illiterate and almost nobody had scrolls containing the Bible.  There was no American Sign Language, and communication was frustrating.  Deaf people were typically reduced to begging on the streets.

And this is why the deaf man in our Gospel “begged [Jesus] to lay His hand on Him.”  More than anything, he wanted to have his hearing restored.  

In our day and age, the deaf have many options that did not exist in the first century.  We do have standard sign language, not to mention access to books and captioned movies and videos.  We even have medical breakthroughs that can cure many kinds of deafness.

But one thing that hasn’t changed is sin.  

For example, when the cochlear implant first came out, offering deaf children the ability to hear by means of a surgical procedure, there were deaf parents that opposed getting their deaf children the surgery.  There was concern about what this would mean for the “deaf community,” and there was a discussion about whether or not deafness should be treated like something to be “cured.”  Some parents (whose children inherited deafness from a genetic condition) chose not to get the implant for their children, choosing instead to keep them in a world of silence for the sake of their “culture.”

But, dear friends, something else has also remained unchanged: the power of the Word of God to restore that which is broken, and to open that which is closed!

For in response to the prayer of the deaf man, our Lord took him “aside from the crowd privately, He put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue.”  The action of touch was accompanied by the Word, as Jesus, the living and incarnate Word of God in the flesh, spoke a miraculous command: “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened.”

Jesus speaks the Word, and He makes use of a physical element and action – and as a result, the deaf man is healed.  The Word that Jesus speaks becomes reality: “And his ears were opened, his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.”

Our Book of Concord quotes St. Augustine’s famous explanation of a sacrament: “The Word is joined to an element, and it becomes a sacrament.”

Sacraments heal.  They cure us of what ails us.  The Sacrament of Holy Baptism heals us, as Christ Himself gives us His cruciform life as our sins are washed away by the element of water.  The Sacrament of Holy Absolution heals us, as Christ Himself forgives us by means of the element of the pastor’s voice speaking words by Christ’s authority, and the sins that weigh us down even to hell itself are released from us (the same word St. Mark uses to explain the healing of the deaf man’s tongue: “released” – which is to say, set free from bondage).  The Sacrament of Holy Communion heals us, as Christ shares His very sacrificial body and blood with us to eat and to drink, fortifying us against Satan and sanctifying us by His own holiness and righteousness in the flesh as the “medicine of immortality.”

Sacraments heal, because Christ heals us by means of the sacraments.  A sacrament apart from Christ is no sacrament at all.  A sacrament not received in faith is no sacrament at all.  But when Jesus touches us and speaks His Words upon us and over us, and we believe His Word – we are truly healed.  And in the Greek language of the New Testament, the word “healed” is the same word as “saved.”  Salvation and healing are the very same thing.  To be healed is to be saved from death.  And when the deaf man was healed, Jesus gave him his life back.  That part of himself that had died had been resurrected – that is, his ability to hear and to speak.

And in fact, even though Jesus told him to “tell no one,” the man with the newly released tongue could not help but tell what Jesus had done for him.  For the more that Jesus urged everyone  not to speak about this (as the time was not yet right for Him to be revealed), “the more zealously they proclaimed it.”

In spite of our medical technology, our literacy, our ability to hear God’s Word in many and various ways, there is a real sense in which we suffer deafness, dear friends.  We have so many entertainment options, that almost nobody reads or listens to the Holy Scriptures.  It is as though we are deaf, and our children are deaf, and we are content not to do anything about it, because we like our culture.

We are surrounded by movies and sports and entertainment.  Our children are busy with every kind of extracurricular activity that the Word of God is just sort of pushed to the side.  We don’t hear, because we don’t want to hear.  But nevertheless, Jesus still comes to us.  He still patiently baptizes our children, still pronounces absolution and offers us a clean slate, and He still communes physically with us in the miracle of the Holy Eucharist.  

Jesus speaks to us, and begs us to listen to Him.  Jesus wants to open the heavens to us, even as He promises to open our grave on the last day: a greater “Ephphatha” that will herald the opening of the new heavens and the new earth, as well as our release from death and the grave!  And this reality of what Jesus does for us is too good for us to keep to ourselves, as we have been healed from death itself, and our pathway to eternal life has been opened, and our bondage to sin, death, and the devil has been released.  We too ought to be zealously proclaiming what Jesus has done for us!

Jesus is still speaking to us, dear friends.  He still heals us by means of His Word.  He still uses physical elements to save us.  Indeed, “He has done all things well.  He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”  Amen.

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