Blown Away with Just a Word :: Mark 7:31-37
We live in the most astonishing times.
When I was a kid, if someone had a phone in his car, it meant he was very rich. Now I bet most of you have a phone in your pocket. That should astonish you. When I was a boy, computers took up whole buildings. Now we can carry them in our hand and mount them in the cab of tractors so that we can plant corn precisely with a push of a button. That too should astonish you. But we barely bat an eye at these things any more. So let’s try one more: Did you know that just last year an Icelandic man received two new arms ... 23 years after he lost both of them in a work accident. That’s right, a man received a double-arm transplant! And today he’s flexing his biceps. I want to say that’s astonishing, but in light of the fact that doctors replace a million knees and hips every year, it almost seems like an old hat.
What does it take to blow us away in astonishment any more?
1.
You should know the answer: The word and work of God in Christ. People were so blown away by all that Jesus was doing and continues to do, they couldn’t stop talking about him (v37).
Today’s reading from the Gospel of Mark gives us one such account that left everyone blown away. After Jesus left the region of Tyre, which you should know is a city along the Mediterranean coast north of Israel, he went [even farther north] through the Phoenician city of Sidon, [before circling south along the Jordan River valley] to the Sea of Galilee, [and then going east in and around] the Decapolis. The last time he was near here, the people were astonished by all that Jesus began to do ... most notably, casting out a legion of demons.
So, seeing Jesus draw near to them again, they led to him a man who was deaf and had trouble speaking, and they called upon Jesus to lay a hand upon him. [Jesus promptly] took the man aside by himself, apart from the crowd, stuck his fingers in the man’s ears, and after spitting, kindled his tongue. Then looking up into heaven, he groaned, [and with only a word] ... Ephphatha ... the man’s ears were opened so that he could hear the Gospel. And the chain of his tongue was released, and the man began to speak correctly.
The crowd that witnessed this miracle was so astonished by all that they saw and heard, they could hardly stop telling the world the Good News of all that Jesus continues to do in our midst (vv 31–37). Jesus cleanses! Jesus heals! Jesus forgives! Jesus feeds the masses! Jesus raises the dead! Jesus calms storms! Jesus opens eyes and ears for the entire world!
2.
Have you stopped being astonished by this news?
When was the last time you told someone about the astonishing things Jesus has done and continues to do in your life as he comes into your midst? Are we no longer astonished by the means Jesus uses to save you? Have we lost our zeal to celebrate the Good News?
Brothers and sisters in Christ, how far does Jesus have to go to open your eyes, ears, minds, and hearts? Do you struggle to believe that the forgiveness of sins is actually yours? Do you struggle to celebrate during the Lord’s Feast, thinking it’s not right that everyone deserves the forgiveness of sins, thinking it’s not right they have wasted all that the Father gave them (Lk 15:29-30)? Are we still trying to persuade ourselves that the Lord will reward us for our piety (Lk 18:9-14)? Do you see and hear what God is doing to you ... for you ... today?
JESUS IS GOING THE DISTANCE TO DECLARE TO YOU EPHPHATHA SO THAT YOU CAN REJOICE AT THE SIGHT AND SOUND OF THE GOSPEL
This is our theme.
3.
Today’s miracle in Mark is astonishing. It shows us that God’s word and sacraments work!
As Isaiah reminded us, there was a time we couldn’t hear or see the Gospel (Isa 29:18-19). Original sin blinds us and leaves us deaf like the man in the midst of the Decapolis. But then Jesus went to him, declaring Ephphatha ... an Aramaic word that means Be Opened! And just like that ... behold, he could see and hear and speak the Good News ... that in Christ, God is with you ... in your midst ... not in spirit ... not in your heart ... not in your thoughts ... but in the flesh. This is astonishing.
Like the people of the Decapolis, because of how defiled we really are, we couldn’t go to him ... so he came to us. While the Jews worried about defiling themselves, the Holy One of Israel reached out to the world, using means that defy reason ... water, bread, wine, word ... to purify all of us. That’s astonishing. Now everyone who hears and sees the fullness of this Gospel will not be put to shame, as Saint Paul tells us in Romans (10:11). They are given tongues that have been loosened to share the same forgiveness of sins that Jesus spoke to you. They are given ears that have been opened so that they can hear the same pronouncement.
The only question then is ... will you use them to glorify God?
Or will you continue using them to spread lies about your neighbor, to spread hatred and discord, to share anger and bitterness and gossip? Will you use them to listen to such things?
4.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, you should be astonished by the Gospel and then repent.
What good is it to hear forgiveness and then fail to forgive? What good is it to speak of peace and then to share bitterness or hate? Our ears weren’t opened to hear anger, bitterness, and hatred. Nor were our tongues loosened to speak it.
Instead, actually believe the Gospel, and then thank the Lord and sing his praise at all times in every way. Tell the world that though we were separated from him by our sin, our Lord Jesus came to us anyway. He suffered and died on the cross for us anyway. Tell the world that though we were dead and buried, Jesus then rose from the dead to give us newness of life. Tell the world how Jesus has swallowed death in the victory of his resurrection. He is risen!
You can do it. Jesus has loosened your tongue.
Show the world how our Lord’s life is now your life ... how he has redeemed you from sin (on the cross) ... how he has become one with you (in baptism) ... how he has covered you with his righteousness ... how he has made you one of his own ... how he has reconciled himself with you ... how he has given you his peace (in the Supper) . Lead your brothers and sisters to the place Jesus enlivened your eyes and ears and lips and tongue ... in the Divine Service.
This is where the Gospel is proclaimed and his sacraments are rightly administered. These are the means God uses to open your ears and eyes and to loosen your tongue. This is where we should celebrate every chance we get, rejoicing with people everywhere. This is God’s good and gracious will for all of us. As Saint Paul puts it in our reading from Romans. How is anyone to call on Jesus in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching (Rm 10:14-15)!
This is why we go to the Divine Service.
So come! As the late-great Lutheran theologian Herman Sasse explained ... Where Baptism is rightly taught, there the Gospel is rightly proclaimed, for the whole Gospel is contained in this sacrament: Christ’s death and resurrection, our dying and rising with him in repentance and faith, the bestowal already now of future heavenly treasures, eternal righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. The same applies to the Sacrament of the Altar. Of it, Luther once said, ‘This sacrament is the Gospel.’
Everything depends on these words (of institution, Luther wrote). Every Christian should and must know them and hold them fast. He must never let anyone take them away from him by any other kind of teaching. ... They are words of life and of salvation, so that whoever believes in them has all his sins forgiven through that faith. [AE 36:277]
5.
I can’t imagine right now what could be more astonishing than what we witness in the Divine Service. Here, Jesus cleanses, heals, forgives, feeds the masses, and raises the dead! Today’s miracle of healing was accomplished through the Word, accompanied by physical action. Consider the Small Catechism: How can water do such great things? Certainly not just water, but the word of God in and with the water does these things … and How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things? Certainly not just eating and drinking do these things, but the words written here: ‘Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.’
Our reading from the Gospel of Mark serves as yet one more example of why we need to avoid every temptation to narrow the scope of our mission here at Trinity and to ignore opportunities to reach out to those who are different than ourselves. Jesus’ healing of the deaf man immediately after he restored the daughter of the Syro-Phoenician woman underscores that he desires to love, cleanse, feed, and nourish all people everywhere ... including here at home.
Therefore, as the Father told the older son in the Parable of the Prodigals, It is right that we should rejoice and be glad (Lk 15:32). Our Lord truly does all things well ... in the most astonishing ways ... in Jesus’ name.