The Work of Christ Is Done in Astonishing Ways :: Mark 7:31-37

And again, having gone out of the region of Tyre, [Jesus] went through Sidon to the Sea of

Galilee, up into the midst of the region of the Decapolis. And the people brought to him a man

who was deaf and had difficulty speaking. And they advocated for him that [Jesus] might lay

his hand on him (vv 31-32).

Please now open your service book to Page 323, and join me in confessing our faithful doctrine

on the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer.

What is the Conclusion to the Lord’s Prayer? For thine is the kingdom and the power and the

glory, forever and ever. Amen.

What does this mean? This means that I should be certain that these petitions are pleasing to our

Father in heaven and are heard by him: for he himself has commanded us to pray in this way and

has promised to hear us. Amen, amen means Yes, Yes, it shall be so.

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So along comes God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, Begotten not made, Being

of one substance with the Father, the One through whom all things were made. Our Lord Jesus has

come to the place we are. In his coming, where two or three are gathered, he proves to us that he

didn’t just create all things and leave creation for dead. Once again, we see him coming ... once

again ... to all of us. God is with you.

When you think about it, that’s how our reading from Mark 7 begins. Jesus has left the region of

Tyre, and has gone through Sidon into the region of the Decapolis (v 31). That means he might as

well be here in the region of Saint Clair and Henry Counties. We aren’t in the Promised Land. Jesus

has gone to the land of paganism. The area of the Decapolis ... that is, the Ten Cities ... wasn’t

known for being pious or religious. Maybe our region is ... but these folks are pig farmers, which the

Jews consider to be incredibly filthy animals. More than that, this is the land of the Romans, which

is a region with a filthy religion.

Here, the people had all sorts of gods. These people thought they believed in the same God we

do, but in fact, their definition of God was different. These are people who have blended many

religions together in spite of God’s prohibition to do so.

Is it any wonder some are deaf and mute ... unable to hear or speak?

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But here comes Jesus, God in the flesh coming to people who were supposedly not his own.

The last time he was here, in this region, Jesus cast out a legion of demons from one man, and he

told the man to tell his friends how God set him free (5:1-20). So when they heard Jesus was nearby,

Mark writes, [the people] brought to him a man who was deaf and had difficulty speaking. And

they advocated for him that [Jesus] might lay his hand on him. And having received him from

the crowd by himself, [Jesus] thrust his fingers into his ears, and having spit, he touched his tongue. And having looked up into the heaven, [Jesus] groaned and said to [the deaf and mute

man], Ephphatha, that is, Be opened thoroughly (vv 32-34).

What a strange sight that is. Of all the ways Jesus healed, this one seems most unusual. God of

God, Light of Light ... who created all things out of nothing ... stuck his fingers into a deaf man’s

ears, spit, and touched his tongue ... and then ... he groaned.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is your God ... IN THE FLESH! ... as it was in the beginning,

it is now and will be later on, too ... We have here a Savior who is so fleshy that he puts fingers ...

not on ... but in the man’s ears, into places where ear wax collects. We have here a Savior who spits.

We have here God in the flesh, standing on the dirt he formed. We have here our God, the one who

gathered this dirt into a pile which he would call dry land that he took out of the water. We have here

our God, who then came down in that dirt to create Adam out of it. We have here our God ... the

same God in the mud on the sixth day of creation, making a man.

This is your God who has come to people otherwise caught up in unspeakable paganism.

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He has come to a man, who can’t hear or talk ... who therefore, has never heard the Gospel or

confessed his faith in an intelligible way.

Can you hear and speak?

So Jesus speaks a new word of creation ... Ephphatha, he says to very contrary, very stubborn,

very dead ears. AND COMES TO PASS! The man’s ears are opened. The shackles of his tongue are

loosened. He is set free. Now he can hear. Now he can confess with his tongue that Jesus is Lord.

Suddenly, we can see that the Word isn’t far away ... it is in our ears and on our tongue. Jesus is right

where you are ... in the flesh. His word to the apostles is true: Behold, I am with you always.

Even though you are caught up in sin, the Word Made Flesh has come to you in touching,

hearing, and speaking ways. He has come to you because he cares about what you care about, right

down to the muck of your life. He has come to you because he cares for your life, right where your

sins are. He cares for dead ears, and broken tongues ... unhearing and unspeaking ... and he opens the

door to forgiveness.

Now we know that where our death is, Jesus comes and delivers life. Now we know that where

our tomb is, Jesus comes and opens the grave. ... He comes and opens our ears ... our hearing in fact

... and he sets our tongues free, having redeemed our lives ... not with spitting, but with his water and

his body and blood. And the crowd ... they were astonished ... actually beyond astonished ... if you

can imagine that ... by what they saw and heard. He really has done all things well (v 37).

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Brothers and sisters in Christ, you know where Jesus is and where he does all things well. He

promised to be where two or three are gathered. So look around you ...

Do you not know that you died in baptism and were raised into eternal life so that you can see

and hear and speak, too? Do you not know that our Lord breaks bread for us so that we will learn

that when he does, we will recognize him in our midst? Do you not know that he uses his real

presence through his means of grace to deliver to you the forgiveness of sins? Do you not hear that when the called ministers of Christ deal with us by his divine command ... in particular when they

exclude openly unrepentant sinners from the Christian congregation and absolve those who repent of

their sins and want to do better, this is just as valid and certain, even in heaven as if Christ our Lord

dealt with us himself?

THE WORK OF CHRIST IS DONE IN TOUCHING, HEARING, AND SPEAKING WAYS

As our opening hymn reminded us ...

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer’s ear!

It soothes our sorrows, heals our wounds, and drives away our fear (LSB 524:1)

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So bring your friends to Jesus!

The man who was deaf and suffered from an impediment of speech had some good friends. They

brought him to Jesus. They knew they were powerless to help him. ... They knew they couldn’t do a

thing for him. ... They didn’t even think they knew how to speak the Gospel to him. ... But they

knew who could. So they brought him to Jesus.

And because they did, he began speaking rightly ... that is, with orthodoxy ... giving a true

confession (v 35). And from this true confession, he expressed true faith ... faith that saves.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we know that sometimes we don’t want to go to church because

we don’t think it will do any good. We know we are burdened by sins. We have sinned against God

and each other. We have not set him apart as our greatest good. We have misused his name and

ignored his Word. We have not loved him with our whole heart, soul, strength, and mind. And we

have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. More than that, we know that confession never removed a

single sin from a single soul. This we must confess because it’s true. The ministry of death engraved

on stones speaks against us and our conscience must agree with it (2 Cor 3:7).

But because someone brought us to Jesus ... perhaps first as an infant who couldn’t speak ... now

we know that the sin that blocks our ears from hearing God and the sin that keeps our mouths from

singing his praises ... is forgiven forever on account of his Gospel through Word and Sacraments.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, God comes to the place we are

... and he calls us forward so that we can call upon God. He opens our ears and loosens our tongues.

He washes away our sin in baptism. He feeds us with his bread of life. We drink from his cup of

salvation, which does actually forgive sins. God’s Word and Sacraments bring us to Jesus ... they

unite us with Jesus in his death and resurrection.

He who was born without sin for you ... and lived without sin for you ... took your sin from you

so that you can be with Jesus. He carried your sin to the cross of Calvary, where he ensured that it

would suffer and die with Jesus. That crucifixion on the cross of shame is the death we all deserve.

But Jesus has come to you and stood in your place ... he has touched you and spoken to you words of

peace ... words we hear and believe. And because he did all this so well ... so beautifully in fact,

without sin ... God has raised Jesus from the dead so that all who have faith in him will have the

hope of eternal life too because ... He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Hallelujah!

Now we can hear God speak and sing his praises and bring our friends to Jesus ... in his name.