Trinity 12
Messiah Lutheran Church, Kenosha, WI
August 26, 2012
Mark 7:31-37
Grace, mercy and peace.... greetings to
the people of Messiah, etc.
Today's Gospel reading from Mark 7
relates one of the miracles of Jesus, the healing of a deaf-mute man.
It happens before the “secret is out” so to speak, and so Jesus
does it privately, and tells him to keep quiet about it (at least for
now). The time wasn't right yet, though soon Jesus would be telling
his disciples to “go and tell”.
It is, like Jesus other miracles, a
“calling card”. His miracles are not why he came – but they
point to him like a big flashing sign that says, “here's the
Messiah”. They fulfill some of the prophecies about the Holy One
of God in the midst of them, and also show Jesus' great compassion
for people.
But they also teach us about the true
character and nature of this Jesus. He is always giving out
blessings, in word and deed, healing, forgiving, making whole.
And how precious few are the times the
New Testament quotes the actual words, the vocables, of Jesus. There
aren't many. “Talitha Cum” Little girl, arise. “Eli, Eli,
Lama Sabachthani”, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And
today we hear what Jesus said to the deaf man, “Ephatha”, that
is, “be opened.”
The powerful word spoken by the Living
Word of God, the word that does what it says, gives what it commands.
The same word that spoke creation into existence – let there be
light, there there be this, and that – is the word and the speaker
that recreates this man's broken sense of hearing.
But the problem and the solution are
deeper. Illness, disease, deafness, and death are all fruits of the
same tree – wages of the same work, and that is sin. The root
cause of all our suffering and trouble in life. Sin. If you are
struggling with something, stressing about something, feel bad about
something, if there's anything wrong in your life – you don't have
to look far to see the connection to sin.
Often, it's our own sin. I cause many,
maybe most of my own problems in life. And as I look in the mirror,
well, St. Paul says it best – the letter kills. The letter of the
law. The truth hurts. I am conceived and born in and struggle with
my sin, and will until I die.
But sometimes it's the sin of the world
around us, the brokenness of creation. Sometimes people are born
broken, and sometimes disease takes away our health later in life,
and sometimes cancer strikes even the young, bringing suffering and
trouble and even death.
But sin always meets its match in Jesus
Christ. Sin and its wages of death, disease, trouble, hardship,
curse, brokenness, blindness, deafness – all are made right again
in Jesus Christ.
For God turned a deaf ear to his own
Son, suffering on the cross, “why have you forsaken me?” We know
why. Your sins, mine. Jesus Christ, the savior, came not just to
heal and have compassion, but to give his life as a ransom for many.
He came to suffer and die to take away suffering and death. He came
to defeat death once and for all.
And when Jesus was buried, God showed
that his sacrifice was acceptable, and he said, “Ephatha” to the
tomb, rolled away the stone, and raised Jesus to life in a glorified
body. So, too, as the firstborn of the dead, will Christ speak,
“Ephatha” to our graves, raise us from the dead to a glorified
body, to live with him forever in righteousness and holiness.
This is the light at the end of all
tunnels for the Christian. This is the promise that no matter how
bad life gets here, there is a better day ahead. No matter how deaf
God appears to the sounds of our cry, in Jesus Christ, he hears, and
he will answer, will restore, and give us eternal blessing.
By his word, even now, he has opened
your ears and your heart, his Spirit speaking that “ephatha” to
bring you to faith. For spiritually we are all blind, deaf, utterly
helpless, unable to see or hear or know of God on our own. But his
grace and mercy come to us in a powerful word and perform a miracle –
bringing faith and life where there was only sin and death.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear –
and by faith you do. By faith, God gives you the ears to hear his
word, the heart to believe it, the eyes to see what is unseen, and
the hope to grasp his promises. He gives it in word, and in bread
and wine, and in water. He gives and gives, always giving, always
blessing.
He opens what is closed. This is our
Jesus, opening the ears of the deaf. Opening the graves of the dead.
And giving health and wholeness and life, freely and forever. In
his holy name, Amen.
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