The Church Season of Trinity
The Twelfth Sunday
after Trinity
Our Savior
Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (August 26, 2012)
1 Cor. 3:4-11
Mark 7:31-37
+++INI+++
Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit. Amen
The text for today’s message is as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 7th chapter of St. Mark.
Mark 7:31–37, ESV
“Then he
returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee,
in the region of the Decapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and
had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. And taking
him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after
spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to
him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And his ears were opened, his tongue
was released, and he spoke plainly. And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But
the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And they were
astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes
the deaf hear and the mute speak.””
(The
following is from a sermon by Doctor Martin Luther.)
The Gospel Reading describes the
miracle of the deaf and dumb man. During the church year we regularly hear of
wonders where Christ showed Himself the Savior who desires to keep us from the
devil's wrath. We should thank God most sincerely for such a comforting
blessing, to have given us such a Man, a Champion, who out of sheer grace will
stand by us in everything that the devil can do against us.
The fact that the poor man is so
handicapped that he is unable to use his tongue and his ears like other people
must be traced to the troublesome devil's stinging blows. Wherever he can, the
devil afflicts people with blindness and sorrow, and leaves them joyless and
hurting. He causes some to give in to false teaching, and others to be overcome
by terror and sorrow.
We rightly thank
our dear Lord God who has had compassion on us and sent His Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ, who helped this poor man and also graciously safeguards us. Every
person who is sound of body, eyes, ears, hands, feet, and all other members,
should perceive these to be pure gifts of God.
This Gospel Reading comforts us with
unfailing help against the enemy. St. John says that "for this purpose the
Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil."
The devil entered Paradise to destroy our Lord God's handiwork by causing pious
and holy Adam and Eve to become disobedient and sinful. Not willing to tolerate
this, God considered how He might avenge Himself against His foe, to make whole
again what the devil had broken, and to destroy the devil's handiwork - sin,
death, and hell.
As we see in the Gospel Reading, He
loosed the tongue which the devil had tied and opened the ears that he had
stopped. Christ had come for this purpose and He continues this work among His
Christians. He is the Helper of suffering mankind and desires to heal all
afflictions with which the devil burdens us, and to drive him from us.
Christ shows us that He opens ears
and unbinds tongues. He seeks to perform this work daily in His church against
the devil. It is a physical fact that God gives sound ears and tongues also to
the heathen; but only for Christians is this spiritual fact true, that He opens
ears and looses tongues. For we Christians must hear His Word with our ears and
confess with our lips.
This is sure, that we have our
salvation alone through the Word of God. What would we otherwise know about
God, about our Lord Christ, His sacrifice, and the Holy Spirit? To this day the
greatest miracle and mightiest work is giving a person ears that gladly hear
God's Word and a tongue that honors God and does not blaspheme.
Many people are a thousand times
worse off than this poor deaf and dumb man. They have ears that are really
stopped up. They hear God's Word and yet really do not hear it, nor do they want
to. But those who hear God's Word gladly and to whom Christ says, as to the
deaf man, "Ephphatha (Be opened)," are helped against the devil. God
has shown us no other way by which we can come into heaven than through His
precious Word, the Holy Gospel. Whoever gladly and diligently hears and
receives it and who loves and delights in it will be helped.
God also stirs our tongues and
causes us to speak, as St. Paul says, "For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
Through faith in Christ we come to have the forgiveness of sins; confession
should also follow. We must not be mute, but speak what we believe in our
hearts.
Now see our Lord's unusual
performance in the Gospel Reading. The people bring the poor man to Him, asking
that He should place His hands on him. He then takes him aside from the crowd,
places His fingers into his ears, spits, and in this way loosens his tongue.
Then He looks up to heaven, sighs, and says, "Ephphatha!"
We must note why the Lord employed
such an unusual routine and procedure in this miracle. He surely could have
effected this miracle by a simple word, for we see again and again in the
Gospel that it requires merely His word to cause something to be done, and it
is done. Lazarus He woke up with a word. To the palsied man He said,
"Stand up and walk!" But with the deaf and dumb man He does not
proceed in such a short and simple way, but takes unusual steps.
The Lord employs
such vivid action here for the sake of the spiritual miracle. He wants to
demonstrate how great an effort is required to cause a deaf man to hear and a
mute man to speak. He shows us that if we are to be loosed from the devil's
bonds and possess ready tongues and good ears, this can happen only through the
external Word and preaching. We must, first of all, hear the Word, not
neglecting Baptism or the Sacrament either, and the Holy Spirit will then be
present to free the ears and tongues.
We must be on guard against the
fantastic spirits who despise the external Word and Sacrament, waiting till God
speaks to them in the heart. "No," says Christ, "here is My
finger, the eternal Word, that must sound in the ears; My spittle, which must
moisten the tongue. In this way My work proceeds rightly." We see this
wherever the external Word has free course. There Christians will be found, for
as goes the shepherd, so go the sheep.
Everyone should take care to be
found on this path and gladly hear God's Word. Without the Word, God does not
reveal Himself in your heart. To see and know Him can happen only through the
external Word and Sacraments. The Holy Spirit works in no other way.
This is what God taught at the time
He spoke from heaven, "This is My beloved Son; hear ye Him."
Likewise, Christ commands His disciples, "Go into all the world, teaching
and baptizing." Again He says, "Whoever hears you, hears Me."
Thus our dear Lord Christ commanded preaching the Gospel and baptizing. This is
the only way to salvation. Otherwise all is lost and for nothing.
Surely none of us would hesitate to
travel a hundred miles to a certain church if we knew God Himself were going to
speak and preach there. Everyone would want to hear His voice. Now, instead,
our Lord God says, "I will arrange things closer for you, so that you do
not have to travel so far. Listen to your parish pastors, and you will hear Me.
They are My disciples and office bearers. When you hear them, you hear
Me."
These are the external means Christ
points to. Our tongues will not be loosed, our ears opened, faith in our hearts
begun without the outward, oral preaching of the Word and external Sacraments.
For parish pastors and preachers are the fingers of our Lord God, the servants
and spittle, through which He looses our tongues and opens our ears. When you
hear them, God says to your hearts, as to this deaf man, "Ephphatha!"
so that your ears are opened, your tongue unsticks, and you become a hearing,
speaking person, no longer deaf and mute.
Let us take careful note and learn
to truly be Christians by the Word and by our professing of it. That is why we
should cling to the Word tenaciously, for us to be saved. May our dear Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ grant this to us! Amen.
+++SDG+++
