Mark 7:31-37 - Ephphatha: Be Opened! - September 5, 2021

In our text, the crowd did something remarkable, something almost unheard of in 21st century America: they all agreed on something. This Jesus guy, they all agreed, he has done everything well. That’s not exactly the consensus reaction to Jesus or his teachings today, is it? More often, Jesus receives blame when things go wrong. People use natural disasters and terror attacks to justify their unbelief “I would never believe in a God who would let this happen.” Jesus’ teachings are regarded as at best flawed and dated advice, at worst doctrines of hate and discrimination from hell itself. His miracles are seen as myths and fairy tales. Those who follow his Word are slandered as bigots, sexists, racists, and hypocrites. Now, none of that should surprise us, since Jesus tells us to expect a hostile reaction from the unbelieving world (John 15:18-25). A bigger problem arises when we are tempted to doubt God’s goodness. When we and our fellow believers seem to always be suffering while the unbelieving masses always seem to be thriving, when the unwavering truth of God’s Word conflicts with our deepest reason and emotions and opinions, when we pray and pray and nothing seems to change – do we ever wonder if Jesus is working for us or against us? If you’ve ever felt that way, you’re not alone, tempting us to doubt God’s love is one of the oldest tricks in Satan’s playbook. And since we face that temptation so often, we need constant reassurance that Jesus does indeed do everything well. Only God’s Word can accomplish that. Today it says: Ephphatha: Be Opened.

The first thing we should say about this miracle may seem so obvious that it doesn’t need to be said; but it does: this healing really happened. Jesus really opened the deaf man’s ears to hear and loosened his tongue to speak. Sometimes we are so eager to “spiritualize” Jesus’ miracles and apply them to ourselves (which we will do) that we fail to treat them as real, historical accounts. The historical account alone tells us several important things about our God. First, he is not a faraway, disinterested, alien god; He cares about us as individuals, body and soul. The one who numbers the hairs of our heads (Luke 12:7) is certainly aware of our aches, pains, and illnesses. And he knows better than we do that birth into this world brings us little more than a lifetime of futility, brokenness and finally death. He cares about us in our misery. Second, it tells us that Jesus is the Messiah, just as he said. He proves with this miracle that he is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy: Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unplugged. The crippled will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy. (Isaiah 35:5-6) Third, in line with Mark’s emphasis on the kingdom – that is, the active reign of God in this world – by this miracle Jesus brings God’s kingdom to earth; in that he restores or recreates what sin has broken: this poor man’s ears and tongue. Here is a bit of heaven on earth.

In spite of the world’s sinister accusations, witnessing to the truth that God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world but to save it (John 3:17) is the central message of Christianity. The church is not to be filled with self-righteous hypocrites spewing a message of homophobia or transphobia or sexism or hatred. But neither does Christ call his church to soften, distort or ignore his holy Law or to pursue an agenda of social, economic or political justice. Christ has commissioned his church to proclaim a simple, two-part message: there is no difference, because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:23). Jesus doesn’t expect his church to heal the world, but to be like that deaf man’s friends; to bring those who are suffering from sin and its effects to the feet of the one who can offer true healing. This miracle summarizes the essence of the Gospel: God does care about poor, miserable sinners and he sent Jesus to heal and to save them.

But, as we all know, it’s not always easy to remain confident of that fact. Sometimes it seems like God has forgotten about us; that he doesn’t care about our pain and sorrow. Sadly, sometimes hearing about the miracles Jesus performed during his earthly ministry even makes us cynical, “If Jesus could heal that man – a man who may not have even been a believer – why doesn’t he heal me or my loved ones?” Don’t forget: even during the days of Jesus’ earthly ministry, not everyone was healed. And even those he did heal, like this man, ended up dying from something else later. In the end, this miracle is not a sign that Jesus will heal every problem we will ever in this life – but a sign that when he returns he will heal us perfectly, completely, body and soul, when he returns in glory.  

And we can be sure of that because Jesus has already healed the underlying issue. Deafness and the inability to speak weren’t this man’s real problem. His real problem, the reason he couldn’t hear or speak, was the same problem we all have: he was infected with original sin. The visible side effects of that infection vary from person to person, but every physical weakness and illness we face is a result of that original sin. And only God himself can cure that deep-rooted infection.

That’s really why God’s Son came. He came to restore everything that sin had ruined. He came to destroy the devil’s work. (1 John 3:8) He came to open a path to life for a human race that was destined to die. He has done all things well the crowd declared – an understatement if there ever was one! Yes, from living a perfect, sinless life to dying an innocent, atoning death on a cross – he did it all perfectly. And he did it all for you. He lived for you, died for you, rose for you, ascended to his Father’s right hand to keep watch over you, and one day he will return to breathe eternal life into your lifeless corpse. You have this hope today – no matter which of sin’s symptoms you are facing right now – that is what the real, physical healing of the deaf, dumb man tells us today.

And grounded firmly on that historical truth, we can move on to the “spiritual;” the more practical application of this miracle. Jesus’ word Ephphatha, also opens spiritually deaf ears and dumb tongues – which are actually the more dangerous of sin’s side effects. By nature we don’t listen to God and we don’t praise him. If you’ve ever listened carefully to the words that are spoken before baptism, you’ve heard this: “All of us are born into this world with a deep need for baptism. From our parents we inherit a sinful nature; we are without true fear of God and true faith in God and are condemned to eternal death” (CW p. 12). By nature we ignore God’s voice and tune out his Word. By nature our tongues give glory to ourselves, not God. In other words, by nature we are in open rebellion against the 1st commandment. And the only treatment for that spiritual pandemic is the all-powerful Word.

The early Christian church had a unique way of recognizing this. In the early centuries, when a person was baptized, the pastor first would take his fingers and touch the person’s ears and lips and say: Ephphatha: be opened. The symbolism was to be the same that Jesus was conveying to the deaf and dumb man when his took him away from the crowd and put his fingers in his ears and spit and touched the man’s tongue, sighed and looked to heaven: in Baptism, God rolls up his sleeves and goes to work. Through water and the Word the Holy Spirit gets our ears and lips working again. He opens our ears to hear his calls to repentance and to believe that he has declared us not guilty for Jesus’ sake. He loosens our tongues to confess our darkest sins and to praise Jesus as our Lord and Savior. That real, spiritual healing is yours through water and the Word.

The obvious question is, then: given that the essential message of Christianity is one of healing and hope and reconciliation between God and sinners, why are Christianity in general and Christians in particular so often blamed for the world’s woes? (For example, last week the Supreme Court refused to file an injunction to prevent a fetal heartbeat bill from Texas from taking effect. This bill says that once a heartbeat is detected, abortion is prohibited. By the reaction of many on social media, you’d think this bill was aimed at taking life, not saving it.) Why are Christians and Christian morals so hated and reviled? Martin Luther, in a sermon on this text, explains: [They]…are a thousand times worse off than this poor deaf and dumb man, for they have ears that are really stopped up. They hear God’s Word and yet they really don’t hear it, nor do they want to…Our Lord Christ preached beautiful sermons concerning the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life, but they became mad and furious, not only refusing to listen but also reviling him on top of it. Today, yet, people who refuse to hear God’s Word are altogether deaf and dumb, worse off than this poor man here, because their tongues know only how to revile God and to speak very evilly of his Word, the most precious treasure. Those, however, who hear God’s Word gladly and to whom Christ says, as to the deaf man, “Ephphatha,” or “Be opened,” these are the ones helped against the devil” (Luther’s House Postils, 6:398).

If the symptoms of sin in our hearts, our homes, our neighborhoods, and our world grieve us, then the best thing we can do is not try to heal those wounds ourselves, we can’t – but to be like this man’s friends, bringing people who are hurting and suffering to the only One who can be true healing. Bringing our babies to be baptized, our children to sit at Jesus’ feet in Sunday school, our friends and neighbors to hear the healing message of the Gospel – because Jesus continues to heal our sin-sick world only and always through His Word. Luther explains: 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. That is the one miracle that daily still takes place in Christendom, that our ears, which the devil stopped up through sin, are again opened by the Word, so that we receive it” (6:398).

The list of problems sin has caused in our world and in our own lives is long – much longer than just being deaf or dumb. Satan loves to use sin’s side-effects to tempt us to believe that God doesn’t care, that Jesus can’t do anything, much less anything well. But the truth is that God reserves his best and most important work for those who are physically and spiritually broken. When you are hurting and in need of help, remember this miracle, hear Jesus’ word: Ephphatha, be opened. Listen to the good news that Jesus preaches through that deaf and dumb man: healing has come! Your Savior has taken care of the underlying cause by wiping away your sins away with his blood. When he returns he will give you fully restored bodies with everything – from head to toe – in perfect working order. This is the message our world needs to hear. This is our faith, this is our hope, this is our certainty: in a world broken by sin and unbelief, God has opened our ears to hear and believe and loosened our tongues to confess and sing: Jesus has done everything well! Amen.