St. Mark 7:31-37

August 27, 2023

When Jesus takes aside the deaf mute, He takes aside all of humanity. Which means, when Jesus confronts the man who is deaf and has an impediment in his speech, Jesus confronts us. We have several problems: like the man in today’s Gospel, our bodies don’t work right – not the way they were created to work. Medicine helps – but it only delays the inevitable. We are all terminally ill. We are born that way.

But the physical problems are symptoms of a deeper one. The wages of sin is death. Our dying, broken bodies are symptoms of our broken souls and selfish psyches. When we heard the prophet Isaiah talking about the coming day of the LORD, he didn’t just say that the deaf would hear. He said, “In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book,” meaning, Holy Scripture, the Word of God.

Some of you have problems hearing, and need a hearing aid. But every one of us has a problem listening to the Word of God, taking it to heart as we ought. What are your impediments of speech? Do you say things you should not? Do you fail to say the things you ought? Do you say cruel things, hurtful things, betray confidences? Do you tell lies, flatter others to get ahead, tell people what they want to hear?

The Lord Jesus says we will be judged for every word we speak, even the idle ones. “By your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Is it surprising then that when the disciples of Jesus heard the Law from Jesus, the real meaning of the Commandments, they said, “Who then can be saved?”

My favorite shortcut on the Mac is “command-z” – it undoes an action. But there’s no such fix for the words we speak. We can’t take them back. Our words reflect what is really in our hearts: “Out of the abundance of the heart,” Jesus says, “the mouth speaks.” Even the hastily spoken words, the words blurted out without thinking, will be judged. “I tell you,” says our Lord, “on the day of judgment men will render account for every careless word they utter.”

That is why St. Paul today calls the Ten Commandments, the words “carved in letters on stone,” the “ministry of death.” The Commandments show us our sin, they reveal to us how we have not loved God with our whole heart, how we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. God’s Law is a ministry of death, declaring to us that we deserve hell.

Into this context comes the Creator to His broken creation. The doctrine of creation is comforting. Having a Creator means there is One who cares for you, like you care for your children despite and even because of their flaws. God is a far better Father. He sees the tragedy of the death we bring on ourselves, and has compassion. He sees our corrupted souls, the addictions and depression and vanities and emptiness – He sees the entire mess mankind has made of the world and says, “I will enter into it and take it upon Myself. I will die man’s death in his place. By a tree mankind was tempted and fell; so by a tree, by the cross, I will restore mankind.” And so Jesus takes this man who cannot hear and cannot speak rightly, He takes him aside and with him takes us, and He sighs, He groans. What does the sighing and groaning show? That He is sad for us. He knows what man was meant to be, He knows more than we can fathom how far we have fallen, how corrupt we are, how inhuman we have become.

How long did this man have to suffer before Jesus came to him? Most likely a long time – perhaps all his life. God allows us to suffer for reasons we often do not understand. But we know that He is working even our suffering for our good, and that through it we are to learn to call upon God and rely solely upon Him. He is training us to say, “Make haste, O God, to deliver me!”, and look no where else for our help and deliverance.

Today’s Gospel is given for our comfort – that Jesus has compassion on you, He hurts with you, even if your suffering has gone on your whole life. That love and compassion God has for you and for all mankind is what is meant when Jesus groans and sighs when He takes this suffering man aside. And then, He who fashioned man from the earth in the beginning, touches this man’s ears and tongue and makes them whole again, with a Word. The Word of God does what it says. So when Jesus says in Aramaic, “Ephphatha,” “Be opened,” the man’s ears are opened, and his tongue loosed. Because He says, “This is My body,” it is His body. Because He says, “I forgive you all your sins,” they are forgiven. Because He says, “On the last day I will raise up your body from the grave,” it shall be raised up. That is the power of God’s Word.

It is a power that undoes all the damage we have done with our words. Our words have torn down, His Word restores. Our words merit death, His Word brings life. Our words bring pain to others and ourselves, His Words bring healing. Away with the words that haunt you. Cling to His Word of promise, and spend the rest of your days repeating again and again, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

So rejoice, my friends. The Lord JESUS has done all things well, and He will do all things well for you, in His good time.