Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (Mark 7:31-37)
And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”
Prayer: Heavenly Father, we come to you in boldness and confidence as your dear children, calling on you, our dear Father. Let your Word be taught in its truth and purity, and help us to lead holy lives according to it, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Our reading today is simple enough to understand, in that there is a deaf and mute man brought to Jesus who is healed. And on this particular occasion, Jesus uses signs and gestures to accompany his words. He puts his fingers in his ears, he touches his tongue with his spit, he looks up to heaven, he sighs.
And St Mark’s gospel is also a very interesting one. The New Testament books are all written in the Greek language, but most of these events and discussions that took place didn’t take place in the Greek language. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, because it was the language of the Jewish people. And the Jewish people were the custodians of God’s word right up until the time of Jesus, so it was important that these Scriptures were written in the Hebrew language so that they could understand them and use them. St Paul writes in Romans 3: “The Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.”
But at the time of Jesus, Greek was the most widely spoken language in the Gentile world. Since Jesus commanded his disciples to preach the gospel to all nations, they needed to write the New Testament down in a language that the most people could understand. So they wrote these things down in Greek. Today, we might use English. Even though there are more Chinese and Spanish speakers in the world, English is spoken by the most number of people in the most number of countries. (But of course, don’t tell the French.)
But in St Mark’s gospel, he often tells us what Jesus says in his mother tongue, in Aramaic, which was the dialect of Hebrew most commonly spoken in Jesus’ time. So when he raises up a little girls, St Mark tells us, that he said, “Talitha Cumi” which means, “Little girl, I say to you arise.” Also, as in the other gospels, we read where Jesus prays on the cross in Aramaic, “Eloi, eloi, lama sabachtani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Also, throughout Mark’s gospel the disciples often call him by the Hebrew title, “Rabbi.” And when Jesus is in the garden of Gethsemane, St Mark reports that Jesus calls his Father, “Abba”, which is Aramaic for father.
All of this gives us a little window into the day-to-day life of Jesus, as a person who existed in history, living among certain people, and in certain places, and confirms the bible as an historical book, not one that is plucked out of the air.
And so, also in our Gospel reading, we also have an example of Jesus’ mother tongue, where he says to this deaf and dumb man, “Ephphatha”, which means, “Be opened.” And, it says, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.
And not only was this man’s ears opened, but also the people who were listening in the crowd also had their ears opened, so much so that St Mark saw fit to record the word that Jesus spoke in the exact language that he spoke it in. But also, their mouths were also opened, so that they spoke a great confession of faith: “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
“He has done all things well.” We could also translate this as: “He has made all things good.”
Now in the Hebrew language, this takes us back to the first book of Genesis, where it says, “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” And so also on this occasion, the crowd say, “He has made all things good, He has done all things well.”
And so, it’s very important that we see this passage here as talking not just about some magic superman who did a little magic trick, but about a true man who is also true God. When Jesus touched the man’s ear, it was not just a man’s touch, but it was God’s touch. It was God’s own finger, the same finger that was shaping and forming the world at the beginning of creation, making all things well.
This man who was deaf and mute was oppressed by the devil. All disease, all sickness, every sadness, every sorrow is not God’s creation. It is the devil’s corruption of God’s good creation. Right in the Garden of Eden, we see the serpent corrupting God’s word: “Did God really say?” And then throughout the rest of history, the devil is always corrupting God’s creation. And so each person who is born in this world is now born in sin, but not only that, but we are born into corruption, and sorrow, and sadness, and pain. We don’t come out of our mother’s womb laughing, we come out crying, and our mothers give birth to us with a great deal of crying and sadness and suffering.
This is not how God created things to be. When he created things, he saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. He also created people and the angels with a free will, so that they could love him freely. God never forces anything on anyone. But then, the devil at sometime unknown to us fell into sin, and then dragged the human race into sin with him.
St John says in his first letter: “The reason why the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.”
That’s what happens in our reading today. A man is brought to Jesus—a beautiful, precious man created in God’s image, but with the devil’s handiwork also written on him, by no specific actual sin of this man, even though we know the man is a sinner, but purely because the devil just likes to stuff things up for us and make people unhappy.
And so this man is brought to Jesus and he makes a new creation. He opens the man’s ears and mouth. He makes a new creation—out of nothing. It’s just like turning water into wine—he creates something new out of nothing. Jesus demonstrates himself as the one true God, and at the same time, he demonstrates himself as the one true God who is not a tyrant like the devil, but he demonstrates himself as one who loves the people whom he has made, and has compassion on everyone, and who wants to make people happy. Jesus wants to lift up each sad face, he wants to wipe away every sad tear, he wants to give confidence and courage to everyone who is fearful, and he gives all these things to us, not because there is anything there in us that he has to change into something better, but he simply creates something new out of nothing, he simply speaks his word and everything is created. Jesus makes everything new, everything fresh, everything joyful and happy, through his word, only through his word, and through nothing but his word.
The devil holds all our sins before our eyes and rubs our face in it. He says, “Look, you hypocrite! You haven’t loved God with all your heart! Look, you second-rate philosopher! You haven’t loved God with all your mind! Look, you angry, greedy, lustful person! You haven’t loved God with all your soul! Look, you weak, pathetic sad-sack! You haven’t loved God with all your strength!”
The devil wants to rub our face in it. And when the devil says this, we know he’s right. The Holy Spirit also testifies that the devil is right. God’s own law testifies that the devil is right. And our own conscience testifies that he is right. And so then we think that there’s no way out, and we’re just left by ourselves with no light at the end of the tunnel, and no God.
But then Jesus comes to us with his resurrected pierced hands, and his resurrected wounded side, and he says, “Come on, Thomas, put your hand in there, stick your finger in.” And Thomas says, “There is a God after all! You, Jesus, are my Lord and my God.”
And Jesus creates everything new. He works completely outside all the law, completely outside of what we think we deserve, what the devil thinks we deserve, what everyone in the world thinks is good advice, and he comes to us with the wisdom of cross, which everyone else things is nonsense, and he says to us: “I forgive you completely freely.” My blood has paid the price for you. Let me stick my finger in your ear and touch your tongue. Let me open you up. And we say, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.”
And so on this occasion in our gospel reading, Jesus says to this man, “Be opened.” “Ephphatha.”
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Often it’s a very useful thing for us as Christians to listen to the Christians of the past and to take notice of how they used certain passages to talk about certain things. It’s important that we listen to the Christian wisdom of centuries past, and even sit for a moment under their folly, and take note of what they are saying. In this parish, I have developed a reputation for liking old books, and if I quote something from the 1880s or something, someone says, “Pastor, that’s a bit modern for you, isn’t it?”
But we all need to listen to the Christians of the past, because God says in the commandments, “Honour your father and your mother”. This includes our fathers and mothers in the faith, because we are not the first people to receive the Holy Spirit.
Our Gospel reading today has been used throughout the centuries in a very specific place in our liturgy. Can you think where?
It’s used at the occasion of baptism. Right from the early times, at the time of the Reformation, and even up to today, when we baptise a person, we say, “The Lord made the deaf hear and dumb speak. Therefore, in his name I say, “Be opened”, that you may hear and speak the word of God.” In earlier times, they even used to use the word “Ephphatha” as part of the baptism liturgy.
Now, why do you think this is part of our baptism service?
John Lennox, an English Christian, appeared on the show Q&A on the ABC last year, and he was asked, “If God spoke to Moses in the burning bush, and parted the Red Sea and all that sort of thing, why is God silent today and not speaking anymore?” And John Lennox said, “I think it’s not that God isn’t speaking, it’s that we’re not listening.”
He’s right. We’re not listening. The word of God is read and spoken every Sunday in the church, and we don’t regard it as the word of God. Parishioners don’t regard the preaching of their pastors as the word of God. Pastors don’t regard the preaching of other pastors as the word of God. Children don’t regard the words of their parents and teachers as the word of God. Employees don’t regard the words of their bosses as the word of God.
But our ears are closed to hearing the word of God, and our mouths are closed to speaking it, unless Jesus himself comes and opens our ears and mouths. If only our mouths were as bold in speaking as our ears are attentive in listening. If only our ears were much more open than our mouths remain shut.
And so, as people who are under the authority of others, we must not simply obey them when they speak, but serve them in showing them where they have not spoken God’s word when they should have. We might receive some flack for this—but Jesus gives us persecution right in the middle of our vocations.
As people who are in authority over others, we must not lord it over other people, but serve them not with our own opinions, but with the opinions of God, and with the words of God.
This means that we need to turn to our risen Lord Jesus often in repentance, and ask him to forgive our deafness when we should have been listening, and forgive us our shut mouths when we should have been speaking. Jesus comes to us in all our deafness and dumbness and opens our ears and opens our mouths daily. He makes all things new, and speaks to us his grace and his forgiveness, richly, daily, new, afresh.
We must realise that this reading has a spiritual meaning for us, and that Jesus heals us of our spiritual deafness and our spiritual dumbness. But this isn’t something abstract, or psychadellic, or pretend. Jesus cures us in the flesh, in the body, in time, in history, really, actually and factually.
Because the words that our risen Lord Jesus Christ speaks to us today in the church, are the same words which will rise your dead bodies on the last day, they are the same words which will create a resurrection out of nothing, and breath life into the dry bones.
The words that Jesus speaks to you are Spirit and life, and he will raise you up on the last day. The Holy Spirit is given in Holy Baptism to us now, amid all our suffering and grief and mourning as a guarantee, a down-payment, of the wonderful resurrection and new life.
The body and blood of Christ is given to you so that you may be strengthen in body and soul until life eternal.
Your baptism is not a symbolic death, or a symbolic act of dying, or drowning—but it is an actual drowning of your flesh, an actual pouring out of the Holy Spirit, an actual sprinkling of Christ’s blood and an actual forgiving of all your sins, and an actual rising to new life.
As Jesus says: “This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
Jesus has opened you. Eternal life has begun. We don’t see it, we don’t feel it. We only see our flesh, things getting worse, everything bad in us and around us. But Jesus’ word says it! “Be opened.” Your ears have been opened, your mouth has been opened. Jesus side has been opened, his hands have been nailed. And the door to eternal life has been opened, and it will never be shut.
He has done all thing well. He has even made the deaf hear and the mute speak.
Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, how deaf we are in listening to you, and how often we keep our mouths shut when we are asked for an edifying word. Open our ears, that we may hear your word, and open our lips that our mouths may tell of your praise. Amen.
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