Pentecost XVI (Proper 18 B) [Mark 7:24-37] (9-Sep-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

In our Gospel reading today, we have two events that occur: first of all, we have the passage where a woman begs Jesus to cast out a demon from her daughter. Secondly, we read about where Jesus heals a man who is both deaf and dumb—he can’t hear and he can’t speak. Today, we’re going to focus on this second event.

In the first passage though, we read about Jesus going into the region of Tyre and Sidon. Jesus had travelled way up north on the coast, all the way up to what is modern-day Lebanon, which is the next country north of modern-day Israel. Tyre and Sidon are still reasonably major cities in Lebanon. This was the region where the lady came from and asked Jesus to cast the demon out of her daughter.

Then in the second passage, it says: Then [Jesus] returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. Jesus travelled a fair way south down the coast, from what we would call the Lebanese coast, down into Israel, where the Sea of Galilee was. This was a journey well over 100 kilometres. But then it says he went to the other side of the lake, to what was called the region of the Decapolis. The Decapolis was the name which the Romans gave to this area, on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which incorporated 10 cities. Today, this area is basically the bottom corner of Syria and part of modern-day Jordan. But enough geography for now!

Many years previous to this event in our reading today was an event which we read in the book of Numbers, where we read that there was a prophet called Balaam who was travelling along with his donkey, and his donkey began to speak. We read that Balaam was travelling along at there was an angel standing in the road, but only the donkey could see it, so the donkey veered off the road. Balaam then started to beat the donkey. We read: Then the LORD opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you struck me these three times?” Now, this is quite an amazing thing that we read about, that God opens the mouth of a donkey and allows it to speak!

But in our Gospel reading today, something similar happens to a man, who couldn’t hear and couldn’t speak. Now, I’m not saying at all that this man was no better than an animal – in fact, far from it! He was a human being like you and me! But I bet people treated him like an animal—they couldn’t talk to him and he wouldn’t understand, they would make jokes at him, and he wouldn’t be able to lip-read, because he didn’t know what things were supposed to sound like to even learn what people were saying.

So, in the book of Numbers, an animal speaks with a human voice, and only for a brief time. But in today’s reading, there is a man who is given the gift of hearing, and he is given the gift of speech. Even though he had never been able to hear before, he had been given the gift of speech. He also spoke to people in a language that he had never been able to learn from his mother and from the people around him. The donkey only spoke once; but this man speaks for the rest of his life.

So this is what we are reading about in our Gospel reading today. We read: Then Jesus 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.

Most of the things Jesus does in the Gospels have to do with Jewish people. But every now and then, something happens which has to do with Gentile people, like us. And this gives a little taste of what happens at the end of the Gospels, when Jesus sends his disciples not just to the Jewish people, but also to the whole world. When we read the book of Acts too, we see how the apostles and evangelists start off with the Jewish people, but then as the book goes on, they go more and more to the Gentile people. The reason for this is that Jesus died not just for the sins of his own people, the Jewish people, but also for the sins of the whole world.

And so, Jesus gives a little taste of this in the reading today, by going into a Gentile region, and healing this man. We read that he was deaf and also it says, he had a speech impediment. Now if you meet a deaf person, they often don’t speak as clearly as other people. The reason for this is that they way in which we learn how to speak is by listening to other people. And so, when you are unable to hear, you are unable to learn how to speak. This man doesn’t seem to have been able to hear or speak at all very much.

He also wouldn’t have been able to hear the rumours about Jesus. He wouldn’t have been like the blind man, who heard about Jesus, and then called out to him when he passed by. We read that there were people around the place who were his friends, or relatives, who cared about him so that they brought him to Jesus and they begged him to lay his hand on him. This gives us a little reminder, that when we know someone who is in need, or has a particular problem, we should just ask Jesus to come and intervene.

But then, there’s also a very unusual way in which Jesus went about performing this miracle. Normally, when Jesus heals a person or casts out a demon, all he does is simply speaks. And this is just like when God created the world—he simply said: Let there be light, and there was light. In a similar way, Jesus shows to people constantly that he is true God, simply by speaking things into existence just like at the creation of the world.

But in the reading today, Jesus goes about healing this man in a very unusual way. We read: 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.”

First of all, we read that Jesus took him aside from the crowd privately. Here Jesus takes the man aside—we might imagine him gently leading him with his hand on his shoulder, and takes him somewhere so that they are by themselves. Jesus wants this man to see with his eyes that he is dealing with this man by himself—Jesus wants the man to be absolutely sure that he is dealing with him, and nothing that happens to the man happened by accident while he was standing around in the crowd.

Then we read: He placed his finger into [the man’s] ears and after spitting touched his tongue. If you’ve ever had anything to do with deaf people, you will know that all the communication has to be incredibly visual—they use sign language, like Auslan, with always very vivid expressions on their face. Jesus does something a bit similar here—he invents his own sign language, and makes it abundantly clear to the man that he is about to do something for this man’s ears and for his mouth.

After that we read: And looking up to heaven, he sighed. Once again, Jesus speaks in sign language for the man. In a wonderful way, he completely summarises for us what it means to pray without words—he just looks up and sighs. There’s a beautiful Psalm which begins: I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Many times, when Jesus prays, it says that he looked up to heaven. He sets us a wonderful example that we should always look up to God for our help. We look up to wide blue sky and we realise just how helpless we are, and yet we have a God who hears us. In Romans 8, we read: The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Here we see how many times the Holy Spirit prays through us, using groans and sighs. Sometimes, when we pray, we just don’t know what to pray, and we just don’t seem to have the words to pray. Here we have a wonderful example from Jesus—just to look up and sigh. The Holy Spirit will know what that means, even if we ourselves don’t.

In some sense, Jesus doesn’t need to look up and sigh—God the Father would hear Jesus’ prayers without these gestures. Jesus, in some sense, does it for the benefit of the man. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, we read: Jesus, lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” You can see in this prayer, that he prays out loud not because he needs to, but for the benefit of the people standing around. So also in the same way, Jesus wants to show this man, through sign language, that he will do something effecting his ears and his mouth, by putting his finger in his ears, and touching his tongue with spit. And now Jesus shows to the man, also through sign language, that he is calling upon all the power of his heavenly Father, so that something can be done for this man.

Then we read: And looking up to heaven, [Jesus] sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” Here we see something quite interesting. Every now and then, especially in the Gospel of Mark, we have a few instances of where we are reminded of the actual language that Jesus spoke, which was Aramaic. There are a few places in the Gospels where we are told of specific instances where Jesus says something in Aramaic, the most well-known instance being when Jesus was on the cross, and said, Eli, eli, lema sabachthani? which means, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Aramaic was a kind of dialect of Hebrew that people spoke at the time of Jesus. Some parts of the book of Daniel and Ezra were written in Aramaic, but most of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew. All of the New Testament was written in Greek. So here’s a question: Why didn’t the writers of the New Testament actually write in the language that Jesus spoke? Why did they use Greek instead?

Let me give you a little scenario: let’s just pretend that Jesus was an Aborigine who lived in central Australia and he spoke the Pitjinjatjara language. And he had twelve disciples, who were all Aborigines too, and they all spoke Pitjinjatjara. And then Jesus says to his disciples: I want you to preach to the Gospel to all the people in Alice Springs, and to all of Australia and to the ends of the earth. What language do you think they might have to use? What would happen if they all used Pitjinjatjara? Nobody around Australia would be able to understand a thing! They would have to use English, because it is the most widely spoken language.

So also, the apostles and evangelists wrote the New Testament in Greek because it was the most commonly spoken language in the Roman Empire in that part of the world at that time. Remember that when Jesus was on the cross, Greek was one of the languages in which Pontius Pilate wrote the message: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. So the fact that the New Testament was written in Greek is all part of the mission of the church in bringing the Gospel to all nations.

Today, we have this little word, “Ephphatha”, meaning, “Be opened”, written in Aramaic, the language that Jesus as a little boy would have learnt from his mother. This man that Jesus was about to heal would never have heard his mother, he had not learnt any language from his mother because he wasn’t able to hear, and so he wasn’t able to speak. And so Jesus not only speaks in his own mother tongue, but he gives this man the mother tongue which he wasn’t able to get from his own mother.

And we read: 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.”

So we have a few things in these couple of verses. First, we have the actual miracle itself described: His ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then we have Jesus give the crowd the command not to speak about it, which they didn’t listen to. We read: And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And then we read about the crowd’s reaction: And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.

Let’s talk about the miracle itself for a minute. We read that the man was now able to hear and he was able to speak, and he spoke normally. And Jesus accomplishes this not simply through a word as normal, but also through all kinds of gestures and signs—and all of physical things. And this shows us that Jesus is the Word who has become flesh. We read in John 1: The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus doesn’t just speak God’s powerful word, but he is the Word of God. And so, he shows to us the wonderful power that comes from his body, because he is both true man and true God in one person. When he touches this man, this is not just a man who touches him, but this is God who touches him. It’s like blacksmith’s iron rod which is heated up and glowing red with fire. It’s not like Jesus is a cold piece of metal touching this man, but he touches this man with all the power and fire and energy of the living God himself, because he is God.

This reminds us of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, because when we come to church we don’t just hear the word with out ears, but Jesus actually comes and touches us when he baptises us, and gives us his own life-giving, powerful body and blood for us to eat and to drink.

But also, we need also to remember that we are all spiritually deaf and dumb, unless Jesus himself sends us the Holy Spirit to open our ears and mouths to speak. Surely you know from your own experience how many people there are in our own towns that just seem to be incredibly deaf to God’s word? After all, St Paul does say in Ephesians: You were dead in your trespasses and sins. If we were dead, we would expect that we would be deaf and dumb like most dead bodies! We should pray that the Holy Spirit would come and open people’s ears and their mouths, that they may hear and speak the word of God.

But then Jesus commands the people not to speak about the miracle. Why does he do this? Jesus doesn’t do this for the publicity. He’s not in it for the fame and the glory. He shows to us here a humble attitude. He genuinely wants to help this man, and he does. He doesn’t do this for himself. The news spreads anyway, however, even though Jesus himself doesn’t seek it.

Then we read at the end where the crowd says: He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak. These words, He has done all things well, point us right back to the beginning of the bible, where it says: God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Now the crowd says: He has done all things well. Jesus, together with his Father, had created the world well. Now, after the fall into sin, where the devil had tempted the first people into sin, Jesus gives a little foretaste of how he re-creates the world, and makes all things new. He destroys all the works of the devil, and puts everything right. He heals all the disabilities and all the diseases. We read at the end of the book of Revelation, how in the new heaven and the new earth, he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning or crying or pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. This is what Jesus shows us in small way by healing this man who was both deaf and dumb.

So, let’s thank Jesus for opening our ears and mouths. He has enabled us by the Holy Spirit to be able to hear his living and eternal word, he has spoken to us the forgiveness of sins, and he has promised us eternal life. Amen.

Dear Jesus, we thank you for healing this man from his deafness and his inability to talk. Open up our ears so that we may be open and receptive to hearing and learning your word, and that our mouths may be open to speak in prayer and praise. Amen.