Mark 7:31-37
Trinity 12
In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit
“Faith comes by hearing.” You know that verse well; I remind you of it often. But don’t gloss over the implications of what that means. First of all it means that faith is not a private thing. For in order for there to be hearing, there has to be speaking, right? There has to be at least two people involved. That’s why Jesus says, “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them.” Christianity is not a solo venture. It is defined by the preaching and the hearing of the Word.
This is how it has always been, from the beginning of creation. Adam was the first preacher, Eve was the first hearer. She wasn’t there when God gave Adam the command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam, her preacher, taught her that Word of God. The Church is where the Word of God is spoken out loud and heard and discussed and meditated on. It’s good to read your Bible on your own in private and to keep that divine Word before your eyes. But Christianity is not about a book being read silently. The Word of God is an out-loud thing. The primary way your faith is created and sustained is through your ears. What you believe is going to be defined by what you listen to and talk about. Whoever has a hold of your ears has a hold of your heart. So guard your ears. Don’t think that it’s an inconsequential thing what you’re hearing from your TVs and radios and phones and devices. Christian faith can be damaged or even destroyed by constantly hearing the world’s distorted way of understanding and talking about things. Saving faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ.
This is especially worth noting as Sunday School and Bible class are about to begin again with the new school year . It is written in Deuteronomy 6, “These words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” Talking about God’s Word should be a normal and regular part of your life, whether it’s in your homes or at your work or here in church. Having the words of God on our tongues and in our ears is part of how faith is exercised and sustained. Divine Service is the heart of that; Bible study and discussion also should surround and support that. After all, if you’re going to teach these things diligently to your children and grandchildren as the Deuteronomy passage said, you need to know what you’re talking about. I’ll never understand why people think Sunday School is necessary for children but Bible class isn’t necessary for adults. Jesus taught the adults and blessed the children, not the other way around. We all need to be in God’s Word constantly, talking about it, hearing it, thinking about what it means for our lives. For Jesus said, “My words are spirit and they are life.” “Faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ.”
So then, faith is very much a bodily thing. It’s not just an inward, nebulous, spiritual thing. It involves a congregation of people that gather in the flesh. It involves bodily senses like hearing. It involves vocal cords and tongues and eardrums. And today’s Gospel really drives that point home. For Jesus is incredibly hands-on, almost awkwardly physical, in the way that he deals with and heals this deaf-mute.
It says in the Gospel that they brought the deaf-mute to Jesus and “begged Him to lay His hand on him.” They’re going to get exactly what they asked for–and then some. Jesus begins by taking the man aside, privately; this isn’t going to be for show. Since the man cannot hear, Jesus is going to use some actions to convey to him the nature of what he is about to do, a little sign language. First, He puts His fingers into the man’s ears. As the Great Physician, He is not afraid to come into contact with what ails us, the gunk of our fallen humanity. He knows our problems first hand, literally, so that He can truly fix them. And then Jesus spits and touches the man’s tongue. The tongue, too, needed to be fixed. But why spit? This all seems a little unsanitary, earwax and saliva–not to mention that Jesus is uncomfortably close to this man, invading his space, right in his face. But this is how our Lord operates. In order to help us, He has to unsettle us and make us a bit uncomfortable. God gets in our face and confronts us with our natural deafness toward Him, our stubborn inclination to listen to other more entertaining voices. We have to be brought to realize that only His real, physical presence can help and save us. Only the fingers of God in our ears, only the working of the Holy Spirit through the Word can open our ears to hear Him rightly and believe with our heart. Only what comes from Jesus’ mouth can restore our mouths to confess the true faith and to speak His praises.
Jesus looks up to heaven. As the only begotten Son of the Father, Jesus has the authority of heaven on earth to help this man. And then Jesus sighs; He groans. Jesus is moved with emotion as He deals with the damage that sin has done on the earth. He feels what this man feels, the groaning of a life of hardship. It isn’t supposed to be like this, humans with their senses and faculties not working. Creation is all messed up. Romans 8 says that all creation groans. People are hurting. All this Jesus takes into Himself. He is moved with compassion at the human condition.
And then Jesus speaks that odd-sounding word, “Ephphatha.” It means “Be opened; be released.” And when Jesus speaks, things happen. The man’s ears are opened; and he hears for the first time. Imagine the overwhelming emotion the man felt of no longer being cut off from others, of having the fellowship of words and conversation restored to him! It’s not just his ears that work now, but also his speaking, too. His tongue is loosed and released, and he speaks clearly. What a joyous and amazing thing! And when the people see what Jesus did for him, they are amazed and overjoyed also: “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”
These miracles are signs from Jesus of what He is going to bring to all of His people. You also can look forward to the very same kind of healing from Him. I know there are several among you who have some degree of hearing loss; for many it is very serious. Hearing aids only help so much; they can malfunction. Some of you suffer from ringing in the ears, which is its own sort of hearing loss and ailment. Children sometimes have tubes put in their ears to improve drainage and avoid infections and other issues. Lots can go wrong with our ears. And of course, ear, nose, and throat go together. These things can affect our vocal cords and our speaking, too. However, at the second coming of Jesus, in the resurrection on the Last Day, none of the faithful will have any of these issues any more. Jesus is returning to fix your bodies and renew and glorify them. He’s coming back to redeem all of this damaged and broken creation. He will raise your bodies, making them whole and perfect, ready to live in a perfectly restored creation, a new heaven and a new earth. This is what we are looking forward to and what is promised to us as baptized believers, not just souls in heaven but bodily resurrection and restoration. This is what we set our hearts on: the return of Christ, who will fix what is broken in us and in creation, who will do all things well.
We know this is coming, because Jesus dealt once for all with our brokenness on the cross. All the damage in the world, disease and disability and death, all the faculties and senses not working right, all the people not working right or living right or doing right, all the stuff that so frustrates us and that we can’t fix, Jesus came to deal with in our flesh and blood. He came finger to ear and finger to tongue with the effects of sin, and He took it from us. He bore our sins and all their consequences in his body, the innocent bearing the penalty of the guilty. Jesus is our substitute and our Savior. He sighs and groans unto death and breathes His last in order to breathe new life into us. This is the only way our sin could be forgiven; this is the only way the damage could be undone. Jesus’ own grave had an Ephphatha event; it was opened so that you would be released from your grave on the Last Day and share bodily in His Easter.
And all of this has been delivered to you personally in your baptism. There Jesus touched you on the forehead and the heart. There from the mouth of the Lord water and words were splashed upon you. There He spoke His powerful “Ephphatha” for you. And so it happened–you are opened up to God again, released from sin and all of its consequences. Faith comes by hearing Jesus’ word, which delivers what it promises. Believe in it.
Finally, let me add one last important point here: all of this affects our relationships with one another, too. Getting our hearing right toward God helps us to rightly hear and listen to each other. Getting our speaking right toward God helps to talk with one another as we should. Too often we use our mouth and ears one way in church and then go home to our regular lives and converse with others quite differently, don’t we. What a strange thing it is that the people we are closest too often bear the brunt of our worst language and our most impatient hearing. But the in light of Jesus’ working, we know that’s not how things should be. As James says, “Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so . . . Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” And Paul says in Ephesians, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” If your speech isn’t building up but tearing down those around you, if your ears are closed off to those whom you should be showing love, repent. Return to the Lord who fixes malfunctioning ears and mouths and selfish hearts. You have been given a new identity as a baptized child of God. Live within that new reality in Christ. As His words create and give life, let your words edify and build up His life in your homes and workplaces and neighborhoods.
For your ears have been opened to hear the redeeming voice of your Good Shepherd. Your tongue has been loosed to speak plainly what God has done for you and to gladly confess His name. You are a new creation in Jesus. Faith comes by hearing. It doesn’t come from within you; it comes from outside of you, through the Word of God, as a gift.
So even when it seems like this fallen world, or sinful people, or your own aging bodies are getting the best of you, you know that Jesus will have the last word. He is coming to make things right for you, body and soul. The certainty of that for you is in Christ’s body and blood placed on your tongue this day, for the forgiveness of your sins, strengthening you to endure in the faith to the end. And so we say with the psalmist, “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.”
In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit