The Twelfth Sunday After Trinity

Mark 7:31-37

Being deaf and mute would be a harsh sentence in life. It would make the man brought to Jesus unable to communicate with anyone. While sign language is a great tool for many deaf people today, this form of communication did not develop until the 16th century. 

No, to be deaf and mute would lead to a life of isolation.

Research today also reveals that being deaf and mute can lead to psychological and social difficulties. A higher risk of dementia, depression, loneliness, limited education and employment opportunities, and just downright difficulties with everyday communication.

Have you ever been deaf and mute in this life?

For some, you might feel as if you were deaf and mute if you travel to a foreign country. While you hear the sounds of another language all around you, you have no comprehension of what they are saying.

For others, they might be born with hearing challenges that affect their ability to speak and their temperament. This is especially common in children who, through modern medicine, can have small tubes inserted into their ears to open the ear canal, allowing them to hear clearly for the first time. 

But I wonder if there are other ways, you might become deaf and mute throughout your lives. To be clear, I’m not talking about being born with this impediment, but rather, developing situations where your minds and bodies seize up. Where you no longer hear or understand the world around you. Where your voices go silent.

This might be the child who just started a new school year. Sure, the palms of your hands are sweaty as you walk into your new classroom. Butterflies in your tummies. Maybe you even have a new teacher or school. But what do you do when the teacher calls on you for the first time? Do you hear their voice? Do you think to yourself, “I wish I could just run away…” Do you answer the teacher’s question with conviction or confidence?

Is this you, the deaf and mute man from today’s Gospel?

Or for those of you who have recently had the unfortunate experience of more doctor’s appointments, when the doctor began to give your diagnosis, were you or those with you able to communicate with the doctor? Or did you find yourself feeling numb, at a loss for words, in a darkness where you could no longer hear the conversation around you?

Surely you were physically present, and words were being exchanged. But it’s during moments like these that a more profound silence of the ears and lips begins to emerge. It’s times like these when you leave your appointment and don’t remember anything the doctor said or the questions you asked. 

When this occurred, did you become the deaf and mute man from today’s Gospel?

A challenge in all the ways you become deaf and mute throughout life, whether it be a traumatic event, experience, or ailments you are born with, they also can lead to psychological and social difficulties, such as loneliness, isolation, and struggles with everyday communication. 

When you get down to it, because you are already internalizing things in moments such as these, you are unable to communicate effectively. It’s difficult to come up with the words to express your needs, and it can be even harder to hear the words of concern and comfort from those around you.

Those who love you and simply want to help you, as the friends of the deaf and mute man, who brought him to Jesus for healing.

For this reason, the Christian must ask themselves, when these situations arise, what am I to do?

Begin with your Baptism. Go back to where Christ Jesus says to you, “Ephphatha, that is, ‘Be opened.’”

And take heart that He continues to say this to you each and every time you remember your Baptism, confess your sin, and receive the absolution for your sin.

As Isaiah wrote in the Old Testament reading today,

       In that day the deaf shall hear
the words of a book,
       and out of their gloom and darkness
the eyes of the blind shall see. (Isaiah 29:18)

What day? The day of Jesus Christ. The day of grace and mercy. The day of forgiveness and eternal life. Today.

Too often, the difficulties of life lead us to cocoon. We don’t know what to do, we don’t know what to say, so we recoil into the silence of our hearts.

But remember that Christ has already taken you aside at the font and opened your ears and heart to Him, so that He might give you the words to say. Words to confess your sins. Words to confess your needs to Him in prayer. Words to ask God for friends who care for you, like those of the deaf and mute man in the Gospel (of course, you have to be willing to accept their help, too), words to confess how Jesus died for you on the cross and rose again on the third day.

Why?

Because in your baptism, you died and all of your sins, ailments, and troubles of life were drowned with Christ Jesus on the cross, then were raised to new life in His resurrection. For this reason, you can read and hear His Word—the Word of eternal life—and see Him as your Savior. 

My friends, as difficult and challenging moments arise in life, such as returning to school, the fear that accompanies unexpected illnesses and diagnoses, sins that cling to your hearts, or whatever you may be facing today, remember who you are in Christ Jesus. Remember to turn to Him, who opens your ears, comforts your heart with His Word of peace and forgiveness, and provides you with the words to pray. 

Words that place your faith in Him who will bring you out of the darkness of this life and into His eternal glory and life everlasting. +INJ+

Rev. Noah J. Rogness

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Tomah, WI