The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity
Mark 7:31-37
Have you ever found yourself speaking to someone and they don’t hear you?
You know their hearing works well, but strangely, they don’t seem to listen to you. They miss instructions, conversations, and what’s being taught. While some say a person has selective hearing, this is actually about the brain focusing on one person in a noisy environment, not about choosing to ignore another.
However, might a person subconsciously become deaf in certain situations? Causing them not to hear you? Might this be why a child doesn’t clean their room when they’ve been instructed to do so?
Well, Google says no; men cannot physically or medically become deaf purely through a subconscious choice or psychological will.
So why don’t individuals hear you when you speak to them, in a setting where people can converse normally?
Because they choose not to.
That’s all; they just don’t want to hear you. They’ve become preoccupied with their own thoughts and dreams; their desires, choices, and wills have become more important than you or anyone else.
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus encounters a man who is truly deaf and has a speech impediment. It’s probable that this man has had these ailments since his birth.
The man’s friends brought him to Jesus and begged Him to heal their friend.
Can you imagine?
Living all the days of your life in silence…not being able to hear, not being able to speak, not being able to communicate.
None of this is a choice for the man.
But his friends bring him to the One they believe can help and heal him. They bring him to Jesus.
It’s interesting: what follows is a liturgy of sorts, an order of service.
First, the man in need of healing is brought to Jesus; then there are prayers for him, followed by an absolution, and finally a dismissal.
Jesus instructs the man and his friends, “Don’t tell anyone what I’ve done,” but they do anyway.
But walk with me through this sequence.
The man’s friends bring him to Jesus for healing. We do the same. The first step is to bring our broken bodies to the Divine Service to confess our sins before Jesus. Then we pray to God for help and healing. This is followed by the absolution, the forgiveness of sin, and finally the dismissal, the sending out of God’s people in peace.
Now, in this liturgy involving the deaf man, his friends bring him and beg Jesus to lay His hands upon him to heal him. The laying on of hands, as seen in the Old Testament, was part of the liturgy of healing. Often, anointing oils would be used, in addition to touching the person, to say, “This person, this man, this woman, is the one who is to be healed, cleansed, and forgiven.” There’s a specificity in the laying on of hands.
But Jesus does something that we might find repulsive today. He puts His fingers into the man’s ears, spits, and touches his tongue.
What in the world is this?
Well, some scholars believe this would have been understood by the deaf man, but remember, it’s not uncommon for the Word of God to be accompanied by a visible sign. Where do we see this? Does not the water of Holy Baptism, joined with the Word of God, grant forgiveness and healing, declaring this one, this child, this man, to be God’s?
Another aspect here is how Jesus looks up to His Father in heaven as He says, “‘Ephphatha,’ that is ‘be opened.’”
Again, another connection to the Baptismal liturgy we use at Good Shepherd as we pray and ask for the ears of the one to be baptized to be open to God’s Word, His teaching, and His will.
As we learned last week, growing in this way, the baptized life, by being open and submissive to God’s Word, His teaching, and His will, requires humility. Jesus pulls the man aside, places His fingers and spit upon and within the man, and then looks to His Father, demonstrating that all He does is in accordance with His Father’s will. Jesus is submissive to His Father.
Honestly, this is where we often go wrong; we do not truly live in submission to Jesus or His Father. It’s not physical deafness we show but rather spiritual deafness.
Spiritual deafness occurs when we do not listen to, hear, and take to heart the word of God.
And here are a few ways we demonstrate this deafness in our own lives.
The issue of closed communion has been a concern for the church lately, a time characterized by spiritual deafness. A faithful family that raises their children in the Church understands God’s teachings about the Lord’s Supper—that before participating, one must examine themselves to avoid judgment and condemnation.
Receiving at this altar signifies confessing unity, fellowship, and adherence to this church’s teachings. However, when families see their children go off to college, move away, and join a church of another confession that does not align with Good Shepherd, they sometimes become deaf to God’s warnings in 1 Corinthians 11. Consequently, the meal is no longer the Lord’s Supper but has become our supper.
The situation of cohabitation, or living together, is also relevant. Everyone raised in the Lutheran Church, who attended Confirmation classes and learned the Sixth Commandment, understands that a man and a woman should not engage in sexual relations outside marriage, nor should they cohabit without being married.
However, today, couples are increasingly inclined to take this path to test-drive the relationship, to save money, to avoid losing money, especially from the government, and to avoid commitment and sacrifice.
Again, there is a spiritual deafness in these situations: one has heard God’s Word and knows His will but does not want to live according to it.
This is a choice made by man.
Or forgiving one another, have you ever said, “I’m never going to forgive that person for what they’ve done to me?”
That’s a choice, a decision.
What does Jesus say, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (St. Matthew 6:14-15)
When we refuse to forgive others, we are refusing to listen to God’s clear Word; we are refusing to be Christians.
We have entered a state of spiritual deafness and have actively closed our ears to God’s will, His Word, and His teaching.
Even pastors are vulnerable to spiritual deafness when they ignore the Word of God and His commands to avoid offending members, friends, or family. In doing so, they also heed the devil's voice.
When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, that first sin that brought all of humanity into sin, it was because they were no longer trusting and listening to the one who created them and gave them life; they were listening to the one, the devil, who desired to lead them away from life.
Think about this: by not listening and heeding God’s Word, we reject it. Instead, we often accept the Devil’s lies and stray from life, including eternal life.
So where is your life found?
In the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, the One who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life…” (John 14:6)
The One who said, “The words that I [speak] are spirit and life.” (John 6:63)
And if the words of Jesus are spirit and life, then we cannot neglect them, no matter how painful they may seem to us, how unfriendly they may appear to us humans, how they may offend some, how they may permit crosses to be placed upon us, or how they may force us to face our enemies and speak those freeing words, “I forgive you.”
Because these are the words that heal.
Jesus is the Word that heals.
This is what we sang in the hymn of the day, today, “Word of God, Come Down to Earth.”
Word of God, come down on earth,
Living rain from heav’n descending;
Touch our hearts and bring to birth
Faith and hope and love unending.
Word that came from heav’n to die,
Crucified for our salvation,
Word that caused blind eyes to see,
Speak and heal our mortal blindness;
Deaf we are: our healer be;
Loose our tongues to tell Your kindness.
Word that speaks God’s tender love.
Word of truth, to all truth lead us;
Word of life, with one bread feed us.[1]
My friends, how wonderful are these words to hear?
That the Word of God descended from heaven to earth, to live, to die, to rise, and ascend. To do this for you, to open your eyes, to open your ears, to free your tongue, so that you might hear His love, then confess Him, His love, His forgiveness.
But all of this begins with His Word, a Word spoken over you at the font of Holy Baptism. At the font, you’ve been brought; prayers were made for you; the pastor lays his hand upon you, looks to heaven, and speaks to Jesus and His Father, saying, “‘Ephphatha,’ that is ‘be opened.’” A prayer for the baptized not only to hear the precious words marking them as one redeemed by Christ the Crucified, but also to set them apart to live a life of hearing God’s Word, living within God’s Word, and confessing God’s Word in what they say, what they do, and how they live.
Because in the end you have heard God’s Word, and as the Baptized, you are to continue to learn and grow in His ways, you are to have joyous confidence even when it’s not popular among friends and family, even if His Word permits crosses in your relationships and life, because this Word, your Savior, Jesus Christ, is the one who leads you out of this life into eternal life.
If you find yourself wandering away from the path of the cross or feeling overwhelmed by worldly pressures, and you notice yourself drifting from God’s Word, return to the font and pray, “Ephphatha,” asking God to open your ears to His Word. Then, stay attentive and listen, because Jesus is speaking to you. +INJ+
Rev. Noah J. Rogness
Pastor, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Tomah, WI
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Website: www.goodsheptomah.org
The Shepherd’s Voice Podcast: https://goodsheptomah.podbean.com/
[1] Selected lines from the hymn “Word of God, Come Down to Earth.” The Lutheran Service Book, 545.
