LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.
God is speaking to you today, saying:
So first we will allegorize this miracle because we think we
are not deaf and dumb. But that we hear just fine. We will say that we are
waiting for Jesus to open figurative doors in our lives, so that we can walk
through them and say we’re blessed. We will also say that we must work on the
“closings” in our lives by finding out why they’re closed, opening them ourselves,
and giving thanks and praise, just like the Pharisee last week.
With that false thinking out of the way, we will instead
ponder what an enfleshed God is doing literally opening this man’s ears and
tongue and what that has to do with our ears and tongue. Remember, God does not
change. If He is opening the ears and tongue of one man, He is opening the ears
and tongues of many to hear and speak the forgiveness of sins.
What causes them to be closed in the first place? There are
two answers. The first is Original Sin, meaning everyone without exception,
comes out of their mother not hearing and not speaking and not just physically.
We are born spiritually dead in our sin as well. All of our faculties are
closed towards God and must be forced open. This is why we baptize infants.
The second answer takes a bit more personal responsibility,
because our own sinfulness destroys faith and undoes what Christ gives us in
baptism. What you must do and haven’t done is actively search the Scriptures for
your salvation, even in regards to what healing this deaf and stammering man,
means for you today. And not just on your own, but with your church more than 1
hour a week.
On Easter morning, Jesus leads a Bible Class with 2 of His
disciples on the road to Emmaus. They are talking together, but Jesus is not
recognized by either disciple. Yet, when they get to their house and “…He was at table with them, he took the
bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened,
and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each
other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road,
while he opened to us the Scriptures?’” (Lk. 24:30-32)
The disciples would have known that it was Jesus Who was
with them, had they not been foolish of heart and slow to believe what the
Bible says. Had you been diligent students of the Word of God, you would also
have known this. Similarly, you would have known that this 7th
chapter of Mark begins with the disciples being condemned by the Pharisees for
eating bread with unclean hands.
Jesus then steam-rolls over their false piety by teaching
that it is not what goes into a man that makes him unclean, but what comes out
of him. “For from within, out of the
heart of man, come… All these evil things… and they defile a man.” (Mk.
7:21-23) Also, that just before He heals this bind, stammering man He casts
out a demon from someone’s daughter who was miles away from Him.
All the unclean things have to do with your sin, Original
and actual: unrighteousness, immorality, demon possession, even being deaf and
dumb. Jesus says, “You search the
Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they
that bear witness about me…” (John 5:39) At Jesus’ encouragement, we will hear
even more Scripture and find Him and subsequently the removal of our own deaf
and dumbness.
From the Old Testament reading, Isaiah says the deaf are
going to hear and the blind are going to see. Now, our modern medical
technology has come a long way in aiding those afflicted with such ailments,
but there is no complete restoration. We may be able to use stem cells and that
is very close to what Jesus is doing, but just not being deaf anymore misses
the point. You are still a person, even if you are deaf.
Isaiah is promising, by God’s own Word to all peoples, deaf
and hearing, that the Messiah will come and when He does these are the things
that are going to happen: miracles. However, we do not listen for these
miracles anymore, because Jesus has already died and risen from the dead. We
need no more signs from the Messiah. We do however, need to be reminded over
and over again by Scriptures, Who our Messiah is.
Thus, our reading from 2 Corinthians. You are not
sufficient. Repent. Read your Bible. The disciples are not sufficient. This deaf
man today, is not sufficient. Christ must be our sufficiency. Not our ability
to follow Him, obey Him, or even hear and speak of Him.
It must be Christ following us to the depths of death. It
must be Christ obeying the Father even to death on a cross. It must be the
hearing and seeing eyes of Jesus that see His creation in the hell of sin and
have utter compassion upon us.
Our Introit made us sing it the best way, “I am poor and needy: make haste unto me O
God: make no tarrying.” (Ps. 70:5) Even our Collect of the Day prays for
this sufficiency from God alone. We need to be given the gift of performing
true and laudable service to God, quickly or it will pass us by, for we do not
have it inside us. We need faith to be given to us, and we need the grace of
Jesus to obtain the heavenly promises.
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Thankfully, Jesus has spent all of time working on these
Holy Scriptures for us. Making sure that in them is a blueprint that is easy to
see, easy to hear, and easy to believe. A Blueprint of a Church that is already
built, already provided for, and already redeemed. The Bible is not an
instruction manual, but an autobiography of God made man, crucified for our
sin.
In the holy Scriptures we don’t find a life to live, but an
eternal life freely given, by Jesus. In the Bible, we find the deafness of our
sin, but we hear the Goodness of our Savior. In the Word of God, we hear that
God and flesh are made into one Christ and never shall the two be divorced.
In this way, Christians are not people of the book, but
people of the Body; the Body of Christ. It is not the book itself, but what the
book reveals and preaches to us: that Jesus is the Christ of God made manifest
in human form, taking on the sin of the world upon the cross. Defeating sin
(deafness and dumbness), death, and the devil for us.
It is only this Bible that tells you that absolute truth. It
is the Word alone that reveals Jesus Christ to us and it is faith alone that
gives us the ability to believe it. So, at the same time we don’t need a book,
we do need a book and you need to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest it.
You need to study it. You need to teach it. You need to eat it.
Thus, we come to the reason why Jesus stuck His fingers in
the man’s ears and on his tongue. The Word is too hard for you to hear, you
must also digest it. Studying and attending the Divine Service go hand in hand.
You do not get the full picture in private study. It must be corporate study
and corporate worship. You must read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.
And this is all that the Divine Service does for you. It
preaches the Word to you that is too hard for deaf, sinful ears. It implants
the Word into you that is too hard for stammering tongues. It feeds the Word to
you that is too hard to digest. You must hear the Word and you must eat the
Word for the full effect.
Proverbs tells us to “…not
love sleep, lest you come to poverty; [but] Open your eyes, and you will be
satisfied with bread.” (20:13) This is because in the Sacrament of the
Altar your Savior approaches you and says this: “There is still much blindness,
much deafness, and much dumbness in your soul.” Always, however, as at baptism,
He continues: “Ephphatha, Be opened” and new light pours into your soul.
And He then adds: “What you received at baptism I wish to
continue in you, preserve in you, and confirm and enrich it unto the day of My
Second Coming. This I will do until the end of the Age.”
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