14th Sunday after Pentecost
HE HAS DONE ALL THINGS WELL!
Rev. Kenneth W. Wieting
Text: Mark 7:24-37
“He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” Dear hearers and speakers and doers of the Word;
Do you agree that Jesus does all things well? When he said to the Syrophoenician woman “…it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs,” was He doing things well? Absolutely not! the politically- correct police of our day would say. When He put His fingers into the deaf man’s ears – was He doing things well? Absolutely not! New Age spirituality would say. God is at a distance, not hands-on in our lives. Spiritual things are rather to be found in crystals or in a forest of trees or in meditation. Spiritual things are to be found in some hallucinogenic substance or some “out of body” experience. When He spit and touched the man’s tongue; was he doing things well? Not very sanitary and far too messy, many would say. Furthermore, if He does all things well, why does He sigh or groan? Shouldn’t He be a bit more positive and upbeat and perhaps cheer and clap for the human race instead of sighing? Do you agree that Jesus does all things well? In view of your own life right now, at home, in college, in the workplace, in retirement; in view of your own sighing and groaning, is Jesus doing all things well for you?
The cause of Jesus’ groaning finger-probing, spit-touching, dealings with the man in our text can help us answer this question rightly. This man had lived his life in silence. His ears were imprisoned with deafness. His tongue was bound by a hindrance of speech. He could not hear the wind blow or the sound of music or the voices of his friends. He had never heard the name of Jesus uttered. He couldn’t speak clearly of his hopes and fears and desires.
Then something very earthy and fleshly and messy took place. He couldn’t hear his friends begging Jesus to lay His hand on him. He simply knew that a man took him aside privately, away from the crowds. Jesus’ action is much different from the so-called “faith-healers” of our day. He doesn’t make a show of the healing that He bestows. He doesn’t call attention to Himself. Jesus is there completely for this one man. This one man had Jesus’ undivided attention.
Using a bit of sign language, Jesus reached out to the deaf man in a personal way. He stuck His fingers in the man’s ears. After spitting, He touched the man’s tongue. When the Great Physician is at work, He is “hands on”, not distant and removed. When the Great Physician is at work, things can get a bit earthy and fleshly and messy. When Jesus stuck His fingers into that man’s ears, they were the fingers of God. When Jesus touched the man’s tongue, God was touching his tongue. God deals with us in the ordinary things of everyday human life. God is not at a distance, but hands-on.
Beloved, we need Him to deal with us that way! For by nature we also are deaf and mute toward God. Since Eve listened to the wrong voice in Eden, our hearing has been lifeless toward God. We don’t need hearing aids to listen to ourselves. Our ears are tickled to listen to religious make-believe. We listen to voices of youth or success or popularity or protest. We listen to music to alter our moods. We listen to the Father of lies dressed up as an angel of light. But, we don’t by nature listen to the One who made us.
Do you realize the deeply religious nature of the belief system of macro-evolution? This is not true science! Yet again this year, our grade school and high school and university students will be indoctrinated in it – quite religiously – as if there ancestor really was a flat worm with no ears and no tongue. This is a fairy tale that cannot be proven by controlled experimentation or by field observation, yet ears listen to it and tongues promulgate it.
Like the man in the Gospel, we are by nature deaf and mute towards God. When God speaks, we don’t get it, we tune it out. This obstruction in our hearing also causes a barrier in our talking, our praying to God. We easily speak in foolish ways. We are ready to express self-centered thoughts – our feelings, our desires and our disappointments. But, we don’t by nature pray to God without ceasing. We don’t by nature call upon God in every trouble, pray, praise and give thanks. Our tongues are often active when they should be still and silent when they should speak. By nature we are just like the deaf-mute.
That’s why Jesus continues to come to us and touch us. He sticks His fingers in our ears through the preaching of His Word. In Scripture, the “finger of God” refers to the Holy Spirit and His work. “Faith comes by hearing” and hearing comes through the speaking of Christ. The Holy Spirit bears witness to Christ and thereby opens our ears. Jesus also spits and touches our tongue in the Sacraments. For what is Baptism but water and words from the mouth of God? In baptism Jesus says to us “Ephphatha”, that is “be opened!” In the original language the meaning can also be stated, “be released!” He releases us from our bondage to sin by washing away our sin! He releases us from our bondage to death by baptizing us into His own death! He releases us from bondage to the devil by clothing us with Himself. “Ephphatha”, be completely opened! Only when the “finger of God”, the Holy Spirit has opened our ears and freed our tongues can we worship Him rightly. As Scripture says, “No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.”
The risen Christ comes to literally touch our tongues in Holy Communion. He is the true celebrant of this heavenly meal and He places His very body and His very blood onto our tongues and into our bodies for the forgiveness of sins. It is the Lord’s ongoing, earthy way of touching you and giving you release. “Ephphatha”, that is, be completely opened! The common cup from which the church of Christ received Christ’s blood for over 1900 years can seem a bit messy, and a bit untidy, rather like Jesus grabbing the tongue of the deaf mute. But each record of Jesus’ institution of the Lord’s Supper in Holy Scripture identifies the cup in the singular (Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, I Corinthians 11). It is for this reason that we believe a common cup should always be present and reverently treated even when there are compelling reasons for individual glasses to be present.
By God’s doing there is also the clearest speaking going on as Christ touches our tongues with His body and His blood. As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you (together) proclaim His death until He comes. C. F. W. Walther called the Lord’s Supper the pulpit of the laity. By God’s doing, by God’s giving, the clearest proclamation of the Gospel is given by you the congregation with tongues that are not speaking but eating and drinking.
But what of the man in our text and what of Jesus’ groaning and sighing? “Ephphatha!” was the last word that this man was not able to hear. His world of silence was now a world of sound. His ears were opened! His tongue was speaking clearly and correctly. What an explosion of thoughts must have flooded in along with the sounds! O happy day! But what would he now hear with this new faculty and what would he now say that his tongue was free of impediment?
Dr. Martin Luther commented on that very question as he considered the deep sighing groan of Jesus just before He healed the man. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” By looking up to heaven, Jesus is saying to the man, “that is where your help is coming from - the Father who sent Me is at work to heal you.” His passionate sigh or groan has connotations of grief and disapproval and a fervent desire for things to be made right. Jesus knows how deep the brokenness is and what price He will have to pay to fix it.
Luther saw here a common sigh from Jesus over all tongues and ears from Adam to the last human being to be born. Luther saw here a sigh from Jesus over your tongue and your ears, and mine, for Jesus came to bear our grief and carry our sorrows (Is. 54:4, 5). Luther also saw in the groaning of Jesus the recognition that the same man he was now healing would afterward sin with his ears and with his tongue that Jesus had just touched.
Think of it! His ears which formerly allowed no sound to enter would now be tickled by rumors and hearsay and immoral talk and rebellious ideas and false doctrine, just like our ears are tickled. His tongue, now able to speak clearly would be active in complaining and blaming others and not keeping God’s name holy before it would again fall silent in death. There is good reason for sighing and groaning in grief over our ears and our tongues.
In fact these two organs make a difference between a Christian and an unbeliever. It is no small thing that you gather together to hear God’s Word, for faith comes by hearing and hearing through the speaking of Christ (Rom. 10:17). Scripture also says that it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and with your mouth that you confess and are saved (Rom. 10:10). The two organs that Jesus healed in this man are crucial to your inclusion in the kingdom of God. That’s why Jesus comes to take you aside this morning and each week in the Divine Service to give you personal attention. By the “finger of God”, the Holy Spirit, He speaks His Word into your ears. Amid all the voices you will hear this week, only His gives you life!
Does Jesus really do all things well? Remember the beginning of Isaiah’s prophecy about the ears of the deaf being unstopped and the tongue of the mute singing for joy and waters breaking forth in the wilderness? The words He starts with seem almost like a speech impediment. Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”
Jesus does all things so well that it is even a good thing for us when God comes with vengeance. How can this possibly be? Very simply because the vengeance fell against Christ! Now salvation gushes forth for us! It was a blessed exchange. In the desert of this life streams of salvation now run right through the baptismal font of this and every Christian Church. In the desert of this life bubbling springs of forgiveness still flow from Jesus’ pierced side. Just like He took the man aside by Himself in the Decapolis, even so He has taken you aside to give you His personal attention.
Does Jesus really do all things well? Yes, all things! He does all things so well that He made peace between God and us by His sacrifice on the cross. On the day of His crucifixion a mighty “Be opened!” was shouted by the blood of the Lamb. The temple curtain was torn in two from top to bottom for God opened heaven to us sinners again. He does all things so well that He did not decay in death but rose to new life. On the morning of the third day another “Be opened!” was shouted as Pilate’s seal was brushed aside and the stone rolled away. His tongue that was still in death was again speaking wondrous words of total release, of full absolution, “Peace be with you!”
Does He really do all things well? Yes, all things! Even in the midst of the ups and downs of your life, even in the troubles, the weak things, the painful disappointments, God allows into your life, He does all things well. For Scripture says, He disciplines those He loves, His strength is made perfect in weakness, He works all thing together for good for those who love Him who are the called according to His purpose.
As He stands in your midst today, your ears are opened to hear His Word, your eyes are directed to look up to heaven with Jesus – “Our Father who art in heaven”, your heart is freed to sigh with Jesus, “deliver us from evil”, your tongue is freed to sing to Jesus, “Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.” Your tongue is also freed to beg Jesus in your prayers to lay His hand on your neighbor to heal them. Your tongue is freed to invite them to come aside to receive His gifts.
Does He really do all things well? Yes all things! Jesus does all things so well, in fact, that to live is Christ but to die is gain. To depart and be with Christ is better by far. Until that time, God keep our ears open to hear His Word and our tongues active to praise His Holy Name. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
Rev. Kenneth W. Wieting
Text: Mark 7:24-37
“He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” Dear hearers and speakers and doers of the Word;
Do you agree that Jesus does all things well? When he said to the Syrophoenician woman “…it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs,” was He doing things well? Absolutely not! the politically- correct police of our day would say. When He put His fingers into the deaf man’s ears – was He doing things well? Absolutely not! New Age spirituality would say. God is at a distance, not hands-on in our lives. Spiritual things are rather to be found in crystals or in a forest of trees or in meditation. Spiritual things are to be found in some hallucinogenic substance or some “out of body” experience. When He spit and touched the man’s tongue; was he doing things well? Not very sanitary and far too messy, many would say. Furthermore, if He does all things well, why does He sigh or groan? Shouldn’t He be a bit more positive and upbeat and perhaps cheer and clap for the human race instead of sighing? Do you agree that Jesus does all things well? In view of your own life right now, at home, in college, in the workplace, in retirement; in view of your own sighing and groaning, is Jesus doing all things well for you?
The cause of Jesus’ groaning finger-probing, spit-touching, dealings with the man in our text can help us answer this question rightly. This man had lived his life in silence. His ears were imprisoned with deafness. His tongue was bound by a hindrance of speech. He could not hear the wind blow or the sound of music or the voices of his friends. He had never heard the name of Jesus uttered. He couldn’t speak clearly of his hopes and fears and desires.
Then something very earthy and fleshly and messy took place. He couldn’t hear his friends begging Jesus to lay His hand on him. He simply knew that a man took him aside privately, away from the crowds. Jesus’ action is much different from the so-called “faith-healers” of our day. He doesn’t make a show of the healing that He bestows. He doesn’t call attention to Himself. Jesus is there completely for this one man. This one man had Jesus’ undivided attention.
Using a bit of sign language, Jesus reached out to the deaf man in a personal way. He stuck His fingers in the man’s ears. After spitting, He touched the man’s tongue. When the Great Physician is at work, He is “hands on”, not distant and removed. When the Great Physician is at work, things can get a bit earthy and fleshly and messy. When Jesus stuck His fingers into that man’s ears, they were the fingers of God. When Jesus touched the man’s tongue, God was touching his tongue. God deals with us in the ordinary things of everyday human life. God is not at a distance, but hands-on.
Beloved, we need Him to deal with us that way! For by nature we also are deaf and mute toward God. Since Eve listened to the wrong voice in Eden, our hearing has been lifeless toward God. We don’t need hearing aids to listen to ourselves. Our ears are tickled to listen to religious make-believe. We listen to voices of youth or success or popularity or protest. We listen to music to alter our moods. We listen to the Father of lies dressed up as an angel of light. But, we don’t by nature listen to the One who made us.
Do you realize the deeply religious nature of the belief system of macro-evolution? This is not true science! Yet again this year, our grade school and high school and university students will be indoctrinated in it – quite religiously – as if there ancestor really was a flat worm with no ears and no tongue. This is a fairy tale that cannot be proven by controlled experimentation or by field observation, yet ears listen to it and tongues promulgate it.
Like the man in the Gospel, we are by nature deaf and mute towards God. When God speaks, we don’t get it, we tune it out. This obstruction in our hearing also causes a barrier in our talking, our praying to God. We easily speak in foolish ways. We are ready to express self-centered thoughts – our feelings, our desires and our disappointments. But, we don’t by nature pray to God without ceasing. We don’t by nature call upon God in every trouble, pray, praise and give thanks. Our tongues are often active when they should be still and silent when they should speak. By nature we are just like the deaf-mute.
That’s why Jesus continues to come to us and touch us. He sticks His fingers in our ears through the preaching of His Word. In Scripture, the “finger of God” refers to the Holy Spirit and His work. “Faith comes by hearing” and hearing comes through the speaking of Christ. The Holy Spirit bears witness to Christ and thereby opens our ears. Jesus also spits and touches our tongue in the Sacraments. For what is Baptism but water and words from the mouth of God? In baptism Jesus says to us “Ephphatha”, that is “be opened!” In the original language the meaning can also be stated, “be released!” He releases us from our bondage to sin by washing away our sin! He releases us from our bondage to death by baptizing us into His own death! He releases us from bondage to the devil by clothing us with Himself. “Ephphatha”, be completely opened! Only when the “finger of God”, the Holy Spirit has opened our ears and freed our tongues can we worship Him rightly. As Scripture says, “No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.”
The risen Christ comes to literally touch our tongues in Holy Communion. He is the true celebrant of this heavenly meal and He places His very body and His very blood onto our tongues and into our bodies for the forgiveness of sins. It is the Lord’s ongoing, earthy way of touching you and giving you release. “Ephphatha”, that is, be completely opened! The common cup from which the church of Christ received Christ’s blood for over 1900 years can seem a bit messy, and a bit untidy, rather like Jesus grabbing the tongue of the deaf mute. But each record of Jesus’ institution of the Lord’s Supper in Holy Scripture identifies the cup in the singular (Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, I Corinthians 11). It is for this reason that we believe a common cup should always be present and reverently treated even when there are compelling reasons for individual glasses to be present.
By God’s doing there is also the clearest speaking going on as Christ touches our tongues with His body and His blood. As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you (together) proclaim His death until He comes. C. F. W. Walther called the Lord’s Supper the pulpit of the laity. By God’s doing, by God’s giving, the clearest proclamation of the Gospel is given by you the congregation with tongues that are not speaking but eating and drinking.
But what of the man in our text and what of Jesus’ groaning and sighing? “Ephphatha!” was the last word that this man was not able to hear. His world of silence was now a world of sound. His ears were opened! His tongue was speaking clearly and correctly. What an explosion of thoughts must have flooded in along with the sounds! O happy day! But what would he now hear with this new faculty and what would he now say that his tongue was free of impediment?
Dr. Martin Luther commented on that very question as he considered the deep sighing groan of Jesus just before He healed the man. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” By looking up to heaven, Jesus is saying to the man, “that is where your help is coming from - the Father who sent Me is at work to heal you.” His passionate sigh or groan has connotations of grief and disapproval and a fervent desire for things to be made right. Jesus knows how deep the brokenness is and what price He will have to pay to fix it.
Luther saw here a common sigh from Jesus over all tongues and ears from Adam to the last human being to be born. Luther saw here a sigh from Jesus over your tongue and your ears, and mine, for Jesus came to bear our grief and carry our sorrows (Is. 54:4, 5). Luther also saw in the groaning of Jesus the recognition that the same man he was now healing would afterward sin with his ears and with his tongue that Jesus had just touched.
Think of it! His ears which formerly allowed no sound to enter would now be tickled by rumors and hearsay and immoral talk and rebellious ideas and false doctrine, just like our ears are tickled. His tongue, now able to speak clearly would be active in complaining and blaming others and not keeping God’s name holy before it would again fall silent in death. There is good reason for sighing and groaning in grief over our ears and our tongues.
In fact these two organs make a difference between a Christian and an unbeliever. It is no small thing that you gather together to hear God’s Word, for faith comes by hearing and hearing through the speaking of Christ (Rom. 10:17). Scripture also says that it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and with your mouth that you confess and are saved (Rom. 10:10). The two organs that Jesus healed in this man are crucial to your inclusion in the kingdom of God. That’s why Jesus comes to take you aside this morning and each week in the Divine Service to give you personal attention. By the “finger of God”, the Holy Spirit, He speaks His Word into your ears. Amid all the voices you will hear this week, only His gives you life!
Does Jesus really do all things well? Remember the beginning of Isaiah’s prophecy about the ears of the deaf being unstopped and the tongue of the mute singing for joy and waters breaking forth in the wilderness? The words He starts with seem almost like a speech impediment. Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”
Jesus does all things so well that it is even a good thing for us when God comes with vengeance. How can this possibly be? Very simply because the vengeance fell against Christ! Now salvation gushes forth for us! It was a blessed exchange. In the desert of this life streams of salvation now run right through the baptismal font of this and every Christian Church. In the desert of this life bubbling springs of forgiveness still flow from Jesus’ pierced side. Just like He took the man aside by Himself in the Decapolis, even so He has taken you aside to give you His personal attention.
Does Jesus really do all things well? Yes, all things! He does all things so well that He made peace between God and us by His sacrifice on the cross. On the day of His crucifixion a mighty “Be opened!” was shouted by the blood of the Lamb. The temple curtain was torn in two from top to bottom for God opened heaven to us sinners again. He does all things so well that He did not decay in death but rose to new life. On the morning of the third day another “Be opened!” was shouted as Pilate’s seal was brushed aside and the stone rolled away. His tongue that was still in death was again speaking wondrous words of total release, of full absolution, “Peace be with you!”
Does He really do all things well? Yes, all things! Even in the midst of the ups and downs of your life, even in the troubles, the weak things, the painful disappointments, God allows into your life, He does all things well. For Scripture says, He disciplines those He loves, His strength is made perfect in weakness, He works all thing together for good for those who love Him who are the called according to His purpose.
As He stands in your midst today, your ears are opened to hear His Word, your eyes are directed to look up to heaven with Jesus – “Our Father who art in heaven”, your heart is freed to sigh with Jesus, “deliver us from evil”, your tongue is freed to sing to Jesus, “Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.” Your tongue is also freed to beg Jesus in your prayers to lay His hand on your neighbor to heal them. Your tongue is freed to invite them to come aside to receive His gifts.
Does He really do all things well? Yes all things! Jesus does all things so well, in fact, that to live is Christ but to die is gain. To depart and be with Christ is better by far. Until that time, God keep our ears open to hear His Word and our tongues active to praise His Holy Name. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
posted by Luther Memorial Chapel at
9/13/2006
