In the Name of the Father, and of the +
Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
When Christ takes the deaf man aside, He puts His fingers in
his ears, spits, touches his tongue, then lifts His eyes to heaven, groans, and
finally says, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”[1]
This is the only time Christ is said to groan in this way. He is displeased
with the current circumstances.
Jesus is not displeased that a suffering man has come to Him
for help. He is not displeased that a crowd brought this man to Jesus that he
might be healed. Christ cares about this man’s physical body just as He cares
for his soul. Your flesh is the temple of the Holy Spirit. God cares a great
deal for your body and His compassion moves Him to perform miracles of healing.
Our Lord is groaning in displeasure over the fact that while
He is trying to preach, to establish a pulpit from which He will proclaim the
Word of God which replaces the stony heart of man with a heart of flesh, the
multitudes cry out for miracles.
Some time after the events of Mark 7, the formerly deaf man
died. If Jesus had not opened his ears and loosed his tongue, he still would
have died. He would have died with the ability to hear or without. The miracle
performed for him was a band-aid over the more serious wound of his sin.
There are times when a band-aid is necessary. If you
suffered a gun shot wound, someone would need to put pressure on it until you got
to the hospital. The dish cloth pressed firmly into the wound is not the
permanent fix, but it sure helped get you there. The miracles of Christ are
similar. They are a helpful band-aid, demonstrating that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of the Living God. They demonstrate that God is merciful. He cares for
your body and your soul. Yet the miracles are not what will save your life. Ultimately,
they do not save your body either.
I do not expect Jesus to walk through those doors any time
soon for the purpose of loosing tongues and healing wounds. I pray that He
would come quickly, but that is another matter. If we are not looking for Jesus
to perform miracles with spitting, sighing, groaning, and commanding words,
what then does this matter to us?
It matters a great deal. It teaches us that the most important thing in the world is the Word of God. Christ may not walk Himself through those doors, but He has called and ordained a servant to do it on His behalf. God calls men to be pastors to proclaim His Word to the Church. He calls men to steward the sacraments which are His Word connected to physical elements. Christ has ordered His church such that the ministers of the Gospel are to attend to the preaching and teaching of the Word and the right administration of the sacraments.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing the Word of God.[2]
Thus the pulpit on Sunday morning is the beginning of all pastoral care. The
Divine Service is the foundation upon which the minister of God brings the Word
of God and distributes the Sacraments to you, the people of God. All other
activities and works of the Church must proceed from this one thing most
needful.
As such, the Pastor must spend a majority of his time
devoted to the Word of God. The Pastor is a man, like any other. He does not
have perfect knowledge of the mind of God. He must spend time studying the Word
of God so that he can rightly bring it to you. Sermons, bible studies, and
devotions do not spring forth from a last minute of hurried preparation—or at
least they shouldn’t. Even the study of the conduct of the liturgy itself
should be a priority for every Pastor because it is that place in which God
comes to His people most intimately.
There is also the truth that the Divine Service on Sunday
morning is a very small proportion of the week. It represents only an hour or
an hour and a half each week, leaving 166 hours outside of the Divine Service
each week. Like the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration, we cannot
abandon the world to encamp in glory.[3]
Rather, we must bear the glory of Christ throughout the week. We must take that
which we have received on Sunday morning and carry it throughout all our days.
This begins with Bible Study on Sunday morning. Bible study
is little more than an extension of the Divine Service. It is an opportunity to
continue learning about God’s Word. The only real difference is the ability to
dialogue with your teacher, the Pastor. Carrying the light of Christ into the
world continues by daily reading of your bible. You cannot bear the light of
Christ into the world if you do not know what that light says. As the week
stretches on, it means preparing yourself once again to enter through those
doors and receive the Word of God, the Holy Supper, and the forgiveness of
sins.
Yet there is still more. Bearing the light of Christ means
being the best machine operator you can be. It means being the best mother you
can be. It means being the best grandfather, cousin, sister, manager, clerk,
secretary, and son you can be. Fulfilling your vocations to the best of your
abilities is fulfilling the Love of God toward your neighbor.
Striving to be promoted at work so that you make more money
is delightful in the eyes of God, so long as you do so with an honest heart. Do
not learn from the world to lie and cheat to gain favor. Gain favor by being
the best you can be. Then with your increased earnings, support the Word of God
by supporting the local church, supporting the planting of new churches, or
even supporting your sister in Christ who could use a little help.
All these activities then flow directly back into the Divine
Service. Carrying the light of Christ into the world means guiding the world to
that place where they will receive Christ—the Church. It also means showing the
world your humility in needing the Word of God. Christ came for the sinners,
not for those who counted themselves righteous. Simply by showing the world
that you need forgiveness, that you need the Word of God, speaks volumes about
the value of Christ and His death to forgive your sins. Everything in the
Church, everything in the life of the Christian, flows from and flows toward
the Divine Service.
Jesus groans as He opens the ears and looses the tongue of
the deaf man. He commands the friends of the formerly deaf man to be silent
about the miracle and yet they persistently proclaim the miracle throughout the
region. Jesus groans and commands silence because He knows human nature will
see only the miracle and stop all ears from the Word of God. We hear what we
want to hear, and we speak without thinking, bound to the language of the
world.
This miracle shows that Christians are called to the exact
opposite. Christians are called to be silent before the Word of God, to receive
it daily and live by it at every moment. Christians are then called to speak
that Word of God plainly throughout the world, just as the tongue of the
formerly deaf man was unbound so that he could speak plainly.
Pastors are solemnly charged with teaching you the Word of
God, something which requires great study. Yet, just as Jesus could not refuse
the miracle of healing this man, pastors cannot refuse the other duties
throughout the church. Jesus could not refuse the miracle of healing because of
His compassion. The ears and tongue of this man are precious to Jesus. In the
resurrection, this man’s ears and tongue will be perfected because God created
him to be perfect in body and soul.
From the color of the carpet to the orientation of the
Fellowship Hall, everything that happens in the church is theological in
nature. It is theological because it either flows from and toward the Divine
Service or it doesn’t. If it does, then it should be promoted, enhanced, and
featured. If it doesn’t, then it needs to be corrected.
This entire topic is called sanctification, or the life of
the Christian. You are declared righteous by God in an instant—the moment faith
entered your heart, causing you to repent of your sins and trust in the
forgiveness of Christ. But the life of sanctification continues throughout all
your days on this side of glory. Learning to receive the Word of God, learning
how to bear the light of Christ into the world, and learning to strive against
your own sins is a task you cannot complete on this side of heaven.
This process of sanctification is a burden, but it is light.
It is a yoke, but it is sweet. It is sweet and light because the victory over
your sin has already been won. The deaf man did not have to be trained to
speak, his tongue was loosed in an instant and he spoke plainly. The victory
was already won for him. But he had a lifetime of dry mouth, sore throats, and
other ailments to face before he received the eternal reward for Christ’s
victory over his disabilities.
You too, have days of trials and suffering ahead of you. You
have sins to fight against—both your own and the sins of those around you. But
the victory has been won. Jesus has done everything well. He makes the deaf to
hear and the mute to speak. He has conquered your sin and given you the
victory.
In + Jesus’ name. Amen.
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