Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

           Text: St. Mark 7:31-37, but especially these words –

Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,’ they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dear Friends in Christ Jesus:

It’s easy to miss the secondary characters in the gospel – because we watch Jesus so much. Not that we should ever overlook Jesus by any means – but the fact is that we can see what He is doing with new eyes when we watch Christ through the people with whom He is interacting. The text for today is a case in point.

Put yourself into this deaf man’s shoes. We know very little about him, but we can assume that he was a Gentile since he lived in the region of the Decapolis, or the “Ten Towns,” an area inhabited mainly by Romans and Greeks. If he was a Gentile, the very term “Messiah” would very likely not have meant much to him, even if he could have heard what was happening.

But imagine his situation in the moment we find him in the text. You will know how isolated from society a deaf person is if you have ever known such a person. He can see what is happening, but he doesn’t know how to react since he can’t interpret what he sees without being able to hear. So he is pushed and pulled by a crowd of people rushing to see Jesus, whom they have heard is passing through the area.

But the deaf man doesn’t know what all the pushing and pulling means, and since he possibly doesn’t know who Jesus is because of his Gentile background, he must have been completely bewildered. Caught up in a crushing crowd dragging him to see our Lord as they hoped to see a miracle, he was a pawn in their hands and must have been frightened out of his mind. His uncertainty must have struck Jesus almost immediately. Fear and alarm in his heart must have surfaced in signs that brought Christ’s compassion forth at once.

So Jesus immediately tries to bring some peace to his heart. He takes the deaf man away from the crowd. He speaks as best he can to the man with a form of sign language. Putting his fingers into the man’s ears, our Lord indicates an awareness of the man’s problem. Spitting into His own hand and then touching the tongue of the man indicates further recognition that the problem is also tied to his speech. One can almost sense the man settling down. His eyes light up with an awareness that somebody knows how deeply this trouble affects him, how totally it cuts him off from society.

Then our Lord’s look to the heavens tells him that only God can help him in the troubles he carries. Jesus’ deep sigh indicates a concerned prayer to the Father who alone could help. Then…a sudden word broke the silence – “Ephphatha!” “Be opened!” For the first time in years – perhaps ever – he was able to hear. He knew sound! The man was thrilled beyond belief. And now the miracle is multiplied, for without hearing language had become almost meaningless to him. But we’re told that he immediately spoke clearly in addition to hearing clearly! Can you imagine how this man felt?

A whole new world opened to him. He was returned to society. His isolation was broken with this gift. It was a new life! But what did this man see in Jesus? He must surely have seen in this Man, this Jesus, someone who brought the earliest dawning of the kingdom of God into his life. And we can sense this idea spreading through the crowd as they say – “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

We hear an echo of this in the Old Testament Reading for today where the coming of the kingdom is announced as the time when the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. They saw in Jesus the coming of king…and if the king is near, can the kingdom be far behind? Let’s backtrack now to see the love and compassion of our Lord as He takes this bewildered, frightened man and prepares Him for the coming of the kingdom.

You see, the man could read Jesus’ sign language through which our Lord shows the direction of this miracle…and all of His miracles, for that matter. Jesus wants above all to show Himself to the man through what He does for him. What, then, is the miracle pointing to? Power? Possibly…but power is really a side issue in Christ’s miracles. Behind and beneath the miracles of Jesus was the sign language of God – the pointing beyond this present world to that kingdom which is breaking upon the world through the coming of Jesus.

Is this much different from the situation we all find ourselves in? Don’t you feel the pressures and uncertainties and fears of life? It’s almost frightening to realize that none of us is more than a breath away from death. A host of events and possibilities and fears bring us before God in much the same way this poor, unfortunate man was brought before Jesus.

It's not enough to say that we don’t have to fear any of these things because God is on our side. For when we’re confronted by the living God Himself, the first response is hardly comfort, but fear and awe. We should never take God for granted under any circumstances. For what hold to we have on God that He ought to keep our lives whole and together, or mend them when they are in need of repair and restoration? As people of faith, we know above everything that God isn’t required to do anything He has done for us. We receive all things as a gift…the very breath that keeps us alive, His word of forgiveness, love, and life…all things!

To assume otherwise…that God actually owes us anything we have from our life to our forgiveness and hope is totally foreign to our Christian faith. So that we don’t take God for granted, we need to constantly realize that the God who deals with us is the God whose Son deals here with this frightened deaf man. As with him, so He deals with us in the light of our complete helplessness so evident to Him who loves us with such a great love! This man laid no claims on Jesus. We come in the same way.

And we are received by God as Jesus receives this man. The One who hates sin becomes sin for us; the Judge becomes the judged on our behalf because He knows our helplessness and takes up the responsibility of our life for us as a loving father for His children. He speaks a word to us – “Ephphatha,” ”Be opened” – and we are given forgiveness and new hope. A new life is opened for us and in us – when we hear the word of our King!

All of this is communicated to us in the form of sign language. Our human words simply aren’t enough to show us the glory of the coming kingdom. It is God’s touch that causes those words to come alive and that draws us to them. Words are like little windows through which we see what is yet to come. So Jesus draws pictures for us…parables and miracles…to show us what the words promise to us.

“The kingdom of God is like…” How many parables begin like that? They are pictures to help us see the glory that is coming. A deaf man is made to hear while his impediment of speech is removed. Sign language of a most vivid form previews the coming glory yet to be revealed. Water is poured as a sign through which God opens the door of the kingdom for us with power! Bread and wine become the visual images through which the body and blood, once given and shed for us, are offered to us once again as a foretaste of the great wedding feast where we shall all eat, basking in the splendor of the Lord’s glory.

The kingdom of God is at hand! It must be spoken of, proclaimed in every way possible as an invitation to participate in the greater fulfillment yet to come! The invitation goes out to everyone! And we are sent to proclaim the coming of that kingdom! So, how can we do it when even Jesus seemed to get through to so few? Aren’t our means of communication vastly inadequate to the tremendous miracles of Christ?

Yet…isn’t our life itself a miracle, a sign of what is yet to come? Our words reveal something of the miracle, but words can only tell so much. Isn’t our very life itself part of the communication God is spreading throughout the world? That we should live by grace…that we should show love…that we should come with the words “be opened” to lived closed in by sin and loneliness…this is the miracle of renewal that is for our world – the sign language of God. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  Amen.