Listen here.

Mark 7:31–37  

³¹ Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.  ³² And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him.  ³³ And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue.  ³⁴ And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”  ³⁵ And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.  ³⁶ And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.  ³⁷ And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

“Christ has died on the cross for you, and your sins are forgiven.” That is the Gospel message. That is the Good News that Jesus has given His Church to proclaim to the ends of the earth (Lk. 24:26-27). God’s grace and mercy extends to the whole world, and it extends to you. Because Jesus died and rose again, God finds no fault, no spot, no wrinkle, no blemish in you. Because of Jesus, when God looks at you, He sees the perfect, total, complete obedience of Jesus. Who wouldn’t want to hear that message? The unrepentant, the sinner, the very one who needs grace and mercy, sadly, doesn’t want to hear about God’s love.

Why is this? Because our sin has infected us so thoroughly, because we are by nature sinful, we do not want mercy because we do not want to need mercy. We would rather try to work our own way to righteousness than to receive the free gift of Christ’s righteousness.

To give you an example: I’ve been following Planned Parenthood on Twitter since the undercover videos started surfacing. They tweeted a story entitled, “Thank God for My Abortion.” In the article, the author speaks of the kindness of people who helped her abort her unborn child. Her story was full of self-justifying phrases. She was young. She was stupid. Since she couldn’t even take care of herself, she knew she couldn’t take care of a baby. She concludes the article in what sounds like a final attempt at justifying herself, she says, “I suspect this was the one rational decision I made the whole of that year. In short: thank god (note lower case) I had an abortion.” She encourages other women to share their abortion stories and “own” their abortion.

So, I tweeted her back. “Own your abortion, and repent. There is forgiveness in Christ, even for abortion.” She responded, “Um, news flash; I’m not a fundamentalist Christian.” She didn’t even want to hear about the forgiveness that Christ has to offer her. She would rather justify herself, but that will never happen. She doesn’t want forgiveness because she doesn’t want to admit she needs forgiveness. Her conscience will haunt her until she either drowns it out completely or repents. She shut her ears to the Gospel because, to her, the Gospel is only a reminder that she needs forgiveness. It is incredibly sad to see.

To sinners, and too often even to us Christians, the call to repent doesn’t sound like good news. Too often, we are like children thinking mom is trying to take away our toys when all she is doing is calling us to dinner. You see, Biblical repentance has two aspects, two sides if you will – Law and Gospel, contrition and faith. The first side, the Law side, the contrition side, is what we are most familiar with. The Law side of repentance says, “You have done something terrible, something evil. You have broken God’s Law, and you need to feel sorry about it.” That is exactly what all sinners do not want to hear.

We do not want to hear that we have sinned. We do not want to hear that we have offended God and hurt our neighbor. But that is why there is a second aspect of repentance – that is the Gospel, faith, and forgiveness. Yes, you have done something evil and wrong, but God has already forgiven that sin by Jesus’ death on the cross.

Because our sin is so powerful, our ears are completely muffled. You know that you have sinned and you can’t stop thinking about all the transgressions you have committed. So you come to church and hear that Jesus has taken away your condemnation, and the only words you hear are, “your condemnation.” The word that is meant to give you comfort only causes more guilt. You read your Bible and hear that Jesus has taken away the death sentence that was placed upon your head, and all you think of is your death sentence. A voice in your head tells you that this good news, this Gospel, is not for you and can not be for you because you keep giving in to the same temptations over and over again.

Imagine this deaf and mute man responding to Jesus’ word, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened,” by saying, “Stop reminding me that I can’t hear and speak. I haven’t been able to hear and I won’t be able to hear no matter what you say.” That sounds ridiculous, but according to your sinful nature, that is exactly what you do. You fear and you doubt and you close your ears to Jesus. When Jesus says to you, “I forgive you all of your sins,” a demonic voice enters into your head and says, “No. That isn’t true.” And so you are deaf to the word of forgiveness that the Scriptures declare to you. And until that deafness is taken away by the Holy Spirit working through the Word, that deafness will always remain. So what do we do?

We need to shut up and listen to the Word of God. We need to let Jesus’ Word wash over us. We need to stop being so afraid. We need Jesus to do exactly what He did in our Gospel text. We need Him to open our clogged ears, and Jesus’ Word really is that powerful.

This miracle of Jesus is so fascinating. There are plenty of miracles where Jesus simply speaks and healing takes place. He speaks to a lame man, “Rise,” (Mk. 2:11), and the lame man does it. He says to a blind man, “Go your way; your faith has made you well,” (Mk. 10:52). But the lame and the blind are able to hear, they are able to understand and process what Jesus is saying. But here, Jesus speaks to deaf ears – ears that are unable to hear or comprehend what He is saying. But His Word still works. The Word of Jesus works on these deaf ears just as it worked on Lazarus’ dead, deaf ears.

Jesus’ Word works even on dead, deaf ears because that is the very nature of God’s Word. The same creative power which spoke into the chaos and nothingness, “Let there be light,” is in Jesus’ Words. God can speaks into the void, and that which does not exist obeys.

We need Jesus to open our ears to hear His Gospel. 1 Co. 2:14 ¹⁴ The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Hearing and believing Christ’s Word is the work of the Gospel. Ro. 10:17 ¹⁷ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

As weird as it is, Jesus stuck His actual fingers into that man’s ears and mouth. But He comes here now to stick His actual body and blood into your mouth and your body. Jesus has been crucified as a ransom for your sins. He has bought you back by paying off the devil. And He is risen, alive, out of death for your justification. Jesus comes to you now in this holy Supper to remove your doubt that this is for you. Jesus comes now to drive away all your evil. He comes to you placing His Body into your body. He binds you to Himself. He clears out your ears and loosens your tongue so that you can confess Him clearly and be saved.

Brothers and sisters, “Ephphatha.” Be opened, and do not be afraid. Jesus opens you not destroy you, but to fill you. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.