Trinity 12 September 3, 2017

Trinity 12
Mark 7:31-37
September 3, 2017

“He Does What We Can’t Do”

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

In our Wednesday morning Bible Study, we came across an interesting thing in the Gospel reading where Jesus heals the deaf man. It says that Jesus took the man aside from everybody. He puts His fingers into the man’s ears and mouth, He groans, and then He says, “Ephphatha”, which means “Be opened”. So the interesting question is…”Who was Jesus talking to?” The words, “Be opened!”—who were those words spoken to?

You might remember the man was what? Deaf. He couldn’t hear. So if you assume that Jesus was talking to him, that doesn’t really work. He couldn’t hear Jesus anyway. And furthermore, Jesus wasn’t telling the man to be opened. So to cut to the chase, after some thought you’ll realize that the only logical thing to come up with is that Jesus was talking to what? The EARS!  He was telling the man’s ears to open up.

What if you could command different parts of your body to work the way you want them to? I’d love to be able to command my brain to remember everything. I get really frustrated when I forget something I said I was going to do. I’d love to yell at my brain, “Remember this stuff!” Or how about your ears? No more hearing aids for anyone. We’ll just tell those ears to work. Or what about your gut? You could eat a big ol’ 20 oz steak and then command your gut to digest it, right?

The friend that Valerie and I have who is fighting a brain tumor can’t get her mouth to say the words that her brain wants to say. It’s been a great frustration for her.  I’m sure she’d love to command her tongue to say what she wants it to say.

The fact is, though, Jesus commands all kinds of crazy things. He commands water to turn to wine and it does. Some of you would like to do that. That’d save you a few bucks.  He commands fish to get into nets and they do. Some of you fishermen wouldn’t mind that skill. He commands diseases to leave and they do. Imagine that—if one of us could command cancer to leave.  Jesus commands eyes to start seeing again.  He commands wind to be still.

Basically, Jesus can command anything in creation to do what it’s supposed to do. Ears are supposed to hear. Eyes are supposed to hear. Tongues are supposed to talk. And Jesus can tell them to do it. We, of course, can’t.

Instead, we live in a world that is broken everywhere by sin. Things break. I can’t command my car to never break down. Instead, I’ve got to pay massive repair bills, right? We can’t command our stuff to stop wearing out and growing old. Too bad, huh?

People break. We can’t command our bodies to stop growing old or command colds and flus and viruses to stay away.  The weather breaks. We can’t command hurricane winds to stop and keep all those poor folks down in Texas from losing their homes and cars and even lives.

Broken everywhere by sin. That’s why Jesus lets out a big groan before He heals this man. Because sin is a groan. It’s a big pain. It’s gut-wrenching. To see people start wars. To see them kill each other. To watch animals eat each other. To watch our pets die. To see people who can’t see. Can’t hear. Can’t walk. Can’t think. It’s groaning.

Now why doesn’t Jesus just command it all to be fixed? It’s an okay question to ask. Why doesn’t Jesus just command all of creation to start working right again? To work the way it’s supposed to? He obviously can. He told this man’s ear to open and they did. Why doesn’t Jesus just fix it all?

Well, for that you have to be patient. He will restore all of creation when He comes again. That’s His promise. That’s why we look forward to His coming so much. Why we pray, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.”  But please understand—Jesus had to deal with the bigger problem first. And the bigger problem isn’t just ears that don’t work.  The bigger problem is—our sin.

Jesus did some pretty awesome miracles. But all of them were done so that people would eventually believe in His greatest miracle. What was Jesus’ greatest miracle? Water into wine? Commanding wind and waves? Raising the dead? Healing the sick? No.

The greatest miracle of Jesus is His resurrection from the dead. Because that’s where you—you and me sinners—that’s where we are made right with God. That’s where He dealt with the big problem. The biggest problem. Our sin.

Yes, Jesus can open ears and make blind see and raise the dead and command the wind. But the greatest miracle He does is when He takes your sin to the cross, dies your death for you, and then rises from the dead for you on Easter morning.  Jesus does what we cannot do.  He makes us right with God.

You can’t command your brain to work right or your eyes or ears or your gut or anything else—but most of all you can’t command yourself to be right with God. You simply CANNOT.  And that’s the most important thing, isn’t it?  What’s more important than being right with God and having eternal life in heaven? Nothing is. Sure, other things are important. Sure, we’d love to see a word without all this brokenness.  But that will come. Jesus has taken care of our greatest brokenness—He has made us right with God by His resurrection from the dead.

Now please understand—we think we can do this all by ourselves.  We think we can make ourselves right with God if we just try hard enough and do the right things. We think we can make Him happy. But we cannot command ourselves to stop sinning.  Just like we can’t command the winds or command our gut or command our ears—we can’t command our heart to be pure. We can’t do it.

Oh, there are plenty of churches out there today who will tell you to do it.  They’ll tell you all the rules they’ve got for you to be a good Christian before God—to be right before God. They’ll tell you all the steps you need to take, the small groups you need to go to, the books you need to buy, the mission trips and projects you need to be part of, and the way you need to worship.  But in all of it—they seem to have lost the only One who can really command you right before God—Jesus, that is.  He only gets an honorable mention in their sermons.  Instead, the onus is on you to make it happen.

But just like we can’t command our ears—we can’t command our hearts.  Just like the deaf man needed Jesus—we need Jesus.  Just like Jesus put His finger into the man’s broken ears and tongue—Jesus puts His divine finger into our broken hearts to make them alive through faith.

So don’t miss the miracle here!  Don’t miss the miracle. The miracle is that you, sinner, and I, a sinner, have been made right with God through the death and resurrection of Jesus.  That’s the miracle. You are right with God!

Do you hear it?  If so, it’s because Jesus is opening your ears just like He opened the deaf man’s ears.  He does that through His Word.  There’s no way we Christians can overstress this—we need to be hearing the Word of God. Faith comes through hearing. It’s a miracle every time you hear God’s Word. You need to be hear in Church every Sunday. You need to be reading God’s Word at home yourself and with your family and praying from that Word. You need to be receiving His Word here in the Lord’s Supper.

I’ve noticed something when I listen to sermons from some of the megachurches.  They don’t just read the Bible. Of course, they don’t have three separate Scripture readings like we do. Instead, they just read the Bible at different points of their sermon. And in theory, that’s alright. But when they read the Word in their sermons, they often read it fast like they’re embarrassed how boring it is.  Or they paraphrase it because they think they need to make it sound better.  Or they interrupt it a hundred times because they think they need to improve it.

To me, it’s embarrassing how little we trust the Word of God. We’d rather hear ourselves talking than the Word of God. But we must trust His Word. His Word works. When you sit down at home and read God’s Word, it works. It is working on your heart and the hearts of your family. When you come to church and hear the Scripture readings, that Word of God is working. We must trust God. He works miracles with His Word. With just one word, “Ephphatha”, Jesus opened a deaf man’s ears.  How much more can He open our hearts through the many words of His Holy Scriptures?

And one more thing—not only does His Word open our hearts but it also opens our mouths.  When Jesus opened the deaf man’s ears—it says He began to speak plainly.  To speak “rightly” is the Greek word there. He spoke right once Jesus opened His ears.

So many of us get frustrated by things we say. We wish we hadn’t said that. We wish we’d had something better to say. So on and so forth.  But understand, when your ears are being filled with God’s Word—then your tongue will have so many better things to say.  When our hearts are full of sin, a lot of sinful words come out of our mouths. We don’t speak rightly.  But when our ears and hearts are full of God’s Word, then our tongues begin to speak clearer and better and rightly.

So friends, the message of today’s Gospel reading is to turn your ears and hearts to the One who commands even more than ears.  The One who commands even death. Who died and rose for you and makes you right before God. Jesus Christ, your Savior. Turn to Him, your miracle worker, who opens your ears with the Word of God and puts right words on your tongue.  In Jesus’ name. Amen.