The Healing of the Deaf & Tongue-Tied Man

TEXT: Mark 7:31-3731
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 the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The American educational system has a category for children with speech impediments. They call it special education. These are children who don’t talk right. They sound funny. We treat them differently. They don’t fit our definition of normal.

Now add the problem of being deaf and you have a very unusual person. IN the United States today it is estimated that 1 in 20 Americans are hearing impaired or functionally deaf. Nearly half of these are age 65 years or older.[i] Almost everyone knows someone who has trouble hearing or struggles with hearing loss themselves.

As a child I had trouble with stuttering. Children are especially notorious for picking on others who aren’t normal. It’s like the chicken that draws a little blood - the more blood it draws the more vigorously it picks.

The man who was deaf and had the speech impediment was blessed with some Godly friends. They were not typical of many who are annoyed by people with disabilities. Rather they took him to Jesus and begged Him to lay his Hand on him.

This man was a candidate for special education. He probably would have qualified for welfare and other governmental services. Most people would have overlooked him. Some would have made jokes about him. “Pretty people” would have avoided him. Few, if any, would have shaken his hand let alone touch his ears and tongue. But not Jesus.

Jesus did even more than they asked. After taking the man to the side privately, Jesus puts His fingers into His ears, and after spitting He touched the man’s tongue.

Jesus put His fingers into the man’s ear? Jesus wipes spit on the man’s tongue? If Jesus weren’t the Holy Son of God, they might have thought this was another cruel joke. But Jesus was not joking. For the Scriptures call the man who deceives his friends with jokes nothing less than a fool. (Proverbs 26:19).

And then the Lord speaks, “Ephphatha! Be opened!” In other words, “Behold, I make all things new.” Where others tear down, Jesus builds up. Where Satan destroys, Jesus recreates.
With a Word Jesus stilled the stormy seas. With a Word He brings life to little girls and grown men. With a Word, Jesus changes the configuration of nerve cells s that they would work again and the deaf and tongue tied man would hear and speak plainly. It was a miracle.

Jesus loved this many intimately. He got into his inner space, his uncomfortable zone and touched the man right where it hurt. No, Jesus didn’t destroy the man and start over. Rather, Jesus took what was imperfect and made it perfect. He made beautiful what sin makes ugly.

In 1523 Dr. Martin Luther wrote a simple liturgy for sacrament of Holy Baptism. And… as is true of all our liturgy… Luther developed it entirely from the Word of God. After reading Mark 10 (People bringing little children to Jesus so that He might lay His hands on them – hmmm…. See a resemblance to this text?), Luther instructs the priest to lay his hand on the head of the child (in the very form of Jesus) and to pray the Lord’s Prayer. Then, the Priest was to take some of his own spit and touch the right hear of the child and say the Word of Jesus, “Ephphatha, that is, Be thou opened.” Then with the same spit on his fingers he was to touch the child’s nose and left ear and say, “But thou, devil, flee; for God’s judgment cometh speedily.”

Luther saw in this miracle of the tongue-tied and deaf man the miracle of Baptism. That even as this man was physically disabled, so is every person (you and me) born in sin, unbelief, unable of ourselves to know God, unable within our own power to find God. But God finds us in the sacrament of Baptism. God calls parents to faithfully bring their children to the fount of grace just as these Godly friends brought this disabled man. And there at that font the pastor acts in the stead and by the command of Jesus. So that the pastor must decrease and Christ must increase. There in Baptism, the water is the spit of Christ and the Word of God is that re-creating, life-giving, miracle working Word which does what it is sent forth to do. “I bapize thee in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” In other Words, “Ephphatha! Be Thou opened.”

God has opened our ears to hear His Word in Baptism… so listen, gladly hear and learn it. Hear from God Himself how he has done all things well. That He makes deaf sinners hear the Word of God. That He opens the mouths of us who are confined with the lock-jaw of sin. That His perfect life, suffering, death and resurrection is given, granted, and bestowed to us as a free and unmerited gift in Baptism.

Behold! God in Christ Jesus has done all things well.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

[i] http://jdsde.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/11/1/112