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 St. Mark 7:31-37 – Trinity 12 – 2011
Zion Ev. Lutheran Church
Sept. 10-11, 2011
Watch Here
In the name of Jesus. Amen. “Ephphatha! Be opened!” What a great Gospel word! Ephphatha. Say it with me: Eph-pha-tha.
Ephphatha. Be opened. He opened the ears of the deaf man. He loosed his tongue. His speech impediment left.
Ever try to say the word “impediment” a few times? It’s not easy! I’ve messed it up while reading in church one year. The teenagers laughed. This guy could speak plainly after Jesus ephphatha-d his mouth and tongue. No speech impediment!
Jesus didn’t do it for the attention either! He took the guy away from the crowd, away from the TV cameras, and the paparazzi.
He put his fingers in the deaf man’s ears. He threw them in there – that’s the word in Greek! Right into the guy’s ear holes!
Then, He invaded the man’s personal space. He spit and touched the man’s tongue. The Lord spit. You know. Spit out of his mouth.
He then looked up to heaven, groaned, and said the Aramaic word, “Ephphatha.”
Imperative. Command. He divine wet-willy-ed the man’s ears and mouth, and then the Lord commanded the universe to change for this man.
Christ has done the same to you too. Really. No cameras, probably. No press. He invaded your personal space and rocked your world. He touched you, marked your forehead, touched your heart.
And back in the day, in the Baptismal Rite, the pastor would put his fingers into the ears of the candidate for baptism and say, “Ephphatha. Be opened.”
Fingers in ears. Water dripping down your forehead. Ears opened to hear God’s Word. Tongue loosed to sing His praise.
Christ’s holy and perfect life lived for you. His bitter suffering and death ransoms you from your sins.
At that font, in that water, you were saved. Your universe was changed. Your sins forgiven. Eternal life received – given in the water and God’s name which marked you as a child of God.
Jesus has broken into our world, to where we are, in the dirt and spit of our existence. He’s come not to condemn us, or to judge us, but to heal. No personal space with Jesus.
He’s right down where we are, in the muck and mire. Where we are, there He is. No sin to great for us to receive forgiveness for, no debt too great for Him to pay – everything absolved, washed clean, and paid for by Him.
Yet, we live as if He hasn’t. We call upon on Him when we think we need Him, when things are tough in our world, when we want God to intervene, to spit on the fire in our life and put it out.
But when things are normal, our prayers are few and far between – if we even pray at all. We’ll cover it with pious words like, “I just don’t think He wants to be bothered with my small requests..”
Just think back to September 11th. After the attack ten years ago, Christian Churches were filled. People were afraid for their life, their work, their families. They called upon God to save them.
Then... Life returned to normal and so did our church attendance and our prayers. There were other things to worry about: like work and the economy.
Pretty simply: Jesus and Christianity and prayer and the Scriptures are only a comfort to us when we are need. Otherwise, we’ve got other or more better things to do. Talk about being deaf to God’s Word!
Ephphatha. Be opened. Hear again the Lord’s Words. For your salvation, to save us from the times that we live and act as if He is far away from us, He breaks into our world not to condemn us, but to save us.
He spits. He touches tongues. He groans with His prayers for us. He comes into our world. Takes on our sins. Takes on our suffering and dies.
He gives Himself on this Cross. Again, more Hebrew, “Eloi, eloi, lamach sabachthani.” My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?
God will not abandon you after the Cross. He has opened your ears to hear His Word. He has washed your sins away. He has loosed your tongue to speak clearly without impediment.
Freed it to speak His love to others around you. They need to hear the Lord’s Words, to hear as the Lord Jesus has washed your sins away, He has washed their sins away too.
Not to just to hear it, but to have that love lived out for them. So put aside putting yourself, grudges, slandering, speaking behind your neighbor’s back, hurting others, and the like.
No, your tongue was loosed to say “Ephphatha!” to your neighbor. Forgive them. Show mercy. Forgive them. Your tongue was loosed by Jesus for these things.
And when our hearts stop beating in this world, when we close our eyes to sleep one last time, it’ll be Jesus who speaks to us again. He will call us out of our graves, from death to life. And we will be with Him forever and ever.
By Faith, He already has called us from death to life today – in our Baptism, in His Word, and in His Supper. We have new life – eternal life in Christ – today, tomorrow, each day until the end of days.
“Ephphatha. Be opened!” What a great Gospel word! Ephphatha. Say it with me: Eph-pha-tha.
From Jesus to the man who was deaf and couldn’t speak. From Jesus to you and me in Holy Baptism – in all our deafness and with our tongue tied by our sins.
Ephphatha. Be opened. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
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