Sermon - Trinity XII 2022 - Mark 7:31-37

Christ Healing the Deaf-Mute, Philippe de Champaigne, 1665

Jesus opens our ears to hear and our lips to speak His Word.

1. Jesus’ ministry was primarily to teach His Word.

2. Jesus’ miracles were for the support of His Word.

3. Today we hear and proclaim His Word.

Why did we bother reading this miraculous account today? For that matter, why is this miracle even recorded in the Bible? Jesus performed tons of miracles, way more than what’s written in scripture, so what’s so special about this one? The miracles are recorded in the Bible to teach us. Through this miracle of the healing of a deaf-mute man, we learn to apply it to our lives, namely that Jesus opens our ears to hear and our lips to speak His Word. To help us understand that, we’ll discuss what Jesus’ ministry primarily consisted of, why Jesus performed miracles, and how today we also can hear and proclaim His Word.

So first, what was the purpose of Jesus’ ministry? What was His goal? Jesus’ ministry was primarily to teach His Word. The evangelist Mark explains this at the beginning of his gospel. After Jesus was baptized and tempted in the wilderness He began His ministry by “proclaiming the Gospel of God, and saying “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the Gospel.”” The first thing Jesus does is preach! 

But  after teaching in a synagogue all day, he went to Peter’s home, where Peter’s mother-in-law was sick, and while there He healed her. But as soon as that happened, suddenly the whole town brought all their sick to Jesus so that He would heal them! After nightfall, once everyone left to go to bed, Jesus woke up early and left in order to go pray by Himself. When no one could find Him, Peter and the apostles went out looking for Him, and when they found Him they said “everyone is looking for you.” But Jesus said: “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”

Jesus explained quite plainly that His ministry primarily consisted of teaching His Word. Jesus was sent to proclaim good news to the poor and captives. Healing and performing miracles were not the main thing. He wasn’t just a miracle worker and that’s not why He came. There were more sick people in the world at the time of Jesus whom He didn’t heal, so if healing was His goal, He didn’t do a very good job since not everyone was healed. So since His ministry was one of teaching, He was actually forced to leave towns in order to go somewhere else and start teaching in a new place where He wasn’t just overwhelmed with healing the sick.

This helps us to understand some of the strange aspects of today’s healing. Firstly, this helps us to understand why Jesus traveled around so much. “He returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.” Lots of names of places, and these are some interesting places, that’s for sure, but the point for right now is that Jesus was constantly traveling because He wanted to teach people, but everywhere He went people wanted to be healed.

Secondly, it explains why Jesus took the man aside privately to heal him and then “Jesus charged them to tell no one.” It seems strange that Jesus would tell people to be quiet about the miracle, but the fact is that miracles weren’t the main thing Jesus came to do. His main thing was teaching and dying and rising, not healing. If large crowds gathered to be healed, He didn’t have the opportunity to teach. It’d be kind of like if I invited you to my home and cooked you a fancy meal with expensive meat and fine wine, and as a casual appetizer I set out some crackers and chips, and you filled up on the cheap crackers and chips and didn’t have room for the main course! That’s what was happening with Jesus, they were getting distracted with the lesser things from paying attention to the greater things He came to do.

The healing that Jesus performed was merely temporary. All of those people would get sick from something else and die later. But Jesus’ teaching was for all eternity. He came proclaiming good news and the forgiveness of sins. His teaching was preparing those people for the sacrifice that He would make on calvary, and His teaching still does that today. Jesus’ teachings lead us to realize and  repent of our sins and love God and trust in Him for our salvation.

But if the main thing was Jesus’ teachings, why did He bother doing any miracles at all? I’m sure part of it is that Jesus simply can’t help but heal His people since He feels such compassion and love for them. But it’s bigger than that; Jesus performed miracles in order to support His teachings and prove His authority. It was prophesied that the Messiah would make the deaf hear, the mute speak, and the blind see, so when He did those things it made it clear that He’s the Messiah, and that His teaching can be trusted. Afterall, “they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.””

Elsewhere Jesus explicitly shows that His miracles are done to support His Word. Remember the paralytic lowered through the roof, and how the first thing Jesus did was forgive their sins. But the scribes thought Jesus was blaspheming, since only God can forgive sins. So He put before them the question: “which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” - He said to the paralytic - “Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” The greater thing that Jesus did was forgive sins, but to our human eyes it doesn’t appear that great since anyone can say it, so to prove that the greater thing (the forgiveness of sins) is true, He did the lesser thing (healing the paralytic).

So it is for all of Jesus’ miracles! They’re done in order to prove the truthfulness and efficacy of Jesus’ teachings. This is also why the apostles and other christians in the early church performed miracles: the miracles they did confirmed their message. So when they traveled around the more important work they did was proclaim Jesus’ teachings, and they also did miracles which confirmed that they were speaking with the authority of God almighty. This also explains why pastors don’t do the same miracles today: the message was already confirmed by miracles before, and that’s not necessary any longer. The truthfulness of God’s Word, the Bible, has already been established, it doesn’t need to be constantly reestablished. Any more miracles would just continue to distract from the teaching.

This means that the miracle of the healing of a deaf-mute man is given here for us to learn what Jesus teaches. This particular miracle has to do with hearing and speaking God’s Word. The prophet Isaiah prepared us for this, saying: “In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book… they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel. And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction.” Isaiah isn’t only talking about those literally deaf and mute, but also about those who are spiritually deaf and mute.

So this miracle also applies to us today, even if we aren’t deaf. Jesus makes the deaf hear and the mute speak. The deaf are those who have stopped up their ears to God, or those who are simply ignorant of what God says. But Jesus commands: “be opened.” He opens our ears to hear His word when He speaks to us. So if you’ve stopped up your ears to Jesus, or you’ve been ignorant of Him, the solution is simply that you listen to Him. 

He’s speaking, even when we’re not listening to Him, He’s still speaking! This is fascinating! Even while the man was still deaf, Jesus spoke to Him outloud, He even spoke to the man in his native tongue: “ephphatha.” Even when we’re ignoring Him, Jesus is still speaking to us, He doesn’t quit on us! Isn’t that amazing! For example, lots of people don’t come to church and they ignore Him, but His Word is still read here every Sunday, and His Word is still spoken to them! Even if you’re sitting here ignoring what Jesus says to you, He doesn’t give up, but He keeps speaking!

He doesn’t just make us hear, but He also makes the mute to speak. So mute people usually are also deaf people. The reason for this is that it’s really hard to learn how to speak if you can’t hear those sounds. But if you can hear, then you can learn how to imitate the voice you hear and make the same sounds and speak. So in the miracle this man is said to have a speech impediment, this implies that he wasn’t born deaf but became deaf. He learned how to speak at one point, but then lost his hearing, and since he lost his hearing he also lost some ability to speak. This happens to deaf people because we are all constantly correcting our speech without thinking about it, but since the deaf can’t hear themselves speak they aren’t able to make those necessary corrections, and over time their speech is impaired. 

In a way this is what happens to all people when they stop hearing and listening to the voice of Jesus: they gain a speech impediment. They lose the ability to speak and believe rightly. Even if at one point you heard God’s Word and knew how to speak it, if you stop hearing it you lose it. But the great news is that if you’re constantly hearing God’s voice, you will be able to speak like God, you will have the voice of an angel! If you can hear it then you can learn to speak it! 

So it is that Jesus opens our ears to hear and our lips to speak His Word. It is no less a miracle today that you hear the voice of Jesus and believe and speak rightly! Don’t let this loud world make you deaf to the voice of Jesus. Tune out this deafening world, and listen to Jesus! May your ears always be attuned to the voice of Jesus which is always speaking to you through His Word. May your lips always zealously proclaim His teachings and what He has done for you in the forgiveness of your sins. Let us rejoice that our ears and lips have been opened.