Bible Passage: Mark 7:31-37
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: September 8, 2024

Bulletin September 8, 2024

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

Have you ever stopped to think about what it must have been like to spend time around Jesus?  We have all known that person who seemed like they were perfect.  That kid in high school.  Straight A’s.  Star on all the teams.  Great hair.  Great personality.  Blah, blah, blah.  But Jesus truly was PERFECT.  And not in silly ways, like perfect hair or grades or whatever.  But he was perfect in virtue and love.  Can you imagine what it was like to see perfect love, perfect thoughtfulness, perfect words at the perfect moment?  Think about this.  Never did Jesus have a moment of reflection when he said, “I should have handled that differently.”

Our text today records for us the reaction of people who spent time around Jesus.  It is a summation of everything they have seen.  His words with people.  His actions towards people.  Finally they say, He has Done Everything Well!  While that is true of Jesus’ entire ministry, our text today lets us see that truth on the granular level as he deals with the man who was deaf and could not talk.

Our text takes place in the region called the Decapolis.  “Decapolis” means “ten cities.”  Jesus has been here before.  This is where he had cast out the legion of demons from the man.  This is a place where Jesus already has a reputation.  So when he returns, it is no wonder that some people bring to Jesus a man who was both deaf and could not talk.

These two things often go together.  The person who is born deaf or who loses their hearing early in life often cannot speak.  Think about it.  How do we learn to talk?  By hearing others around us speak.  If we cannot hear others speak, we cannot learn to speak.  Evidently that was this man’s situation.  But now think about this.  Think about what a scary world that must have been!  Unable to know what people were saying around him.  Unable to verbalize his thoughts.  No wonder we are told the people bring him to Jesus.  They couldn’t explain it to him.  They just had to take him by the hand and lead him.

They come to Jesus.  There is a crowd, we are told.  And there is likely a very scared, or at least very confused deaf and mute man.  Now, Jesus could have made quick work of it.  “You’re good!”  The man is healed and off they all go.  But he didn’t.  Jesus takes his time.  Jesus takes this man away from the crowd so that it was only he and the man.  Jesus couldn’t explain what he was going to do.  So he uses some gestures.  He puts his fingers into the man’s ears.  Jesus calls attention to the mouth next.  He spits.  Then he touches the man’s tongue.  The man got the message, “This man is going to do something to my ears and mouth.”  Jesus looks to heaven and groans.   The man thinks, “This man has just talked to God.”

Then, a word.  Mark records for us the Aramaic word Jesus spoke.  “Ephphatha!”  “Be opened!”  The man’s ears obey!  He can hear!  The man’s tongue obeys!  It is no longer tied!  Now add this to the miracle.  Mark tells us the man began to speak plainly.  He didn’t grunt.  He didn’t sound like a two-year-old trying to figure out noun and verb agreement.  He spoke like a pro.  Using correct grammar and vocabulary and diction!  The people are beside themselves,  He has done everything well! (v. 37)  Now we can add this to the list:  He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak. (v. 37)

We live in a world of deaf ears and tied tongues.  A world of imperfection and disability.  A world of fear and confusion.  A world where everything comes up short of what God created it to be.  We come up short of what God created us to be!  All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)  God’s Son came into the world to make things right and make things new.

You are in the middle of a situation and you are wondering if Jesus is doing well with it.  We begin to compare our situation with others.  “My situation isn’t going the way so-and-so’s went.  Their chemotherapy worked.  They found a new job in two weeks.  Their spouse got better.  Their children came back.”  Remember our text.  Jesus does not use a cookie-cutter.  He takes you away from the crowd.  He deals with you as an individual.  He doesn’t want you to look at the crowd.  He wants you to look only at him!  Remember when he touched your head with the water of baptism and said, “I love YOU so much!  YOU are clean.  YOU are mine!”  Remember how he touches your tongue each week.  “Take and eat; this is my body.  This is my blood.  For you.  For forgiveness!”  Remember how he groans for you now as your intercessor in heaven!  We can say, “He has done everything well!”

That sentence is and must be inextricably tied to the cross and tomb of Jesus.  You see, what good are open ears and talking tongues if they are just a “one-off,” a “quick-and-temporary fix”?  Has Jesus really done everything well if everything is just going to return to the way it was?  The man got old and died.  In the grave his ears are deaf again and his tongue is tied again.  There is something significant in the sentence, He has done everything well.  It is the tense of the verb “has done.”  It is a perfect tense.  The perfect tense means something was completed in the past and its results continue.  The significance for our theme is this:  Jesus has done everything well, and it stays done well!  When Jesus fixes something, it stays fixed!  Jesus used a perfect tense on the cross when he said, It is finished. (John 19:29)  Payment for sin happened at that moment.  But the results are ongoing.  Everything Jesus came to do, he did!  And he did it well!

The “lasting” fix for sin, the eternal cure we are all seeking is the cross!  Hope for my sin-sick soul, hope for my sin-riddled body is found at the cross.  The cure we need most, and find at the cross, is forgiveness.  The final healing is at the resurrection.  At Jesus’ cross and empty tomb we can speak the ultimate and final, He has done everything well!

Amen.