"He Has Done All Things Well" (Sermon on Mark 7:31-37)

How do you speak to a deaf man? With sign language, of course. You make the appropriate gestures and actions to communicate the message you want to convey. And so that is what Jesus does to communicate with a deaf man who is brought to him. He uses sign language, if you will, to get his message across to the man before he heals him. But in so doing, and then in actually healing the man, Jesus is also sending a message to us. The question is, Can we read the sign?

Our text is the Holy Gospel for today, from Mark 7. Mark is the only gospel-writer who records this particular incident from Jesus’ public ministry. The situation is this: People had heard about Jesus’ mighty works of mercy, his healings and miracles. So they bring to him a man who is deaf and mute. He cannot hear, and, like many deaf persons, he cannot speak clearly either. They want Jesus to heal him.

The first thing Jesus does is to take the man off to the side, apart from the midst of the crowd. Jesus wants his full attention, no distractions. He begins to speak to the deaf man, not audibly, but by means of a series of actions and gestures designed to communicate a message about what he is about to do. Jesus puts his fingers into the man’s ears. “Your deaf ears--I’m going to heal them” is the message Jesus is sending by this action. This is a good sign to start with.

The next thing Jesus does is to . . . spit? Spitting? What’s up with that? Was he a baseball player or something? They like to spit. Spitting may seem a little strange to us, but that’s what Jesus does. “After spitting,” it says, Jesus “touched his tongue.” Now our text doesn’t say exactly where Jesus spat. He may have just spat onto the ground. In that case, the message he would be sending to the man is, “Not just your ears; I’m also going to deal with your mouth. I’m going to remove the impediment that is keeping you from speaking clearly.” But it’s also possible--and this may sound gross to us, but it would fit with what Jesus does in a couple of other healings--it’s also possible that Jesus spat on his own fingers and then touched the man’s tongue with those fingers. That would send an additional message. Not only would it be saying, “I’m going to heal your tongue so you can speak,” it would also say, “The power to accomplish this healing is coming directly from me. What now will come out of my mouth, namely, my word--that is what is going to loose your tongue.” A powerful message indeed!

What comes next in Jesus’ sign language? “And looking up to heaven, he sighed.” Two things here. He looked up to heaven. Jesus is directing the man’s gaze heavenward, both literally and figuratively. He wants the man to look to God in faith for this blessing. And he wants the man to make the connection, that the power Jesus is going to use to heal him comes from God, comes from heaven. Even more so, that Jesus himself comes from God, has come down from heaven. That is the goal of this healing: to recognize something about Jesus, that he is the divine, heaven-sent man of mercy, sent to heal all our ills. Do you realize that, can you read that sign?

“And looking up to heaven, he sighed.” Again, Jesus wants the man to lay his needs before God in an attitude of supplication and prayer. And that is what we do, isn’t it? We come before God with all our hurts, all our ailments and afflictions, all our sins and sorrows, our frustration and our exhaustion, and we lay that bag of misery before God with the sigh of faith. “Lord, have mercy” is our prayer. And he does! In his rich mercy, our heavenly Father hears our sighs and supplications, and he answers in the way that is best for us.

After putting his fingers into the man’s ears, after spitting and touching his tongue, after looking up to heaven and sighing, now Jesus is ready to speak and to do his mighty work. Jesus is ready to speak, and it is one powerful word. One word, in Aramaic, the word “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened.” “Ephphatha!” Even the strange sound of it causes it to linger and resonate in our mind. Maybe that’s why Mark preserved that Aramaic word in his otherwise Greek-written gospel. It really stands out. “Ephphatha!” “Be opened!” And that is what happens. When Jesus speaks, things happen. His words are powerful and active, accomplishing the purpose for which he speaks. “Ephphatha!” “Be opened!” And so the man’s ears are opened--his tongue, too. No longer are his ears unable to do their job. No longer is his tongue bound, as with a chain. Now he can hear, now he can speak. Jesus’ powerful, creative word has restored his abilities.

Ah, you see, now we’re getting at it. Where have we seen this sort of thing before? A powerful, divine word is spoken. The speaking brings about the act, brings something into being that wasn’t there before. Why, at Creation, of course. “And God said, ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light.” And so on, down through the days of Creation. God speaks his word. The thing he speaks, happens. And the result? “And God saw that it was good.”

Well, that pattern of God’s work of Creation takes place here as well, in Jesus’ healing of the deaf and mute man. Jesus speaks the word: “Ephphatha!” “Be opened!” And that is precisely what happens as a result. And the result is something that is good.

The crowd in the story recognizes that this is good work Jesus has done. “And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.’” “He has done all things well.” Hmm, kinda sounds like what we read in the Creation account: “And behold, it was very good.”

Well, maybe now we’re beginning to read the sign ourselves. Jesus’ healing of the deaf and mute man is a sign itself, designed to send a message. It’s sending us the message that Jesus has come from heaven to restore creation, to undo the damage that the fall into sin brought. It’s sending us the message that God has mercy on human misery, and that Jesus has come to be the agent, the accomplisher, of that mercy. And Jesus does it, he applies this mercy and salvation and healing to persons, through his powerful word. Can you read the sign? This is what Jesus is telling you today, and that all of this is for you.

Yes, the healing of the deaf and mute man was designed to ring bells. The Creation bell, for one. The Messiah bell, for another. The people in the crowd who knew their Bibles would have recognized in the healing of the deaf and mute man a very specific fulfillment of prophecy. Oh, you heard it today, too. It was our Old Testament lesson, from Isaiah 35: “Say to those who have an anxious heart, ‘Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.’ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.”

Can you read this sign? The message is, Jesus is the Messiah! He, Jesus of Nazareth, is the heaven-sent divine deliverer, sent by God to bring in the great final age of salvation and blessing, the undoing of the curse. That’s who Jesus is, that’s what he came to do. Indeed, he is God himself, God in the flesh. “Behold, your God will come and save you.”

Be strong, then, you who have an anxious heart! Fear not, you who worry and wonder if God has forgotten you. No, he has not! You saw what Jesus did, didn’t you? He healed a deaf and mute man! Who can do that? Power and mercy, coming together like that! What wonderful good news! Truly, Jesus has done all things well.

But you say, What about me? What about my aches and pains? What about my infirmities and disabilities, which are only getting worse and more numerous with age? Why doesn’t Jesus speak an “Ephphatha” to me? Good question. But let’s think this through. Surely there were other people with physical ailments in Galilee and the Decapolis who were not brought to Jesus and so healed. There have been millions of Christians down through the centuries who were not healed of their various physical afflictions. Maybe you are one of them. So how is this “Ephphatha” story relevant to you?

The healing of the deaf and mute man shows what is in store for all of us, because of what Christ came to do. Christ Jesus came to undo the curse of sin and death and all the damage that happens in between. The ravages and results of sin in the world, of sin in us, are things like physical disabilities in all their manifestations. I’m not saying that this particular ailment is the result of that particular sin, but just generally, we all are sinners, and we live in a sin-ruined, fallen creation. Our bodies don’t work right. Our bodies will die. This is not supposed to happen. It’s not supposed to be like this. All this bad stuff is the result of our sin, the curse we fell under because of it.

But Jesus came to fix all that. And that means dealing with the underlying sin problem. Only God can fix that. We can’t. Jesus, the Son of God, can, and he does. He goes to the cross to suffer and die for our sins--he, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And on the way to that cross, in his public ministry, Jesus does these healings as demonstrations--advance previews, if you will--of what his saving mission will accomplish. The salvation Christ brings means total healing, in both body and soul, for all who trust in him. Now you can read the sign most fully! Jesus is restoring creation, and then some! With sin forgiven, death and disease are dealt with. From out of death, life, eternal life, risen bodies, restored creation--all this is your inheritance in Christ. Here is hope to carry you through this vale of tears: Jesus has done all things well.

Yes, all things. Are you bound by sin today, burdened with a heavy load of guilt? To you Jesus speaks a mighty “Ephphatha!” “Be opened, be loosed from your burden. My blood, shed on the cross for you, releases you from that bondage.” Today Christ’s precious body and blood will touch your tongue, and the message will be, “Behold, your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” The sure hope of total healing is yours today because of Christ.

Dear friends, today we have read Jesus’ sign language, and the message is all good. “Ephphatha!” our Lord says. “Be opened!” And when Jesus speaks, things happen, good things. Our ears are opened to hear the good news. Our tongue is loosed to praise his holy name. Truly, he has done all things well!

Mark 7:31-37 (ESV)

Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 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. And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing

O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great redeemer’s praise
The glories of my God and King
The triumphs of his grace!

My gracious Master and my God
Assist me to proclaim
And spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of your name.

Jesus! the name that charms our fears
That bids our sorrows cease.
‘Tis music in the sinner’s ears
‘Tis life and health and peace.

He speaks, and, list’ning to his voice
New life the dead receive
The mournful, broken hearts rejoice
The humble poor believe.

Hear him, you deaf; his praise, you dumb,
Your loosened tongues employ;
You blind, behold your Savior come;
And leap, you lame, for joy.

—Charles Wesley

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