Be Opened

Mark &:31-37

They asked on behalf of the man

- pray for others

- not for yourself

They begged him to lay his hand on him

- they requested a show

- a visible sign of his power

- so everybody can see

He spat at him

- gesture of blessing

- Big Fat Greek Wedding knows two magic remedies: Windex and spitting

- lick my cuts

- grandma’s advise

- just like a band-aid with your favorite cartoon character on it

- but that’s not yet the healing but putting on a little show for his friends

Ephphatha

- The real healing occurs like this: Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”

- Ephphatha comes from the Hebrew word Patah which means door

- In this case: immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released

Amazing

- Having heard this story may eventually help us to "be opened"

- It challenges us to be open to the fact that Jesus is able to heal

- About the formerly mute is says: "he spoke plainly"

- just like that, no "thank you for changing my life so dramatically"

Challenge

- Monty Python: healing in the market place

- he didn’t speak plainly, he was pissed

- his handicap earned him a living

- it defined who he was

- it constituted the life he used to live

- he didn’t ask Jesus to be healed

- Anyway for our formerly mute patient today a new door - patah - has been opened and that is scary and dangerous as well

Be opened

- starting a whole new life like that is hard

- When at some point I realized my career opportunities in my native land were close to zero I had to ask God to open another door for me and he did

- When a woman after years of depression and sickness can go back to work and many exciting new doors nbvin her life, it is also a challenge adjusting to the new situation

- When a cancer-survivor dedicates the rest of her life to service to others

- When churches were used to being in a survival mode and now all of a sudden have a new life, adjustments have to be made.

- Churches that Jesus Christ has healed and opened up are more alive than they have been in quite a while. To some that may be scary just as the ability to speak and hear might have been scary to the man that Jesus healed. We are bigger and better churches. We have events too big to know each person from the start. We have more events than each of us could possibly attend. We are bigger than ourselves. We ask God to heal people we do not even know. We are being opened by Jesus Christ. It’s a whole new life. We are healed.

- Jesus has told us to be opened to the fact that he can heal us, to be opened in our personal lives and to be opened in our congregational life