13th Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 18
Mark 7:24-37
"Friends, the Deaf Man & Jesus"
24 ¶ And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house, and would not have any one know it; yet he could not be hid.
25 But immediately a woman, whose little daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell down at his feet.
26 Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
27 And he said to her, "Let the children first be fed, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs."
28 But she answered him, "Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs."
29 And he said to her, "For this saying you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter."
30 And she went home, and found the child lying in bed, and the demon gone.
31 ¶ Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decapolis.
32 And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech; and they besought him to lay his hand upon him.
33 And taking him aside from the multitude privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue;
34 and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened."
35 And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.
36 And he charged them to tell no one; but the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.
37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well; he even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak."
Isaiah 35:4-7
4 Say to those who are of a fearful heart, "Be strong, fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you."
5 ¶ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6 then shall the lame man leap like a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;
7 the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.
Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen
In Stockholm, Sweden, a woman was injured as she rushed to catch a streetcar. She stumbled in front of the moving car and was caught beneath it. The police sent for a crone to lift the heavy streetcar off her body.
While waiting for the crane, a crowd of people gathered. One man pushed through the crowd, crawled beneath the car, and said to the woman, "Take my hand." As she took his hand she felt the nearness and warmth of the stranger. This calmed her and prevented her from going into shock.
After the crane arrived and the woman was released, she said, "I never thought an outstretched hand could mean so much."
Our outstretched hand can mean a lot to someone who is need, but just imagine what the outstretched hand of Jesus can mean.
In our gospel lesson, Jesus reaches out his hand to touch a man who had bean mute and deaf and it changed his life. But at the same time, the friends of that man reached out their hands together and brought that man to Jesus,so Jesus would have a chance to reach out his hand.
To get a better understanding of God’s grace in our lives, I would like to look closely at the three main characters in our gospel story, the friend, the deaf man and of course Jesus. We will look at them closely, to feel their emotion to try to understand their feelings as God’s free grace come unexpectedly into their lives.
First the friends. One thing we can say about these friends at the very beginning is they loved this deaf and mute man. They loved him enough to make a special effort to bring him to Jesus. They loved him enough to forget about their own welfare for a moment, so that this man could experience the grace of God. These men, these friends were fulfilling what Paul tells us in Phil. 2:4 as he says "do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others."
And they were looking out for the interest of their friend. They brought him to Jesus.
They had a dream for their friend. A dream which said if they could just bring him to Jesus, then Jesus might or could heal him. They had a dream of something better for their friend, a dream where his life could enjoy the sounds of God’s creation, where he could speak to others in conversation, a dream where this man would no longer have to talk by signs but he would understand everything and be understood. As Don Quixote says in the play The Man of La Mancha , about madness, " Maddest of all," he says, "is to see life as it is and not as it should be." These friends had a vision, a dream for their friend of a different life, not life as it was, but life as it could be as God’s grace through Christ was brought to this man couldn’t hear or speak.
And in order for this man to find the salvation of God, his friends become as James says in vs 22, of last week’s lesson: "But be doers of the word and not hears only, deceiving yourselves. " These friends knew they had to put their dream into action. They had to bring their friend to Jesus.
And they did. But what drove them to Jesus? How did they know Jesus could heal their friend?? They had faith in Jesus. They must of heard Jesus before and in their hearing they believed that this man Jesus could heal their friend. They had faith, they had trust in Jesus.
Luther says in an sermon on this text: " Now you here observe the nature of faith which grows out of the word. For the Word first sets forth to us the mercy and goodness of God; then faith causes us to cleave unto it with a firm confidence, and to obey the Word." These friends heard Jesus, they understood him to be a man sent from God, they trusted him, so they developed a vision, a dream for their friend, to have Jesus heal him, all because they had faith.
Then these friends shared their faith with the deaf and dumb man. They wanted him to obtain his own faith in Jesus. As Luther further says: "Therefore my faith can help you in no way except that it may assist you to obtain faith of your own."
The faith of these friends was passed on to this man which allowed him to stand before Jesus with the sure confidence that Jesus would and could heal him.
As we look carefully at these friends, what did we learn from them for our own faith lives? I think the major point for us, we, the church, the body of Christ, are like those friends in the world today, We are the ones who reach out a hand to the ones suffering from the brokenness a of this world, we reach out with a hand of faith in the power of Jesus Christ to overcome this world. We reach out a hand of tenderness, of kindness, of compassion, of healing to all those who are experiencing the burden of suffering in any form, be that death, sickness, broken relationships, what ever. We the body of Christ, the church are the friends for all those people in today’s world. Friends who have come to know Christ, who have faith in Christ, who are willing to share that faith that other might come to believe. We are the ones who reach out hand so that others might know the love of Christ.
Now for the deaf man. Can you imagine what went through his mind? First of all he had to believe and trust in what his friends were telling him. He had to go along with them as they took him to hear Jesus. The faith had been passed on. He, I imagined, believed too that Jesus could heal him or he wouldn’t of come. Then Jesus beckons him to come to one side, to be alone with him. Standing there in front of Jesus the man could feel Jesus touch his ears, place the spittle on his tongue, then looking at Jesus he could see him look toward heaven, then say this funny word EPHPHATHA, then all sorts of sounds were invading his ears; voices, birds. Can you imagine hearing for the first time?
Then knowing that he could speak? What did he say? He looked at the Jesus. What was the word that he wanted to express his, gratitude and the overwhelming feelings inside him? What could he say?
I can imagine all he could do was beam as the tears streamed down his face. Then he saw one of his friends running toward him and the next thing he knew his friend was hugging him and saying to him, "This is Jesus".
From his friends he received the faith to trust in the power of Jesus to heal him. His faith was strong as he stood in front of Jesus and allowed him to extend God’s grace into his life through the word. and touch.
Because of Jesus, his life was forever changed. He experienced God’s grace in a powerful way in his life. I think the message we get from this character is one of faith along with the willingness to turn his life over to the hands of Jesus with the confidence that Jesus would act. As we experience the brokenness of this world, as we are led by others to see Jesus, we can learn to fully trust Him with our lives as we surrender them to Jesus. Whatever the brokenness is Jesus meets our needs. He meets us at our point of need, be it frustration, fear, futility, fatigue, failure,sin, guilt, sorrow, broken relationships, whatever is our burden, Jesus meets us with his grace.
As an example: "Jim he had reached the bottom of life. He had family, a business and was well respected in the community. However, everything seemed to be going wrong and he didn’t know where to, turn. He remembered that his mother had told him to pray when everything else had failed.
In the midst of his desperation, Jim tried to pray but realized he didn’t know how. Finally, he said, " Jesus, this is Jim." Not knowing what else to pray he repeated it again: "Jesus, this is Jim." After a long period of silence,, the words came pouring forth from his soul and heart again: "Jesus this is Jim."
Jim was hit by a car that very night. He said, "Lying in the hospital and not knowing if would live or die, I become aware of a voice saying; "Jim this is Jesus." In a few moments, I heard it again, said Jim " Jim this is Jesus." And then the same words a third time, as I felt, said Jim,, a great burden roll off of my bask. I felt so light so free. I knew that everything as going to be all right.’"
Everything was going to be all right, in the sense that Jesus was now in charge of Jim’s life. He might not get his business back, but he had far more than that, He had Christ, and that was the best friend he could ever hove. And as we experience our own per personal brokenness, our hope, our prayer can be the same as Jim’s that Christ will be there or us. He will walk with us through our valley whatever it may be and bring a measure of his grace into our situation.
Now we turn to the final character in our story, Jesus himself. I think the important point for us to notice about Jesus was his concern for the plight of this man and his concern that the people who understood that he was more than a man who performed miracles, he was God’s Son sent to earth to achieve salvation for the human race through the cross of Calvary.
He was concerned in an equal way. He knew the plight, the suffering of this man and he wanted to help. But at the same time, he knew what his mission was all about, to bring salvation to all people. So that is why he asked the people, the friends of this man and the man himself, not to tell everyone what had happened. He wanted to show the people as he neared the end of his journey to Jerusalem, that miracles, free bread, were just a part of his ministry, his mission was also to bring salvation by the way of the cross. Jesus knows our healing is important, but our salvation is essential. Jesus understood the need of this man as he understands our needs, but he also realized the importance of understanding the salvation he brought by the way of the cross. It is not either or, but both/and as we look at Jesus healing and salvation.
Jesus shows us very clearly that he wants to be port of our brokenness to bring a measure of his grace into it, but at the same time, he wants us to accept and believe that only through him can we obtain the salvation God has, planned for all his children.
He does and will walk with us through the valleys of our lives as seen in the following taken from James Bjorge book, Girded With Truth. "In a little town in the mountains of France there is a shrine famous for its miracles of healing. One day shortly after WW II an amputee veteran appeared at the shrine. As he hobbled painfully along the way, someone remarked, ’That silly man! Does he think God will give him back his leg?’
The young veteran overheard the remarks and said, ’Of course I do not expect God to give me back my leg. I am going to pray to God to help me to live without it,"’
Yes, Jesus is the Lord of the valleys of life, and the way, the truth and light to eternal salvation for all who would turn over their lives to him. I think as we allow Jesus more and more control of our lives in the valleys as well as on the mountain tops, we will eventually turn over to him control of our salvation. We will allow him to be in charge, to allow his broken body and spilled blood to be our way into heaven. Not our works, not our high opinions of ourselves, not our traditions, not even our faith is the way to heaven, only the body broken on the cross of Calvary and raised on Easter is our way to the salvation planned by God for all his children.
We can be as the friends of the deaf and dumb man, loving the unlovable in such a way that we bring them to Christ with our faith. Then we can be like that man standing in front of Jesus turning our entire lives over to Him. And we remember not only does Jesus walk with us in the valleys of life and celebrates with us on the mountain tops, but at the same time he is concerned for our salvation as he wants us to turn our lives completely over to his power.
As the crowds said over 2000 years ago, we can say too, "He has done all things well; he even makes the deaf hear and | the dumb speak."
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale September 1, 2003
