Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, August 23, A+D
2026
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
Mark 7:31 – 37
Audio of the Sermon available HERE.
How much water does Jesus need to perform a miracle? As we heard today, not much.
Three
drops of water, or just a bit of spit.
Our Lord’s saliva is enough for a miracle, too, it seems. Jesus spits into - or on, or… well, I'm not
sure where the Lord spat. This slightly
watery miracle is very strange. Along with spitting, and touching this man’s
ears and tongue, Jesus’ groans to heaven, and speaks a word of command, “Ephatha!” That is Aramaic for “Be opened,” and the
man’s ears and tongue were made right.
A bit
unsettling, is it not? Still, no matter
if the method offends our sensibilities, we see an expression of the divine
will to help a man in need, this deaf and mute man. And, on top of the wonderful day-to-day
improvement for the man’s life, his healing also helps us understand the
essence of Holy Baptism.
The
Feeding of the 5,000 was not the Lord’s Supper, but it does point to and
illuminate the Sacrament of the Altar.
In the same way, what Jesus did for this poor man was not a
Baptism. But it was an act of God, a
rescue flowing from the Father's loving heart, that involved water, God’s Word,
and the personal involvement of Christ.
Jesus is teaching us the nuts and bolts of the Good News of Holy
Baptism, as He heals this man.
Now,
for me, being of German heritage, and of Generation X, and being from Eastern
Montana, all the physical contact in our Gospel today is a bit much. Fingers in the ears, touching the tongue,
moans, and spit? Sometimes Jesus healed
people from a distance, with just His Word.
Why so close this time? Why so much
touching?
Here
we see how God, to help hurting people, is willing to get up close and personal
with our problems. Jesus’ is not
embarrassed or ashamed to touch and spit and groan, whatever it takes to open
ears and invite praise from the mouths of His people, praise and thankfulness
for the power and love of the Lord, who has come to rescue us.
We can
make lots of connections and comparisons between the Baptism of a helpless
infant and the healing of the deaf and mute man. One is that we might find it difficult or
uncomfortable to talk about the problems that both face.
It is
good that in our culture it is considered rude to look down on or mock a person
with physical disabilities. Even
selfishly, we should foster a culture where people with disabilities are loved
and accepted. Because, sooner or later,
we will all end up with disabilities.
So, we
try to treat disabled people kindly. But
sometimes in our desire to avoid offense, we get tongue tied, and fail to speak
plainly about reality, and maybe even treat the disabled person like an object,
or a project, instead of a human being.
Likewise, no one wants to say that a tiny baby, especially a preemie, is
a sinner, in need of forgiveness. But in
every Baptism, whether of an infant, child or adult, the essence of the thing
is the Holy One of God approaching a sinner, to free her from the consequences
of her sin.
Both
every baby, and the deaf mute man, are sinners.
Now, I don’t say this to to imply that the deaf-mute man had committed
some sin that earned him his hearing and speech difficulties. St. Mark does not tell us the direct cause of
his disabilities. So, we should show
some compassion and not assume he lost his hearing and ability to speak because
of something he did. But, the importance
of having compassion for disabled people does not change the reality that their
limitations are evil, that they are consequences of the infection of sin in the
world.
God
has always wanted to give us a life without problems, without end, lives full
of perfect joy. Although a specific handicap is not necessarily linked to a
particular sin of the person suffering from it, being deaf and mute is clearly
a result of the fallen state of the world, for which we all share the blame.
In the
same way, when we celebrate the baptism of a precious little girl, plainly
speaking the biblical teaching about her sin and need to be rescued from her
natural alliance with the devil might offend some of her family.
With a
two-year-old, I think most parents are willing to admit that on certain
occasions their daughter doesn't behave perfectly. But in general, our culture doesn't want to hear
anything about the particular sins and the inherent sinfulness of a child. This may be because of the affection we have
for little ones, or perhaps we don't want to consider the fact that what
applies to a baby is surely worse in an adult, myself included. In the end, we can deny or ignore the reality
of sin, even until our last breath. But
our stubbornness does not change the reality of sin, nor does it offer us
relief from its destructive consequences, those of today and those that will
follow in eternity, if something isn’t done about it.
Christ
came to do something about it. He came
to rescue us from these consequences, a rescue He foreshadowed in the healing
of the deaf and mute man. If His method
or His message upset us, He does not care, because He not only knows the
truth, He is the Truth, the Divine Truth, the Eternal Word made
flesh, entering our reality to change it.
And Jesus did not come to just make a few improvements. No, Jesus came to renew the entire world,
beginning with the root of all our problems: human sin. As we heard in last Sunday's Epistle, we were
all by nature children of wrath, just like everyone else, dead in our
trespasses and sins. But God in his
mercy has given us new life in Christ.
By grace we have been saved.
I
don't know what condition blocked the ears of the deaf man Jesus healed. But
another comparison between his story and Holy Baptism is that a first step in
divine rescue is opening our ears so that the saving Word can enter. “Ephphatha, be open,” the Lord commands, “so
that my Word of hope may enter through the ear, renew the heart, and loose the
tongues of my sons and daughters.
Because, I want to hear their voices, marveling at my ministry of
deliverance.”
The
physical blockage in the deaf person has its counterpart in the spiritual
blockages that prevent us from hearing the Word of Christ. There are many:
ignorance, pride, love of sin. Or the
rejection of the concept of sin as offensive to human dignity. Apathy, or distraction in earthly
pleasures. Belief in a false god and his
plan of salvation based in my good works.
Or, at the other extreme, there is the lie that I am too big a sinner to
receive God's forgiveness and love. The
Devil tries to block our ears with all these lies. But Jesus, with His Gospel, His Good News,
comes to open our ears and send his Spirit within us, to teach us the Truth,
and give us new life.
touching, groaning?
Perhaps in this miracle with
the deaf and stuttering man we might see a foreshadowing of the most central
and essential miracle of all, when there was also intimate contact between
sinners and the Lord. You remember
it. Men were spitting in Jesus’ face,
pulling out his beard. Religious
hypocrites told lies in His face. But Jesus
did not flee this evil contact with the worst of humanity. Nor did He argue back to defend His
honor. In the face of all the attacks,
insults, and false accusations, Jesus was like a mute man. Like a lamb led to the slaughter; He did not
open His mouth to try to make it stop.
Which He could have done.
There were also hands. Sinful hands touched the Suffering Servant, slapping
Him, whipping Him, beating Him, nailing the Holy One of God to a Roman
cross. The only man who never sinned
turned into the Chief of Sinners.
As when He healed the deaf-mute
man, again Jesus groans. Jesus again
raised his eyes to heaven and groaned, crying out to his Father: Eli, Eli,
lama sabachthani? My God, my God,
why have you forsaken me?
Also, there at Golgotha there
was just a little water, and none to quench Christ's great thirst, which was
for the justice of God. Jesus drank in
His Father’s just anger against all human sin.
Christ’s thirst for righteousness led Him to die, in our place. Then came the water, the water that flowed
with the blood from His side, the water and blood that today still testify to
the forgiveness of our sins, God's eternal commitment to save us. Not just to heal us for a while, but to
rescue us from never-ending condemnation and separation from God.
The work of redemption is now
complete. Now, the ministry of
justification, distributing the gift of free salvation through the forgiveness
of sins, is the ongoing work that Jesus continues to perform through His
Church, through His people.
This is why we rejoice to
witness a Baptism. For in Holy Baptism, hidden
beneath a few drops of water, and empowered by the Holy Word of the Lord's
Name, the entire saving work of Jesus is revealed before our eyes - a miracle
of love that loosens all our tongues, so that we too may proclaim the great
works of Jesus, who has done all things well, so well that in Him, there is
forgiveness and salvation for all people.
This is also why the Spirit
calls each of us to get up close and personal, uncomfortably intimate with
sinners. As Christ did for us, He
continues to do through His Christians.
And so, from time to time, loving the neighbors that God has given us
requires touching, tears, cleaning, holding, groaning. We do not have to win salvation for anyone;
Jesus has done that. But only through
His own children does Christ reach out to other sin-disabled people, to open
their ears and call them to Himself. So,
when elderly mothers and fathers reach the end, Christian children sit by their
side, speaking of the mighty deeds of God, all the way to the end. Other ears and eyes observe that love, and, Lord
willing, seek that hope. Also in day to
day life, friends invite friends to come and see, come and hear, about the
Savior who has come to us, with healing and grace on His tongue.
Day by day, disability by
disability, messy situation by messy situation, Christ is still reaching out to
souls broken by sin, through the hands and mouths, the words and groans and
touch of other sinners whom He has already healed and claimed for His own.
This is the Way of Christ, to
perform great works of salvation and love, hidden beneath unimpressive things
like words recited and sung by sinners, a few pieces of bread, and a sip of
wine. The messengers are weak, and God’s chosen means do not seem
powerful. But through these ordinary
things, the Lord continues to draw near to sinners with his grace, forgiveness,
and love. They are the means of His boundless commitment to us sinners, now
made holy through baptismal union with Christ Jesus, in whom we have received
complete forgiveness, justification before the throne of God, and some day
soon, eternal life in glory and perfect joy.
And so,
let us pray: Almighty and merciful God and Father, we thank and praise You
because by Your grace you preserve and expand your family. Help each of us to cherish the Good News that
You have claimed us in Holy Baptism.
Work through us to draw more and more souls to the Water of Life, either
to be baptized, or to renew the faith into which they were baptized, but from
which they have drifted away, and ended up in a dry desert of unbelief. As You have made us your sons and daughters
through the washing of water with the Word, we humbly implore You to keep us in
the grace of Baptism, so that according to Your good will we may grow
faithfully to lead godly lives for the praise and honor of Your Holy Name and,
finally, together with all Your saints, obtain the promised inheritance in
heaven, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
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