Readings: Isaiah 29:17-24 | 2 Corinthians 3:4-11 | Mark 7:31-37
Text: Mark 7:31-37
“And they brought to [Jesus] 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...”
Jesus sighed. The Greek word, στενάζω (stenadzo), means ‘to express oneself involuntarily in the face of an undesirable circumstance.’ That’s really specific. But we know exactly what it is. Jesus is frustrated. Whether it’s at the man, or at the man’s illness, or the man’s friends who brought him, or the reaction of the witnesses afterward, the text doesn’t say. But that sigh says it all. Day in, day out. We sigh in the same way, but more important than our groan at adversity, our Lord Himself sighs…and then He acts. This was not the condition Christ Jesus created the world in. And this was not the condition He was going to leave it in forever. He knew exactly what needed done, and He was on His way to do it.
Many of the people took Jesus to be a wonderworker, a miracle curer of infirmities and diseases. He told the people to keep quiet about this, lest all they hear about Him is that He can do miraculous things for people. Yet, He continually frustrates those who expect Him to be little more than a bread dispenser and people-healer.
This isn’t the first time Jesus reacts in ways that we do not expect Him to in Mark’s Gospel. When the demons themselves start proclaiming Jesus to be the Christ, He shuts them up [Mark 1:21-28] (we would have said that “even bad press can be good”). When the people flock around him because of His miracles, He leaves town [Mark 3:7-21] (C’mon, Jesus, don’t you want to top the charts?). He commands the people He heals from the beginning of His ministry not to tell anyone what happened to them (Even His own disciples would ask in John 7:5, “no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” He forgives the paralytic instead of healing the man first [Mark 2:1-12].
Jesus has not done anything the way anyone expected Him to—not even us. And we don’t realize how big a problem that is. We all still assume that He thinks the same way we do about things. Surely, He would share my opinions. He would approve of what I think, what I do. If it makes me comfortable, it must be alright, right? But is that Jesus or is that our hearts? This is the same heart that believes that the real god is me.
Oh, we don’t put it in those words. We would never say it out loud. But we live it. You and I both. The reason we think God approves of what we do, is because we have the our own self-imagined god in mind. That’s why it (we call it ‘he’ to give it clout) shares my opinions. That’s why it thinks the same way I do. We confuse the true God with our idol all the time and we don’t even notice it. Why do you think the old question of ‘What would Jesus do?’ was as popular as it was? Because we were really asking ‘What would the all-powerful Me I believe in do?’
We ignore the parts of the Lord we don’t identify with. We keep the part we do like. and add in the parts we think are missing. One popular kind of god is a true American, who wants everyone to pull their own weight. Another is a true champion of fairness, who equalizes all. Another is my big grandfather in the sky, who is just happy with anything I do and dotes on me by making things happen just the way I want. We pick and choose a god we like, because it’s just like us. We create a god in our own image. We change the emphasis of the First Commandment: – I – shall have no other gods before – ME -. No wonder the god of my choice is so interested in making me comfortable. No wonder my god approves of so much of what I do. No wonder everyone likes at least one kind of Jesus. It’s the ultimate bespoke Jesus.
But the Jesus the Lord of Scripture, both Old and New Testaments, makes everyone uncomfortable. Especially those closest to Him. He doesn’t share my opinions. He nothing at all like anything I would’ve imagined up. Because He’s not me. This Jesus has every reason in the world to sigh. Because He looks up to heaven and sighs about me. After all, my ears are stopped up and will not listen to the parts I dislike. My tongue will not speak of anyone other than myself. I will not risk my comfort to keep His commands. I’d sooner give up my life than my comfort. My sinful, corrupted heart would sacrifice everything in order to achieve that happiness. But Jesus doesn’t give the kind of comfort our hearts desire. Rather, Jesus puts His fingers in our ears. He spits, and snatches up our tongue. He looks up to heaven and sighs.
Now what happens next in our Gospel lesson are the words, “and Jesus says to him.” And in English, we assume that ‘him’ is the man. However, most languages, including Greek, have specific genders for words—masculine, feminine, and neuter. The noun for tongue is feminine (glossa), the noun for ear is neuter (ous), but the noun for heaven is masculine (ooranos). And so translators must make a choice. Does Jesus speak to the man or to heaven when He says to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”?
Both make sense. And the man’s ears were opened. Which is why referring to the man is a solid choice for translators to make. But Jesus is looking up to heaven when He speaks. It makes sense both ways. So, what would it mean if Jesus tells heaven itself to be opened for this man? Opened the same way it was in Jesus’ baptism when the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, and the Father said, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
How good is that news for us whose ears will not hear? How good is that news for us whose tongues who speak from ignorance and unbelief? How good of news is that for us whose hearts have set ourselves up as god in place of the Lord? The opening of heaven for you and me means that—even though the Lord knows how sinful and corrupt our hearts are, that He knows how we constantly replace Him with gods of our own making, that though we cannot keep even the First Commandment—we have not been forsaken by God. In fact, He desires to forgive even us.
I mentioned earlier that the crowds often took Jesus for little more than a wonderworker who could benefit them in their daily life. Hopefully, you’ll agree that we have much bigger problems than that. The healings were only signs of what Jesus is truly doing, which no one expected or sought: Jesus is taking away the sin against the First Commandment. Jesus is taking away our self-made gods. He is taking away the sin that caused the world to fall—the same sin which makes us deaf and mute. That same sin which drives us to do the opposite of what Jesus says. That same sin which kills each and every one of us. Jesus carries on His own shoulders to the cross. And there He more than sighs. That much sin causes God Himself to cry out. Because the total price for all sin is extracted from Christ alone. All the pain. All the suffering. All the death. Jesus endured it all. And He paid for it by His blood. He paid for it with His life.
And on the third day, it’s not just the grave that is opened. Heaven itself is opened for you, because you’re forgiven. You have Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection given to you. No one who belongs to the risen Christ, the victor over sin and death can be held by the grave for long. Heaven is opened, and so are our ears. We can now hear the good news of the Gospel. Heaven is opened, and so are our mouths. “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.” (Psalm 51:15) We can now speak, not of ourselves, but of the One who is the true and only God. We can now see that the comfort we ourselves seek is not the same comfort which Jesus actually gives. Our comfort has no assurance, no lasting peace, and whatever we long for passes away. But Jesus’ comfort does not. There is an end to all things in this present world, but Jesus will come and usher us into the world which has no end.
18 In that day the deaf shall hear
the words of a book,
and out of their gloom and darkness
the eyes of the blind shall see.
19 The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord,
and the poor among mankind shall exult in the
Holy One of Israel.
That day of has come, and at His Word, we stand in it from this time forth, and forever more [Ps. 121:8]. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
Leave a Reply