Mark 7,31-37. 12th Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Mark 7,31-37; Matthew 15,29-31 4215

12. Sonntag nach Trinitatis  057

Zachaeus, Luke 19

Zachaeus IV, Bishop of Jerusalem 

23. August 2015 

1. O Wonderful God, who heals and revitalizes His people, we await with Your creation and hopes for Your intervention. (VELKD Prayer for 12. Trinitatis § 1).  Amen. 

2. Then Jesus 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.“  

3. Our Gospel pericope tells us the account of Jesus healing a man born deaf and mute. We see in this miracle that „What God says, God does. The reverse is also true. What God does, God says; His doing is not ambiguous. God’s work is God’s speech. God’s speech is no fleeting breath. It is a most effective breath that creates life, that summons into life“ (Bayer 43). St. Mark the Evangelist reported the response of the crowd: »He has done all things well« (Mark 7,37). Since He has done all things well, then Jesus has also spoken all things well.  

4. This miracle not only shows that Jesus has done all things well, but it also shows that He is the fulfillment of old testament prophecy: »Say to those who have an anxious heart: „Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will arrive and save you.“ Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; and the ransomed of the Lord will return and go up to Zion with singing; everlasting joy will be upon their heads; they will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away« (Isaiah 35,4-5.10). This miracle was one of many that Jesus performed. The crowds grew with messianic anticipation: Could Jesus of Nazareth indeed be the messiah that we had been promised since Adam, Abraham and Moses? Every miracle Jesus performed and every teaching He spoke burned the words of the Prophet Malachi into their ears: »For behold, says the Lord of hosts, the day is drawing near for you who fear My Name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings.« (Malachi 4,1-2). 

5. Jesus is this Sun of Righteousness who heals His people. Indeed, we hail Jesus as „Earendel, the Morning Star and Brightest of angels who was sent to mankind on this Middle-earth. He is the True Brilliance of the sun, radiant above the stars, and from Himself illumines forever all the tides of time! He is God indeed begotten of God, Son of the True Father, whose handiwork is in sore need. He is the Radiant Sun who enlightens those who for so long a time, were wrapped around with darkness and here in gloom, have sat the lifelong night; shrouded in sin, had to endure death’s dark shadow. Hopeful now we trust in the salvation brought to the hosts of men through God’s own Word, who was in the beginning co-eternal with God, the Almighty Father and is now flesh void of blemish, that the maiden bore to help the wretched. God was seen among us in all His sinlessness; together they dwelt the Creator’s Mighty Son and the Son of Man in peace on earth wherefore as it is meet we may well thank the Lord of Triumph aye, that He vouchsafed to send to us Himself“ (Cynewulf 104-129). 

6. The deaf man in today’s pericope represents us all. He was sick and in need of healing. He was a sinner who was cursed with the rotten fruit of original sin. Like that deaf man, we are all sick with sin and often become lost in the darkness. We need a Healer, a Savior and a Light to heal us, to save us and to lead us into the light. Christ Jesus is that Healer, Savior and Light. Jesus even says of Himself: »I am the Root and the Descendant of David; I am the Bright Morning Star« (Revelation 22,16). 

7. Jesus once again shows compassion and mercy to someone in need in this pericope. In this miracle, Jesus treats the man not as some poor disabled man, but as an afflicted man in need of God’s healing. He treats the man as a man, shows Him respect and upholds his dignity. This is how Jesus treats each one of us, whether it is in our sickness, our petitions we lift up to Him or when we come to Him for absolution for our sins.  

8. We are tempted to think that proclaiming the gospel means only telling people about the crucified and risen Jesus. This certainly is the core and cornerstone of the gospel, but often when Jesus healed people He did not launch into a formal teaching on the gospel that He would be crucified and raised from the dead. For the deaf man, the gospel was the restoration of His hearing and his speech. He received this healing from Jesus Himself. Jesus did not tell him to follow Him. He did not exhort him to become His disciple, although it is probable that this man did indeed become a disciple. Jesus simply sent the man home. This is simply what Jesus does in your life. You hear the gospel each week and He sends you back home. In your circle of friends, in your vocation and among your neighbors, you have opportunities to proclaim the gospel. Jesus has blessed you with this gospel and He blesses you with opportunities to share this gospel. May you speak this gospel to those in your life. Do not be afraid of what to say, for the Holy Spirit will guide your actions and words; He will work through you to bless those who are hurting.  

9. Jesus is the Light of the world, and we are His individual lights that enlighten the darkness around our neighbors. Jesus works through you to serve others. The gospel creates faith, faith believes in Jesus unto salvation and faith bears forth works of mercy. Diaconal service brings Jesus’ mercy to the neighbor. Every time you utilize your talents, abilities or alms in service of your neighbor, you are being merciful to your neighbor. Through these acts of mercy the Holy Spirit brings proof of the validity of the gospel and its power to save men and women, both in body and soul, unto life everlasting. The Psalmist declares: »“For with You, O God, is the Fountain of Life; in Your Light we see light« (Psalm 36,9). The Light of Jesus shines through you, when your neighbors see that Light, they see Jesus, and in seeing Jesus they see the light that is their salvation through Christ alone. Jesus says: »You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven« (Matthew 5,14.16).  Amen.

10. Let us pray. O Lord, we will bless You at all times and praise You, for You have enlightened us unto salvation through Christ Jesus, so that His Light is now our light unto everlasting life; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Soli Deo Gloria

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.  

Bayer, Oswald. Living by Faith: Justification and Sanctification. Copyright © 2003 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 

Cynewulf. Crist. Copyright © 2000 In parentheses Publications. Translation © 2000 Charles W. Kennedy. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

Martens, Gottfried. A sermon preached on 16. August 2009 (10. Trinitatis) in Berlin-Zehlendorf, Germany on Luke 19,41-48. Copyright © 2009 St. Mary Church in Berlin-Zehlendorf (SELK). All rights reserved. The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind, Tr. © 2011. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands.