https://app.dropwave.io/episode/ef41b7a7-3653-401a-b62e-bf678f54637f/trinity-12-ad-2025.mp3

++ JESU JUVA ++

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[1 Jesus heals the deaf man.]

At that time: [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.

This man is cut off from the world. He cannot have conversations with his loved ones. He cannot hear music or laughter. More importantly, he is cut off from God. He is far away from the Temple in Jerusalem. Even if he could go to the Temple, he would have to remain in the court of the Gentiles since he was a foreigner. But even there, he could not hear what was being proclaimed. He could not know the comfort of the Gospel or the healing of the absolution.

Nor could he speak rightly. This is a more substantial problem than you might think. It’s not simply that he doesn’t have the ability to express his thoughts. It’s not only that he can’t make his tongue produce the proper sounds. Rather, he has not yet been given words. His thoughts have no defined shape; they are merely indistinct concepts. Maybe this is hard to comprehend, but think about the process of writing a paper or making an argument. It’s only in writing down your thoughts or speaking them out loud that your ideas become expressible.

But this deaf man has no language. That also means he cannot pray. He has no way to bring his needs to anyone who can help. He’s trapped within his own mind. He cannot hear correction from the outside. He cannot confess the truth. His life is full of frustration, misunderstanding, isolation. Cut off. Alone. Trapped. Stuck.

The man’s friends recognize the disorder. They give voice to his need. Jesus hears their prayers. He has compassion and takes action. 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.” Jesus acts to fix the problem.

Tenderly, He takes the man aside for personal attention. He touches the very places the man’s body is broken — ears, tongue — and speaks one word: Ephphatha! Be opened! And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.

Everything changes. His confused and garbled speech becomes straightened. Now he speaks clearly, plainly — even orthodoxly. This is freedom. His ears are open to the voices around him. He can hear. He can confess. No wonder the people cry out in amazement: “He has done all things well!”

[2 This healing is a picture of spiritual reality.]

This is not only a story about a deaf man from long ago. By nature, in your sin, you were deaf to God’s Word. You could read the words or hear them preached to you, but you could not understand them. We see an example of this when St. Peter and the other apostles preach the Gospel on Pentecost. Their hearers declare that the preachers are drunk. For the word of the Gospel is folly to those who are perishing.

This is what the disease of sin does. It closes your ears to God’s Word. It makes you ignorant and indifferent to the things of God. Left to your own devices, you cannot know what He says—nor do you want to. Without the healing of Jesus, you are deaf, unable to hear and discern spiritual things, unable to believe in the Gospel, unable to hear what is real.

And if you can’t hear, you also can’t speak rightly. Your words do not conform to reality. Without Christ you cannot confess His name, cannot pray in faith, cannot sing His praises. By nature, you were tongue-tied before God. You were born captive to sin, bound and mute before God, unable to confess the truth.

But the same Jesus who healed this deaf man has come and opened you. In Holy Baptism, He laid hands on you. He spoke to you individually: “Ephphatha! Be opened!” He opened your ears to hear His Word. He opened your lips to sing His praise. That is why in the daily office the church prays: “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise.”

In Christ God answers that prayer every time His Word opens your ears anew. Your ears are opened. Your tongue is loosed. You are open. Now you pray “Our Father” with confidence. You say, “I believe that Jesus Christ… is my Lord, who has redeemed me.”

[3 Two responses to the healing.]

When Jesus has healed the deaf man, there are two different and opposite responses. The man who was healed now speaks plainly. His speech is no longer garbled or timid. He does not hide behind complicated words or apologetic half-truths. He does not excuse Jesus’ actions or cloak them in embarrassment. He speaks with clarity and precision. His confession is true and straightforward. He is unashamed. He doesn’t try to make Jesus look more respectable. He tells of a Jesus who sticks fingers in ears, who spits and grabs a tongue. He speaks as he has heard and believed. He speaks rightly because he has heard rightly.

But the crowds have no faith in Jesus. So they disobey Him. And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. Jesus commands their silence, but without faith they cannot hear what Jesus says. To them it's nonsensical that they should remain quiet about this miracle. Hearing, they did not hear. Since Jesus' word doesn't make sense, they ignore Him.