“Jesus said: ‘Ephphatha’”
Mark 7:34
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
Several years ago, in the city of Oslo, Norway, there lived an eleven-year-old boy named Kjell Mørk. But since his first name, Kjell, was so common in Norway, he had his friends call him by his middle name, Omahr, instead.
And each day after school, young Omahr liked to ride bike with his friends. And one evening, as he was riding home, his path took him down a hill. He was pedalling at full steam, going as fast as he could. But the setting sun was in his eyes, so he didn’t notice a truck parked at the side of the street. And sure enough, he plowed into that truck, went flying off his bike, and was knocked unconscious.
A few days later, he woke up in the hospital recovering from a skull fracture. He returned home as soon as he was able.
But a short time later, the city of Oslo was hit by an outbreak of spinal meningitis. So he suddenly found himself in the hospital again, waking up a second time from a coma. But this time, his world had gone silent. Young Omahr, a promising singer in the boys’ choir and a tuba player in the school band, was now deaf.
Anyone would tell you it was a tragedy. But if you were to ask Omahr how he feels about his deafness today, he’d tell you, “God closed my ears, so He could open my heart.” He said, “Even though I was a good Norwegian, and all good Norwegians are Lutheran, Jesus was a stranger to me. But God used my deafness to get my attention. And through the care and concern of Christian friends, God drew me to Himself.”
For in spite of his deafness, Omahr was able to come to the United States, received a college degree, and eventually graduated from our seminary in St. Louis. And after serving as a pastor in LCMS deaf congregations, he returned to his native Norway, where he shares the gospel of Jesus in sign language.
And while God was working in Omahr’s life, He was also working in the life of another deaf man named Robert Case.
Like Omahr, Bob Case also lost his hearing because of spinal meningitis. But he was only four years old. So through his childhood and teen years, he attended two state schools for the deaf. Then after graduation, he married a young deaf woman he met in another state. He got a job at McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis, where he made a good living building jet airplanes.
But the Lord had other plans, for He called him to enter full-time ministry.
But the timing wasn’t good at all. Bob was fast approaching his fortieth birthday. He had a wife and five children. He had a good job with good security, with nothing but a high school diploma after his name. And he was deaf.
But when God calls, He also provides the means. So not only was Bob able to earn a university degree, he graduated from the seminary, and has served deaf churches ever since.
The list could go on. We could tell stories of pastors, teachers, lay ministers, parish workers, even missionaries on other continents, who are all deaf. But even though their physical ears don’t work, their hearts are very much in tune with the still small voice of God. And even though their speech may be strained, distorted, and sometimes hard to understand, their lives are an eloquent testimony to the power and the love of God.
Our text for today tells of another man who was not only deaf, but couldn’t speak. Please turn in your Bible to page 1072. Mark chapter 7, verse 31: “Then He 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.’”
Jesus had only just begun to live and work among us. In chapter 3, He healed a man with a withered hand. In chapter 4, He calmed a storm. In chapter 5, He healed a man possessed by a demon. And in chapter 6, He fed the five thousand.
Then in chapter 7, just as soon as He said to the Pharisees: “You hypocrites! You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men,” He went far to the north and west, to a region called Tyre and Sidon. And while He was there, a woman knelt at His feet, begging Him to heal her daughter, possessed by a demon. And as verse 30 tells us, when she went home, she found her child lying in bed, and the demon gone.
Now verse 31 takes us from Tyre and Sidon in the north, back down to the Sea of Galilee in the south, to the Decapolis.
What’s the Decapolis? Look at the word, and you’ll see that it’s made up of two words--”deca” and “polis.” Put them together and you get, “Decapolis,” a word that means, “Ten cities.” It’s a group of Greek cities, pagan cities, that lay on the far eastern edge of the Roman empire.
Why did Jesus go there? That’s a good question! After all, He had already said: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” Why go to a pagan, immoral, godless place?
Because He wouldn’t avoid the darkness. Instead, as one author put it, He wanted to “pierce the darkness of their sinful lifestyle with the light of God’s message of salvation and love.”
And as it says in verse 34, just as soon as He got there, “They brought to Him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged Him to lay His hand on him.”
Notice that. The Bible says, “They brought to Him a man.” Why couldn’t he have come himself? He had two good legs. He could walk.
Because he couldn’t hear. And because he couldn’t hear, he couldn’t know who Jesus was! That’s why they brought him.
Then what? Notice verse 33: “And taking him aside from the crowd privately…”
Why did Jesus take him aside privately?
For years, the man had lived in a world of his own. He knew nothing but silence. He had caused others frustration and himself pain. Even more, no one could truly understand this man’s anguish, except Jesus. So rather than cause any more pain or humiliation, He took him away, privately, by himself.
Can you picture it? For this one moment in time, Jesus set aside all the other work He came to do. For that moment, He would not teach the crowds or feed the multitudes. He would not cast out demons or calm a storm on the sea. Instead, the entire attention of God incarnate would focus on one illness, one man who was caught in the net of a fallen and sinful world--the web that’s entangled every single one of us.
Then what? Verse 33: “He put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue.”
You know, Jesus could have simply spoken the word. He could have said, “Go in peace. Your faith has made you well.” He had done exactly that countless times before.
Instead, as Jesus put His fingers into his ears, He meant to say, “I understand that you cannot hear. I’m going to fix your ears.” And as He spit and touched his tongue, He seemed to say, “I understand that you cannot speak. I’m going to fix your tongue.”
Do you understand? When Jesus did that, He was using sign language--the only language the deaf man could understand.
Then came the miracle. Verse 34: “And looking up to heaven, He sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha,’ that is, ‘Be opened.’”
“Looking up to heaven” it said, to His Father, by whom He was sent, and from whom, as a Man, had received all power and authority, from whom comes every good gift and mercy and blessing.
“And looking up to heaven, He sighed...” He groaned. One with man in sin and sickness and suffering, carrying our grief and bearing every sorrow.
And He said: “Ephphatha!” “Be opened!”
And what happened? Verse 35: “And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.”
A woman by the name of Anne Sullivan faced an impossible situation. She was born to poor immigrant parents who could neither read nor write. They fled a famine in Europe to try to find a fresh start in the United States. When Anne was only eight years old, she developed a painful eye disease that eventually took her sight. And when her mother died shortly after, her father abandoned her and her little brother to a crowded poorhouse. Then her brother died just three months into their stay.
She did the best she could to cope at that jam-packed shelter. She tried to work as a housemaid, but no one would take her. Finally, she was told about the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston. She didn’t have any money, had no idea how to function in the outside world, and had no way to get out of her situation.
Until one day, an inspector came to the poorhouse. And Anne convinced him to allow her to leave and to enroll in the school for the blind. The school welcomed her. And after a series of eye surgeries, her vision improved. At the age of twenty, she graduated as the valedictorian.
So what did God have planned for Anne? The summer after her graduation, a man called the school, looking for a teacher for his daughter who was both deaf and blind. The situation seemed hopeless, and was breaking the father’s heart. So the school called Anne and asked if she’d be willing to help.
The daughter’s name? Helen Keller--author and world-renowned speaker, the first deaf and blind person ever to earn a bachelor’s degree.
And it was all because of Anne Sullivan.
Today, our Savior still comes to heal our spiritual deafness. We’re deaf to His teachings when we love ourselves more than others. We’re deaf to our spouse and children when we fail to forgive or take time to understand. We’re deaf to the cry of the unborn, the elderly, the disabled, and the oppressed when we choose not to listen.
Still He comes to say: “Ephphatha.” Be opened to hear His word of forgiveness. Be opened to see the beauty of His creation all around us. Be opened to do the work He’s called you to do.
One more thing. In American Sign Language, there’s a popular sign for “I love you.” It’s formed by extending the thumb, the index finger, and the little finger, with the two middle fingers folded down in front of the palm. It’s an abbreviation of three letters in the manual alphabet--I...L...Y.
God has a sign for “I love you.” It’s the cross. For it was out of His great love for you that Jesus reached out His hands and feet to be pierced with nails. It was out of His great love for you that He, suspended between heaven and hell, cried: “Father, forgive.” And it was out of His great love for you that He rose on Easter Day.
All thanks be to God.
We praise You, dear Lord, for the grace we’ve seen and our hearts have known. Open our ears and lips that we may honor and worship Your name, for Jesus’ sake. Amen