Mark 7:24-37
September 8, 2024
Every day I am reminded that we live in some amazing times. When I was a child if a person had a phone in their car, it usually meant they were rich. Today we have phones in our pockets or our purses, and they are certainly not a symbol of being rich. When I was a teenager, computers were big and bulky with screens that were black & white or maybe green. You couldn’t listen to music on a computer, but that was fine since many people listened to music on their “Walkman.” This advanced technology allowed people to listen to their cassette tapes almost anywhere they wanted with their headphones. Today, we carry computers in our hands, we place them on our laps, and I’m sure teenagers are not amazed with “Walkmans,” because now we download music and listen to it on our phones and computers. This summer marked the 55th anniversary of the first astronauts to walk on the moon. At the time it was an amazing feat and our country marveled at the ability to send people into space and bring them safely back home. But now, going into space doesn’t seem like a very big deal. It has become almost routine as we have people from around the world working at the international space station all the time. Some private entrepreneurs have created rockets to take people into space for fun. And NASA has even sent spacecraft to other planets with the ability to take pictures and to send those images back to us.
I could go on and on listing all of the amazing things that are happening in our world. Yet, what is truly amazing is that none of this seems to amaze us anymore. We’ve become so used to new discoveries that they no longer surprise us. We probably don’t think much about our ability to operate a computer on our lap or to talk to people anywhere in the world on a pocket cell phone, except for when they don’t work properly. So this begs the question, “What does amaze you today?” Do we still find God amazing?
In our Gospel lesson for today we see two people who are miraculously healed by Jesus. But what is really interesting about the healing is the time Jesus gives these people and how He heals them. When you consider the events leading up to our text, you realize that Jesus never seems to get any privacy. In Mark 6 we’re told that Jesus had spent the entire day teaching people when His disciples encouraged Him to send the people home so they could get something to eat. But Jesus tells them, “No, you feed them.” And despite their doubts, Jesus takes the time to organize and feed these 5000 people with just 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish to the point that they were full.
Jesus and His disciples then made their way to the other side of the sea, but as soon as they landed people recognized Jesus and brought the sick to Him and He took the time to heal them. Later some of the religious leaders of the land approach Jesus and criticize Him and His disciples for not following their manmade laws and ceremonial washings. But instead of just ignoring them, Jesus takes the time to teach them that nothing outside a person can make someone unclean, but it is what’s inside a person’s heart that makes them unclean. Jesus then left that area and made His way to the vicinity of Tyre and our Gospel lesson tells us that “He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence a secret.” A woman recognizes Him as the Messiah and she begs Him to heal her daughter who is possessed by a demon. Instead of telling this woman that He is very busy and sending her away, He takes the time to engage in a conversation with her that challenges her faith. Eventually Jesus commends her for her faith and heals her daughter.
Finally Jesus makes His way to the Seas of Galilee and upon arriving a group of people see Him and bring a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment. Jesus takes this man away from the crowd and gives Him some private attention to show the man that He cares about Him. Then, using some sort of sign language I would guess, Jesus lets the man know that He is going to heal Him by putting His fingers in the man’s ears, followed by spitting and touching the man’s tongue. Next, Jesus looks up to heaven to let the man know where His power to heal comes from; and then by speaking one word, “Ephphatha,” which means “be opened,” Jeus changes the man’s life. His ears were opened, his tongue was released, and the man begins to speak plainly. The people who witnessed this were so amazed that they couldn’t stop talking about Jesus.
And when we see people who are miraculously healed today we love to tell others and many times we’re pretty good about giving the credit to God. Many of you have experienced the miraculous healing power of God in your life and you have shared those stories with us here in our worship services and I know many of us have told others. But note what it says in verse 36. After healing the man it says, “Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more He charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.” Why does Jesus tell them to keep quiet about this healing? What was wrong with telling others? They were giving credit to Jesus for the healing. Obviously there is more happening here that Jesus wants the people and all of us to see and understand.
In our Old Testament lesson, Isaiah said that when God comes, “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;…and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy.” In healing this man who was deaf and mute, Jesus was fulfilling those promises of God; and He wanted people to understand that He was not just some miracle worker, He was God in the flesh, who had come to save them.
What Jesus did for this man in our Gospel lesson was certainly amazing, but the most amazing thing Jesus did for this man and for all of us was to offer forgiveness of sins and eternal life through His death on the cross. Especially when you consider the fact that we are sinners, who break God’s commandments and fail to love others as He has loved us every day. This is truly the most amazing gift you will ever receive, but sometimes we are tempted not to treat it that way. We are tempted to treat it like it is not big deal, we take it for granted, and we may not even think about it every day.
The word in the Greek language, in verse 32, that is translated as “deaf” can also be translated as “dull,” and sometimes our appreciation of God becomes dull, because we are tempted to focus on so many other things in our world that we forget about God. The college and professional football seasons have started again and I’m sure if a player on our favorite team makes an amazing play, we will cheer and shout and get excited. I do that. Sometimes we may even call others during the game and say, “Did you see that play? That was amazing! This is incredible, we’re going to win!” However, I don’t think I have ever called a friend or family member and shouted, “God saved a wretch like me! Isn’t that amazing? God is awesome!”
Maybe we should do that, because the Bible tells us that at one time we were dead in our sins, destined to be separated from God forever. But then God did the unthinkable. He made a trade. Whenever our favorite sports teams trade players, we analyze who got the better deal. When God sent His Son Jesus into this world to die for us, we definitely got the better end of that trade and it wasn’t even close. Jesus took His perfect life and traded it to us, in exchange for all of our sins, and He took those sins upon Himself and died in our place on a cross so that we could live with Him forever. He paid for our sins and freely gave us the life that we had lost. That is truly the most amazing miracle of all and it should cause us to get on our phones to tell others or to post on social media, so that everyone will know that Jesus has saved us and it’s not too late to follow Him.
It is very tempting to overlook the amazing things that God does every day in our lives. So as you come forward today to receive God’s body and blood in Holy Communion, I pray that your eyes and ears will be opened to the amazing fact that God comes to you in bread and wine to forgive you; and that you will open your mouth as you leave here and tell the world what He has done for you and that He always has time for you, He is never rushed and never too busy to listen, to heal, and to care.
