HE SPEAKS HIS “EPHPHATHA” – BE OPENED! – TO YOU

The book of the prophet Isaiah is a guide to seeing how it’s true that Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah. When people questioned whether Jesus was who He claimed to be, often He pointed them to something Isaiah said as a prophecy, a promise from God, about what the Christ would do. Jesus would say: “Look at my works. See if they are the works that Isaiah said Messiah would do.”

We have one of these situations today where Isaiah’s prophecies, and what Jesus did, match up. We’re going to see that Jesus healed a man who was deaf and mute. Well, Isaiah said in chapter 29: “on that day, the deaf will hear.” In chapter 35 Isaiah said: “Then the ears of the deaf will be unplugged … and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy.” We’ll see Jesus do a miracle that shows and proves that He really is the Christ, the true Messiah and Savior.

Sermon Text, St. Mark 7:31-37. 31 Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He [Jesus] came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee. 32 Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him. 33 And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue. 34 Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to Him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35 Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly. 36 Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it. 37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. By Your Word of truth, open our ears and heart to hear Your truth and believe it, and to open our mouths to confess You and sing Your praises. Amen.

In the name of Jesus, who still makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak:

You’d be surprised how many foreign words are used in our English Bibles, without us realizing it. Hosanna. Alleluia. We don’t think twice. They’ve become part of our speech. But it’s different with this Hebrew word “Ephphatha!”

What a strange word! Alleluia is universally known as a word of praise. And “Hosanna” makes us think of Palm Sunday. But with “Ephphatha,” we have no idea what it means. So Mark just tells us: it means, “be opened.”

Why is this word so unique? Anyone can say Alleluia or Hosanna. But not just anyone can say, “Ephphatha.” Only Jesus can. I can stand in the kitchen all day and say to the fridge, “Be opened!” And it won’t. Only Jesus can speak to the ears, mouth and heart, and say, “Be opened!” and have it actually happen.

This is why the man’s friends brought him to Jesus. It was a miracle only Jesus could do. We hear that “looking up to heaven, He sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha,’ that is, ‘Be opened.’ Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.”

This “opening” miracle is important because of what it says about Jesus and what He does for us. Our minds and hearts by nature are closed against Him and His Word. So we need this “opening” miracle too. We need Him to “open now our ears and heart” (ELH #1:3). He does it!

He Powerfully Says: Ephphatha! – “Be Opened!” – To You!

1. Our ears, mouths, and hearts are closed.

We don’t see it this way. We don’t see that our ears, mouth and heart are naturally closed against God and His Word. In other words, we don’t see ourselves the way the deaf-mute man saw himself. This was before the days of our sign language system. People would come up to him and try to communicate. Soon they’d frown, give up, and go away. He would try to say something to them and it would go the same. They would frown, give up, and go away.

This man Jesus healed, it was all uncomfortable for him. Now look at our life. For Christians, it should all be so uncomfortable. But is this what it’s like for us?

Once upon a time it was. We knew we had two little ears to hear His Word and one little tongue to speak His truth. But the devil knows that our two little ears are what God uses to make us Christians. “Faith comes by hearing” (Rom 10:17).

So the devil makes your ears his target. If only he can make you hear things that make you afraid or fill you with doubts … if only he can make you hear things that make you want what God forbids, or make you want, want, want, so you’re always restless and never content … if only he can fill your ears with constant cursing and swearing by those around you, or with popular music or other content that dishonors marriage … he’s made it harder for God’s Word to reach your ears, they’re filled with so much other stuff.

Then like the man in the Bible story, what comes out of our mouths? It reflects what’s going into our ears. The man couldn’t hear, so he couldn’t speak right. So also if we don’t hear what’s right, we don’t speak what’s right either.

The real problem is, we get comfortable with this. We make our peace with it. We have a hard time even seeing that the Gospel is like a faint echo in our ears and heart, and our praise and confession of God’s truth has fallen silent.

Many times our ears are closed. If you’re angry, you only hear the insult, your wounded pride does all the talking. If you’re worried, you only hear the voice of fear, saying what bad thing might happen. If you’re sad, you only hear all that you’ve lost. You don’t hear Jesus, the one voice you should be hearing!

Many times our mouths are closed. You don’t speak what we should. You can be so full of guilt, you don’t confess your sin but internalize it and carry it around. You can be so angry you can’t bring ourselves to make peace; so worried, you can’t be cheerful or thankful; so sad, you keep to yourself. We don’t speak what Jesus taught us, what we should say.

2. But Christ OPENS our ears, mouths, and hearts!

First is what He did. He came down from heaven just for you, just as He came just to that man, because He had compassion on you. He came because He could see your ears, mouth and heart being closed, and needing Him to open them.

When He came into the world, Jesus had to hear all kinds of things that offended His ears. But He didn’t rail against it; He redeemed, everyone away from the clutches of sin, death, and the devil, with His innocent suffering and death. And He redeemed everyone with His words: His own words never hurt anyone, only helped, and were without any complaining, bitterness, or cursing. Also His words are the words of eternal life. They actually save people.

This is what Jesus did for you. It’s what Jesus Himself did as your Redeemer that purifies your ears, tongue, and heart.

But what Jesus did as your Redeemer is just the first part. The second part is what He does. He sends the Holy Spirit. He sends the Holy Spirit to give us faith.

Faith is the “Ephphatha! – Be opened!” miracle. We know this from baptism of babies. A baby (your baby, or you when you were a baby) comes to the baptismal font spiritually deaf by nature, unable by their own strength to hear God’s Word, believe it and be saved. They can’t speak or be understood. They can’t speak the faith they haven’t received. They can’t sing God’s praises yet.

But what happened as the water was sprinkled on you and the words, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” were spoken? At that very moment, your ears were opened. Ephphatha! Jesus’ words do it, just as they did in that miracle in Mark 7. In that moment of the baptism, as your baby didn’t utter words yet, his/her tongue miraculously was unlocked, to “say that Jesus is Lord by the Holy Spirit” (1Cor 12:3). In the Early Church they called baptism “The Sacrament of the Opening,” they saw that when someone was baptized it was the exact same thing as this miracle in Mark 7. In the baptism liturgy the pastor would say, right before the baptism, “Ephphatha!”

See? The thing Jesus did for the man is the very same thing Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to do in baptism. We think this is so beautiful, to picture this miracle happening in baptism.

I’ve got news for you. It still happens to you, and it’s just as beautiful. Jesus is still doing this miracle. We’re still as unaware as we were when we were babies!

This is why we thank God for the means of grace. Not only in baptism, but also every hearing of God’s Word, in the absolution after we confess our sins, and in the Lord’s Supper, what happens? God does this miracle! As we listen, actually what happens is Jesus says: “Ephphatha!” – “Be opened!” and your ears are opened to hear Him and believe, and your mouth is opened to confess His name, and really this is your mind and heart being opened to Him.

This happens because Jesus sends His Holy Spirit, saying, “Ephphatha! – Be opened!” to us, and what He says happens. You’ll find out this results in heaven being opened to you, where we only hear, speak and sing His praises. Amen!