12th Sunday after Trinity – August 18th, 2024
Trinity Ev. Lutheran Church, Block, Kansas
Rev. Joshua Woelmer
Text: Mark 7:31–37
“God Gets His Hands Dirty”
Theme: God gets his hands dirty as he cares for man, for you.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
There is always more to every Bible story than first meets the eye. This is one reason to keep coming back to church: hopefully you will gain a deeper knowledge and appreciation of God and the Scriptures as you age and grow in wisdom. One of the worst things that a Christian can do is to get complacent with the Scriptures, thinking that we already know everything already. This is especially true for pastors. So when we look at our Gospel reading for today, it can seem pretty straightforward.
And, if I were only teaching this to children, I would say something like this: What does it mean to be blind? It means you can’t see. What does it mean to be deaf? It means you can’t hear. You probably can’t talk either. Well, guess what? In our story for today, Jesus heals a deaf man. He puts his fingers into his ears, and spits on his fingers and touches his tongue. That’s gross, right? Yes, but that’s how Jesus healed this man. The guy could hear again! And he could talk! Jesus shows that he is God by being able to do some great things.
Now, here’s the secret for you adults as well: Jesus getting his hands dirty and interacting in this sort of manner with this man is precisely the point of today’s reading. Could Jesus have just spoken a word and healed this man? Yes, he could have. Jesus did plenty of miracles by just speaking. He calmed the storm. He healed the centurion’s servant from far away. He cast out demons. He healed lepers. There are many Bible stories that we can draw on to prove Jesus’s power. This one shows us God’s intimate care for his creation, even his willingness to get dirty.
Before we look at this miracle of healing the deaf-mute, I want to back up all the way to Genesis. I’ve made the point before that Genesis is the foundation of the rest of the Bible. I think that’s certainly the case here. What Jesus does is linked to God’s creation of man and woman. We shouldn’t dismiss Genesis as a fable, or else so much else crumbles.
I want you to notice God’s special care for creating Adam and Eve. It is true that God had formed all the beasts and birds. But when it comes to man, he forms him from the ground. Imagine a potter working with clay. In fact, this is an image that St. Paul picks up later: “Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?” (Rom 9:21). Working with clay gets you very dirty. Even though God is spirit, he interacts with his creation in this way. God wants to be involved with his creation in this way.
What is key to Genesis though is what follows after God crafts Adam’s body. He breathes into his nostrils the breath of life. He gives Adam a soul. And then, God does something equally messy. He becomes a surgeon performing a rib-removal surgery. He takes the rib then closes up its place with flesh. Then he uses that rib to fashion a woman, Eve. Again, we should note the interaction between God and his creation. He can speak things into existence like light. He can also make Adam out of clay or Eve out of a rib. In the end, Adam and Eve are from the same substance. They each have a soul, and they are united to each other in marriage.
What all does this have to do with the miracle I started the sermon with? Well, Jesus is God, and he behaves in the same way as with Adam and Eve. St. Mark depicts all the details to make sure you see this. First, Jesus takes the man aside. He rarely does this with anyone. Then, he engages in a crude form of sign language. He sticks his fingers in the man’s ears.
I can’t imagine any of us would like that, but he’s telling the man what he intends to fix. Likewise with the tongue. If you’re a germaphobe, this is probably giving you shudders. Jesus spits on his finger and touches the man’s tongue. Then, he sighs. This is probably like Jesus weeping when he approaches Lazarus’s tomb. Jesus sighs because he knows this is not how man was created, to suffer from handicaps.
Then Jesus spoke: “Ephphatha.” That means, “Be opened” (34b).. “His ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly” (35). There are three miracles here. His ears were one, his tongue was another, but I’m blown away by him being able to speak plainly. He learned a language in an instant, instead of needing to go through the baby talking to learn the language. And, he could speak it plainly.
What does this all mean for you? Firstly, it means that God works similarly in your life. We shouldn’t see God as far off in heaven, not willing to interact with us on earth. On the contrary: God is completely comfortable with his material creation, and he uses it to accomplish his tasks.
First and foremost, the Bible ascribes your creation to God’s knitting: “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” (Ps 139:13–14). God knit you, and he still preserves you. This is why you can pray to him for healing from diseases. He sighs over your maladies and infirmities, knowing that they result from sin. He grants healing by his gracious hand.
We could think about the Sacraments here. God uses water and his Word to make you his child. God uses bread and wine to bring you Jesus’s body and blood, by which we also receive forgiveness, life, and salvation. Does God need to use these means to save you? Not necessarily. But he does. God could, as he’s right doing now, proclaiming the Word to you. But we as man also need God to interact with our human nature. Jesus did that by becoming man, and he does that by giving himself to us in a physical way.
So, there is more to every Bible story, even one that seems as simple as Jesus healing a deaf-mute man. There’s more to everything that God does, and he encourages you to learn it as you learn to love him and his work in your life—especially when he gets his hands dirty to help and save you.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
Return to Top | Return to Sermons | Home | Email Church Office