Sermon for the Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost
He Has Done All Things Well
Theme: Hopefully you will not grow weary of hearing about your Baptism,
because St. Mark does not grow weary of speaking about it.
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus
Christ! Amen. After Jesus made miraculous use of spit in today’s Gospel, the
people “were astonished by all measure, saying, ‘He has done all things well.’”
Dear Christian friends,
When St. Mark wrote his book, he took the book St. Matthew had written
before him and made it shorter, cutting out many of Matthew’s details. You
could almost say that Mark wanted to write a Reader’s Digest condensed version
of Matthew’s book. Yet every once in a while, Mark seems to think that Matthew
did not write enough. On those occasions, Mark adds information to his book
that Matthew previously left out. When Mark takes the time to add certain
details that Matthew failed to mention, we should think that Mark regards those
details as pretty important for us to hear and notice and take to heart.
Today’s Gospel is one of those occasions when Mark says more than what
Matthew said. When Matthew tells about Jesus’ tour through this region, he
speaks only in a general way. Matthew states that
Great crowds came to [Jesus], bringing with them the lame, the blind, the
crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at His feet and He
healed them, so that the crowd wondered when they saw the mute speaking, the
crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified
the God of Israel (Matthew 15:30-31).
Rather than following Matthew and speaking about this part of our Lord’s life
in such a general way, Mark has added details in today’s Gospel that Matthew
did not mention. Mark adds two distinct details in this Gospel, and since he
took pains to add them, we should regard these two details as important to
Mark’s message:
1. First, Mark spells out the specific way Jesus healed one man in
particular. Jesus had performed countless miracles as He traveled (Matthew
15:29-31), but Mark DID NOT make a random selection for the miracle he wanted
to explain more fully. Mark deliberately chose to tell you about a miracle that
is directly applicable to you, a miracle in which he wants you to see your own
personal life. Mark included this miracle in his book, even though Matthew did
not include it, because Mark wants you to compare the way Jesus treated this
particular man to the way Jesus has likewise treats you.
They brought to [Jesus] a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and …
taking him aside from the crowd privately, [Jesus] 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.
Let’s see: what is there in your life that comes close to this Gospel?
Jesus performed an amazing miracle for this man by joining His powerful,
ear-opening, tongue-loosening Word to water. Jesus speaks a divine Word and
command in this Gospel— Ephphatha! Be opened—and water gets included in that
divine command and combined with that Word. Hmm… what is there in your life,
and in the life of every Christian, that compares with this miracle in today’s
Gospel?
Mark has deliberately singled this man out of the crowd and he has
deliberately added this detail that Matthew previously did not write about
because Mark wants you to understand something important about your Baptism.
Mark wrote his entire Gospel to help you understand the blessing and benefit of
your Baptism and Mark has already spilled plenty of ink teaching you about your
Baptism. Among other things, Mark teaches you a) that your Baptism is much more
important and significant than your physical birth from your mother’s womb
(Mark 1:1, 9-11); b) that God your heavenly Father adopted you to be His
beloved child in Baptism and c) that you need not wonder your Father’s attitude
toward you, since He is well-pleased with you on account of your Baptism (Mark
1:11). Mark teaches you that in your Baptism, d) Jesus cast out from you the
unclean spirit of unbelief (Mark 1:21-28), He strengthened your limbs for acts
of love toward your neighbor (Mark
210-12, 3:1-6) and e) He cleansed you from the leprous infection of your sins
(Mark 1:40-42).
These things only scratch the surface of what Mark wants you to know and
believe about your Baptism, and in today’s Gospel Mark continues to pour it on:
… taking [the man] aside from the crowd privately, [Jesus] 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.
What does this Baptism-miracle in today’s Gospel mean for you? It means
that when your God baptized you, He miraculously opened your ears—ears that
were once stone deaf in the deadly silence of your sin. In your Baptism,
Isaiah’s prophecy in today’s Old Testament was personally fulfilled for you:
Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will
come and save YOU. Then… the ears of the deaf [shall be] unstopped… and the
tongue of the mute sing for joy” (Isaiah 35:4-6)
What does this Baptism-miracle mean for you? It means you are no longer deaf.
· You might pretend that you do not hear—but that is just the sound of
your sin, attempting to drown out for you the good news of God’s forgiveness
and eternal life through your Christ;
· You might have times when you plug your ears and avoid God’s Word and
pretend you have not heard it. That is a pretty dangerous business, and you
should never keep your fingers in your ears for too long. They might get stuck
there. You might start to like having them there. Plugging your ears to God’s
Words is even more damnable than the original deafness of sin in which you were
born.
· Along with the unbelieving world as his accomplice, your enemy the
devil would love to shovel your ears full of stuff that will clog your hearing
again. (Your enemy the devil is well practiced at this, and he shovels faster
than a coal man on a steam engine.) Through the continual, ear-cleansing work
of your Baptism, through preaching and through Holy Communion, your God
faithfully and endlessly irrigates your hearing so that you will not be sealed
off again from hearing the Words of eternal life.
Mark wants you to know and rejoice in today’s Gospel that you can indeed now
hear. Your God made you able to hear in His miracle of Baptism. Baptism is your
Lord’s “Ephphatha! Be opened” for you. In Baptism, “[your] ears were opened
[and your tongue] was released” to speak God’s praise.
2. There is yet another important detail Mark has added to his Gospel.
Unlike Matthew, Mark also explains that the people “were astonished beyond
measure, saying, ‘He has done all things well.’” (If I am not mistaken, this is
the one and only time among all Jesus’ miracles that people responded by
saying, “He has done all things well.”) Mark has added this important “[Jesus]
has done all things well” because Mark wants you to use this Gospel, not only
as a way of understanding your Baptism, but also as a way of understanding your
Lord Jesus.
It is very hard to believe—and it is very hard to say—that Jesus has
done ALL things well. Some of you might find that observation to be
disagreeable or objectionable, but that is probably because we are all gathered
together here in the safety and comfort of worship, where it is easy to think
nice things about Jesus.
I will say it again. It is very hard to believe—and it is very hard to say—that
Jesus has done ALL things well. “All” is a pretty all-inclusive word, and you
can probably think of a thing or two in your own life that you would have liked
to have Jesus to have done better—or at least, differently—for you.
Perhaps Mark would like for you to keep this Gospel close to your heart and
mind, not only here in worship, where Jesus again opens your ears and loosens
your tongue. The words, “[Jesus] has done all things well,” are good Words also
for your daily hardships and your recurring struggles. These are Words of
promise and of strength, especially for those times when it does not seem that
things are going very well for you. This man’s “ears were opened, his tongue
was released, and he spoke plainly,” but that does not mean everything was a
cakewalk for him for the rest of his life. Yet this miracle of new ears and
healed tongue was never far from him. While struggling with various troubles,
this man could now hear and he could now speak. On his darkest days, the man
could still say with joy and with faith, “[Jesus] has done all things well.”
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
___________________________________________________________________________
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