The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
*Whose Ears Were Opened?* *Whose Tongue Released?* Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen! In today’s Gospel, our dear Lord Jesus put His fingers into a man’s ears, and after spitting touched the man’s tongue. “Ephphatha. Be opened.” And the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Dear Christian friends, Today’s Gospel is overflowing with baptismal benefits. That is a good thing. As soon as I can get to the end this sermon, we will recognize and rejoice in God’s gift of Baptism to Bose Derendinger, who received his Baptism from God in the hospital on the day of his birth. Each and every Christian should pay close attention to the baptismal benefits in today’s Gospel. After all, Bose is not the only person here who ever received this blessed miracle from God. While we thank God for that guy’s Baptism, we should also pray thanks for our own. *Jesus’ Miracles Teach Us About Baptism and the Holy Communion* The Gospels are filled with reports of how our Lord performed many miracles. All the miracles of Jesus have been given to us for our instruction, and most especially for our instruction concerning God’s gifts of Baptism and the Holy Communion. Stated another way, the written miracles of Jesus illustrate and explain what He likewise does for us through His comparable miracles of Baptism and Holy Communion. · For example, you might already know the connection our Lord’s miracle of feeding the 5,000 and the miracle of Holy Communion. Jesus’ actions of taking, breaking, thanking and giving (Matthew 14:19) do more than put us in mind of what likewise happens here at our altar. Those same actions also promise us that, at the Holy Communion, we may all eat and be satisfied (Matthew 14:20). Thus fulfilled are the Words of our Lord, “*Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled*” (Matthew 5:6). · Remember also the dead little girl whom Jesus resurrected by saying, “*Talitha cumi! Little girl, arise!*” (Mark 5:41) That miracle illustrates the miracle of Baptism because Baptism is all about our death and resurrection (Romans 6:3-4). Like the little girl, we were all dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). Like the girl, “*God made us alive together with Christ*” (Ephesians 2:5)—and the Words “*together with Christ*” are spelled B-A-P-T-I-S-M (Galatians 3:27). Like all our Lord’s other miracles, the miracle in today’s Gospel also makes a baptismal connection for us. After all, what is Baptism? Baptism is God’s Word and command joined to water. · You heard the Word and command of our Lord: “*Ephphatha. Be opened* .” · Water is also there, too: “*after spitting, Jesus touched the man’s tongue*.” I know it is gross to talk about spit, but that spit really is the baptismal beauty of this miracle! Many of our fellow Christians find it gross and repulsive to describe Baptism as a miracle—as gross as licking your fingers and as repulsive as spit. This man in today’s Gospel was probably so desperate to receive the gift of our Lord that he probably did not care about the source of the water and he was by no means put off on account our Lord’s saliva. What does this miracle teach us about Baptism? Baptism is a turn-off for most people, but for those of us who actually need our Lord Jesus to do something for us, Baptism is nothing less than a daily gift of new hearing for our sin-deafened ears and miraculous speech for our cold, silent lips. What happened for this man through water and Word has also happened for you, also through water and Word: “*The man’s ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly*.” · The miracle of Baptism has opened your ears, that you may hear and believe the promises of God—most especially the promises of forgiveness and life. Even more so, the miracle of Baptism has opened your ears so that you may hear ALL the divine promises and assurances written in the Scriptures and know that they apply specifically to you. Thus fulfilled for you is the ancient prophecy, “*The Lord will cause His majestic voice to be heard*” (Isaiah 30:30). And again, “*The ears of the deaf shall be unstopped*” (Isaiah 35:5). · As with hearing, so with speech. The miracle in today’s Gospel allows us to think of Baptism as God act of opening our lips, that our mouths may speak forth His praise (Psalm 51:15). What happened to the man in today’s Gospel, when Jesus spat and spoke? “*The man’s tongue was released, and he spoke plainly*,” and this is a miraculous gift to you and to me. In Baptism, God has broken our sullen, rebellious silence. In Baptism, God has given us a new song (Psalm 40:3), a hymn of praise to the resurrection that is now ours through the forgiveness of our sins. This, too, is the stuff of prophecy, for thus it has been written concerning you and me both, “*The tongue of the mute shall sing for joy*” (Isaiah 35:6). *Why Do We Need the Miracles to Illustrate God’s Gifts for Us?* Jesus’ miracles do a great service for us when they illustrate and explain what He likewise does for us through the miracles of Baptism and Holy Communion. Why? Because faith sees a thing for what it actually is, rather than how it merely appears. On the bare surface, Holy Communion only looks like bread and wine. Baptism appears to be mere water. The miracles of Jesus instruct our faith so that we may see these things for what they really are: · Instead of bread and wine, the miracles of Jesus allow faith to see that the Holy Communion is manna from heaven (John 6:49-50) and miraculously multiplied bread (Matthew 14:19-20) and nourishment in the wilderness (Matthew 14:15) and “the foretaste of the feast to come” (LSB 955). · So, too with Baptism: instead of mere water, the miracles of Jesus allow our faith to see that the seemingly simple water of Baptism is actually the divine gift of resurrection and sight and hearing and speaking and “*walking and leaping and praising God*” (Acts 3:8). · Finally, the miracles of Jesus also teach us to look rightly at one another. Stated another way, faith sees a thing for what it actually is, rather than how it merely appears. Stated yet one more way, the miracles of Jesus instruct our faith so that we may see these fellow Christians for what they really are. o “*Talitha cumi*!” (Mark 5:41) to that little girl assures us that we, too, have been raised from the dead through Baptism—even though we all shall die. To this Jesus has added His promise, “*Everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die*” (John 11:26). o In the same way, “*Ephphatha. Be opened*” in today’s Gospel means that we also have been given opened ears and loosened tongues in the gift of Baptism—and that applies to ALL the baptized of Christ, including the infants. Baptism allows us to believe that even nursing children miraculously hear and believe—even though a guy like Bose Derendinger will give you no indication of his faith. The miracles of Jesus instruct our faith so that we may see our fellow Christians for what they really are, rather than what they merely appear to be. We each can feel exceedingly glad about this, that the miracles of Jesus give us Christians a good way of looking at one another. Why should we feel so glad about this? Because, in a minute or two, we will not merely be looking at Bose. He will also be looking at us.
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