An Exile Of Silence Set Free
Preaching
There Are Demons In The Sea
Preaching The Message Of The Miracles
The Healing Of The Deaf Mute
This story is about a man who stumbled into the Kingdom of God without knowing where he was going or why. He was a man forced to live in the non-exotic exile from society called deafness. It is strange that blindness receives sympathy in our world, but deafness is considered, as Barclay says, "a nuisance."1 Yet those who know assure us that nothing cuts a person off from his surroundings as thoroughly as does deafness.
The doctors presented to Beethoven the most crushing blow any musician can encounter. They said to him, "You will hear always less and never again." Beethoven lived in a world of sound. He surrounded himself and was saturated with sound; then suddenly the irrevocable sentence was given that he would live out the remainder of his life in a world of silence. Interestingly enough, when Beethoven wrote of his calamity, he mentioned the social implications of this verdict of silence:
"My misfortune," he wrote, "is doubly painful because it must lead to my being misunderstood, for me there can be no more recreation in the society of my fellows, refined intercourse, mutual exchange of thought, only just as little as the greatest needs command may I mix with society, I must live like an exile."2
An exile of silence. This is the tragic state of the man in our miracle story.
The Liturgy Of Hearing
Scholars give various reasons why Mark alone records this story. But for our study this does not concern us as much as the fact that this miracle of healing a deaf man made such a vivid impression on the mind of the early church and imposed itself upon the liturgical practices of the church at an early stage in tradition.
Philip Carrington, speaking of this miracle, informs us that "it is read in the Greek liturgy during the season of Lent when candidates were being prepared for baptism. In Rome it passed into the baptismal ritual and was enacted with the candidates at the same season in the ritual called The Opening of Ears."3
Apparently the early church felt that the power of Jesus and his gospel could not express itself adequately in mere words. There was a need for gestures and physical contact. Much as we today are not satisfied just to see or hear a distinguished visitor; we want to shake hands with him if we can. There is a personal value to the sense of physical touch as well as the sense of hearing. The early church caught an almost sacramental quality to this story. It dramatized for them what happens when a person is baptized and given the gift of the Holy Spirit -- deaf ears are opened and the baptized person can now hear the living Lord speaking to his people through the words of witness both in the Holy Scriptures and in the personal exchange of testimony within the holy fellowship. Therefore, the church at an early date associated this miracle of the healing of the deaf man with their sacrament of baptism.
Plot-Parallelism
It is interesting to see the comparative similarities of these two stories. The plots are parallel. In the healing of the deaf man the basic plot is: (1) Friends bring the deaf man to Jesus. (2) Jesus takes the man aside. (3) Jesus touches his ears and then his tongue with spittle. (4) Jesus speaks the words, "Be opened!" (5) The deaf man's ears are opened and he speaks.
The parallel plot in the act of baptism is: (1) The parents bring the child to the font. (2) The pastor as the representative of Christ takes the child in his arms. (3) The pastor touches the child with the water of the font. (4) The words are spoken, "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." (5) The sponsors are admonished to teach these newly opened ears the Word of God -- the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and so on.
In the single plot of these two stories the central truth of the gospel is dramatized. Faith is the response to God's saving act, not the condition of it. Both the deaf mute and the child are brought helpless to the Lord. They do nothing to merit the miracle they receive.
The deaf man's ears were opened, not because he decided no longer to be deaf and chose to hear instead. Rather, Christ chose to open his ears. So we are not baptized because we decide to believe in Christ; we believe because Christ chooses to bring us into the Kingdom of God. We believe because we hear and we hear because the Holy Spirit first opens our ears to the meaning and truth of God's Word.
The deaf man was brought to Jesus. He didn't know where he was going or why. So we do not choose to be born into a Christian family. Nor do we convince our parents to take us to the font. All this happens before we know what is happening. When we come to consciousness we are already admitted into the sphere of Christ's redemption.
In both story plots, God's election remains a mystery. Why this deaf man among all the other deaf people in the district of Decapolis should have been chosen and healed is a mystery. Why we were born into a Christian family and had the advantage of knowing Christ as we were growing to adulthood is a mystery. All we know is that he has chosen us. This idea which is the heart of the apostolic faith is both mystery and miracle. And it is perfectly symbolized in the account of the healing of the deaf mute. Here, as in our baptism, the important thing that happens is what God does, not what we do. Here is the triumph of divine grace which we can never understand, only recognize and celebrate. The only possible reaction to such a free and unmerited gift is to see it as a gift with responsibility. We have not been chosen just to hear; we have been chosen also to speak. Our gift carries with it a responsibility. Given the gift of hearing as the deaf mute, we speak and the words are clear testimony to our Lord -- the giver of such good and free grace.
The Speaking God
There may be an even more profound insight into the early church's attraction to this miracle. Greek cultures and thought had always emphasized sight. "Seeing is believing," we still say today, influenced by the scientific mind set of the Greeks. But for the Hebrew culture and thought, the key word was "hear." To hear was to know and obey. An ancient rabbi once remarked that God gave lids to close our eyes but none to close our ears. And he concluded from this, "So God intends that we come to obedience through the hearing of his Word." It was the Word of God that created, directed, and redeemed. The Word was the first line of communication between God and man and the basic source of power and life.
The early church could have so easily seen in this miracle of the healing of the deaf man the heart of their faith -- the uniqueness of their God -- the speaking God.
Unstopped Ears
Alan Richardson takes this approach toward the miracle and sees it as "St. Mark's desire to symbolize the gradual process of the unstopping of the disciples ears ... The story is for him a parable of the awakening in the disciples' hearts of faith in Jesus' Messiahship."4
Wallace follows the same line in his interpretation. He sees this story as a sign. Jesus is saddened by the stupidity of the disciples. They have ears and will not hear. And, he adds, Jesus is still distressed with the church today which lacks understanding of God's Word because it will not listen and learn.
Wallace goes on to say that, immediately after this miracle of the deaf man given his hearing and the miracle of the blind man receiving his sight, "The disciples began to be able to hear and see and to believe the hidden testimony that Jesus was giving to himself in his teachings and miracles." And, Wallace says, "Both these stories are a warning to us about the trouble we ourselves need to take, and the patience and love we may need to exert, in trying to make other people see what we see in Jesus and hear what we hear in his Word."5
So the miracle of the healing of the deaf man is a dramatization of the gift of hearing which the Holy Spirit brings to us. We are exiles of silence until God works the miracle and opens our ears to his Word.
Mark begins this story, "Some people brought him a man who was deaf and could hardly speak." Sometimes he is called a deaf-mute but more frequently he is referred to as "deaf and dumb." This has cruel implications to our ears, as we interpret "dumb" to mean ignorant or stupid, and of course this is not the original intent of the word at all. Deaf and dumb simply means a person who cannot speak because he does not hear.
Ear Gate
A young couple was blessed with their first child. He looked perfectly normal and healthy, but gradually they began to notice that he was unresponsive. He seemed to exist in his own little world -- unconcerned with what was happening about him. Long after he should have uttered his first sounds he was silent. The parents feared that he was retarded, so they took him to a specialist. After careful examination, the doctor gave his diagnosis. "There is nothing mentally wrong with this child," he said, "except that he is deaf. He does not speak because he has never heard."
What we say and how we say it depends on what we have heard. We cannot produce a sound we have never heard. We have foreign accents, Southern drawls, and New York brogues because that is the way we have heard words pronounced. As a professor of speech graphically expressed it, "What comes out of the door of our mouth, must first come in the gate of our ears."
Today more than at any other time in history we live in a world of sound. Communication media from the telephone to the television flood our ears with sounds, so much so that we develop a noise-deafness. We arrive at a point where we can't tolerate silence. We get up in the morning and the first thing we do, out of sheer habit, is turn on the radio or television. We invest in expensive stereo equipment that literally surrounds us with sound. The result of this "noise-deafness" is that we hear so much, we hear nothing. We have learned to tune out sounds and close the gate of our ears.
In this day of liberation and freedom, everyone wants to talk and express opinions; but the problem is that few are willing to listen. And this is where the whole process breaks down. Where there is no prodigious input, there can be no profitable output. We hear a great deal about dialogue today. Many believe the magic solution to all our problems is just to get people together and talk things over. But most dialogues become only a mutual sharing of ignorance. People talk but they don't say anything, and it doesn't really matter because no one is listening. In a dialogue we don't listen to each other because we are too busy thinking about what we are going to say when there is a break in the conversation and we will have a chance to speak.
Now this is a warning for us, because we take our stand theologically on the efficacy of the Word. Our God is a speaking God and we are created, directed, and redeemed by the Word. It follows that the Christian is therefore first and before all else a listener. But in this day of noise-deafness, we no longer know how to listen. Listening is a lost art and we are a deaf people. Our ears need to be opened or we will be condemned to live in the chaos and confusion, the despair and the desperation of deafness. Therefore, our miracle story about Christ healing the deaf-mute has something vital to say to us all.
Do It My Way
The people who brought the deaf man begged Jesus "to place his hand on him." They had seen him heal in this way before. There is little doubt that they meant well. But it is interesting to note that Jesus does not do what they suggest. He will heal the man, but he will do it his own way.
Hendriksen points out, "In dealing with people the Lord chooses his own methods. Naaman had to learn this lesson (2 Kings 5:1-14). So did Jacob, much earlier (Genesis 42:36; 45:25-28). So did also Joseph and his brothers (Genesis 50:15-21). And so, later, did Paul (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). We should never try to tell God what methods he should use in answering our petitions ... just where he should place his hand. His own way is always best."6
This is typical of the way so many of us come to God. We come not only with a request, but with a preconceived notion of how the request is to be met. We not only ask the Lord for something, but we tell him how we want it done. And when he doesn't fulfill our request to the letter -- exactly as we asked him to -- we feel he has failed to respond.
A young heiress lived a sensational and glamorous life. New York, Paris, Rome, the Riviera were her playgrounds. She lived high and fast, but her life was empty, shallow, and meaningless.
Then one day she noticed a shadow seemed to pass over her vision. The doctors told her that it may be serious and that tests should be taken. Shocked and desperate, she turned to God seriously for the first time in her life and prayed that her life not be ruined by blindness. The tests were positive and her prognosis was eventual and certain blindness. She was bitter. Her newly-born faith in God was instantly shattered. She turned to her old life, but the attitude of her friends had changed. They were condescending and over-solicitous. She could not endure being pitied.
She decided to run away and hide, like an animal retreating into a cave to die. For years she had financially supported work among the poor of Appalachia. So she decided to spend the last few years of sight among these unfortunates and share their desperation. Within a few months she became involved with these simple but lovable people. She started a much-needed school and discovered for the first time in her life what it meant to be honestly loved and accepted. She found what she had so long searched for -- happiness and meaningfulness.
Two years passed and then one morning she awoke and opened her eyes, but there was only darkness. It had happened. She sat for a moment stunned. Then she heard the children on their way to her school. They were laughing and singing. A great calm came upon her. In her diary she records, "As I felt my way along to the classroom, I paused in the garden at the gate. I thought to myself -- this gate moves both ways and so with my eyes open or closed I can still teach these children. Then I prayed, 'Thank you, Lord, for taking away my eyes, that my soul might see.' "
Truly God had answered her prayer. She had asked him not to ruin her life with blindness. And God had given her a new and better life, not sparing her from blindness but opening up her whole being to a new and more meaningful style of life.
So God grants our requests, not always as we direct, or the way in which we think they should be answered. He does it his way.
The people begged Jesus to place his hands on the deaf man, but Christ had a better way.
Steps Of The Cure
The steps Jesus takes in the curing of the deaf man are most significant. First he takes him away from the crowd.
The interpretations of this action by scholars are many and varied. Some assert Jesus took the man aside to keep the process of healing secret from the unauthorized. Some simply say that he wanted to avoid publicity. The cross was drawing nearer and Jesus was placing more and more emphasis on the redemptive aspects of his mission. He had come into the world not to be a miracle worker, but the "Savior." He wanted to play down his miracles, for as Hendriksen points out, "The day of the crucifixion must not be hastened."7 And his miracles more than his messages were pushing his enemies to the final showdown with this troublemaker.
Van der Loos concludes, "We can only say Jesus followed the method that he considered the correct one in certain circumstances and having regard to the persons involved."8 Barclay is influenced by the fact that deaf people are easily embarrassed and confused. In a crowd they become flustered, excited, and bewildered. Therefore, Jesus calls the deaf man apart from the crowd because of his great sensitivity to the need of people. They need not only to be cured, but to be cured with kindness. Barclay goes so far as to say, "There is no incident in all Jesus' life which so shows his tenderness and consideration for others."9
Not denying any of these interpretations, it would seem that there was the practical necessity of getting the man into a position where his complete attention could be placed on Jesus with as few distractions as possible.
The first requirement in learning to listen is attention. Much of our lack of hearing is due to distracted attention. We often, for example, find it difficult to remember a person's name we have just met. Because only a few moments have passed since the introduction, our problem is not memory but the fact that we never heard the name in the first place because we were not paying attention. Our minds were elsewhere when the name was mentioned. So attention is vital if our ears are to be opened.
How often the Word of God falls on deaf ears in services of worship because of a misbehaving child or a crying baby, or a fire engine or a plane passes, or the person next to you fiddles with his bulletin, or a choir member falls asleep, or the person behind you strikes up what he alone considers a whispered conversation. Though unintentional, these distractions literally excommunicate listeners from the Word of God. What Luther gave so much of his life to accomplish -- namely bringing the Word of God to people -- can be destroyed for the moment by the continual crying of a child. There is nothing magical about the Word. It does not work automatically because we are physically present when it is proclaimed. The efficacy of the Word depends upon our hearing that Word and concentrating our attention on that Word. So Jesus called the man apart from the thoughtless crowd that could have unintentionally distracted his attention.
Enters His World And Language System
Jesus has taken the deaf man aside and now enters into his world. He uses the deaf man's language system to communicate with him. They are alone. Positioned before Jesus, the man's eyes make contact with this strange young man who apparently wants to help him. Each move Jesus makes is meaningful to him.
The second step of the cure is that Jesus places his fingers into the deaf man's ears. This touch of Jesus should not be interpreted in the sense of a power transfer. And, as Van der Loos warns us, "Nor must we seek to establish a resemblance between touching by Jesus and so-called 'tactile stimuli' as employed by present-day suggestive therapy."10
Rather, the placing of his fingers in the deaf man's ears is simple sign language to indicate that he knows where the man's problem lies. The same is true of Jesus' touching the man's tongue. As Lenski says, "Jesus fastened the deaf-mute's full attention upon his two great disabilities."11 Jesus literally puts his finger on the problem.
At the same time, Jesus' touch linked and related him to the sick person as it did when he touched the leper, the blind man, and Peter's mother-in-law. Jesus communicated his love as well as his diagnosis of the situation. Both problem and person are dealt with. By his touch, Jesus not only indicates he knows what is wrong, but he wants to and will help the man.
Every mother knows what is happening here. For when she holds her newborn child for the first time, he is as yet deaf to the language of the adult world in which he has entered. So she enters into his world and uses his language. She talks with fingertips of love. She communicates with caresses. In her tender embrace and body warmth, the child knows that it is cared for and welcomed into this strange new world. The amazing vocabulary and grammar of gesture, touch, and movement bring two persons together in mutual understanding -- a mother and her child relate to each other.
He Spat
The additional note that Jesus "spat" upon his finger before touching the man's tongue brings up the whole issue of the role "spittle" played in cures at the time of Jesus. In the days of our Lord, saliva was "soul power." It was a sign that Jesus was giving himself personally to this man. It was also a sign of medical cures. Swete points out, "Saliva was regarded as remedial, but the custom of applying it with incantation seems to have led the rabbis to denounce its use. Possibly it appealed more strongly than any other symbol that could have been employed."12
Power From On High
The third step of the cure is, "Jesus looked up to heaven." This was to indicate the nature of the power that was going to remove the deaf man's disabilities. The power was coming from on high -- from God. From our story we know very little about this man personally. But it is safe to assume that he was a religious man. In the three-level universe in which he lived, this gesture was, therefore, extremely significant.
A Sigh Too Deep For Words
The fourth step: Jesus sighed or "gave a deep groan." It was a sigh too deep for words. Some scholars have seen in this an intense prayer that resembled the desperate cry of the Litany, "Lord, have mercy upon us." Barclay sees not only this but also a groan of sheer compassion for the wretched state of the man.13
There is, however, another possible interpretation. The Jews in their religious thought patterns associated the life-giving power of God with the concept of breath. In the beginning act of creation (Genesis 2:7) God breathed into man the breath of life. The Psalmist sings, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth" (Psalm 33:6). And it was the breath of God which gave life to the dry bones in Ezekiel (37:5).
When Jesus gave the great sigh, the deaf man could easily have recalled his teaching in the synagogue and saw in this action that Jesus was drawing the creative and restoring breath of God into himself that would give life to silent ears. It was a sign of strength, strength to destroy silence and restore this man to the world of sound.
Ephphatha
The final step is Jesus speaking the word Ephphatha. Jesus has communicated his care and concern. The contact has been made and the deaf mute now stands on the cutting edge of his cure. As the word is spoken the ears are opened. The silence is broken. The man is free.
An Enacted Sermon
Jesus must have shouted these words, "Be opened!" for the crowd nearby heard and rushed to discover that the deaf man's ears had been opened. His tongue was set loose and they heard him speak plainly.
Those people had seen a sermon enacted that day. When Jesus shouted, "Ephphatha -- Be opened" and they heard the deaf man speak without defects, they knew that something marvelous had happened and somehow they were involved in it. The healing grace of God proclaimed to one is proclaimed to all. In their minds there was little doubt that God was here announcing and initiating the promised Kingdom for all. Jesus stood before the crowd as the incarnate fulfillment to the prophet's promise that the eyes of the blind would be opened and the ears of the deaf would be unstopped. The ministry of healing to that deaf person was an effective sign, an enacted sermon announcing that in Christ the Kingdom of God had come. In a universe of silence, God had spoken and his word opened the ears of all people to a message of love, forgiveness, hope and a glorious new life.
Stubbornness -- Man And God
One thing that is a common cause of deafness to the Word of God is stubbornness. It is a natural expression of our sinful nature. We frequently refer to a person as being "stubborn as a mule," or "bull-headed." I suppose in the animal world, if they could talk, one bull would say to his obstinate bull-friend that he was "human-headed," and you know he would be right. For of all the creatures God created, man has less excuse for this perverse attitude called "stubbornness." God has given us superior brain matter to listen, reason, think through an issue, and yet of all creatures we are the most stubborn in our response to his will.
In our text, we see this illustrated graphically as Mark records, "Then Jesus ordered them all not to speak of it to anyone; but the more he ordered them, the more they told it."
Hendriksen observes, "How emphatically the obstinacy and perversity of sinful human nature is here revealed."14 We see it in children. Mother says to Johnny, "I have just finished baking for the church supper; so, whatever you do, don't eat any of those cookies in that white box." Johnny would never have noticed the white box full of cookies, for his mind was on other things. But now the cookies are an irresistible temptation. The forbidden fruit must be tasted. The sign "Wet Paint" demands we touch to test it. Mark Twain talks of "swimming pools which were forbidden us and therefore much frequented."
Sometimes this is called "the law of reversed effort." When you want certain people to do something, just tell them not to do it. How true it is that law makes sinners of us all. Think how many marriages have ended up in divorce courts, how many friendships have been destroyed, how many opportunities have gone down the drain, how many nations have gone to battlefields, because of the sin of stubbornness.
The more Jesus kept charging them not to do it, the more widely they kept on publishing it. What patience our Lord had and what patience our God has. It is a wonder our God didn't give up long ago on his stubborn, obstinate, perverse creatures that he made in his own image -- a little lower than the angels. But then that is the grace aspect of God's great goodness. He is a God who never gives up. Again and again he calls and we present deaf ears to him and refuse to listen or respond. Like naughty children ignoring the call of their parents when they want to keep on doing what they're doing. "Don't bother me now, Lord. I'm too busy." "I can't hear you, Lord!" "Did you call, Lord? I must not have been listening, Lord!" But God keeps on calling. What a Lord!
One of my students tells of visiting his grandparents. In the morning his grandmother asked him to mow the lawn. He agreed, but one thing after another came up -- more important things to occupy his time. His grandmother asked him again and again throughout the day, but he would answer he would do it right after the ball game on television, or after he had called Harry on the phone. After she had asked him several times more, he finally dropped what he was doing and mowed the lawn.
That night he overheard his grandfather say to his grandmother, "How do you have the patience to tell that blockhead twenty times to mow the lawn?" And he heard his grandmother answer, "Well, if I would have told him just nineteen times, all my effort would have been in vain."
Maybe that is the way it is with God. In his infinite wisdom and obstinate optimism, he is determined to save us despite ourselves. As one of my students said in his sermon, "The secret of the salvation of sinners is that God is more stubborn than we are!" Perhaps stubborn is not an acceptable label to place on the love of God, but he is presented to us as the shepherd who searches for the lost sheep until he finds it, and as the old woman who sweeps, and crawls, and feels every corner of her house until the lost coin is located. Being the kind of persons we are, it is fortunate for our own faith that we have such a God and the message of his stubborn determination is the good news of the Gospels again and again.
He Came To Our World -- Used Our Language
It needs to be added that although the crowd was wrong in what they did, they were not wrong in what they said. True, they talked when they should have kept their mouths shut, but what they said was true. "How well he does everything!"
It is interesting to note that the injunction Christ gave to the people not to talk about this miracle describes "proclamation," the technical designation for preaching the gospel. Mark says they "proclaimed" the miracle. What the crowds said was right. Christ does all things well.
He still makes the deaf to hear, for we see a parallel in this miracle story to our own experience with Christ. God entered our world and adapted himself to the symbols and language that we could understand. He took on flesh and became one with us. He called us aside in our baptism and personally brought us to stand before his cross. There at Calvary he communicated to us in a language every person could comprehend. A criminal's cross of wood, darkness at noonday, nails driven into human flesh, a thorn-crowned brow, suffering, agony and pain, desertion, and betrayal, and, finally, death.
An old monk announced that he was going to preach on the love of God. When during evening vespers the time came for the sermon, the old monk walked to the chancel. He waited and watched as the last rays of the setting sun filtered through the great stained glass windows and danced a finale of colorful patterns upon the stone of the cathedral floor, and then faded away. Turning to the altar he took the great candle that stood there and held it so that its single circle of light fell on the nails driven into the feet of our Lord. He lifted the light until it fell upon the spear-torn side. Then he moved it to the hands pierced and held fast to the wooden crossbeam. Finally he held the light so that it flooded the thorn-crowned brow of our Savior. Reverently he lowered the light to the altar, turned and pronounced the votum. His sermon was finished.
So God speaks to us in the language of sign and symbol. And when our ears are opened by this daring deed done for us, then he speaks the words, "It is finished." This is our Ephphatha. For what was finished was not his life, but the work of our salvation. The words, "It is finished," mean for us, "Be open!" and suddenly the Kingdom of God is opened to us. The wall separating God and his people is torn open and the heart of God laid bare for all to see -- and it is a father's heart of compassionate love and forgiveness for us all. Easter and the open tomb confirm our openness to God and God's openness to us.
Spittle And Touch
Christ continues to speak to us through the signs and symbols of our own language. The beauty of stained glass, the graceful shapes of carved stone, the thrilling sound of a mighty organ and a well-trained choir, a cross, candles, a table of stone, the color of paraments and robes -- this is the language of our world that touches our senses -- seeing, hearing, feeling. And they prepare us and communicate to us that God is about to open our ears once more to his word of forgiveness and love. Never underestimate the physical structure of the church building in which we worship. We are an earthly people and God prepares us with the symbols of our earthliness.
But of even greater importance and significance are the sacraments given to us -- earthly elements of our world. As he used spittle and touch to assure the deaf man of his concern and cure, so our Lord uses water and wine when he comes to us. Water splashes and runs from the forehead of a baby at the font and a new life noisily enters into the Kingdom of God. Bread and wine touch our lips and suddenly we are opened to the forgiveness and love of God. The sacraments are our "spittle." They speak to us in our language symbols. They work a miracle of new life in us each time we stand before the font and kneel before the table. They are our gestures of grace, receiving, breaking, blessing, giving, kneeling, rising, accepting, carrying the message of forgiveness out to others. In all of this, our ears are opened and we hear, "Given for you!" "Shed for you!" "Baptized into his death! Raised again!" And we are opened to a new life. Ephphatha! Ephphatha!
____________
1. William Barclay, And He Had Compassion (Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1976), p. 66.
2. Marion M. Scott, Beethoven, p. 49.
3. Philip Carrington, According to St. Mark (London: Cambridge University Press, 1960), p. 159.
4. Alan Richardson, The Miracle Stories of the Gospels (London: SCM Press, 1959), p. 84.
5. Ronald S. Wallace, The Gospel Miracles (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1960), p. 120.
6. William Hendriksen, Exposition of the Gospel According to Mark, New Testament Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1975), p. 303.
7. Ibid., p. 305.
8. Van der Loos, The Miracles of Jesus (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1968), p. 328.
9. Barclay, op. cit., p. 67.
10. Van der Loos, op. cit., p. 320.
11. R. C. H. Lenski, The Gospel Selections of the Ancient Church (Columbus, Ohio: Lutheran Book Concern, 1936), p. 757.
12. Henry Barclay Swete, The Gospel According to St. Mark (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company), p. 161.
13. Barclay, op. cit., p. 67.
14. Hendriksen, op. cit., p. 305.
This story is about a man who stumbled into the Kingdom of God without knowing where he was going or why. He was a man forced to live in the non-exotic exile from society called deafness. It is strange that blindness receives sympathy in our world, but deafness is considered, as Barclay says, "a nuisance."1 Yet those who know assure us that nothing cuts a person off from his surroundings as thoroughly as does deafness.
The doctors presented to Beethoven the most crushing blow any musician can encounter. They said to him, "You will hear always less and never again." Beethoven lived in a world of sound. He surrounded himself and was saturated with sound; then suddenly the irrevocable sentence was given that he would live out the remainder of his life in a world of silence. Interestingly enough, when Beethoven wrote of his calamity, he mentioned the social implications of this verdict of silence:
"My misfortune," he wrote, "is doubly painful because it must lead to my being misunderstood, for me there can be no more recreation in the society of my fellows, refined intercourse, mutual exchange of thought, only just as little as the greatest needs command may I mix with society, I must live like an exile."2
An exile of silence. This is the tragic state of the man in our miracle story.
The Liturgy Of Hearing
Scholars give various reasons why Mark alone records this story. But for our study this does not concern us as much as the fact that this miracle of healing a deaf man made such a vivid impression on the mind of the early church and imposed itself upon the liturgical practices of the church at an early stage in tradition.
Philip Carrington, speaking of this miracle, informs us that "it is read in the Greek liturgy during the season of Lent when candidates were being prepared for baptism. In Rome it passed into the baptismal ritual and was enacted with the candidates at the same season in the ritual called The Opening of Ears."3
Apparently the early church felt that the power of Jesus and his gospel could not express itself adequately in mere words. There was a need for gestures and physical contact. Much as we today are not satisfied just to see or hear a distinguished visitor; we want to shake hands with him if we can. There is a personal value to the sense of physical touch as well as the sense of hearing. The early church caught an almost sacramental quality to this story. It dramatized for them what happens when a person is baptized and given the gift of the Holy Spirit -- deaf ears are opened and the baptized person can now hear the living Lord speaking to his people through the words of witness both in the Holy Scriptures and in the personal exchange of testimony within the holy fellowship. Therefore, the church at an early date associated this miracle of the healing of the deaf man with their sacrament of baptism.
Plot-Parallelism
It is interesting to see the comparative similarities of these two stories. The plots are parallel. In the healing of the deaf man the basic plot is: (1) Friends bring the deaf man to Jesus. (2) Jesus takes the man aside. (3) Jesus touches his ears and then his tongue with spittle. (4) Jesus speaks the words, "Be opened!" (5) The deaf man's ears are opened and he speaks.
The parallel plot in the act of baptism is: (1) The parents bring the child to the font. (2) The pastor as the representative of Christ takes the child in his arms. (3) The pastor touches the child with the water of the font. (4) The words are spoken, "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." (5) The sponsors are admonished to teach these newly opened ears the Word of God -- the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and so on.
In the single plot of these two stories the central truth of the gospel is dramatized. Faith is the response to God's saving act, not the condition of it. Both the deaf mute and the child are brought helpless to the Lord. They do nothing to merit the miracle they receive.
The deaf man's ears were opened, not because he decided no longer to be deaf and chose to hear instead. Rather, Christ chose to open his ears. So we are not baptized because we decide to believe in Christ; we believe because Christ chooses to bring us into the Kingdom of God. We believe because we hear and we hear because the Holy Spirit first opens our ears to the meaning and truth of God's Word.
The deaf man was brought to Jesus. He didn't know where he was going or why. So we do not choose to be born into a Christian family. Nor do we convince our parents to take us to the font. All this happens before we know what is happening. When we come to consciousness we are already admitted into the sphere of Christ's redemption.
In both story plots, God's election remains a mystery. Why this deaf man among all the other deaf people in the district of Decapolis should have been chosen and healed is a mystery. Why we were born into a Christian family and had the advantage of knowing Christ as we were growing to adulthood is a mystery. All we know is that he has chosen us. This idea which is the heart of the apostolic faith is both mystery and miracle. And it is perfectly symbolized in the account of the healing of the deaf mute. Here, as in our baptism, the important thing that happens is what God does, not what we do. Here is the triumph of divine grace which we can never understand, only recognize and celebrate. The only possible reaction to such a free and unmerited gift is to see it as a gift with responsibility. We have not been chosen just to hear; we have been chosen also to speak. Our gift carries with it a responsibility. Given the gift of hearing as the deaf mute, we speak and the words are clear testimony to our Lord -- the giver of such good and free grace.
The Speaking God
There may be an even more profound insight into the early church's attraction to this miracle. Greek cultures and thought had always emphasized sight. "Seeing is believing," we still say today, influenced by the scientific mind set of the Greeks. But for the Hebrew culture and thought, the key word was "hear." To hear was to know and obey. An ancient rabbi once remarked that God gave lids to close our eyes but none to close our ears. And he concluded from this, "So God intends that we come to obedience through the hearing of his Word." It was the Word of God that created, directed, and redeemed. The Word was the first line of communication between God and man and the basic source of power and life.
The early church could have so easily seen in this miracle of the healing of the deaf man the heart of their faith -- the uniqueness of their God -- the speaking God.
Unstopped Ears
Alan Richardson takes this approach toward the miracle and sees it as "St. Mark's desire to symbolize the gradual process of the unstopping of the disciples ears ... The story is for him a parable of the awakening in the disciples' hearts of faith in Jesus' Messiahship."4
Wallace follows the same line in his interpretation. He sees this story as a sign. Jesus is saddened by the stupidity of the disciples. They have ears and will not hear. And, he adds, Jesus is still distressed with the church today which lacks understanding of God's Word because it will not listen and learn.
Wallace goes on to say that, immediately after this miracle of the deaf man given his hearing and the miracle of the blind man receiving his sight, "The disciples began to be able to hear and see and to believe the hidden testimony that Jesus was giving to himself in his teachings and miracles." And, Wallace says, "Both these stories are a warning to us about the trouble we ourselves need to take, and the patience and love we may need to exert, in trying to make other people see what we see in Jesus and hear what we hear in his Word."5
So the miracle of the healing of the deaf man is a dramatization of the gift of hearing which the Holy Spirit brings to us. We are exiles of silence until God works the miracle and opens our ears to his Word.
Mark begins this story, "Some people brought him a man who was deaf and could hardly speak." Sometimes he is called a deaf-mute but more frequently he is referred to as "deaf and dumb." This has cruel implications to our ears, as we interpret "dumb" to mean ignorant or stupid, and of course this is not the original intent of the word at all. Deaf and dumb simply means a person who cannot speak because he does not hear.
Ear Gate
A young couple was blessed with their first child. He looked perfectly normal and healthy, but gradually they began to notice that he was unresponsive. He seemed to exist in his own little world -- unconcerned with what was happening about him. Long after he should have uttered his first sounds he was silent. The parents feared that he was retarded, so they took him to a specialist. After careful examination, the doctor gave his diagnosis. "There is nothing mentally wrong with this child," he said, "except that he is deaf. He does not speak because he has never heard."
What we say and how we say it depends on what we have heard. We cannot produce a sound we have never heard. We have foreign accents, Southern drawls, and New York brogues because that is the way we have heard words pronounced. As a professor of speech graphically expressed it, "What comes out of the door of our mouth, must first come in the gate of our ears."
Today more than at any other time in history we live in a world of sound. Communication media from the telephone to the television flood our ears with sounds, so much so that we develop a noise-deafness. We arrive at a point where we can't tolerate silence. We get up in the morning and the first thing we do, out of sheer habit, is turn on the radio or television. We invest in expensive stereo equipment that literally surrounds us with sound. The result of this "noise-deafness" is that we hear so much, we hear nothing. We have learned to tune out sounds and close the gate of our ears.
In this day of liberation and freedom, everyone wants to talk and express opinions; but the problem is that few are willing to listen. And this is where the whole process breaks down. Where there is no prodigious input, there can be no profitable output. We hear a great deal about dialogue today. Many believe the magic solution to all our problems is just to get people together and talk things over. But most dialogues become only a mutual sharing of ignorance. People talk but they don't say anything, and it doesn't really matter because no one is listening. In a dialogue we don't listen to each other because we are too busy thinking about what we are going to say when there is a break in the conversation and we will have a chance to speak.
Now this is a warning for us, because we take our stand theologically on the efficacy of the Word. Our God is a speaking God and we are created, directed, and redeemed by the Word. It follows that the Christian is therefore first and before all else a listener. But in this day of noise-deafness, we no longer know how to listen. Listening is a lost art and we are a deaf people. Our ears need to be opened or we will be condemned to live in the chaos and confusion, the despair and the desperation of deafness. Therefore, our miracle story about Christ healing the deaf-mute has something vital to say to us all.
Do It My Way
The people who brought the deaf man begged Jesus "to place his hand on him." They had seen him heal in this way before. There is little doubt that they meant well. But it is interesting to note that Jesus does not do what they suggest. He will heal the man, but he will do it his own way.
Hendriksen points out, "In dealing with people the Lord chooses his own methods. Naaman had to learn this lesson (2 Kings 5:1-14). So did Jacob, much earlier (Genesis 42:36; 45:25-28). So did also Joseph and his brothers (Genesis 50:15-21). And so, later, did Paul (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). We should never try to tell God what methods he should use in answering our petitions ... just where he should place his hand. His own way is always best."6
This is typical of the way so many of us come to God. We come not only with a request, but with a preconceived notion of how the request is to be met. We not only ask the Lord for something, but we tell him how we want it done. And when he doesn't fulfill our request to the letter -- exactly as we asked him to -- we feel he has failed to respond.
A young heiress lived a sensational and glamorous life. New York, Paris, Rome, the Riviera were her playgrounds. She lived high and fast, but her life was empty, shallow, and meaningless.
Then one day she noticed a shadow seemed to pass over her vision. The doctors told her that it may be serious and that tests should be taken. Shocked and desperate, she turned to God seriously for the first time in her life and prayed that her life not be ruined by blindness. The tests were positive and her prognosis was eventual and certain blindness. She was bitter. Her newly-born faith in God was instantly shattered. She turned to her old life, but the attitude of her friends had changed. They were condescending and over-solicitous. She could not endure being pitied.
She decided to run away and hide, like an animal retreating into a cave to die. For years she had financially supported work among the poor of Appalachia. So she decided to spend the last few years of sight among these unfortunates and share their desperation. Within a few months she became involved with these simple but lovable people. She started a much-needed school and discovered for the first time in her life what it meant to be honestly loved and accepted. She found what she had so long searched for -- happiness and meaningfulness.
Two years passed and then one morning she awoke and opened her eyes, but there was only darkness. It had happened. She sat for a moment stunned. Then she heard the children on their way to her school. They were laughing and singing. A great calm came upon her. In her diary she records, "As I felt my way along to the classroom, I paused in the garden at the gate. I thought to myself -- this gate moves both ways and so with my eyes open or closed I can still teach these children. Then I prayed, 'Thank you, Lord, for taking away my eyes, that my soul might see.' "
Truly God had answered her prayer. She had asked him not to ruin her life with blindness. And God had given her a new and better life, not sparing her from blindness but opening up her whole being to a new and more meaningful style of life.
So God grants our requests, not always as we direct, or the way in which we think they should be answered. He does it his way.
The people begged Jesus to place his hands on the deaf man, but Christ had a better way.
Steps Of The Cure
The steps Jesus takes in the curing of the deaf man are most significant. First he takes him away from the crowd.
The interpretations of this action by scholars are many and varied. Some assert Jesus took the man aside to keep the process of healing secret from the unauthorized. Some simply say that he wanted to avoid publicity. The cross was drawing nearer and Jesus was placing more and more emphasis on the redemptive aspects of his mission. He had come into the world not to be a miracle worker, but the "Savior." He wanted to play down his miracles, for as Hendriksen points out, "The day of the crucifixion must not be hastened."7 And his miracles more than his messages were pushing his enemies to the final showdown with this troublemaker.
Van der Loos concludes, "We can only say Jesus followed the method that he considered the correct one in certain circumstances and having regard to the persons involved."8 Barclay is influenced by the fact that deaf people are easily embarrassed and confused. In a crowd they become flustered, excited, and bewildered. Therefore, Jesus calls the deaf man apart from the crowd because of his great sensitivity to the need of people. They need not only to be cured, but to be cured with kindness. Barclay goes so far as to say, "There is no incident in all Jesus' life which so shows his tenderness and consideration for others."9
Not denying any of these interpretations, it would seem that there was the practical necessity of getting the man into a position where his complete attention could be placed on Jesus with as few distractions as possible.
The first requirement in learning to listen is attention. Much of our lack of hearing is due to distracted attention. We often, for example, find it difficult to remember a person's name we have just met. Because only a few moments have passed since the introduction, our problem is not memory but the fact that we never heard the name in the first place because we were not paying attention. Our minds were elsewhere when the name was mentioned. So attention is vital if our ears are to be opened.
How often the Word of God falls on deaf ears in services of worship because of a misbehaving child or a crying baby, or a fire engine or a plane passes, or the person next to you fiddles with his bulletin, or a choir member falls asleep, or the person behind you strikes up what he alone considers a whispered conversation. Though unintentional, these distractions literally excommunicate listeners from the Word of God. What Luther gave so much of his life to accomplish -- namely bringing the Word of God to people -- can be destroyed for the moment by the continual crying of a child. There is nothing magical about the Word. It does not work automatically because we are physically present when it is proclaimed. The efficacy of the Word depends upon our hearing that Word and concentrating our attention on that Word. So Jesus called the man apart from the thoughtless crowd that could have unintentionally distracted his attention.
Enters His World And Language System
Jesus has taken the deaf man aside and now enters into his world. He uses the deaf man's language system to communicate with him. They are alone. Positioned before Jesus, the man's eyes make contact with this strange young man who apparently wants to help him. Each move Jesus makes is meaningful to him.
The second step of the cure is that Jesus places his fingers into the deaf man's ears. This touch of Jesus should not be interpreted in the sense of a power transfer. And, as Van der Loos warns us, "Nor must we seek to establish a resemblance between touching by Jesus and so-called 'tactile stimuli' as employed by present-day suggestive therapy."10
Rather, the placing of his fingers in the deaf man's ears is simple sign language to indicate that he knows where the man's problem lies. The same is true of Jesus' touching the man's tongue. As Lenski says, "Jesus fastened the deaf-mute's full attention upon his two great disabilities."11 Jesus literally puts his finger on the problem.
At the same time, Jesus' touch linked and related him to the sick person as it did when he touched the leper, the blind man, and Peter's mother-in-law. Jesus communicated his love as well as his diagnosis of the situation. Both problem and person are dealt with. By his touch, Jesus not only indicates he knows what is wrong, but he wants to and will help the man.
Every mother knows what is happening here. For when she holds her newborn child for the first time, he is as yet deaf to the language of the adult world in which he has entered. So she enters into his world and uses his language. She talks with fingertips of love. She communicates with caresses. In her tender embrace and body warmth, the child knows that it is cared for and welcomed into this strange new world. The amazing vocabulary and grammar of gesture, touch, and movement bring two persons together in mutual understanding -- a mother and her child relate to each other.
He Spat
The additional note that Jesus "spat" upon his finger before touching the man's tongue brings up the whole issue of the role "spittle" played in cures at the time of Jesus. In the days of our Lord, saliva was "soul power." It was a sign that Jesus was giving himself personally to this man. It was also a sign of medical cures. Swete points out, "Saliva was regarded as remedial, but the custom of applying it with incantation seems to have led the rabbis to denounce its use. Possibly it appealed more strongly than any other symbol that could have been employed."12
Power From On High
The third step of the cure is, "Jesus looked up to heaven." This was to indicate the nature of the power that was going to remove the deaf man's disabilities. The power was coming from on high -- from God. From our story we know very little about this man personally. But it is safe to assume that he was a religious man. In the three-level universe in which he lived, this gesture was, therefore, extremely significant.
A Sigh Too Deep For Words
The fourth step: Jesus sighed or "gave a deep groan." It was a sigh too deep for words. Some scholars have seen in this an intense prayer that resembled the desperate cry of the Litany, "Lord, have mercy upon us." Barclay sees not only this but also a groan of sheer compassion for the wretched state of the man.13
There is, however, another possible interpretation. The Jews in their religious thought patterns associated the life-giving power of God with the concept of breath. In the beginning act of creation (Genesis 2:7) God breathed into man the breath of life. The Psalmist sings, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth" (Psalm 33:6). And it was the breath of God which gave life to the dry bones in Ezekiel (37:5).
When Jesus gave the great sigh, the deaf man could easily have recalled his teaching in the synagogue and saw in this action that Jesus was drawing the creative and restoring breath of God into himself that would give life to silent ears. It was a sign of strength, strength to destroy silence and restore this man to the world of sound.
Ephphatha
The final step is Jesus speaking the word Ephphatha. Jesus has communicated his care and concern. The contact has been made and the deaf mute now stands on the cutting edge of his cure. As the word is spoken the ears are opened. The silence is broken. The man is free.
An Enacted Sermon
Jesus must have shouted these words, "Be opened!" for the crowd nearby heard and rushed to discover that the deaf man's ears had been opened. His tongue was set loose and they heard him speak plainly.
Those people had seen a sermon enacted that day. When Jesus shouted, "Ephphatha -- Be opened" and they heard the deaf man speak without defects, they knew that something marvelous had happened and somehow they were involved in it. The healing grace of God proclaimed to one is proclaimed to all. In their minds there was little doubt that God was here announcing and initiating the promised Kingdom for all. Jesus stood before the crowd as the incarnate fulfillment to the prophet's promise that the eyes of the blind would be opened and the ears of the deaf would be unstopped. The ministry of healing to that deaf person was an effective sign, an enacted sermon announcing that in Christ the Kingdom of God had come. In a universe of silence, God had spoken and his word opened the ears of all people to a message of love, forgiveness, hope and a glorious new life.
Stubbornness -- Man And God
One thing that is a common cause of deafness to the Word of God is stubbornness. It is a natural expression of our sinful nature. We frequently refer to a person as being "stubborn as a mule," or "bull-headed." I suppose in the animal world, if they could talk, one bull would say to his obstinate bull-friend that he was "human-headed," and you know he would be right. For of all the creatures God created, man has less excuse for this perverse attitude called "stubbornness." God has given us superior brain matter to listen, reason, think through an issue, and yet of all creatures we are the most stubborn in our response to his will.
In our text, we see this illustrated graphically as Mark records, "Then Jesus ordered them all not to speak of it to anyone; but the more he ordered them, the more they told it."
Hendriksen observes, "How emphatically the obstinacy and perversity of sinful human nature is here revealed."14 We see it in children. Mother says to Johnny, "I have just finished baking for the church supper; so, whatever you do, don't eat any of those cookies in that white box." Johnny would never have noticed the white box full of cookies, for his mind was on other things. But now the cookies are an irresistible temptation. The forbidden fruit must be tasted. The sign "Wet Paint" demands we touch to test it. Mark Twain talks of "swimming pools which were forbidden us and therefore much frequented."
Sometimes this is called "the law of reversed effort." When you want certain people to do something, just tell them not to do it. How true it is that law makes sinners of us all. Think how many marriages have ended up in divorce courts, how many friendships have been destroyed, how many opportunities have gone down the drain, how many nations have gone to battlefields, because of the sin of stubbornness.
The more Jesus kept charging them not to do it, the more widely they kept on publishing it. What patience our Lord had and what patience our God has. It is a wonder our God didn't give up long ago on his stubborn, obstinate, perverse creatures that he made in his own image -- a little lower than the angels. But then that is the grace aspect of God's great goodness. He is a God who never gives up. Again and again he calls and we present deaf ears to him and refuse to listen or respond. Like naughty children ignoring the call of their parents when they want to keep on doing what they're doing. "Don't bother me now, Lord. I'm too busy." "I can't hear you, Lord!" "Did you call, Lord? I must not have been listening, Lord!" But God keeps on calling. What a Lord!
One of my students tells of visiting his grandparents. In the morning his grandmother asked him to mow the lawn. He agreed, but one thing after another came up -- more important things to occupy his time. His grandmother asked him again and again throughout the day, but he would answer he would do it right after the ball game on television, or after he had called Harry on the phone. After she had asked him several times more, he finally dropped what he was doing and mowed the lawn.
That night he overheard his grandfather say to his grandmother, "How do you have the patience to tell that blockhead twenty times to mow the lawn?" And he heard his grandmother answer, "Well, if I would have told him just nineteen times, all my effort would have been in vain."
Maybe that is the way it is with God. In his infinite wisdom and obstinate optimism, he is determined to save us despite ourselves. As one of my students said in his sermon, "The secret of the salvation of sinners is that God is more stubborn than we are!" Perhaps stubborn is not an acceptable label to place on the love of God, but he is presented to us as the shepherd who searches for the lost sheep until he finds it, and as the old woman who sweeps, and crawls, and feels every corner of her house until the lost coin is located. Being the kind of persons we are, it is fortunate for our own faith that we have such a God and the message of his stubborn determination is the good news of the Gospels again and again.
He Came To Our World -- Used Our Language
It needs to be added that although the crowd was wrong in what they did, they were not wrong in what they said. True, they talked when they should have kept their mouths shut, but what they said was true. "How well he does everything!"
It is interesting to note that the injunction Christ gave to the people not to talk about this miracle describes "proclamation," the technical designation for preaching the gospel. Mark says they "proclaimed" the miracle. What the crowds said was right. Christ does all things well.
He still makes the deaf to hear, for we see a parallel in this miracle story to our own experience with Christ. God entered our world and adapted himself to the symbols and language that we could understand. He took on flesh and became one with us. He called us aside in our baptism and personally brought us to stand before his cross. There at Calvary he communicated to us in a language every person could comprehend. A criminal's cross of wood, darkness at noonday, nails driven into human flesh, a thorn-crowned brow, suffering, agony and pain, desertion, and betrayal, and, finally, death.
An old monk announced that he was going to preach on the love of God. When during evening vespers the time came for the sermon, the old monk walked to the chancel. He waited and watched as the last rays of the setting sun filtered through the great stained glass windows and danced a finale of colorful patterns upon the stone of the cathedral floor, and then faded away. Turning to the altar he took the great candle that stood there and held it so that its single circle of light fell on the nails driven into the feet of our Lord. He lifted the light until it fell upon the spear-torn side. Then he moved it to the hands pierced and held fast to the wooden crossbeam. Finally he held the light so that it flooded the thorn-crowned brow of our Savior. Reverently he lowered the light to the altar, turned and pronounced the votum. His sermon was finished.
So God speaks to us in the language of sign and symbol. And when our ears are opened by this daring deed done for us, then he speaks the words, "It is finished." This is our Ephphatha. For what was finished was not his life, but the work of our salvation. The words, "It is finished," mean for us, "Be open!" and suddenly the Kingdom of God is opened to us. The wall separating God and his people is torn open and the heart of God laid bare for all to see -- and it is a father's heart of compassionate love and forgiveness for us all. Easter and the open tomb confirm our openness to God and God's openness to us.
Spittle And Touch
Christ continues to speak to us through the signs and symbols of our own language. The beauty of stained glass, the graceful shapes of carved stone, the thrilling sound of a mighty organ and a well-trained choir, a cross, candles, a table of stone, the color of paraments and robes -- this is the language of our world that touches our senses -- seeing, hearing, feeling. And they prepare us and communicate to us that God is about to open our ears once more to his word of forgiveness and love. Never underestimate the physical structure of the church building in which we worship. We are an earthly people and God prepares us with the symbols of our earthliness.
But of even greater importance and significance are the sacraments given to us -- earthly elements of our world. As he used spittle and touch to assure the deaf man of his concern and cure, so our Lord uses water and wine when he comes to us. Water splashes and runs from the forehead of a baby at the font and a new life noisily enters into the Kingdom of God. Bread and wine touch our lips and suddenly we are opened to the forgiveness and love of God. The sacraments are our "spittle." They speak to us in our language symbols. They work a miracle of new life in us each time we stand before the font and kneel before the table. They are our gestures of grace, receiving, breaking, blessing, giving, kneeling, rising, accepting, carrying the message of forgiveness out to others. In all of this, our ears are opened and we hear, "Given for you!" "Shed for you!" "Baptized into his death! Raised again!" And we are opened to a new life. Ephphatha! Ephphatha!
____________
1. William Barclay, And He Had Compassion (Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1976), p. 66.
2. Marion M. Scott, Beethoven, p. 49.
3. Philip Carrington, According to St. Mark (London: Cambridge University Press, 1960), p. 159.
4. Alan Richardson, The Miracle Stories of the Gospels (London: SCM Press, 1959), p. 84.
5. Ronald S. Wallace, The Gospel Miracles (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1960), p. 120.
6. William Hendriksen, Exposition of the Gospel According to Mark, New Testament Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1975), p. 303.
7. Ibid., p. 305.
8. Van der Loos, The Miracles of Jesus (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1968), p. 328.
9. Barclay, op. cit., p. 67.
10. Van der Loos, op. cit., p. 320.
11. R. C. H. Lenski, The Gospel Selections of the Ancient Church (Columbus, Ohio: Lutheran Book Concern, 1936), p. 757.
12. Henry Barclay Swete, The Gospel According to St. Mark (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company), p. 161.
13. Barclay, op. cit., p. 67.
14. Hendriksen, op. cit., p. 305.
