Twelfth Sunday After Trinity, August 18, 2024
Twelfth Sunday After Trinity, August 18, 2024
This opening of the deaf man’s ears presents many similarities with the opening of sight to the blind man (Mk. 8:22-26): an unnamed group brings a deaf (or blind) man to Jesus for healing; Jesus leads the person away from the crowd; Jesus applies his saliva; and there is success—hearing and seeing are restored. The similarities of these two accounts calls our attention to the place of hearing and seeing in the bible. The inability to hear and the inability to see are often used as metaphors for the unfaithfulness of the people of God. “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not” (Jer. 5:21). The source of this senselessness is ambiguous: sometimes it seems to rest innately within the people themselves (Jer. 5:21); sometimes it seems an affliction visited upon the people by God (Ro. 8:11).
Isaiah’s prophecy of that mighty and glorious day when the Lord comes bringing his salvation features the opening of eyes previously blind and the unstopping of ears previously deaf (Is 35:5). You might recall that when visiting Nazareth, Jesus read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. The text included “proclaim the restoration of sight to the blind” (Lk. 4:18). In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus laments the people’s lack of hearing and their inability to see (Mt. 13:15). The Apostle Paul breaks into celebratory language to rejoice at what opened eyes will see and what opened ears will hear (1Co. 2:9).
And so, to you, my brothers and sisters, you whose hearing is opened and unstopped… you whose seeing is unfettered in its vision of Christ alone. In such hearing, your tongue is loosened… released to “proclaim the mighty deeds of the one who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light” (1Pe 2:9). The mighty and glorious day of the Lord comes upon you in faith, providing you both hearing and speaking. While you wait upon that day becoming sight, “Two things belong to a Christian, that his ears be opened, and his tongue loosened” (Martin Luther).
Table Talk: Discuss the necessity of ears to hear the good news of Jesus Christ and what that hearing means for your speaking.
Pray: Father, grant me ears to hear the good news of Jesus Christ that I might declare those deeds that have brought me into his light. Amen
Mark 7:31-37
31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32 And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33 And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. 34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. 35 And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36 And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.