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Ἐφφαθά, that is, “Be opened!”

᛭ INI ᛭

((5. Oops!: Dead ears can’t make themselves hear.))

No hearing without that word. Without Jesus saying what He said, that man would’ve remained deaf. His hearing, and also his speaking, would’ve been none existent. He had dead ears, dead speech. He was deaf. He was mute.

We don’t pay this much mind, actually. We don’t take into consideration how this is true for all of us, by nature. We don’t actually believe what the Bible says about us and other people, that we’re conceived and born sinful. What that means is we’re spiritually deaf toward God, we’re mute, we’re dead. If Christians actually believed that, no one would wait to have their babies baptized.

By nature before God we are bound in our sinful desires. It’s not just that our actions are sinful. Our many sins are just fruit from a diseased, dying, dead tree. We see this in the deaf man. He could never ever make himself hear! The dead can’t alive themselves. The deaf can’t make themselves hear. Dead ears will never hear.

But we always think there’s choices and options, as if the Gospel is some offer and not “the power of God for salvation.” (Rom 1) We’re lulled into the delusion that because someone is physically alive that they are so spiritually. Not so! The blind will never pick their favorite color or watch a movie. The deaf can never have a favorite song. And the dead, well, they’re dead.

((4. Ugh!: The world speaks death to kill hearing or keep it dead.))

But it’s worse than that. We live in a world of words. They’re everywhere! You can’t escape them! You hear them in the music you listen to, the news you read or watch or listen to, the shows and movies you watch. We’re not only in a world of words, we’re in a war of words!

The devil started this war of words. “Did God really say?” The devil’s word brought sin and death upon Adam and Eve and all of us. He continues speaking. He copies God. God speaks, so the devil speaks. Where God speaks of the Way, the devil speaks of many paths. Where God speaks of the Truth, the devil speaks many lies. Where God speaks Life, the devil speaks death.

We delude ourselves into thinking that words don’t matter. “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” But they do! The words from news or shows or movies or music make their way into our heart and soul and mind and strength. This isn’t to say we can’t enjoy these things, but we must beware of their spiritual nature. What enters your mind, affects your hopes and dreams. What touches your heart, affects your mind. And so on.

We try to keep everything in their own boxes, but it’s only God’s Word that gets boxed up. More words and ideas and things to do besides God’s Word. Look, you can enjoy the words of the world, but without a steady diet of God’s Word to keep those worldly words in check, what will you become? Whose mouthpiece will you be? You are what you hear!

We play a dangerous game. We flirt with the devil’s words, absent God’s Word. The devil is powerful. One demon is stronger than all human beings combined. The devil’s word, his lies, are more alluring, more memorable, more enduring than any human words. The only Word that trumps his word, is God’s.

The devil’s lies bring spiritual death. There are many preachers who proclaim them, politicians, musicians, actors, poets, and professors, just to name a few. All that false preaching causes God’s people to “cast His Word behind them.” (Ps 50) What’s that look like? Eyes and ears on your phone or TV and not your Bible or Sermons or the Sacrament. The devil’s words kill ears or keep dead ears dead.

((3. Aha!: THE LORD SPEAKS LIFE INTO DEAD EARS.))

Into this world of words and war of words, “Our God comes; He does not stay silent.” (Ps 50) God comes and speaks. He is the speaking God. In fact, this is one reason why Jesus is given the title and name, “The Word” in John’s Gospel. (A title used for Yahweh in Genesis and throughout the Prophets.)

He is not like the false gods of the world. **“They have mouths, but do not speak.” (Ps 115)**

He spoke in the beginning, “Let there be…” “And there was!” Light and sky and space and land and seas and trees and sun, moon, and stars, fish and birds, land animals. The Lord did all this by speaking, and He kept on speaking.

He spoke to and through Prophets, but, as far as our Gospel reading is concerned, He spoke in the region of Decapolis, and what He spoke there—one word! (Ἐφφαθά)—gives us great comfort today, as He speaks to us in the region of Bremen. The comfort is this:

THE LORD SPEAKS LIFE INTO DEAD EARS.

((2. The Lord’s Word is what gives life by giving what it says/promises.))

THE LORD SPEAKS LIFE INTO DEAD EARS because the Lord’s Word gives life by giving what it says and promises. That’s what happened at creation, like I just said. “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” (Gen 1) And all the rest. His Word gave life to the deaf man’s hearing and ears. Jesus said, “Be Opened,” and the ears were opened! As if they’d always heard! For the man’s mouth also spoke.

God’s Word always gives what it says. If the Lord’s promise is that His Word or a Sacrament will do a certain thing, then that’s what it does! The devil’s word does the opposite. The world knows nothing about love, for “God is love.” (1 Jn 4) But those who preach so-called “love” in the world often act with much anger and hatred. That’s just one example. The devil offers fulfillment, but you end up empty. He apes God in speaking, but he delivers the opposite of what he says.

Christ, however, speaks hearing to the deaf, sight to the blind, life to the dead, and forgiveness to sinners. His speaking got Him killed, but that happened just as He said it would. His death accomplishes what He says it does. “His life is a ransom for many,” (Mt 20) for you, your forgiveness, and salvation.

So, we magnify God’s Word to us. For we believe that THE LORD SPEAKS LIFE INTO DEAD EARS, even your ears, my ears. His life-giving Word comes, and it gives us life, gives us forgiveness. His Word can have its way with us to make and keep us alive.

So, we magnify His Word, we elevate it, we make it beautiful and pleasing. We sing His Word! He commands it, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” (Col 3) The Psalms were often explicitly set to music. We sing the liturgy, our spiritual songs, which are often just exact Bible passages or words clearly echoing or based on the Bible. Singing also makes it memorable. (I once knew a lady who would sing the Words of Institution when she encountered any emotional, physical, or spiritual trouble.)

The devil doesn’t like any of this. We must not be “ignorant of his designs.” (Col 2) Our daily life is a spiritual battle. Is it any wonder, then, that Satan has attacked education in the areas that help the Christian faith the most? History, English, foreign language, and music. The history of the Bible can’t be defended. Many don’t see the need for having pastors study the original languages. We no longer know how to read stories and understand them. The Church has few poets for hymns. Few organists to lead them. (Not to mention no attention span to pay attention to sermons.) The very fact that most of you might be thinking I’m crazy, and I do feel a little bit like a conspiracy theorist, proves that our flesh doesn’t want God’s Word in these ways!

But the Lord’s Word refuses to be bound. In spite of ourselves, His Word endures. Of all the things that have endured through the centuries, His Word endures. We have the Words of Institution. We have the Bible. We have preachers and poets and singers and musicians. This isn’t a call to rest on our laurels, but to take up the fight anew, to learn to write, to listen, to play the piano, the organ, to sing hymns and psalms and liturgy, so that His Word breaks forth in speech and song, so that His Word embeds in our hearts and minds. Not only so we can have God’s Word memorized, not only so we can sing hymns in the shower or combine or in our hallways and classrooms, like it does at Good Shepherd, not only so these walls can continue to echo with organ and song. But so that Christ’s Ἐφφαθά would come to us clearly, and hopefully beautifully too. ἐφφαθά: “Take eat; this is My Body, which is given for you.” ἐφφαθά: “Drink of it all of you, this cup is the New Testament in My blood, which is shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins.” These Words, His Words, are the greatest ἐφφαθά of your week.

((1. The Lord will speak life into dead ears.))

The Lord has one more great Ἐφφαθά to speak. THE LORD will SPEAK LIFE INTO DEAD EARS, and the dead will rise. “The day is coming when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of Man, and they will live.” (Jn 5) “I will raise you from your graves, O My people.” (Ezek 37) On that day, when the Lord speaks life into dead ears, those ears, those saints, you who have heard His life-giving Word and believed, will rise to live with Him forever.

᛭ INI ᛭