A New Creation
Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Mark is the only
Gospel that records for us the details of Jesus’ encounter with this deaf man, this
man whose friends brought him forth so that Jesus could give Him a blessing. And
what a blessing he received! Jesus spoke the Aramaic word, “Ephphatha!” which means, “Be opened!” And
the ear in which Jesus had placed His finger was opened! He spoke the Word, and
His Word made it happen! What a blessing that deaf man received from Jesus! And
you receive the same blessing from Jesus today!
That word, “Ephphatha,” is the same Word that Jesus
speaks today to each and every one of us. We are all born with the inability to
hear the Word of God. When God created man, man had perfect hearing, of course;
Adam and Eve listened to every Word from God with loving obedience and carried
out God’s commands perfectly. But Satan got Eve and then Adam to listen to his
words rather than God’s Word.
Only God’s Word
has the power to create. Any other word is a destructive word. Think about the
destruction our ungodly words of gossip cause, destroying good reputations,
changing the way you look at people. Think about the damage we cause when we
speak a word of judgment against another person, breaking that person’s trust
in us, radically altering that relationship. And just as destructive was
Satan’s word of deceit in the ears of Adam and Eve. The devil’s false doctrine left
us completely deaf to God’s Word, and the man unable to hear God’s Word about
his sinful condition is also not aware of sin’s wages.
But thanks be to
God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. “He has given me my body and soul, my eyes, ears and all my members…and
still preserves them.” He who created our ears knows how to re-create those
ears and restore our ability to hear His Word. The Son of God, who participated
with the Father and the Spirit to create of the world, came into the world in
the flesh of man to re-create man’s fallen flesh. Jesus is the Word of God in
the flesh, who came to live life fully by the Word of God for all, who came to
suffer the full consequences of our inability to hear and obey God’s Word,
suffering the sinner’s death and the sinner’s Hell for us. In doing all of
this, the Creator once again was at work, restoring His creation by the
forgiveness of our sins in Christ Jesus. By His life and death and resurrection
from the dead for us, our salvation is complete. Nothing more needs to be done
for our salvation; Jesus has done it all for us!
That Word of Jesus
Christ has come to us today. It comes to us in the Word that is joined to the
water of Holy Baptism, entering our ears, washing away everything that had been
blocking them from hearing His gracious Word. The Word of Jesus comes to us,
joined to the bread and wine at the Lord’s Table to be the very Body and Blood
of the Christ Himself, given and shed for the forgiveness of our sins.
The Word of God
with all its creative power comes to us through the Words of Holy Scripture. It
creates in us new life—a new life of faith for all of our days. In this new
life we hear God‘s Word with loving obedience, carrying out His commands by His
Holy Spirit. Having been washed in Christ’s blood, we are a new creation. We no
longer speak our own destructive words. We share His Word with others in speech
and in deed, so that, by our testimony, all the world might join us around the
heavenly throne of Christ Jesus. And that is a powerful Word! In the name of
the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all
understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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