Twelfth Sunday after Trinity—He Has Done All Things Well
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Jesus took the man aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue. Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha,’ that is, ‘Be opened.’ Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed. And he spoke plainly” (Mark 7:33–35). He spoke plainly. He spoke rightly. He spoke orthodox. Then Jesus commanded them that they should tell no one. But the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond all measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”
Here we see a crowd bringing a man to Jesus with two critical problems. He is deaf, and so he cannot hear rightly. He also has a speech impediment, so that he cannot speak rightly. What does Christ do to solve these problems? He first takes him out of the crowd to Himself. He then puts His fingers into the man’s ears, and He puts spit from Himself on this man’s tongue.
This true and completely historical miracle shows us the power that God has over physical deafness and physical muteness. But it also teaches us about Christ’s power over spiritual deafness and spiritual muteness—our inability to hear rightly and to speak rightly.
This man is a picture of one who cannot hear God’s Word fruitfully. His ears are plugged—dead and unbelieving. He cannot speak rightly because the only way a person can speak true and orthodox words is if they have first heard the Word of God fruitfully. And so our Lord takes this man aside from the crowd. He sanctifies him, sets him apart, and puts His life-giving flesh into this man’s ears so that he may receive the implanted Word which is able to save our souls. And He takes water flowing from Himself and puts it on this man’s tongue so that he would speak rightly—no longer corrupting speech, but upright speech.
Christ loosens the bonds of this man’s tongue so that he speaks plainly and uprightly. And then, even though Jesus commands them to be silent, this man and the crowd cannot help but preach and proclaim what the Lord has done.
This miracle is not only about physical healing but about Christ’s power over spiritual deafness and muteness. The man is a picture of one who cannot hear God’s Word fruitfully and therefore cannot speak rightly.
So our Lord takes him aside. He sanctifies him, sets him apart from the devil’s kingdom, and brings him to Himself. He puts His life-giving flesh into the man’s ears to unplug them, so that he may receive the implanted Word which is able to save our souls. He takes water flowing from Himself—His own spittle—and places it on the man’s tongue so that his words would be upright and true. He loosens the bonds of his tongue so that he speaks plainly, rightly, orthos.
The baptismal connection has long been recognized. In the old rite, the pastor would touch the child’s ears and say, “Ephphatha, that is, be opened.” Luther kept this in his first reform of the baptismal rite, a vivid reminder that Christ still opens ears and loosens tongues by means of His Word and sacraments. Our incarnate Lord does good to us physically through physical means.
The word Mark uses here—orthos—is striking. It means straight, upright, correct. When Jesus asked Simon the Pharisee about the two debtors, Simon answered, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” Jesus said to him, “You have rightly judged—orthos” (Luke 7:43). When the lawyer recited the commandment to love God and neighbor, Jesus said, “You have answered rightly—orthos; do this and live” (Luke 10:28). Even His opponents said, “Teacher, we know that You say and teach rightly—orthos” (Luke 20:21).
So when Mark tells us that the man spoke orthos, it does not mean merely that his words were intelligible. It means his speech was correct, straight, true, aligned with God’s Word.
This contrast runs throughout Scripture. Proverbs 11:6 says, “The righteousness of the upright will deliver them, but the unfaithful will be caught by their lust.” Proverbs 12:6: “The words of the wicked are, ‘Lie in wait for blood,’ but the mouth of the upright will deliver them.” Proverbs 21 describes the difference vividly: “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts. To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice… The way of a guilty man is perverse; but as for the pure, his work is right.” The wicked tongue lies in wait, deceives, pursues worthless things. But the upright tongue speaks truth for the neighbor’s good.
The psalmist says of the nations’ idols: “They have mouths, but they do not speak; eyes they have, but they do not see; they have ears, but they do not hear; nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them are like them; so is everyone who trusts in them” (Psalm 135:15–18). In unbelief, we are just like those idols—deaf, mute, lifeless.
But the Lord promised something better. In Jeremiah 31:7–9 He says, “Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chiefs of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, ‘O Lord, save Your people, the remnant of Israel.’ Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the ends of the earth… They shall come with weeping and with supplications; I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble; for I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn.”
So when Jesus opens this man’s ears and looses his tongue, He shows us exactly what He has come to do: to fulfill the promises, to bring His people into straight ways, to make sinners upright, to give ears that hear fruitfully, and tongues that confess rightly.
We know even now that this miracle is about us. Christ has baptized us, opened our ears, and loosed our tongues. Yet because of the sinful desires still clinging to us, we so easily fall back into the old ways—using our tongues for corrupt speech, and using our ears to hear what is unholy.
Saint Paul warns baptized believers in Ephesians 4: “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” When corrupt and rotten words come out of our mouths, rather than words that build up, we grieve the Spirit who opened our ears and loosed our tongues in Baptism.
In Ephesians 5 Paul adds, “Fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you… neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know: that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them.”
And again in Colossians 3: “But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.”
Saint Peter also exhorts us: “Lay aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, and as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious” (1 Peter 2:1–3).
And have you not tasted that the Lord is gracious? You who have been baptized—have you not had the flesh and blood of Christ touch your tongue? Do you then use that same tongue to misuse the Lord’s name? To laugh at blasphemous and filthy jokes? To spread gossip and words of accusation, whether true or not? To tear down your neighbor rather than build him up?
And what about your ears? Do you use the same ears that hear the precious Words of our Lord to listen to the empty, and often evil, words of this world? Words that deceive, words that corrupt, words that tear down rather than give life?
People sometimes say, “Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?” But Christians must ask: Do you partake of your Lord’s true body and blood with that mouth, and then use the same tongue for blasphemy, for gossip, for tearing down your neighbor? Do you listen to His Word with those ears, and then fill them with poison from the world?
Saint James writes: “If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless” (James 1:26). And again, in chapter 3, he says the tongue is small but sets the whole course of nature on fire, full of deadly poison. That is what our tongues were like when we were still bound in sin.
Paul says in Romans 6: “When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end everlasting life.”
And yet how often do we cave? How often do we use our tongues for corrupting talk? How often do we let our ears be filled with gossip, filth, or blasphemy against God’s Word? The same tongue that receives the blood of Christ we use to mock or to slander. The same ears that hear the Gospel are quick to receive empty and destructive words.
But we must remember what Paul told Titus to remind his congregation:
“Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men” (Titus 3:1–8).
This is a faithful saying, and Paul says we should affirm it constantly. Because the temptation to use our ears and tongues in the old way is always there. But Christ has made us new, and continues to renew us. He continues to open our ears, loose our tongues, and set us free to speak rightly, orthos.
The crowd was astonished beyond measure and said, “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”
That is also our confession. For the same Lord who opened this man’s ears and loosed his tongue has done the same for us. In Holy Baptism He sanctified your ears and your tongue. And here today, He continues His work.
He opens your ears again to hear His faith-creating and faith-sustaining Word.
He looses your tongue again and causes you to speak rightly through that Word.
And He strengthens you by placing on your tongue the same life-giving flesh and blood of Himself that He used to heal the deaf and mute man.
If you have misused the ears and tongue your Lord has sanctified—if you have listened to what is empty and evil, if you have spoken what tears down rather than builds up—hear this: you are brought back today into the crowd of Christ’s congregation. Here your Lord restores you. He makes you to hear rightly, to speak rightly, and to go forth proclaiming what you have heard and tasted this day.
And so you go forth with the crowd confessing: He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.
Let us pray. Alas, Lord Jesus, through sin we are so far removed from You. Take us, miserable ones, up today from the horde of the unrepentant and the despisers of Your name, and lead us into the number of Your rightly believing ones. Sink Your finger, the Holy Spirit, into our hearts. Command and defend, through the power of Your Word, against all that would keep and hinder us from You. With the spittle, that is, with the use of Your most worthy Sacrament, seal and quicken our body and soul, so that closed ears may be opened and the bands of tongues may be loosened, that we may speak rightly, and live, walk, and blessedly die unto Your honor; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen.
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