“The Lord has made the deaf hear and the dumb speak. May He soon touch your ears to receive His word, and your mouth to proclaim His faith, to the praise and glory of God the Father. Amen.”
Jesus’ prayer in Mark 7:31-37 is not just for the deaf and dumb man near the Sea of Galilee involved in this story. The truth is that Jesus has already opened up the heavens for us, hence his prayer ‘‘Ephphatha—Be opened,’ sums up Christ’s entire mission. He became man so that man, made inwardly deaf and dumb by sin, would become able to hear the voice of God, the voice of love speaking to his heart, and learn to speak in the language of love, to communicate with God and with others.’ This prayer of hope and restoration is for you and I, the church, the family, the community, and our nations.
First, ‘deafness in our sense, means the incapacity to be instructed by means of the ear in the normal way, and dumbness means only that ignorance of how to speak one’s mother tongue which is the effect of the deafness.’ It is important to note that, some people are born deaf and dumb, while some others contact them by accident. For example, the dumb cannot tell of what he feels just as the deaf cannot be communicated with. Spiritually, the deaf and dumb resonates with people, churches, and nations isolated from good things of life, people suffering from stagnation, and finding life difficult. Like the man in this story, his ways to success are blocked, delayed and dishonoured. He cannot marry or have her own children. He is unproductive.
The deformity of the man in this story placed him at odds with the ability for true worship, hence Jesus allows the man to “reconnect” with true worship by healing the man of his infirmities. We all need Jesus’ touch and healing that brings us back to true relationship with God. Our ears are open when the Holy Spirit calls us to repentance, we are able to hear what the Spirit is saying with reference to God’s assurance for the forgiveness of our sins. Martin Luther said “Christ shows us that he opens ears and unbinds tongues. He seeks to perform this work daily in his church … It is a physical fact that God gives sound ears and tongues also to the heathens; but only for Christian is this spiritual fact true, that he opens and looses tongues. For we Christians must hear his Word with our ears and confess with our lips … To this day the greatest miracle and mightiest work is giving a person ears that gladly hear God’s Word and a tongue that honours God and does not blaspheme … Many people are a thousand times worse off than this poor deaf and dumb man. They have ears that are really stopped up. They hear God’s Word and yet really do not hear it, not do they want to. But those who hear God’s Word gladly and to whom Christ says, as to the deaf man, ‘Ephpthatha (Be opened),’ are helped … God has shown us no other way by which we can come into heaven than through his precious Word, the Holy Gospel. Whoever gladly and diligently hears and receives it and who loves and delights in it will be helped.”
Jesus’ prayer is a command to you and I, our churches, families, and nations to “Be opened!”… to intimacy with God, to his healing touch, to his voice, and to his power. When Jesus says, “Be opened” he is not just referring to a physical opening of the ears and tongue; implied also is the opening of our hearts to welcome the relationship, the gift, that God is offering. Pope Benedict aptly explained that, ‘there is an inner closing, which covers the deepest core of the person, what the Bible calls the ‘heart.’ That is what Jesus came to ‘open,’ to liberate, to enable us to fully live our relationship with God and with others.’
There is a much worse problem than being physically deaf and dumb. Humanly speaking we could not hear and understand the gospel. We are like a generation “ever hearing but never understanding…” (Mk 4:12). It is complete foolishness and simplistic the idea that our sins are forgiven by the death of Jesus who lived 2000 years ago (1 Cor 1:18). The reflection is that without the wisdom of the gospel, we are doomed to hell. Beloved, what is blocking your spiritual ears to hearing the Word of God? What has stiffened your tongue so that you hesitate to respond fully in faith and love? May you experience the greatest miracle today as you invite Jesus Christ into your life to open your ear and mouth to the message of the gospel.
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