Opening Prayer
Let my lips proclaim the praise of Your mouth. Amen.
Text: Mark 7:31-37
And again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee. Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him. And He took him 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. Then He 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 measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”
Devotion
“His ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.” Note: first his ears were opened, then the impediment of his tongue was loosed. Being mute is based on deafness. Deaf-mutes have a normal tongue, but cannot use it, because they cannot hear. There are so many spiritually mute because there are so many who are spiritually deaf. Such people can speak with flowing tongue, can praise and insult, attack and defend and choose words both clever and good, and yet their tongue is tied: The Lord they cannot praise; His wonders they cannot proclaim. We human beings have the gift of speech, this glorious gift, which no other creature on earth has. This shows the Lord’s grace toward us and proclaims His wisdom among us. But what this wonderful gift proclaims of itself, many who have it cannot acknowledge; no, they don’t say a word about it; their heart cannot bring across their tongue any heavenly truth for the glory of the Lord. And so they cannot speak to edify man either. When life from God is not in our heart, it cannot be on our tongue either. “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Mat 12:34).
So then God’s love in Christ must enter our hearts. We are all by nature evil and dead. Life and light must come into our heart from outside of us, that is, from God. But this happens when we hear His Word, hear the truth and love in Christ, spoken to us in His Gospel. When the ears of the soul are opened, then they really hear the truth of the Gospel, then we learn to speak and to praise God. The Spirit of life then abides in us and causes our tongue to speak the language of the reborn, cleansed heart. Let the Lord take you aside, so that you stand alone before Him. Let Him put His fingers, that is, the saving power of His Word, in your ears, and the spit of His mouth on your tongue. Entrust yourself to His sighing and intercession, under His high-priestly grace, and hear His “Ephphatha;” then you shall learn to “speak plainly.” Then you shall sing, and heaven and earth shall sing with you concerning the Lord’s work: “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”
Closing Prayer
Let this happen with many, many people, gracious God. Give us grace to hear the Word of Your Spirit, so that it remains in us. “Blessed is the soul that hears the Lord speak in His heart and receives the Word of comfort from His mouth! Blessed are the ears that listen to what God’s Spirit gently whispers, and does not submit to the blaring and bewildering voices of this world!” And grant us grace to use the supreme gift of our tongue to praise You; grant us such blessedness through Jesus Christ. Amen.
Hymn
O Savior, let Your “Ephphatha”
My mouth and heart be cheering,
Then one most grand “Alleluia”
From me You shall be hearing!
O that Your heart most brotherly
In all our need e’er open be,
Then nothing e’er can destroy us.
Then when approaches my last hour,
No words my mouth supplying,
Then fill my heart with gracious pow’r
To long for heav’n with sighing!
My words before Your throne do bring,
And let my soul with angels sing,
Where all our sighing is ended.
Rambach: Min Jesus, Grund til al vor Lyst L 513:4-5;
tr. DeGarmeaux; tune: Herr, wie du willst (ELH 219); alternate hymn: Thou to whom the sick and dying ELH 237