He Has Done All Things Well: Healing Our Suffering 16th Sunday after Pentecost Pastor Tim Patoka September 12, 2021 The Incidental Ephphatha Mark 7:31-37 1) Jesus Did Not Come to Say “Ephphatha” 2) Jesus Graciously Says “Ephphatha” Last week, my wife and I took advantage of the Labor Day holiday to go on a mini vacation. As we were deciding where to go, we had a few parameters – somewhere outside but not too hot, somewhere far away enough but close enough so we could worship here in-person. We ended up going to the Petrified Forest National Park in northeastern Arizona and saw just about everything there was. It was really cool and had lots of things we’ve never seen before. But what most surprised me were all the incidental things we saw along the way, the things we didn’t plan for but were more than happy to include. The burn scar from the Telegraph and Mescal wildfires south of Globe. The Salt River Canyon on the way to Show Low. The Wigwam Motel along historic Route 66 in Holbrook, which inspired the Cozy Cone Motel in the movie Cars. The Standin’ on the Corner in Winslow, AZ from the Eagles’ hit song Take It Easy. While we certainly enjoyed the National Park, in many ways it was the incidental happenings that made our mini vacation memorable. Jesus and company likewise had a number of incidental happenings on their planned journeys. And our verses this morning talk about one of those incidental events. While traveling from Tyre to the Decapolis, an opportunity presented itself for Jesus to miraculously heal a deaf and mute man. From our perspective, Jesus saying “Ephphatha! Be opened!” appears to be quite incidental. Yet that doesn’t mean it was done haphazardly or without good reason. Rather as we begin our new worship series called He Has Done All Things Well, we will indeed see how Jesus does all things well when it comes to healing our suffering. Even though he did not come to this world to say “Ephphatha” to heal everybody in sickness or suffering, he graciously says it as he fulfills his primary purpose in coming to this world as the Promised Savior from sin and goes the extra mile to help us deal with the troubles and trials we will have in life. 1) Jesus Did Not Come to Say “Ephphatha” Jesus did not want this miracle of a deaf and mute man to become public knowledge. We see how Jesus takes the man aside and uses nonverbals to communicate only with him. After speaking the Aramaic word “Ephphatha!” 1
He Has Done All Things Well: Healing Our Suffering 16th Sunday after Pentecost Pastor Tim Patoka September 12, 2021 which means “Be opened!” he gave the townspeople strict orders to keep this miracle on the down low. Yet they could not keep quiet. Instead, they told the whole region what miraculous things Jesus had done well! Ironically, this account will never lost to history since it has been recorded in Holy Scripture for all time for God’s people to read, learn, and grow their faith in as we are this morning. There are some reasons why Jesus wanted to keep this miracle quiet. The last time Jesus did a miracle in this region, he got turned away from the people by exorcising a legion of demons into a herd of pigs (Mark 5:1-20). Jesus didn’t want to miss out on speaking with them again. Among the people of Jewish background, they often misunderstood what the Messiah was supposed to be. They mistakenly thought him to be a political leader who would kick out the Romans and reinstate Israel as an independent nation. There was also Jesus himself who wanted to direct the people’s attention to why he primarily came here – to be our Promised Savior from sin, to say “You’re forgiven! You’re going to heaven!” instead of “Ephphatha! Be opened!” to everyone with aches and pains. We too can forget why Jesus primarily came to this world. Perhaps it’s by looking to Jesus as so many did in the Decapolis – the one to help us when all else has failed. People naturally look to God when life goes astray, including Christians who tend to look to him more in times of trouble than times of prosperity. But when the problem is solved or the crisis subsides, what often happens? We fall back to our sinful habits that puts God in the back of our minds. Or perhaps we look to Jesus as those who misunderstood the Messiah – the one to help us realize our dreams. It’s true that Jesus is a masterful teacher and sets forth an exemplary lifestyle. But when we look to Jesus as a manual for living or some self-help guru, we’re forgetting what the Messiah is all about. Jesus, the Promised Messiah, came to our world to take away our sins, not to relieve us of temporary hardships. Jesus stuck to that heavenly-minded, primary purpose throughout his time here. He turned down the accolades and adoration he could have received from the potential crowds of miraculously healed people so that he could be betrayed by one of his 12 closest friends and condemned by his own community of countrymen. Jesus put his divine power aside and submitted to the pagan and unjust rule of the Romans instead of reinstating Israel as an independent nation. Jesus arranged his travel plans through the Decapolis and everywhere else so that he came to Jerusalem at the appointed time to do what the Messiah was prophesied to do – be nailed to a cross, sacrifice himself, and pay the price for all our sins with his very own life. That’s why Jesus intended to keep this incidental miracle a private matter 2
He Has Done All Things Well: Healing Our Suffering 16th Sunday after Pentecost Pastor Tim Patoka September 12, 2021 – so that people would come to hear him say “You’re forgiven! You’re going to heaven!” instead of “Ephphatha! Be opened!” Because Jesus stuck to and completed his primary purpose to be our Promised Savior from sin, he can then heal us from the deadly sickness that sin is. While this account from Mark’s Gospel is strictly about a physical healing, there are some parallels to how Jesus heals us from our sin. As the deaf and mute man couldn’t heal himself, neither can we heal ourselves. We’re born in sin, symptomatic of it our entire lives, and will suffer its 100% mortality rate unless Jesus comes back first. And there is no treatment, cure, or vaccine we can develop to lessen its effects or get rid of it. As the deaf and mute man found his healing in Jesus alone, so do we. All our sins, including those of mistaking why Jesus primarily came to our world, were paid for on the cross. Our guilt and shame before God has been done away with for good. Jesus has personally said to you and me, “You’re forgiven! You’re going to heaven!” And these truths remain ours as long as our faith remains in Jesus as our Promised Savior from sin. 2) Jesus Graciously Says “Ephphatha” As we consider Jesus’ incidental Ephphatha miracle, we also learn how Jesus says this to us because of his gracious love for us. As God, Jesus knew about this miraculous healing in the Decapolis before he even left Tyre and how public it would get. He also knew that this miracle in particular would not detract from his primary purpose in being our Promised Savior. So when the opportunity presented itself for Jesus to heal this deaf and mute man, he spoke the incidental “Ephphatha!” to miraculously restore his health, enable him to work again, and to give him a one-of-a-kind story to share at family reunions and at the local watering hole. It’s in that miraculous act we see how gracious God’s love is for sinful man to not only secure our eternal salvation, but also to go the extra mile in blessing us while still here. Whenever we talk about God’s healing power, It’s important we remember what God has and hasn’t promised us. God has not promised us a life free from pain. In fact, he has told us to expect the very opposite with trials and tribulations of all different kinds. We here at Grace are no exception to this. Read through the quarterly report and you’ll see how your pastors regularly visit people in the hospital or bound in their homes because of health problems. Consider your own life and what your brothers and sisters in the faith who are here today and online also experience. Life is not easy. 3
He Has Done All Things Well: Healing Our Suffering 16th Sunday after Pentecost Pastor Tim Patoka September 12, 2021 But that doesn’t mean God has abandoned us in our sufferings. As with the deaf and mute man, Jesus reaches out to us due to gracious love for us. We don’t see miracle healings anymore, but God certainly work through others to heal our bodies and minds through medical means and trained professionals to do what was once thought impossible. He also remains at our bedside with his faithful promises and unconditional blessings to lift up our spirits and strengthen our hearts as his visible presence certainly did with the man who was once deaf and mute. Because of his gracious love, Jesus says “Ephphatha” to us again and again as he goes the extra mile to help us in our time our need until we finally experience the salvation he has won for us and rest from all our earthly sorrows. In what seems to be an incidental miracle is also an example of how Jesus has done all things well. When it comes to healing our sufferings, there is no exception. Though Jesus did not come to this world to say “Ephphatha” and make everyone healthy again, he did complete his primary purpose to be our Promised Savior which is far more important. As his gracious love drove him to prioritize and complete his mission to secure our salvation, so he continues to forgive all our sins time and time again. Having completed this, Jesus then goes the extra mile and graciously says “Ephphatha” to us as he heals us from the sufferings we endure today be it through others or his own promises and blessings. It’s in these that Jesus shows us how he cares for both our bodies and our souls and will protect and preserve us as he has promised. As such, may we always look upon this incidental Ephphatha healing and see our Savior’s gracious love in all he does for us. Amen.
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