God's Last Words

11 years ago my wife and I were on the first airplane to leave Hagerstown after 9-11. We did it to express our confidence in our country and our desire to ensure the tryanny of terrorism would be overcome. Pause this week to remember those who died, those families that suffered, and how our lives have changed since this event. Renew your resolve to overcome the overt threats of those who would surplant our values, burn our cities, and destroy and subjugate our children.

Double-Disability

Mark 7: 31-37

I was on a plane when the pilot said, “We’ll be delayed for several minutes while we find a worker to sign off on a maintenance work request we assume was completed but not documented.” When I was in the Navy that type of “preventative maintenance” was a court martial offense!

But how about this airline experience: Taxiing down the tarmac, the jetliner abruptly stops, turns around, and returns to the gate. After an hour long wait, it finally takes off.

A concerned passenger asked the flight attendant, "What was the problem?""The pilot was bothered by a strange noise he heard in the engine," she explained."Oh, and it took a while to fix it?" said the passenger."Not exactly." replied the stewardess, "It just took us a while to find a deaf pilot."

A busy CEO named Harry is looking for a new assistant, but wants to hire someone who is sensitive about his deformity – he has no ears. Three men apply for the job, and Harry arranges to spend some time with each of them.

He calls the first man into his office and interviews him. The applicant does very well, but then Harry asks him if notices anything unusual about his appearance. Rather than be tactful and say no, the man says, ‘Yes. You have no ears.’ Harry gets upset and throws the man out.

The second man is called in and, the interview goes very well until Harry asks the same question. Again the man says ‘You have no ears.’ Harry throws him out.

The last man is invited in and the interview proceeds as before. Finally, Harry asks the question, ‘Do you notice anything unusual about my appearance?’ The man says, ‘Apart from the contact lenses, no.’ ‘That’s very observant,’ says Harry. ‘Not many people would notice I’m wearing contact lenses.’ ‘I didn’t,’ replies the man. ‘I saw the contact lens case on your desk and figured you couldn’t wear glasses without any ears.’

Understanding and dealing with disabilities is increasingly difficult in a politically correct and sensitive society. We have learned to walk on eggshells. Have you ever considered that Jesus came to address human disability:  (MARK 7: 31-37, NRSV)

Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.

They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech: and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into 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.” 

And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.The Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.

They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.

What a great scripture passage this is! There are three things we need to see as we read this passage. First, Jesus deals with this man privately; secondly the man suffers from a disability that seems to speak as a metaphor of the human condition; and thirdly, Jesus is revealing a messianic nature that would become clear after his death.

The Greek work (mogililion) used here for “impediment in his speech” isn’t that he can’t speak but rather that there is a problem in how he speaks. The man is functionally deaf (may hear but isn’t listening) and has garbled speech – he is not deaf and dumb. That is why Jesus’ physical acts of healing are so important here.

First, Jesus could have proclaimed the man healed. Instead Jesus used touch and a sign to show this man he is being healed. Clearing the ears as if they were clogged can’t  be misinterpreted. Using saliva, which the Jews felt had healing properties, to release the man’s tongue for speech would be understood immediately by the man and any onlookers even though he took the man aside privately.

Second, it can be said that the human condition can be said to be one of hearing but not doing God’s Word and Work, and that our human nature manifests itself in the evil things we misspeak. Think about it for a moment:

We don’t know God and His ways. We don’t talk and speak truth about ourselves or God. We are figuratively deaf and have garbled speech. God sees us as disabled.

And we see ourselves like the CEO who doesn’t want anyone to point it out or tell us about it.We think we don’t need healing or restoration. How arrogant we are!

As to the third point, Jesus knows that people will not truly hear, understand, or see the messianic prophecy He has fulfilled until after His death. The prophecy pointed at here is from Isaiah 35: 5-6 (HCSB):

 "Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy, for water will gush in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;”

This is one of the many messianic prophecies Jesus fulfilled.

Jesus isn’t afraid of this act of healing becoming public but rather is alluding to the reality that the time wasn’t ripe for these words and deeds to resonate as they would after His atoning sacrifice and death.

Now I know that someone with a physical disability may chide me for using this analogy – but friends I ask you, what greater disability is there to not have eternal life secured in God’s Kingdom? It is to remain as man was prior to his encounter with Jesus, living in sin.

 Ephphatha! Be opened! Few more beautiful words have been uttered in the history of mankind than these. When Jesus opened the ears and freed the tongue of the deaf and mute man he gave us a gift.

Symbolically, the opening of the man’s ears is like when the unbeliever hears the goodness of the Gospel for the first time. The loosening of the tongue is like excited lips that preach the Good News from hearts on fire.

When Jesus shared his power and love with the disabled man, he gave us a picture of his love for us and how he would best express it on his cross. The last verse says that Jesus has “done everything well” using the same words that used in the Book of Genesis to describe God during the creation story. Jesus has restored creation as God intended.

So there you have it: Jesus meets the needs of this man and changes his life forever by doing away with his double-disability, the double-disability of humanity.

But the real question this day is for you:

What type of disability do you need to overcome? What type of heart, mind, or soul disability do you have that keeps you from full participation in God’s Kingdom?

A very worried man went to his doctor. “Doctor, you have to help me; I’m dying,” he said. “Everything I touch hurts. I touch my head and it hurts. I touch my leg and it hurts. I touch my stomach and it hurts. I touch my chest and it hurts. You have to help me, Doc; everything hurts.”

The doctor gave him a complete examination. “I have good news and bad news for you,” he said. “The good news is you are not dying. The bad news is you have a broken finger.”

 

If we only view the world through the brokenness of our humanity of course we discover that everything is full of sin, decay, and death.

The cause of our suffering and pain in this world is simple: we need to fill our God sized hole that leaves us incomplete and full of pain and uneasy.

Jesus is ready and waiting for you. All you have to do is admit your disability and ask Him to walk daily with you. Amen.