The closing of ears and mouths occurs because of sin. Closed ears are those which refuse the Word of God. Closed mouths are those which are unable to speak truly about God because they do not hear. But for both closed ears and closed mouths, the Savior, Jesus Christ, is able to provide healing.

In this event from the life of Jesus we have both a physical and spiritual healing. And we should not be surprised at this. The God who made our bodies desires that our bodies be perfect, that they work the way He made them. He is the One who gave us "eyes, ears, our reason, and all our senses." God did not give us bodies that do not work, except that sin has corrupted the body. Sin has brought death, and all the previews of death that we experience in our bodies. For what does it mean when our eyes go bad? Is it not a reminder of death? What does it mean when we become short of breath more easily, when we ache more? Again, we are reminded that our bodies cannot last. The effects of our sin wear our bodies down. Even if we can avoid the self-abusive habits of too much drink, too much smoke, too much food, and so on, even then our bodies remain unable to last for eternity.

When the deaf and mute man is brought to Jesus, Jesus is once more confronted with the problems of our sinful condition. And the One who came to win the forgiveness of our sins on the cross, through His own giving of His body to death, this same One works among the people, healing diseases, giving sight to the blind, opening ears, and loosing tongues. Jesus Christ, the Word through which the world was made, will affect the souls and bodies of those who are brought to Him.

How does He do this? First, Jesus listens to the prayers of those who bring this deaf mute to Him. Jesus Himself is not deaf to our cries for help. In fact, He wants us to pray, to ask, to seek from Him all that we need. So when He is begged for help, He responds. Jesus also is not mute. He is the Word made flesh. He is speech, we might say. And Jesus, the Word, uses speech, a single word, to undo the sickness of this man. But the Word is not alone. Jesus also uses His fingers to touch the man's ears, and He spits and touches the man's tongue. These outward actions are connected with the word, Ephatha, and the miracle occurs.

What happens when the Word of God is brought to this man? The ears that previously refused to hear are now opened. The tongue that previously refused to speak now speaks plainly. Jesus has brought healing to this man, a healing for the parts of his body that did not work right. Now they do.

It is too bad when those of us who have ears that work well, and mouths that work well, do not use them as they were intended. The Second and Third Commandments teach us what it means to use ears and mouths rightly, and wrongly. We use our ears wrongly when we do not hear God's Word, when we do not gladly hear and learn it. Why have ears if we will not listen to the voice of our Lord? We use our mouths wrongly when we curse and swear, instead of praying and praising God. Why have a mouth that makes sound if we do not speak about God, confess Him, pray to Him?

What we find out about ourselves is that even when our ears and tongues work as they should, they are still burdened with our sin, with our lack of desire for God's will, and our desire for hearing what we want and using our tongues to hurt others as we speak ill of them. St. James describes the work of the tongue as:

Clearly, the bodies we so want to take care of, the bodies we hate to see grow old, these bodies are corrupted. And it is for that reason that even as we tame our speech and open our ears to God's Word, we do so knowing that these bodies must be replaced, "this mortal must put on immortality." The ears and tongue that we use to hear God's Word and confess the Christian faith still are not what they should be. They, like all of creation, are stained and broken by sin. Therefore our Savior did not come only for short term miracles, but for the miracle of resurrection, the miracle of a new creation. And that is finally what it means that Jesus died for us and rose again.

We rejoice at the great miracle Jesus did for the man recorded for us by St. Mark. Jesus gave him a mini-resurrection for part of his body. But we know that eventually this man died. Yet, by faith in Jesus Christ, the death that awaits us is one that is changed. For we shall be changed when we die. We shall become like our Savior, with bodies that never more will get sick or weak or broken. This is what our dear Lord has done for us.

Our Lord Jesus comes to us with the word, Ephatha, "be opened." This is the Word of the Gospel: You are forgiven in Jesus' name. And with forgiveness of sins comes salvation: safety from what we deserve because of our sin; and with forgiveness comes eternal life: new ears, new tongue, a new time to gather around the throne of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

May our Savior keep our ears open always to His gracious voice, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and no one will pluck them out of My hand." And may we continue to praise God: "O Lord open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise." Thanks be to God. Amen.