Word, Faith, Justification, Love, Prayer

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Sermon for Trinity 12

2 Corinthians 3:4-11  +  Mark 7:31-37

The simple, easy-to-understand Gospel that we have before us today presents a simple, easy-to-understand pattern of the Christian life. It’s a pattern that we see, first, with the people who brought the deaf and mute man to Jesus, and then we begin to see the same pattern with the man who was healed. Word, faith, justification, love, and prayer. It’s the same pattern that we find in the Church today and that God intends to have played out here right here in our midst.

It all starts with the Word of the Gospel, the message of God’s mercy in Christ. The deaf-mute needed healing from God, and not just of his ears and tongue, but of his heart—healing from the disease of sin and its consequence of eternal death. The deaf-mute wasn’t able to hear the Word, but his friends were, and clearly they did hear it. The people who brought the deaf and mute man to Jesus had to have heard for themselves the message of God’s mercy. They, like all people, were sinners, but they heard that Jesus came from God to help sinners. They heard that God is merciful, that He is gracious and willing to forgive, that His forgiveness and help are free of charge—given because of Jesus, not because of how worthy or deserving they were. They heard the Word that Jesus offered His help to all people, to anyone and everyone who came to Him for help, never turning anyone away.

That Word, that Gospel, that good news about God’s mercy in Christ Jesus entered their ears. And then God the Holy Spirit brought them to believe it, to rely on it, to trust in it. Faith came by hearing, as it always does. They believed that Jesus had the power to help with any need. They believed that Jesus was willing to help anyone who came to Him. They trusted in His mercy, they relied on Him to do for their deaf friend what He had already done for so many in Israel, without price, for free.

Then, the moment they were brought to faith in Christ, they were also justified. They became pleasing and acceptable to God. Their sins were no longer counted against them. Having been justified by faith, freely, for Christ’s sake, they had peace with God. They had Him for a gracious Father. They had Christ for a Brother. They had all the saints from all ages—Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the prophets, the apostles, even you and me—as their spiritual siblings.

And then, they immediately overflowed with love for their deaf and mute friend. They were committed to helping him, to caring for him, to going out of their way to get him to the one place on earth where he could be helped—to the place where Jesus was. They didn’t bring him to Jesus for their own benefit, but for his. That’s how love always acts, not for our own benefit, but for the benefit of others.

That love for their friend then overflowed into the best way—in this case, the only way—they could help the deaf man. They prayed for him. They prayed an intercessory prayer—a prayer for God to help someone else, whether it’s another Christian, or whether it’s someone who can’t pray for him or herself, like an unbeliever, a non-Christian. Having been justified by faith, these people knew they had God’s ear and God’s promise to hear and help. So they prayed to Jesus. (Remember, “to pray” simply means to ask). They asked Him to help the deaf man. The deaf man needed to believe in Jesus for himself. They couldn’t believe for him. He needed faith. But to have faith, he needed to hear for himself, and that was a major problem.

Even so, the pattern had run its course. The friends heard the Word of God’s mercy. They were brought to faith. They were justified by faith. Love was born of faith. And prayer was born of love.

Then Jesus took over, and the pattern began to repeat itself! Jesus preached the Word to the deaf man in the only way the man could receive it, through a series of signs that he could see with his still-working eyes.

First, Jesus took him aside from the multitude. “You don’t know Me, but I know you. You’re not just a face in the crowd. I have time for you. You matter to me.”

Second, Jesus put His fingers in the man’s ears. “I know what’s wrong with you. I will help.” What’s more, the “finger of God” in Holy Scripture is a reference to the Holy Spirit. He has to enter the ears through the Word in order to create faith.

Third, Jesus spat and touched the man’s tongue. This act of spitting and touching the man’s tongue is a picture of the Word of God going out from the mouth of Jesus, or from the mouths of  His called and ordained servants. It goes into the ears, of course, but then it takes root in the heart and makes its way onto the tongue, so that, again, as Paul writes to the Romans, with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation…Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Fourth, Jesus looked up to heaven and sighed. Healing comes only from above, from the God of love who sent His Son to rescue poor sinners from the consequences of their own sins, including the inborn sin, the original sin and spiritual disease with which we are born. A sigh from God as He looks down at all the mess we’ve made of this earth, of ourselves, at all the disease and death we’ve brought on ourselves by our sins, as He looks at all the broken families, and the physical and psychological illnesses that plague our race.

Finally, Jesus said the word that even a novice lip-reader could understand, Ephphatha! Be opened! And his ears were opened and his tongue was loosed.

The Word, communicated through signs, brought the man to faith. He was healed. He was justified. He was eager to speak about what Jesus had done.

But then the pattern was disrupted, maybe even derailed. It’s supposed to go: Word, faith, justification, and then love, and prayer. But Jesus commanded them not to speak about this healing. He had His own reasons for it. The command was clear. And, as John writes, This is love for God, to obey His commandments. But this time, love failed. He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it.

Now, what can we learn from all this? The pattern has unfolded with each of us. Word, faith, justification, love, and prayer. You have all heard the Word of God’s mercy in Christ. You’ve heard it again this morning in His great kindness shown to the deaf man. Having heard, you have also been brought to faith and Holy Baptism. You’ve been justified by faith. And that faith has produced love, in many ways, on many occasions, throughout your lives. And love has led you to pray for others—family, friends, Christians, total strangers. The pattern plays out over and over and over again.

As it plays out again today, make sure it plays out in full, that it doesn’t get disrupted as it did at the end of today’s Gospel. Now, the pattern can get disrupted right at the beginning, if a person stops hearing the Word. Then faith eventually dies, and justification turns again to condemnation, and love and prayer wither away, too. But today, the pattern was disrupted at the point of love. So I ask, how has God placed you in a position to show love to someone who needs it? Whom do you know who doesn’t know Jesus, who needs His mercy and forgiveness? Whom can you bring to church with you or invite to your home to hear about Him? For whom can you pray that God would work mightily to bring him or her to faith? Faith comes by hearing. Surely you know many people who don’t hear the Word of God. You can’t hear for them, you can’t believe for them, and you can’t make them believe. But you can love them by directing them to Jesus for help, by leading them, urging them to where they can hear His word, and then by praying for them, that God would graciously bring them to faith, even as He has brought you to trust in Him.

Being a Christian isn’t just about hearing and believing. It’s also about loving and obeying. You’ve been given a vital and ongoing task in this life, not to bring your neighbor to faith, but simply to bring your neighbor to where Jesus is, so that His Holy Spirit might reproduce the pattern in your neighbor that He’s already accomplished in you.

So hear the Word of God’s mercy again today—mercy and forgiveness for every failure. Hear it and see it played out in the Sacrament of the Altar. Trust in that Word, and forgiveness—justification—is granted all over again. Then let love grow, as it must. Let it go out to the people you know. Invite them to hear the Word, and don’t stop inviting. And then pray for them.

Over and over and over again, let this pattern play out in your life, to the glory of God and to the good of your neighbor. Amen.