Listening to God's Voice

Sunday's Sermon on Mark 7.31—37 by the Rev. Scott Homer

“Say to those who are of a fearful heart, "Be strong, fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you. 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped…” Isaiah 35.4

What is the most important thing in life? I have heard lots of different answers over the years. Happiness is a common answer. When people are surveyed happiness is always near the top of the list. Some people say, if you have your health, that is the most important thing. Others say its love—love is what makes the world go 'round. We used to joke around when I was a boy and say, “Money isn’t everything but it’s running a close second.” Fame, success, power, there are a good many things vying for the “most important". How would you answer the question?

The Bible has some things to say about what is most important in life too. For example, after Jesus finishes telling the parable of the Sower of the Seed to a crowd of people a woman yells out, “"Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you." I think what she meant by that was that the best thing in the world was to be the one who gave birth to Jesus. And I think we would all have to agree that Mary must have been held in very high esteem by God to be chosen to bear the Son of God…but interestingly enough Jesus disagrees with the woman in the crowd. No offense to his mom but Jesus throws his hat into the wring and he offers his opinion. What is the most important thing in life according to the Son of God? Jesus said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" The most important thing is to hear the word of God and keep it.

This is not the only time and the only place where Jesus insisted that hearing the voice of God was the most important thing in life. In the Gospel of John, chapter 5, verse 25 Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” There is nothing more important, in the entire world, than to be able to hear the Son of God. See, the question we have been asking is a bit tricky because embedded in the question is the answer. What’s the most important thing in life? Well, the truth is that the most important thing is life. Without that there is no fame, no success, no power. Without life there is no health, no love nor money. Life is the most important thing in life and Jesus, the Son of God is the author of life.

In our Gospel reading this morning Jesus and his disciples are way away from where we might expect a Jewish rabbi and his disciples to be. We would expect to find Jesus moving from town to town in Judea talking to the crowds of faithful Jews. After all, that was the Promised Land and that is where God’s chosen people lived. And the Jews, God’s Chosen people had long believed that Messiah would come to save them. Even Jesus himself said to the Syro-Phonicean woman that he has come to bring salvation to the Jews and so, our story this morning is all the more spectacular in that it takes place in the region of the Decapolis. And the region of the Decapolis was on the East Side of the Sea of Galilee and the wrong side of the Jordan River. The land that Jesus was walking through was not the Promised Land. It was not the home of the Chosen people. This was the land of pagans. This was gentile country. This is the land of the dead—those who had never heard the word of God and who had no hope of eternal life. And in the midst of this pagan land, in this dead zone, the Son of God causes a deaf man to hear. Jesus restores the man’s hearing and the first thing the man hears is the voice of the Son of God. “Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.”

And so, this little miracle story in the region of the Decapolis is way more than just a story about Jesus having the power to heal. This story is about Jesus bringing salvation not just to a chosen few but to the whole world. What is Jesus’ mission? It is nothing less than to bring the salvation and the hope of eternal life to the whole world. And the message for each and every man woman and child in the world is that when we come to Jesus he is able to make us hear. He is able to unstop our ears in order that we may hear his words. He can cause us to hear the Word of God and to know freedom from death. Hearing the voice of God, hearing his son is the most important thing because it is the means by which we have life and have it in all its fullness. So let’s look at what our gospel reading has to say about this miracle of being set free to hear the voice of our Savior.

"They brought to him…"
We aren’t told who “they” are. It could have been disciples. (You remember they were sent out to towns and villages ahead of Jesus’ visit) It could have been local people coming out to see Jesus, or faithful believers. The important matter here is not who they were but rather that they brought him. We can bring people to the Lord. We can’t bring them to Jesus in the flesh because Jesus is no longer living amongst us in the flesh but we can bring them into Christ’s presence none the less. In fact, that is precisely what we are doing every time we pray for someone—or when we invite someone to church, or we engage them in a Bible Study, or we move them to attend Sunday School, or we bring them to the Altar for Communion, in all these things we are bringing people to the Lord—because he is the healer. He is the one who has the words of life. But don’t miss our importance in all these things. We bring people. That is our part and we can not shirk our part. If “they” don’t bring the deaf man, there is no healing story.

We are told that when two or three are gathered together in his name that He is in our midst and there are certainly more than two or three gathered here this morning. And that is one of the primary reasons that we pray in teams—Jesus says that he is there with our team. We can not bring people to the physical Jesus but we can bring them before Jesus none the less.

"a man who was deaf and had an impediment of speech…"
I want to look at this issue of not being able to hear nor speak. Deafness and muteness are two disabilities that manifest themselves in a number of different ways. There are those who are born without the ability to hear. And there are those who suffer an illness that robs them of their ability to hear. And then there are those who are injured and the injury makes them unable to hear. Finally, there are those who will not hear. And although we have some folks are hearing impaired for physical reasons, the real problem for most of us is that we refuse to hear. This sort of deafness is just as real, just as profoundly dysfunctional as those with a physical condition. But interestingly, this deafness is more insidious and resists healing more than the others because all those who are deaf as a result of physical causes know they are deaf but those who are unwilling to hear…often they will not even admit that they do not hear.

The same might be said of those who can not and those who will not communicate with others. Those who can not because of physical limitations recognize the problem and can oftentimes be healed or alternate means of communicating may be found but the person who refuses to speak requires a miracle cure. Might I suggest that all of us here present are deaf to the Lord’s voice and mute in praising him more often than we should be?

"And taking him aside…"
Sometimes Jesus does grand miracles in the presence of everyone. But sometimes Jesus’ efforts to heal someone are private and personal. He takes us aside where the crowd can’t see and where even those who brought us can’t see. And while that healing is taking place, nobody can observe anything happening. Tat is the case in our reading today. Jesus takes the man aside. We are not told why Jesus takes the man aside. Perhaps the noise and confusion was distracting and Jesus wanted to be able to focus. Maybe he wanted to have a conversation with the man while he was healing him. Maybe Jesus didn’t think the people who brought him had the right to know what he was doing. Whatever the reason they did not observe what we observe.
That is often true today as well. We bring people before the Lord and the Lord does what he wants with that person…and oftentimes he does not allow us to see the work he is doing. How many people here have prayed for someone and not been able to see any change? It is almost always true, at least for some time that the Lord is working in someone’s life long before we can see any change. Sometimes we pray for years without being able to discern any signs of God working in their life…and so we must remember that God often heals in private. It does not mean that God is not answering your prayers. It means that God works on a “Need to Know basis,” and often you don’t need to know. I can tell you from personal experience that people were praying for me for years and the Lord was poking me and prodding me for a very long time before I actually began to be willing to change. Those people that were praying for me thought their prayers were going unanswered…but it wasn’t true. God was working to transform my life all along.

We need to pray courageously and persistently and doggedly and determinedly and for a long time and with a real commitment to not quit and to persevere…Get my point? I know some of you have been praying for someone for a very long time and you have grown discouraged. I know some of you have given up praying altogether thinking it doesn’t seem to make any difference. But it does make a difference. God is answering your prayers—some way, somehow God is doing the work of restoring his people. You can count on it. It is safer than money in the bank—much safer. So, if you have stopped praying—start praying again. If you are discouraged, take courage and keep praying. Prayer is powerful...but don’t pray alone unless you have no other option. God is love and love is a group activity. Pray with one another, group prayer is far more powerful than individual prayer.

"Jesus] put his fingers into his ears, he spat and touched his tongue, and looking up to heaven he sighed and said, “Be opened”…"
Kind of gross huh? Jesus pokes the guy in the ears. He spits, we aren’t told where but he spits. I’m not sure my mom likes the idea of the Son of God and the Savior of the World spitting anyplace but there you have it—right there in the Bible. Don’t blame me. I didn’t write it. Jesus spat and then he touched the guys tongue.
Now what I take away from this is that we do not get a vote on how Jesus heals us or our loved ones. If Jesus says, “go stand on your head in the corner and recite the alphabet,” I am going to go stand on my head in the corner and recite the alphabet because he is the source of power. He is the one who heals. He is the all knowing, all loving one. So, if he says or does something I don’t understand I have to conclude that He is doing the right thing and I just can’t figure it out right now.

The second thing this story teaches me is that if I am going to get healed, I am going to have to get humble enough to receive the healing Jesus is bringing in the way Jesus is bringing it. In my pride I will never allow Jesus to do the things he wants to do to heal me. I don’t much like God poking me and prodding me. I can’t say I like the idea of anybody, including God sticking his hand in my mouth but God restores us in the way that he sees fit and if we are going to be healed we are going to have to surrender to his method. Humility is not something any of us actively seek out. Nobody likes to be humbled…and yet humility forms in our lives, the fertile ground into which God sows the seed of our salvation. And in a humble heart the Lord is able to accomplish incredible miracles. So, like it or not, healing often involves humbling.

I believe that Jesus is speaking into a number of people’s lives here today. I know that God has been working inside some folks here, to transform you and to heal you. Some of you have suffered humiliation. Your hearts are being sifted. You have not been able to figure out why…but I believe that God is doing a great work within you. He wants your ears to opened. He wants you to hear the truth. He is saying “be opened” to you just like he did to this deaf man in our reading this morning. And I know too, that they will be opened. They will be opened because He commanded it. And what he says goes. There is not one case in all of Scripture where Jesus tries to heal someone and can not do so. He succeeds in every case, not matter how severe. Even death is not too much for him. Jesus will keep poking you and keep prodding you and keep speaking to you until you surrender and are healed. And that is good news indeed. Because we need a miracle worker in our lives. We need Jesus to do for us what we have never been able to do ourselves. And we give him all the thanks and praise.

"Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" Amen.