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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
As we heard in the Gospel Reading this morning, in the region of Tyre and Sidon, the Lord Jesus from a distance cast out an unclean spirit from the little daughter of a Syrophoenecian woman, and, as St. Mark uniquely reports, in the region of the Decapolis, He by His Word opened the ears and loosed the tongue of a man brought to Him by the people. If not those two miracles together, then especially the latter miracle left the people astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well”. The event is said to be of an unprecedented nature and of a huge significance (Marcus, ad loc Mark 7:37, p.475) and the people’s declaration is said to come at the apparent highpoint of Jesus’s popularity (Voelz, ad loc Mark 7:37, p.490). Yet, more importantly, Jesus not only makes the deaf hear and mute speak, but also “Jesus does all things well for you”.
Now, admittedly, Jesus may not seem to you to do all things well, either in the Gospel Reading or for you. You may not like all the things Jesus did in the Gospel Reading. Jesus’s statement to the Gentile woman is sometimes taken as His calling her a dog. Jesus’s putting His fingers into the man’s ears and perhaps putting His spit on the man’s tongue can seem a little gross. And, Jesus’s charging the people to tell no one what He had done can be quite puzzling. Moreover, you may not like all the things Jesus lets happen to you. You may be stressed at work or school. You may not like some of the things that happen at church. You may have difficulties in your family at home. And, you may be experiencing more problems with your health. Can you honestly mean and say that “Jesus does all things well for you”?
To be sure, if you cannot honestly mean and say that “Jesus does all things well for you”, then the problem is not with the holy God but with you. Affected by original sin from the moment of your conception, you can hardly search out His judgments or scrutinize His ways (Romans 11:33); for, His thoughts and ways are higher than yours, as the heavens are higher than the earth (Isaiah 55:9). Furthermore, we are in no position to criticize, for we ourselves do not do all things well. We ourselves may be responsible for or contribute to our stress at work or school, the things that we do not like that happen at church, the difficulties in our family, and maybe even the problems with our health. As we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (James 2:1-10, 14‑18), if we fail in even one point of God’s law, then we are guilty of all of it. We certainly deserve to have God come to us with vengeance and His own recompense, as mentioned in today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 35:4-7a).
However, if we listened carefully to that Old Testament Reading, we heard that God comes with vengeance and recompense in order to save us. Those who do not refuse God’s enabling call to turn in sorrow from their sin and to trust Him to forgive their sin, those who have an anxious heart—they hear God’s Word spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “Be strong; fear not!” And, those who repent and believe hear the signs that will identify God’s coming to save them, such as the ears of the deaf being unstopped and the tongue of the mute singing for joy. Truly, for those who were and are paying attention, the very miracles Jesus did in today’s Gospel Reading showed and show that He was and is God’s long‑promised Messiah, the Christ, the One anointed to fulfill all prophecy by doing—and doing well—all of the things God had said that the Messiah not only would do, but also would do for you.
God in human flesh, Jesus the Christ kept the law that we fail to keep, and He kept that law in every single point, and so He was not guilty of any of it. And, out of His great love for us, Jesus the Christ died on the cross for our failure to keep the law, suffering there the death we deserve, so that we do not have to suffer eternally. Jesus’s charging the people to tell no one what He had done may have been to keep them from spreading a misrepresentation of Who He was and why He had come, and it may have been to keep the Jewish leaders from moving to kill Him until the time, place, and way were right for Him. So great was His concern for you! Jesus Himself shows no partiality, but He lets His work benefit both the Jewish children and us Gentile dogs! As we fall down before God seeking mercy, He sends us on our way having granted our request. We confess not only our sins of misjudging what God permits to happen to us and our own parts in them, but we confess also our sinful natures and all our sins, and so God forgives our sin by grace through faith in Jesus the Christ. As the Hymn of the Day put it, “Penitent sinners, for mercy crying, / Pardon and peace from Him obtain” (Lutheran Service Book 797:4). And, we penitent sinners obtain God’s pardon and peace in the ways that He promises to give His pardon and peace.
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus seems to have cast out the unclean spirit from the woman’s daughter by a silent thought, but, in the case of the man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, despite His communicating to the man by touch that his ears and tongue would be healed, Jesus seems to have accomplished the miracle by His spoken word. Likewise, God forgives our sin—grants us His pardon and peace—by His spoken Word: His Word read and preached, connected with water in Holy Baptism, with the visible rite of individual Holy Absolution, and with bread and wine that are Christ’s Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. We might especially think of Holy Baptism, for, from at least the fourth century, through the revisions of Martin Luther, today’s Gospel Reading was a part of Baptismal liturgies, accompanied by the touching of the ears of the one being baptized, indicating that the Word of God itself was opening his or her ears to hear and understand, and so thereby enabling him or her to repent and to believe. And so it is done—and done well—for us, and not only in Holy Baptism but also in and with all of God’s Means of Grace.
In today’s Gospel Reading, the woman immediately heard of Jesus, and most likely the man’s ears were opened and his tongue released immediately. God’s Means of Grace work our forgiveness of sins and re-creation immediately, too, even if our full appreciation of what they work is a little less‑immediate. If not now, then eventually, and definitely on the Last Day, we come to understand that even the things that we might now think of as “bad”—whether at work or school, church or home—those things are worked by God for “good”—certainly the “good” of conforming us to the image of His Son, so that He might be the firstborn among many brothers (Romans 8:28-29). You can mean and say that “Jesus does all things well for you”. In fact, since Jesus no longer charges you not to, you can zealously tell others that “Jesus does all things well for you”. And, by such telling, among other things, the Holy Spirit calls and gathers believers here, around His purely preached word and rightly administered Sacraments, as He has here called and gathered and, thanks be to God, this day added to our number Margot, Linda, John, and B.J.
On the Sixth Day of Creation, God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good (Genesis 1:31). Now, creation itself waits with eager expectation for its final and complete re‑creation on the Last Day (Romans 8:18-25). Until then, God continues to sustain creation and to take care of us and all creatures, as with our recent rainfall, for example. Although our area is hardly a wilderness, desert, or burning sand, as mentioned in the Old Testament Reading, most of our area is experiencing severe drought, and the ground sure has been thirsty! And, God provided rain! God provides for our spiritual needs and also for our physical needs; He gives us His Son and, along with Him, all things (Romans 8:32). In response to Jesus’s death for us and all that He has done and still does, both things that we are aware of and things that we are not aware of, you can say that “Jesus does all things well for you”.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +