Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

“They brought to Him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment” (Mark 7:32). Why? It wasn’t a fatal disability. The man was not about to die. I don’t want to demean anyone who lives with any disability, but could not this man have gotten along well in life like many in our society who are deaf and cannot form clear speech? Many of them excel with other gifts and abilities that they have, and with the increased patience and perseverance that their disability has developed in them to heights well above and beyond the average person in society.

 

They brought him to Jesus because Jesus could do for him what other social agencies were unable to do for him. Jesus could not only take care of him, encourage him, protect him and inspire him for a successful and meaningful life. Jesus could also heal him. He could heal the man physically from a disability that had no other source of healing. And perhaps that is the extent to which the people were motivated to bring the man to Jesus. Perhaps they wanted the best life possible for this man.

 

But perhaps also they saw the man’s disability as a convenient opportunity to increase Jesus’ fame and popularity—another healing to keep alive the buzz about this Jesus who was making waves wherever He went with His wonders and His words; a living promo poster boy for a change in society and to call to account those who were neglecting the needs of everyone who felt oppressed in any way.

 

Among Jesus’ disciples were members of the Zealots who were looking for God to restore the nation of Israel to independence and power. Not that they would ever wish anything but good for the deaf man, but why not take advantage of the opportunity to move a step closer to a greater goal, of a nation free from Roman oppression and free to follow the will of God for His people, including better care for the downtrodden and oppressed?

 

Perhaps you have heard some recent ideas about something being called “Christian Nationalism.” It sounds very similar to an older concept known as “Zionism.” These movements (new and old) have similar concepts to the Zealots of Jesus’ day, including a desire that we be ruled by a government that is wholly dedicated to the will of God for His people. That sounds like the right way to move things along.

 

It was good that they brought the deaf man to Jesus. For Jesus healed Him and by doing so revealed that He is the LORD God of whom the prophets, like Isaiah, declared about His coming: “In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see” (Isaiah 29:18). It is good for us to look to Jesus for healing, and to His coming when all the oppressed shall receive full restoration and wholeness of body and soul. He has promised to come again with glory and to fulfill these promises. So we pray for it and await it with great faith.

 

In the meantime what are we to do? As God’s people we are to relieve and support and care for all who are oppressed in any way: physically, emotionally, spiritually, and even politically. But have we been called to set up a political state with a government which will accomplish all of these things in accordance with God’s Word while we wait for Jesus to come?

 

Today’s Psalm speaks of all of the wonderful things that God accomplishes for us as the one who reigns forever. But in doing so, it issues a solemn warning: “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation” (Psalm 146:3). Jesus is the Son of Man in whom there is salvation. Not only His free grace of healing to the deaf man reveals that, but also, His death and resurrection for the forgiveness of all of our sins guarantees it. He is the only Son of Man in whom we are to put our trust.

 

Other sons of men, human beings, who are under the curse of original sin and whose motives and works are tainted by a selfishness and depravity that they cannot escape, (princes though they may be) are not to be trusted. So all earthly governments are problematic, no matter how God-fearing those in power seem to be. They are still tempted by greed and power and self-preservation, and all of the things that tempt you. It is good and right to support them in all of their godly efforts, but we cannot trust in them as we trust unreservedly in Christ, nor hope in them as we hope only in the LORD.

 

Even the kingdom ruled by David, a man after God’s own heart, had its troubles. The nation of Israel, chosen and separated by God Himself, was at times a witness to God’s righteousness to the nations around it, but more often fell to the idolatry and depravity of its people and thereby caused God’s name to be blasphemed in the world.

 

We might expect social justice and the promotion of the welfare of the disabled, the sick, the elderly, the orphaned and widowed, and those who are refugees to be the concern of our rulers, and we rightly encourage them to take up these causes in godly care and compassion. But we cannot trust that they will conquer these issues and not fall into great evil and wickedness. Our governments have displayed great failings in some of these areas of care and compassion for human life, and so will all governments ruled by sinful, fallen human beings.

 

We pray for and work towards and even vote for the best and most promising options. We appeal to our national leaders to care for the fatherless, the disabled, the elderly, and the refugee, but we can only place our trust in Jesus. It is to Him that we bring the sick and oppressed as we pray. In every other direction our trust is misplaced, whether it be in leaders, in any form of nation or state, and even if placed in ourselves. We, too, have fallen to temptations of selfishness, greed, and power. In our exercises to elect and set up governments there is no guarantee of salvation for others, not even of preservation for ourselves. Even our best intentions can crumble before our eyes and our own sins be revealed.

 

This is why the healing of this deaf man by Jesus is so precious to all people, whether they are deaf, blind, orphaned, widowed, displaced, or oppressed in any way. Jesus reveals Himself to be the One who is worthy of our trust, because in His acts of mercy He is the One who proves that the LORD is trustworthy. In Jesus, what the LORD promised has come about. “In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.”

 

And for the deaf man with the speech impediment, “His ears were opened, his tongue was released and he spoke plainly” (Mark 7:35). We don’t know what happened to that man after the incident in our Gospel reading, but Jesus certainly restored to him the ability to hear the words that the apostles and evangelists would record in their books and letters. And He did it without making him a poster boy for self-promotion. He took him aside and healed him privately, and this concern for the person rather than for promotion causes us to trust in Christ all the more.

 

The LORD who made heaven and earth is able to do all that He promises and He keeps faith with His people. He executes the justice He has promised, and He performs it all through Jesus Christ, who as the holy Son of God is free from the curse of sin and brings the light of His righteousness into this world of gloom and darkness.

 

Jesus gave food to the hungry, miraculously feeding thousands from resources too meagre to feed His own twelve disciples. He opened the eyes of the blind so that they might see and be released from the gloomy and dark prospects of victimization. Jesus raised those bowed down like the man with dropsy and the women with a bent back. I haven’t counted all of the reports of His miracles recorded in the Gospels, for far beyond their number are those whom Jesus has released from their spiritual afflictions.

 

And that includes us here. To those who hunger and thirst for a righteousness they know they cannot live up to, Jesus gives His holy body to eat and His precious blood to drink. For those who are caught in a kingdom of darkness and death because of addictions to sins too powerful for them to control, He provides release through the absolution of His forgiving grace. To all of us who were blind to His grace, seeing in the Word of God only threats and punishments, He has lifted the veil so that we might see the love and mercy of His heavenly Father. For those bent down by unbearable guilt and shame, He has lifted them up, giving them the right to be called the children of God.

 

This includes all of us who have been at times blinded by our own zealous thoughts that we can change the world in which we live to create some sort of kingdom of righteousness politically rather than spiritually. It includes all of us who have turned a deaf ear to the cries of those in need. It includes all of us who have stood by voluntarily mute when we could have spoken up for those who are neglected and oppressed in our community. It includes all of us who, instead of focusing on the care of the person are more concerned with advancing a cause.

 

We know we have not done what we should and could quite easily do for the fatherless babies destined for abortion, and for the hungry who are increasingly apparent on our streets; not even visiting the sick and caring for those who need assistance in life, or accompanying with compassion those who are suffering in their last days.

 

Praise God that we have a gracious and merciful sovereign more full of love and compassion than we can find in ourselves. And that is what our Psalm today encourages us to do: “Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul! I will praise the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being” (Psalm 146:1-2).

 

That will be a good long while, for because of the forgiveness and grace that the LORD has given to you in Jesus Christ, your being (your existence) will continue long after this earthly life draws to its end. In the compassion and restoration that He has accomplished for you through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus, you have your being for eternity, long past when all earthly kingdoms shall fall. Your soul will continue to praise Him, even after your death, joining with the myriads of angels and saints who have that unveiled view of the glorious face of God.

 

And when Christ does come again with glory, as He promised, as He keeps faith with those who cling to His Word, we will praise Him evermore in our resurrected bodies; no more bearing any infirmity of sin, but proclaiming with every breath and movement and sense, the glories of God in Jesus Christ our Saviour, in that one kingdom that has no end.