Homily for Trinity 12 (2007)

[Isaiah 29:17-24 / Romans 10:9-16 / Mark 7:31-37]

His tongue was tied so that he couldn’t speak, or at least, he couldn’t speak plainly. That tends not to be our problem. Rather, our problem is that our tongue is tied up in other ways. Instead of using the tongue for what it was intended for, we use our tongues to gossip about others, to complain and grouse, to speak lies, to lure one another into sin.

But the Lord never intended such a use for our tongues. They are there for praise. “O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall declare thy praise.” (Matins, Psalm 51) They are there for witness: “Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt Him name together – I sought the Lord and He heard me and delivered from all my fears!” (Psalm 34)

The point of a freed-up tongue is that it is restored to the uses God intended – glorifying Him and building each other up in the faith. In today’s Gospel this is hinted at in that the man they brought to Jesus began to speak “plainly.” In the Greek, “orthos.” Ring any bells? Orthos flows into words like Orthodoxy. Right praise, right teaching.

And you hear their praises bursting out on all sides, despite Jesus’ telling them to hush it up: “He has done all things well! He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!” Words echoing back to Genesis 1 where God looks over the world and pronounces it “good,” indeed, “very good.” For Jesus is none other than that Word through whom all things were created now come into our flesh. For the world that He had created “good” and “very good” was soon spoiled and saddened. In place of His very goodness there came sin and all the sorrows that trail along behind it – every earthly misery, including deafness and muteness, and finally death itself. But He was not content to leave it so.

Thus He, the Eternal Divine Word, God the Son, came into our flesh, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that His “very good” might once more be spoken over his creation. And so He sets about His work of redemption, which includes the opening of deaf ears and loosening of mute tongues. He sets about restoring us to lives of praise and witness.

St. Mark shows us that this is what the story of the deaf mute is all about in his little geographical note at the beginning of the reading. Did you let it slip by you? He says: “Then Jesus returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.” That may not say much to you, but it said volumes to the original hearers. You see, Decapolis was Gentile territory. And yet even there people had heard about Jesus and consequently these folks carried along their deaf mute friend to the Lord that He might lay His hand on him and heal him. But HOW did THEY know about Jesus?

“How are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (Romans 9:14-15)

If you were reading straight through St. Mark’s Gospel you could easily guess at how they had heard. For back in Chapter Five Jesus paid a brief visit to the area of the Decapolis, to the Gerasenes. There he met a man who lived alone in the tombs, a man possessed by a legion of demons who had taken from him everything – even his name. And Jesus set that man free – drove the demons out and restored him to his right mind. And when Jesus got ready to leave that area, that man who had been set free wanted to go with him. Jesus wouldn’t allow it. He instead “sent” him! He said: “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you.” (Mark 5:19) Off he went then and “began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.” (Mark 5:20)

Because he preached where he was sent, because he sang the praises of God in Christ to his friends, others came to faith. And when they heard that Jesus was near by, they did what only faith would do: they lifted up a friend in need and brought him to Jesus and used their tongues to ask Jesus to heal him. The result was that his ears were opened and his tongue was loosed and he spoke plainly, and everyone began to praise God and witness to others about what they had seen Jesus do.

Do you get it? You see, when Satan spoke his words to the woman in the garden -his lying words, his twisted words - he enslaved us to sin. And sin spoiled -no, ruined -communication between God and man. Sin put us under a burden, a handicap, and obstructed our ability to hear God’s word. And unable to hear God’s word, we could not speak to God, we could not rightly pray to Him, we could not rightly praise Him. And unable to hear God or speak to Him, we could not rightly speak to others about Him.

But then Jesus, the Son of God, came and spoke His words. His healing and restoring words, like His words to the man in today’s Gospel. But more importantly, He spoke His word from the cross: it is finished. With those simple words, He tells us that the burden of sin is lifted. The path of communication between God and man is open again. Words between God and man are restored, so that we can hear God’s word and praise His name and tell others of the wonderful things that He has done!

Hear, O ears, and understand, then, that all the sins of our deaf ears and twisted tongues have been laid on our Jesus with all our other sins. He bore them ALL to death on Calvary’s cross precisely so that in our Baptism He might speak His mighty Ephphatha over us and give us open ears and unshackled tongues. Speak, then, O tongue, and declare the praises of your Redeemer! Sing to Him and tell others about His resurrection victory - a victory He seals to you each time You open your mouth to let Him lay on your tongue the nothing less than His own very body and blood, the price of your forgiveness that gives eternal life to you! “Cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of you!”

The folks in today’s Gospel He told to tell no one, but they did not heed Him. You, however, he tells to tell all, and call them to come to Jesus too, that He might also heal them – give them open ears and praising tongues. And what will YOU do? May your answer be: “O Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall declare your praise – for to You, O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be all the glory, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.”