The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity
The Collect.
Almighty and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we are to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire, or deserve; Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
The Gospel. St. Mark 7. 31-37.
JESUS, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it; And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
We have a story of Christ healing a deaf and dumb man in Matthew’s Gospel, 15.29ff., and the parallel Gospel lection of Mark, 7.31-37. Jesus has returned from the region of Tyre and Sidon via the Decapolis (deka poleis, ten cities), a tract from ancient Phoenica to areas southeast of the Sea of Galilee. See map. The area contained admixtures of Greek, Roman and Semitic influences and cross-pollinations. In this context, we aren’t or wouldn’t be surprised at the polyglot capabilities of our Lord and His apostles.
While Matthew relates a wider set of miracles and healings, Mark zeroes in on one, the story before us. The selectivity gives vividness to the Person of the Son of God, God of God and Light of Light, yet born of the Virgin Mary. The Nicene Creed we shall confess in the Administration of Holy Communion which ever is evident in all Gospel narratives .
The instruction of the ancient Creeds is never far from our thoughts. The Gospel lesson shows us that every miracle evinces Majesty in His Person shining effulgently. Fully God and fully man, yet without sin, in One Person in two nature.
The man is deaf and dumb. Jesus “lays his hands” on him, a solemn, visible act often performed by Christ. It is apparent that people had come to expect this from Jesus and that He had been accustomed to the practice. It was a solemn, visible, and an outward act teaching about His spiritual power. There was no need for this; Jesus could have done the miracle without the visible sign or symbol; His mere Word alone created the heavens and earth (John 1.1-5).
But Jesus teaches us here, by sign and act, that His Person and Office governs tongues and ears. Jesus touched the man’s tongue and ears in what, to us in the West, appears to be a bizarre and unusual event. He makes it clear that we get all “hearing and speaking,” in normal conversations, from His hand. Spiritually speaking, this is true as also. He puts His hand on our dumb tongues and deaf ears.
Our Gospel tells us that Jesus lifted His eyes to heaven and sighed. Here we learn of Jesus’ strong emotion of compassion and His strength of feeling for this smitten creature. This compassion informs His ministry.
Mark inserts an Aramaic word and translation, Ephphatha , that is, Be opened (effatha, o estin, dianoixhti).
This is a note of an eye-witness. It might have been omitted for editorial reasons or for mere simplicity. The Aramaic was not necessary, but Mark added it. It is added to show the power of His Command.
The Greek translation, be opened, is an aorist passive imperative. The aorist tense in the imperative mood emphasizes the staccato-like, punctiliar, and command authority of our Sovereign Redeemer. The passive demonstrates that the literal and spiritual tongues and ears were the object of the action. In no way, did the man effectuate the healing.
Dianoigw is often used in the sense of opening the ears to a report, such as at Luke 24.32. And they said to one another, `Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while he opened the Scriptures to us? The opening of the understanding and heart is governed by election and predestination, e.g. Acts 16.14. This also was and is under Christ’s Reign.
It is a good and fair deduction that the man was spiritually and intellectually transformed by the healing. That is not made explicit except that the account tells us that, contrary to a post-op order by Jesus, the people began to hike His name and fame around…understandably, but disobediently as well. Jesus was restraining and retarding an undue advance until His time had come. Mark, as a Gospel, contains this aspect somewhat more clearly than the other Gospel. (Luke 9.51 captures the determinative moment when Christ openlyheaded to Jerusalem for the purpose of His Incarnation, death on the Cross and the salvation of sinners. He set His forehead like a flint towards Jerusalem.)
We learn what our Collect for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity teaches.
Christ is more ready than we are to pray or come to Him. He is wont to give, in our quaint language, that is, Christ desires to give us good things. But like deaf and dumb creatures, we know that our consciences are terrified by the Law. We know it. We are not worthy to ask anything, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ alone, our LORD,[1] a Reformation recovery. We do well to pray this on the morrow with understanding and faith. May we live with this comfort and solid assurance. The healed man would agree.
The Collect.
Almighty and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we are to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire, or deserve; Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
A closing hymn, "The Old 100th," arranged by Ralph Vaugh Williams and played by Diane Bish.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNbLtiG2dWU
Footnote:
[1] There is absolutely no room for the invocation of saints. Article XXII, “The Romish Doctrine…the invocation of Saints, is a fond thing vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God.” We are thankful that Archbishop Thomas Cranmer expunged the invocation of saints in our Reformation Prayer Books. We are thankful for those bold Churchmen who carried the day until the atavistic, retrograde and romanticistic movement of the Tractarians.
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