Mark 7:31 Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. 32 There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man. 33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the man's tongue. 34 He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, "Ephphatha!" (which means, "Be opened!"). 35 At this, the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. 36 Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. 37 People were overwhelmed with amazement. "He has done everything well," they said. "He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."

Imagine for a moment a totally stranger coming up to you and sticking his finger in your ears. Then he spits and touches your tongue. That is what happened to the deaf man who was brought to Jesus. His friends thought Jesus might lay his hand on him and heal him just as he did with other people. Stick his fingers in his ears? Spit? Touch his tongue?

That is what Jesus wants to do with us this morning as we gather together here in his name. He wants to put his Word into your ears and make it stick. He wants to unloose your tongue to sing his praises and freely confess him as your Lord and Savior.

God’s Word has tremendous power. It can take people who don’t want to listen to God’s promises and open up their ears to hear and their hearts to believe. God’s Word changes your life. It sets you on a whole new course. It draws you closer to Jesus your Savior. It leads you to repent of areas in your life that need changing and correction.

We are told that some friends brought a man to Jesus who could not hear. "There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man." The man was deaf, most likely from birth. He could not talk because he had never been able to hear. Oh, sounds came out of his mouth, but they were strange sounds, loud sounds, different sounds that frightened people and made them feel uncomfortable.

Hearing loss was not just a problem with people at Jesus’ time. It is still a problem with people today. It is estimated that there are 300 million people in the world today with some form of hearing loss. Some are born with a hearing loss. Others have their hearing damaged by sickness and disease or too much loud music blasted directly into the ears. Some people have to turn up the television real loud and wearing little things in their ears calling hearing aids.

Jesus had compassion on this man who was suffering from this hearing loss. He never heard the birds sing or the happy sound of people laughing or the voice of his mother saying, "I love you." He tried hard to understand what people were saying to him by reading their lips. He tried to communicate with his mouth, but only strange sounds came out of his mouth that made no sense to the people who were trying to help him. He probably learned some sign language to communicate his basic needs such as being hungry (rubbing his stomach) or being thirsty (pointing to water). If he wanted to let people know what was inside of him, his deeper hurts and needs and thoughts about life, he was trapped. He could not communicate at a deeper level. Think of what a blessing it is to use our mouths and ears and eyes and face and hands to communicate our deepest feelings with each other.

A few years ago there was a major blackout in the northeastern part of our country. A man was trapped in an elevator on the 50^th floor of the Empire State Building. For hours he waited to be rescued. Finally someone was able to drop down into the elevator from the floor above and take him out through the top of the elevator. He talked about the fear of being trapped. This man, this deaf man, was trapped in a world of silence.

Why are some people born with hearing losses? Why are some born with weaknesses in their genes that lead to problems with heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and eye problems? The answer to that question lies in the book of Genesis, chapter two, where the Lord God told Adam and Eve that if they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they would die. The problem of dying was then passed down to all people through sin. A perfect world was replaced with a world of sin, sickness, disease, and a host of other problems.

A couple weeks ago, while having lunch in Thousand Oaks with other pastors, we struck up a conversation with an older woman sitting alone, drinking a glass of wine with a plastic straw. She said that was how the women in Poland drank their wine. Her mother drank wine like that and she lived to be a 110 years old. Then she proudly said, "And I am 85 years old." I would have guessed she was probably 65 or 70. You have heard said, "It is in the genes." That can be something positive or negative. What we see in Jesus this morning is a love and compassion for people, whatever their problems in life may be, whatever genes they have or whatever problems are there.

As we think about this man with a hearing loss, we also think of people suffering from the greater problem of not being able to hear the word of God and believe it is true. 1 Corinthians says, "No eyes has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him." When Adam and Eve sinned against God they did not want to hear the voice of the Lord as he walked in the garden in the cool of the day. They ran away from the Lord and tried to hide. I am born into this world not wanting to hear what God tells me in his Word. I don’t want to hear that I am selfish, or that I am wrong for being angry, or that I have evil thoughts in my heart. I don’t want to hear how far I have fallen short of God’s glory through my sin. I don’t want to hear about standing before God in the final judgment. And I sure don’t want to hear about God’s plan to rescue me through his Son Jesus. All of this is foreign, strange, and foolishness to my ears and to my heart. Jesus said of the people of his time, "Though seeing, they do not see, though hearing, the do not hear or understand."

Someone once told about a hearing impaired boy and his mother sitting in a restaurant and arguing with each other in sign language. As the argument heated up, they talked faster and faster. Finally, the boy put his hands over his eyes, and refused to look at his mother trying to speak to him with her hands. He did not want to hear or "see" what she had to say. That’s the way it is with people, all people, in their natural condition. And even after we become Christians and the Lord opens our hearts to believe, there is the old sinful self that still wants to tune God out and listen to what we want to hear and not what God wants us to hear. We need Jesus to come to us and help us. Now let’s see how Jesus helps this man who is deaf.

What power we see in the words of Jesus, power to open this man’s ears and open up his mouth to speak. Jesus takes the man aside from the rest of the crowd. He wants to be alone with him, to focus on him completely, just as Jesus wants to be alone with you, here in his Word, daily in your life. He puts his fingers in his ears. Jesus is communicating with him. By touching his ears he shows that he is going to do something for him. He spits and he then touches the man’s tongue. He wants the man to know that the problem with speaking will be spit out just they you spit something out of your mouth to get rid of it. Then Jesus looks up to heaven and he sighs, a deep sigh. This man could not hear, but he sure could use his eyes to look at people and read what was on their faces. Sighing. Looking up to heaven. Jesus is communicating his deep love for this man and his power as the almighty God that comes from above. Jesus knew how to reach this man. He knows how to reach us.

People aren’t always nice to those with handicaps. It some times happens in schools where children pick on other kids who are disabled or less fortunate. Jesus has nothing but compassion and love, pure compassion and pure love, for all people, those who are have disabilities and those who are healthy. I saw a bumper sticker that said, "We are all disabled. We all need Jesus."

Jesus speaks to the man who cannot hear a word people are saying. He speaks to him in the Aramaic language and says, "Ephphatha" which means "Be opened!" It says, "At this (or immediately) this man’s ears were opened. The very first word he ever heard was the word Jesus spoke to him, "Ephphatha!" What amazes us is that he understood exactly what Jesus was saying to him.

Imagine what it must have been like to hear sound for the first time. Suddenly you go from total silence to hearing sounds all around you. When we hear sounds we automatically filter them and categorize them with our brains. We recognize cars driving, dogs barking, children laughing, and music playing. We also recognize words and understand their meaning. If I say, "Look at that cat out there!" immediately your brain would tell your eyes to look for a cat. That man knew what the words meant immediately. He did not have to learn what a bird sound was, or a child’s voice, or a mother’s voice. He was given hearing by Jesus and billions of bits of information that our stored in the brain for the process of hearing.

He was also able to speak. In fact it says that he spoke plainly! Listen to a little child making babbling sounds. Why do they do that? They are mimicking vowel and consonant sounds they hear from Mom and Dad. Gradually their amazing minds put pieces together in the form of words. That man was given a crash course in speech, a crash course that lasted only a split second. All the bits and pieces were there to speak plainly. He and his friends were told not to speak to other people about what had happened. Jesus did not want large crowds chasing after him for the wrong reasons. They could not keep silent. They had to tell people what happened. People were amazed and said, "He has done all things well."

"He has done all things well!’ We would say "Amen" to these words as we thank the Lord for the good job of opening up your ears and my ears to hear his word. He has also done a good job of allowing us to use our tongues to tell other people "Jesus has done all things well." Romans 10 says: "How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?" Then it goes on to say, "Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ." Jesus said, "My sheep listen to my voice: I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand." Here in this place our ears are hearing things that completely change our lives. We hear the voice of Jesus say, "Come to me and I will give your rest." We hear each other sing about "the Lamb of God who takes away the world’s sin." We confess our faith to each other with words from the Apostles’ Creed. Our ears cannot get enough of these beautiful words that speak salvation to us and assure us of eternal life waiting for us. "Lord, open our ears so we can hear even more!"