Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (1885)

Mark 7:31-37 These were indicated, among others, as indications of the promised Messiah: He opens the eyes of the blind, the ears of the deaf; He makes the dumb speaking1; He would ever be a Helper.2 The holy evangelists recount the miracles of Christ and demonstrate quite clearly that Jesus Christ, God's Son, is this almighty Helper sent by God. Such a glorious example is also in today's Gospel. Jesus, the Helper who does all things well; 1. how He has proved to be such a Helper. We consider a. the sick, to whom this sign happened. A deaf-mute was one of them. The misery of this people was deplorable, particularly because hearing the Word of God, the light and comfort in life and death, was denied him. The disciples do not ask who had sinned, this man or his parents, that such happened to him.3 For although illness and death is generally a result of the fall into sin4, God often has special reasons why He also imposes various misfortunes and afflictions on His faithful.5 So it has pleased God to impose deafness and dumbness on these people, in order that Jesus might have the opportunity to reveal to him His ability to heal and thereby to give the assurance that He is the Messiah and true Helper in every need. Therefore the Lord sent to the deaf-mute such dear friends who looked after him and brought him to Christ6; b. the Helper, Who so graciously took care of him.7 How the Lord makes use of such wonderful means in order to help the miserable man. Rather than doing as in Matthew 8:31 and elsewhere, Christ took the deaf-mute aside, put His almighty fingers into His ears8, touched his tongue with spit, as a sign that everything is wholesome in Him and strong to help; looked up to heaven and sighed, in order to awaken prayer in the sick man and to kindle faith in his heart. Once that was done, perfect help came. The Lord let sound His almighty Ephphatha before the closed ears of the deaf man, and behold, the deaf man heard and the dumb man spoke, spoke aright. Jesus had thus proved to be the Helper Who does all things well; 2. how He was also recognized and praised as such a Helper. The first thing that the healed sick man did with unspeakable joy was without doubt that he used his loosed tongue for God's praise and adoringly exalted Jesus, His almighty Helper and Savior. Yet he did not do this alone, but
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Isaiah 35:5-6. Zechariah 9:9. 3 John 9:2. 4 Romans 5:12. 5 Job 2:3; Romans 8:28; 2 Corinthians 12:7, 9; John 9:3. 6 Mark 7:32. 7 Mark 7:33. 8 Psalm 8:3; John 1:3.

a. all the people made known everywhere this far exceeding all human power deed of divine help; although the Lord had important reasons to prohibit the proclamation of this miracle for this moment.9 The gentle Savior Who bears the weak with patience overlooked this hastiness. Otherwise, what is written in 1 Samuel 15:22-23 remains.10 They did it out of great astonishment.11 They had become as it were beside themselves with amazement and did not know what they did; b. they boasted about Jesus with a beautiful saying of praise: "He has done all things well" etc.12 And must not all Christians agree with this today? The Lord has hitherto done all things well and always makes all things well - in beating and wounding, in healing and bonding, for strong and meek, for healthy and sick, in all peoples, in families, in individuals. What Satan made ill through sin, Jesus made well again. All things work together for those who love God.13 Finally He comes, and His reward is with Him.14 In eternity will countless tongues boast and praise that He has done everything, everything well. G[eorg] S[tckhardt]

Mark 7:36. And Samuel said [to Saul], "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king." 11 Mark 7:37. 12 ibid. 13 Romans 8:28. 14 Isaiah 62:11.
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