The Lutheran Hour
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"Sign Language"
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Text: Mark 7:32-35
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Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed! Into a world filled with dead and dying sinners Jesus came. Now, through His life, death, and resurrection all who believe are saved. This is God’s great miracle of grace which changes our todays, our tomorrows, our eternity. God grant the living Savior live within us all. Amen.
It was after the First World War when Edward the VIII, Prince of Wales, went to a military hospital which ministered to 36 seriously wounded soldiers. In the first ward Edward did his princely duty, going from bed to bed, saying a word or two to brighten the mood, thanking each soldier for the sacrifice he had made for King and country. When Edward had made the rounds, he said to the head of the hospital, ‘I was told there were 36 soldiers here. If I counted correctly, I have only visited 29. Where are the other seven?’
The administrator told the Prince that the others were severe cases-not pleasant to look at-men who would, because of their wounds, be kept in the hospital for the rest of their lives. Then he added, “It would probably be best for all, if we left them alone.” In spite of the warning, and to his credit, the Prince asked to see the men. His request was granted. As the Prince visited with the men, he never flinched or turned away. On the contrary, he visited with each man and said the kind of encouraging things which might make a man feel his life had been of considerable value. As the Prince left the room, he turned and gave a wave to the men-a gesture which also gave him time to make sure he had not miscounted. Yes, there had not been seven men in that room-only six.
In the hallway, the Prince spoke to the hospital administrator: “Where is the missing soldier?” The administrator, clearly uncomfortable with the question, quietly replied,” Ah, Your Majesty, that soldier is in a little room by himself. His injuries are extensive, leaving him blind, dumb, deaf, and completely paralyzed. We make him as comfortable as possible, but it pains me to say, there is little which can be done for him. He awaits death to release him.” Undeterred, the Prince of Wales opened the door and entered the dark and unadorned room. With sad eyes and an aching heart he looked upon this poor man who had given himself for his country. Yes, the Prince looked; what else could he do? The man was deaf, so the Prince couldn’t speak to him of his country’s gratitude. The man was paralyzed, so he wouldn’t feel the grasp of an encouraging handshake. The man was blind, so the Prince couldn’t write a note or card which would inform the man his nation was proud of his sacrifice.
For a moment the Prince seemed to be confused, not knowing what he should do for this man who was cut off from everything around him. Then, Edward did something which in the minds of many was quite unprincely; he did something which never has been written up in any code governing kingly deportment or royal etiquette. The Prince slowly walked over to the side of the soldier’s bed, stooped over that mangled body, and he kissed the man on his forehead. There was no news media there that day to record the event for playback on the six-o’clock news. There were no reporters to write up and share what the Prince had done. That day the Prince performed a noble act, a heartfelt gesture which had been birthed by his compassion and respect for an individual in pain. The kiss was a gentle gesture given to an isolated man by someone, someone important, who cared.
I like that story. It is a good story. It is a story which reminds me of an event in the life and ministry of Jesus. That story is told in the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Mark. With your permission, I’d like to share that narrative which begins with some men bringing their friend, a deaf friend, a non-speaking friend to see the Savior, the Prince of Peace. The place where this happened was the region of the Decapolis, or the Ten Cities. Up in Minnesota we used to talk about Minneapolis-St. Paul as being the ‘Twin Cities’; in Washington State, Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland are the Tri-Cities, and in Illinois and Iowa they refer to the Quad-Cities of Davenport, Moline, Rock Island, and Bettendorf. The Decapolis was the ten-city area and Jesus had been there before.
The last time Jesus had made an appearance in this predominantly gentile, that is heathen area, He had been attacked by a man who was possessed by devils. On that occasion Jesus had ordered the demons out of the man and into a herd of pigs-a herd of pigs which promptly ran off a cliff and into the Sea of Galilee where they drowned. Presumably without insurance and not overjoyed at the financial loss, the community leaders had come to Jesus and said something like, ‘Sir, on behalf of the man who has been healed we offer our most sincere thanks. But we know that You are a busy Man and would not wish to detain You from healing other people in other places. Which is why, speaking for all the Chamber of Commerce, we sadly send You on Your way. We will remember You with fondness, so please don’t feel the obligation to ever come back again.” Jesus took the hint-but now He was back.
It was on His return trip that a deaf man was brought to Him. Mark, who shares his stories of the Savior in a condensed sort of way, leaves out some details which you and I might find to be interesting. For example, we don’t know how the man had become deaf or how long he had not been able to hear. We don’t know what trials he had gone through, what jokes had been played upon him or how he had managed to make a living in a society which had little use for those who were handicapped. Had he concluded, as so many in difficult circumstances do, that God didn’t care about him? Mark doesn’t tell us.
Mark doesn’t share the name of the man who was deaf or those of his friends. He doesn’t tell us if they had heard about the demoniac and what had happened to the herd of pigs. Mark doesn’t tell us what kind of discussion took place before the handicapped man was brought to Jesus and we are ignorant of what information concerning Jesus had been shared with the deaf friend. We’re never told what the man’s reaction had been to the expedition. We don’t know if he had been eager to go or was he, reluctant, reserved, or frightened? There are so many things we don’t know. We can say with reasonable confidence that the man, who could talk a little, hadn’t always been deaf. But that’s only conjecture. Without all the “extras” we might like, Mark begins simply: “And they brought to Him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged Him to lay His hand on him,” that is, for Jesus to heal him.
You know, many people, as they live their lives, as they get clouted, clobbered, and thumped, come to the conclusion God doesn’t care about them. Some say the Lord is too busy for them; others, looking at their day-to-day burdens, believe He is indifferent to their pains and problems, their shortcomings and struggles. It’s true, isn’t it? Although you may be ashamed to admit it out loud, hasn’t there ever been a time when a death, a sickness, a betrayal, a problem has caused you to mutter, “I’ve done nothing to merit this kind of punishment. God must be cruel, or uncaring, or both.” What with evil being so pervasive and prevalent, with people being so sinful and spiteful, with life being so discouraging and disheartening, it’s easy to misread and misinterpret the Lord’s intentions toward His children.
Which is why it is so very necessary to search the Scriptures and see the Savior. If you take a good look, an honest look, a thorough look, you will soon see how Jesus valued every person, evaluated every individual’s need and properly responded to those needs. When mothers brought their children to Jesus, He picked those little ones up in His arms and He blessed them. When a learned scholar came to Him looking for answers to life’s deep and complicated questions, that man went away with the information he needed. To the person whose life was being lived in ongoing transgression and unconfessed disobedience, Jesus said, “Repent, believe, be forgiven and go, sin no more.” When He came upon men who, with inflated egos and condescending attitudes, put others down, Jesus took them apart like a clock. Scripture is clear: Jesus always gave personal attention to the needs of the individual.It was no different the day some men brought a deaf man to the Savior. It took less than an instant for Jesus to take in the dear man’s situation and perceive he was being confused by that situation and his surroundings. Knowing, but not entirely understanding why he had become the center of attention and discussion, the deaf man became frightened and embarrassed. Seeing his fear, Jesus acted. Unlike the theatrical overkill used by faith-healers, Jesus doesn’t cause the man to collapse; he doesn’t wave His arms around; He doesn’t wave His coat; He doesn’t blow on him, shout or stomp. Jesus doesn’t do any of those things. Inquiring minds might have wanted to see that that day. Jesus didn’t do it, because He didn’t have to, and besides, He was concerned about the deaf man, and not with putting on a show for the crowd. Most of us hate being the center of attention and standing in front of a group of people and that fear might have been worse for the deaf man. Treating him, caring for him as an individual Jesus gently escorted the man away from the curious crowd and the spectators’ gaze.
Only then, when his eyes were filled with the Savior’s gentle face, did Jesus “speak” to the man. I use the word speak quite deliberately, for, although Jesus doesn’t use words, He manages to speak to the man in a language he could understand.
Although Mark may omit unimportant and unnecessary details, he always gives us the crucial, the critical, the essential. Mark tells how Jesus let the man know He was going to do something special by touching the man’s ears, by spitting and touching the man’s tongue. The man would have understood those simple signs. Next, Jesus continued to preach His silent sermon by looking up to heaven. Before his miracle ever happened, Jesus wished to make sure the man knew the source from which would come this marvel. That heavenward look was Jesus’ way of saying, “My unhearing friend, today heaven is going to change your life, and I’m going to be the Mediator, the heaven-sent Conduit which will change that life.”
You can almost hear the man’s mental gears turning as he tries to interpret. His eyes, more than his words, would have told Jesus, “Yes, yes, yes. I understand. My ears, my thick speech are going to be cured by the Lord!” What a thought: heaven had taken an interest in him personally. Of course he wouldn’t have had much time to digest all which Jesus shared. Without hesitation, Jesus continued His sign language and shared a sigh. The man’s deafness would have prevented him from hearing the sound of Jesus’ breath, but he most definitely would have seen Jesus’ shoulders slump as the air left His lungs. The man would have seen that sigh and he would have understood that universal expression of sadness. He might have nodded to assure Jesus, “Yes, dear Savior, I understand a sigh. I understand the pain I have experienced is not the way it is supposed to be. I understand when God created this world He never intended for sin to lay such heavy and painful burdens upon us. I understand my heavenly Father has taken an interest in me, and is going to change my life. Yes, I understand.”
Then, having preached his sermon in sign, Jesus spoke: Ephphatha, that is: be opened. It was the first word, the only spoken word exchanged between these two men. No sooner had Jesus’ command been given than the ex-deaf man began to hear and to speak. It was a miracle. But you need to look carefully if you’re going to appreciate the extent of Jesus’ healing that day. Mark says, “The deaf man’s ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.” Jesus’ miracle wasn’t a half-way kind of thing. Jesus’ miracles never are. Jesus’ healing of the man was complete, total, finished. The man didn’t have to relearn his vocabulary; he didn’t have to go to a speech therapist and take years of retraining so he might be understood. Because of Jesus, the unnamed man spoke plainly and clearly and his words were unmuddied.
The man had to have been overjoyed and his friends more than pleased at the transformation Jesus had brought about. Mark reports their reaction when he wrote: “And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, ‘Jesus has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.'” He has done all things well. I like that. I like it because those words, as accurately as any, describe the Savior. Although He was not always appreciated or applauded, Jesus did do all things well. He did all things well for that deaf man; He has done all things well for you and me.
Which is the point in the message where you may notice I am compelled to hesitate. I do so because although I can’t see you, and even though I don’t know many of you, I do know some of you are disagreeing with what I’ve just said. You may concede Christ did all things well for this ex-deaf man; you may agree Jesus did all things well for the lepers whom He healed, and the lame and the blind and the dead He brought back to life-but, you’re thinking, you’re saying, “God doesn’t care about me. Jesus hasn’t done all things well for me. I’ve still got my pains, my hurts, my problems, my crosses. When do I get my miracle?”
Did I say that right? Did I come close to what you’re feeling? Do you believe God doesn’t care about you? My friend, while I understand why you feel as you do, I must gently say: “You couldn’t be more wrong.” God does care, and you do have your miracle. In the Person of Jesus, You have been given a great miracle. “What miracle?”, you ask. The miracle of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, coming into this world to save you. Jesus is your miracle because there is no earthly explanation for why He would do all He has done. You and I, like everybody else in this world, are sinners-nasty sinners, doers of deeds malicious and malevolent, totally alienated from the perfection God demands. Still, God saw you, and for reasons known only to Him, continued to love you and wished to save you. Death, temporal and eternal, should have been your fate, but God sent His Son to save you. That is a miracle, as was Jesus’ keeping of the laws you have broken; as was His resisting of the temptations which have tripped you up; as was His carrying of your sins; as was your death which He took for His own. When do you get your miracle? Man you’re surrounded by miracles.
Yes, I understand you are still carrying crosses, and many of you have physical, emotional, and spiritual burdens which seem to be unrelenting. I cannot deny these things, but I encourage you not to deny the miracle of a risen Savior Who has given His word-given His word-to help you with those difficulties. He will heal you of them or He will help you carry them. This is His promise, and He will keep it until the time comes when those things are removed and you are brought to a place where they can never touch you again. Banish from your mind the idea that the Lord doesn’t care about you. Look at the cross of Calvary and see God’s great and gracious miracle of love which allowed His Son to die so you might live with Him forever. Give thanks that God, in Jesus, cares for you.
At the beginning of this message I spoke of the Prince of Wales, Edward the VIII, giving a kiss to a disabled and dying soldier. It was a noble thing for a Prince to do. Might I not end this message by reminding you that we sinners have been given far more by the Savior, the Prince of Peace? A kiss may cost a king a second of his time, but Jesus gave His entire life so you might live. He came to this world which served as our death bed; He saw our hopeless condition and He gave His life so we might be forgiven, restored, redeemed, resurrected. He did not kiss your forehead; He died for your salvation. Which is why, in His name, I extend this invitation: if you need to know more about the King of kings, please call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for August 30, 2009
Topic:The Believable BibleAnnouncer: Can we trust the Bible? That’ll be our topic for the next few minutes as Pastor Ken Klaus responds to several related questions from a listener. I’m Mark Eischer.
Klaus: Hi, Mark. We ought to be able to wrap this up quickly. The answer is “Yes, we can trust the Bible.”
Announcer: But, I think It gets more complicated than that. After all the men who wrote the New Testament were all disciples of Jesus. So, can we really trust what they say? And, the second question, the related question to this is, since the Bible has been copied, translated, and retranslated so many times over the centuries, how do we know it’s still accurate and that we can trust what it says?
Klaus: Mark, if you don’t mind, I’d like to take the second question first; the one that says since the Bible was copied so many times, can we trust it? I think the person is thinking of the Bible like that game we used to play in school. You whisper a story in the ear of one person, and they repeat the story to the next person- and it keeps on going until you get to the last person. That person recites the story and everybody is amused at how much everything in that story has changed in the retelling. So much so that sometimes it’s almost unrecognizable.
Announcer: Right, and since the Bible was passed along through so many hands, so many different copyists, can we trust it not to have become corrupted in the process?
Klaus: The problem is that kind of thinking doesn’t hold up as far as the Bible is concerned, the Bible is not just another human book. It’s not a fair comparison. Now, it should be stated that we don’t have the original manuscripts written by the authors of the Bible. We do have thousands, over 6,000 copies of the Greek manuscripts that were produced very close to the time that the originals were written. Now, if you compare those documents, you will find that, like Ivory Soap, they are pretty pure.
Announcer: How pure is pretty pure?
Klaus: Well, they agree with each other over 99% of the time.
Announcer: But that still leaves 1% of disagreement.
Klaus: It does, and most of those disagreements are pretty
obvious- spelling errors and small changes in wording. For example, one text might say, “Jesus” and the other might say, “Jesus Christ.” All-in-all, the result is an almost miraculous degree of accuracy.Announcer: Something you wouldn’t expect?
Klaus: No, it isn’t. And I think there are two reasons for that: First, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God- The Lord Himself had a vested interested in making sure His story of salvation comes to us unaltered. The second reason is the copyists of the Bible knew they were making valuable copies of God’s own book, and they weren’t going to take it upon themselves to edit it. They want others to receive it as unaltered as they had.
Another point we should add here… the Bible isn’t generally translated from one language to another, to another, to another, getting fuzzier and fuzzier along the way. It comes from the original Greek or Hebrew directly to us, in our own tongue from the original.
Announcer: But getting back to that first question: the people who wrote the Bible did so from what might be considered a biased position, therefore, can we trust what they say?
Klaus: Well, we have to ask, were the writers of the Bible biased?
Announcer: I would say so.
Klaus: I would, too. Like Peter and John said at their trial (Acts 4:20) ‘We cannot help but speak of the things we’ve seen and heard.’ That’s pretty biased.
Announcer: If they are biased, does that mean they can’t be trusted?
Klaus: They can be trusted. The disciples told the truth when they wrote their eyewitness accounts of what Jesus said and did.
Announcer: And why do you think that way?
Klaus: Well, if they were reporting from an over-biased position, you’d think they might want to make themselves look good. They don’t. They talk about how they didn’t understand Jesus; how they fell asleep when He asked them to pray; how they at first didn’t believe the resurrection.
Further, they were sharing God’s story of salvation with a sinful world. That’s not something these men would have
discarded easily.If they were writing from an overly biased point of view, they probably wouldn’t have talked about the arguments they had, the difficulties in sharing the Gospel they encountered.
If they were writing down lies and falsehoods, I doubt if they would have done so at the cost of their own lives.
Announcer: How would you sum this up?
Klaus: Were the writers of the Bible, biased? Yes. Did they
believe what they were saying and writing? Also, yes. Does that mean they are inaccurate? No. The ultimate question is not whether you believe what the prophets and apostles wrote- it is whether you believe the Bible is God’s Word accurately
describing His plan of salvation.Announcer: Thank you, Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selection for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“Lord Jesus Christ, Will You Not Stay?” arr. Henry Gerike. Used by permission.
“All People That On Earth Do Dwell” arr. David Cherwien. From Hymn Interpretations, vol. 1 by David Cherwien (© 1992 Summa Productions)
“Praise the Almighty, My Soul” by John Behnke. From For All Seasons, vol. 3 by John Behnke (© 2004 John Behnke) Concordia Publishing House