Worship Helps for Pentecost 16

Title: Jesus Heals a Deaf Man

Artist: Walter Rane

In this painting, Rane emphasizes the actual healing process rather than who is performing the miracle. The focus is upon the two sets of hands: Christ's lovingly stretched forth in tenderness, the blind man's twisted and anxious while being healed, thereby capturing the blind man's hope of being released from a pitiable condition. Rane used sandpaper to scrub out the background to eliminate distractions so the viewer focuses on the two main figures.

Worship Theme: If you can hear, you probably take your sense of hearing for granted.  Yet what a wonderful gift from God your sense of hearing is!  You can hear how Jesus died for you.  You can receive not just into your ears, but deep inside you, the whole wondrous message of God’s rescue.  You can hear the same good news Adam and Noah heard, the same good news Isaiah, Peter and Jesus preached—preached even to a man who previously had been a deaf-mute.

Old Testament: Isaiah 35:4-7a

⁴Tell those who have a fearful heart: Be strong. Do not be afraid. Look! Your God will come with vengeance. With God’s own retribution, he will come and save you. ⁵Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unplugged. ⁶The crippled will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy. Waters will flow in the wilderness, and streams in the wasteland. ⁷The burning sand will become a pool, and in the thirsty ground there will be springs of water.

1. In chapter 34 Isaiah foretold horrors – total destruction for all nations, all the stars of heaven being dissolved and the sky rolling up like a scroll.  Now what does Isaiah describe?  That is, if chapter 34 pictures Judgment Day, what will follow Judgment Day (according to chapter 35)?

2. What will happen to the blind and deaf specifically? (See 35:5)

Epistle: Acts 3:1–10  

¹Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, an hour of prayer. ²A certain man who was lame from birth was carried there every day and placed at the temple gate, which is called Beautiful, so that he could beg for donations from those entering the temple. ³When he saw Peter and John about to enter the temple, he asked them for a donation.

⁴Peter looked directly at him, as did John. Peter said, “Look at us.” ⁵So the man paid close attention to them, expecting to receive something from them.

⁶But Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I will give you. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!” ⁷Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately the man’s feet and ankles were made strong. ⁸Jumping up, he stood and began to walk. He entered the temple courts with them, walking, jumping, and praising God.

⁹All the people saw him walking and praising God. ¹⁰They recognized him as the one who used to sit begging for money at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

3. How did Peter and John give the lame man ability to walk? (See 3:6)

4. How did the man respond to his healing?

Gospel: Mark 7:31–37  

³¹Jesus left the region of Tyre again and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of the Decapolis.

³²They brought a man to him who was deaf and had a speech impediment. They pleaded with Jesus to place his hand on him. ³³Jesus took him aside in private, away from the crowd. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. ³⁴After he looked up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”) ³⁵Immediately the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was set free, and he began to speak plainly. ³⁶Jesus gave the people strict orders to tell no one, but the more he did so, the more they kept proclaiming it. ³⁷They were amazed beyond measure and said, “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!”

5. Why does Jesus use sign language as he heals the deaf man?

6. Once healed, the deaf man “spoke clearly.” What is the significance? 

7. Why did Jesus not want them to tell anyone about the miracle that just had taken place?

Answers:

1. After Judgment Day, everything ruined will be restored in general.  The ultimate restoration (35:8-10) will be when all of the Lord’s people walk the Way of Holiness.  They will re-enter God’s eternal city, the New Jerusalem, with great gladness as sorrow and sighing flee away.

2. Isaiah says that the blind will see and the deaf will hear.

3. Peter and John said to the lame man, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”

4. The formerly lame man went into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God.  Note that he did not go around touting Peter and John.  They were not the real cause of the healing.  God was, through his risen Son, Jesus.  The man could not have been more certain.

5. Jesus probably used sign language because the poor man could not have understood what Jesus was doing if he had spoken to him.  Jesus used sign language to help the deaf man gather what was about to happen and to give him faith in Jesus.

6. The fact that the deaf man spoke clearly after Jesus healed him shows that Jesus healed the man perfectly. The deaf man did not have to go to a speech therapist to learn how to pronounce words.

7. Jesus told people not to tell anyone about this miraculous healing because he did not want fame and popularity for his miraculous healing. Rather, he wanted people to talk about him as the Son of God and their Savior from sin.

Putting your faith into action

Take care of yourself. Don’t let the world pollute your thinking. Keep moral garbage out of your diet. Keep your spirit pure. This is good advice for Christian stewards. We are to be constantly evaluating our relationship to God and to others, especially to others who hold a common faith in the Lord. God’s Word serves as a mirror into which we can peer to examine ourselves and how we manage our lives for the Lord. We can then make the proper adjustments. God will bless such changes. We are not only to plan our actions, but to actually do them. For Christian stewards, the joy is in the doing, in the giving, in the serving. May your life always be one of service to God, the Church, and others.

A reading from the Book of Concord for Pentecost 16

This commandment forbids all sins of the tongue [James 3], by which we may injure or confront our neighbor.  To bear false witness is nothing else than a work of the tongue.  Now, God prohibits whatever is done with the tongue against a fellow man.  This applies to false preachers with their doctrine and blasphemy, false judges and witnesses with their verdict, or outside of court by lying and speaking evil.  Here belongs the detestable vice of speaking behind a person’s back and slandering, to which the devil spurs us on.  It is a common that everyone prefers hearing evil more than hearing good about his neighbor.  We ourselves are so bad that we cannot allow anyone to say anything bad about us.  Yet we cannot bear that the best is spoken about others.

To avoid this vice we should note that no one is allowed publicly to judge and reprove his neighbor—even though he may see him sin—unless he has a command to judge and to reprove.  There is a great difference between these two things: judging sin and knowing about sin.  You may know about it, but you are not to judge it.  I can indeed see and hear that my neighbor sins.  But I have no command to report it to others.  If I judge and pass sentence, I fall into a sin that is greater than his.  But if you know about it, do nothing and cover it until you are appointed to be judge and to punish by virtue of your office. – Large Catechism, Part I, the Eighth Commandment, paragraphs 263-266

399  To God Be the Glory

1  To God be the glory; great things he has done!

He so loved the world that he gave us his Son,

Who yielded his life an atonement for sin

And opened the life-gate that all may go in.

Refrain:

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the earth hear his voice!

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the people rejoice!

Oh, come to the Father through Jesus the Son

And give him the glory—great things he has done!

2  Oh, perfect redemption, the purchase of blood,

To ev’ry believer the promise of God;

The vilest offender who truly believes,

That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.

Refrain

3  Great things he has taught us, great things he has done,

And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son,

But purer and higher and greater will be

Our joy and our wonder when Jesus we see.

Refrain

Text: Fanny J. Crosby, 1820–1915, alt.