Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Jesus opens the ears of the deaf and looses the tongue of the mute, and He does so in a glorious way. When some people bring a deaf mute to Jesus and beg Him to lay His hands on the man, Jesus takes the man away from the crowd. He puts His fingers in the man’s ears, showing him that He is going to open them so that they can hear. He spits and touches the man’s tongue, showing him that He will moisten his rigid, heavy tongue so that he may speak plainly. He looks up to heaven, showing the man from where His power and authority to heal him comes. Finally, Jesus sighs and says one word: Ephphatha, which means “Be opened.” Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly. He whose ears had been stopped up so that no word or sound could penetrate, hears. He, whose tongue was heavy and unyielding suddenly begins to speak rightly, correctly, and without any trouble, as if he had been speaking every day of his life. Jesus demonstrates His almighty power, which He possesses as the eternal Son of God. He demonstrates that He is the Messiah who, in whose day “the deaf shall hear the words of the book” (Is 29:18) and in by whose ministry the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped (Is 35:5). By opening deaf ears and loosening an unyielding tongue, Jesus shows His ministry—the ministry of the New Covenant—far outshines the glory of the Old Covenant given through Moses.
There’s no denying Moses’ ministry was glorious. When the Lord called Moses to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt, Moses excused himself, saying, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue” (Ex 4:10). Literally he says he is heavy of mouth and heavy tongue. The Lord responded to Moses’ excuse by asking, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Havenot I, the LORD? Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say” (Ex 4:11-12). That the Lord was with Moses throughout His ministry was evident by the miracles Moses performed. He afflicted the entire land of Egypt with ten destructive plagues. He led Israel out of Egypt, through the Red Sea on dry ground, and gave them God’s law from Mt. Sinai. As a result of speaking with God face to face, Moses’ face shown with brightness, so that when he came down from the mountain, the Israelites were afraid to come near him. After He spoke to them so that they knew it was him, he gave them as commandments all that the LORD had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face (Ex 34:32-33). Moses’ ministry was glorious. His face was radiant with heavenly glory. His words were the very words of God’s law. His ministry—the ministry of the Old Covenant—was truly glorious.
But for all its glory, Moses’ ministry was a ministry of condemnation and death. It was the ministry of condemnation because the Commandments showed Israel—and all mankind—just how far short of God’s glory we fall. Paul says in Romans 3:20 that by the law is the knowledge of sin. And not just the knowledge of outward sins, but of inward, hidden sins of the heart. Paul says in Romans 7:7 when he says, “I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” No one knows if we covet someone else’s possessions, house, spouse, or life. But God who searches the heart knows and condemns all who covet and lust for that which He has not given them. So it is for all the commandments. Each one touches not only the outward man, but the heart, demanding perfect fear, love, and trust in God above all things so that we do His will joyfully and willingly from the heart. Just as Moses’ mouth and tongue were heavy, so the Law God gave through Moses was heavy, a weighty burden which no one can bear perfectly. By the law is the knowledge of sin and the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). This is what makes the ministry of the Old Covenant the ministry of death. Paul calls Moses’ ministry, that of the Old Covenant, the ministry of death, not to denigrate it, not to say it wasn’t of God, or that the law Moses gave wasn’t God’s law. St. Paul calls it the ministry of death because Moses’ ministry—the law—brings death upon not just Israel, but all mankind, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23).
The ministry of Moses, for all its glory, shows us our sin and condemns us to eternal death. It shows us how much we have in common with the deaf mute who is brought to Jesus, not physically, but spiritually. Our ears may hear, but by nature, they are stopped up to God’s word. Our sinful flesh prefers to hear its own words which rationalize our sinful desires, justify our covetous eyes, and excuse our selfish behavior. Our ears cannot hear God’s word because they are stopped up with the world’s words which normalize sin, lust, dishonesty, worry, and a host of other sins. Moses tells us to hold God’s Word sacred so that so that we gladly hear and learn it. David tells us, “The words of the LORD are pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times” (Ps 12:6). Yet the sinful flesh is deaf to God’s Word—to hearing it with understanding—because it prefers the corrupting speech of the world. We are like the deaf mute in that we cannot use our tongues as God intended, either. Our tongues are loose so that we can physically speak, but by nature we speak ill of others and boast of ourselves. God wants us to use our tongues to speak truth to our neighbor and speak it lovingly. He gave man his tongue to praise Him, pray to Him, and confess Him. But how often do we use our tongues in the way that James 3:6 describes? He says, “The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.”
Apart from God’s law—the ministry of condemnation and death—we would see none of this in ourselves. God desires that we see our sins, that we acknowledge that we deserve God’s wrath and punishment for our sins, and that we lament them. He uses the ministry of condemnation and death to bring us to the point of confessing, as David did in the thirty-eighth psalm, “But I, like a deaf man, do not hear; And I am like a mute who does not open his mouth. Thus I am like a man who does not hear, And in whose mouth is no response” (Ps 38:13-14). Confessing that we are deaf and mute before God readies us for the ministry of the Spirit which does not kill, as the letter of the law does, but vivifies and enlivens those who acknowledge their deafness and muteness. What does Jesus do for the deaf mute? He heals Him. He unstops deaf ears. He loosens the rigid tongue so that the man from then on hears, not only other’s words, but God’s word, and speaks, not only to others, but to God in prayer and praise! This is what the ministry of the New Covenant, the ministry of the Spirit and righteousness, does. Where Moses reveals our deafness and muteness and condemns it, Jesus opens our ears so that we do not despise His word but gladly hear and learn it. He opens our lips so that our mouths declare His praise. Just as the ministry of death was glorious, with miracles and a bright-shining Moses, so the ministry of the New Covenant is more glorious, for Christ attested to His ministry with gracious miracles and a bright-shining face, not on loan as Moses’ was, but because He is the eternal Son of God, the brightness of God’s glory. For even what was made glorious—the ministry of the law—had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. Once the law has fulfilled its purpose and worked repentance, it’s glory fades in light of the glory that excels, the glory of the gospel, which forgives sins, declares us righteous in God’s sight, and gives new life to all who believe, new life with new ears and new togues.
What do we do with the new ears which we receive again today? Stop up our ears with the words of the world; words that tempt, entice, and corrupt; words that expect and excuse sin? What do we do with the new tongue we receive by hearing Christ’s word of absolution? Speak lies to others and ourselves, tear down others and puff up ourselves? May this not be so among us. No, the Lord Jesus has healed our deaf muteness once again, let us not go back to it willingly. Instead, let us use our ears to hear God’s Word, saying with the Psalmist, “Your word is very pure; Therefore Your servant loves it” (Ps 119:140). Loving it, we hear it as often as we have opportunity so that we may hold it in our hearts each day, living our lives according to it. We use our tongues to speak His word, to ourselves, to others to build them up, as well as back to God in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. The fruit of our lips is the sacrifice of praise we offer to God, thanksgiving that He has opened our ears and loosed our tongues by His glorious ministry of righteousness, forgiveness, and life. Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
