2 Corinthians 3.4–11 + Mark 7.31–37
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
A deaf man who has trouble speaking is brought to Jesus. He takes the man aside and signs to Him what He is going to do for him. He put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue. By putting His fingers in the man’s ears, Jesus signifies that He is going to unstop them so that he can hear. By spitting into His hand, then touching the man’s tongue, Jesus shows the man that He is going to loosen his tongue so that He can speak correctly. Then He looks up to heaven, sighs, and says to the man, “Ephphatha,” which is Aramaic for “Be opened.” Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly. He opens the man’s ears so that he can hear the gospel. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” St. Paul says (Rom 10:17). He opens the man’s mouth and loosens his tongue so that he might confess with his mouth the Lord Jesus and offer Him the sacrifice of praise. Jesus commands everyone who witnessed the miracle to tell no one. But the crowd disobeys the divine command and broadcasts it throughout the land. Astonished at Jesus’ deed, they say, “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”
“He has done all things well.” All His miracles show us the kind of ministry Jesus exercises, and it’s far more than a ministry of physical healing. Every work of mercy He performs, He performs so that people might hear His word, so that through the word the Holy Spirit might create faith in the hearts of those who hear. His first advent and His ministry recorded by the evangelists is a ministry of life. He says in John 12 [:46-47], “I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.” Christ did not come to judge the world, but to bring light and life to those who acknowledged they are in spiritual darkness and death. He did not come to condemn the world but bear the world’s condemnation upon the cross so that all who believe in Him—repenting of their sins and trusting His sacrifice to pay for their sins—might be justified in God’s sight. He said of His ministry, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (Jn 10:10). On the Last Day, when He returns in glory, He will come in judgment, but during His earthly ministry, He comes in mercy to bring people to life through faith.
And although he ascended to the right hand of the Father, where He “fills all in all” (Eph 1:23), His ministry continues through the ministers of the New Covenant. St. Paul says that the ministry is not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. The letter that kills isn’t the written word of Scripture. The letter that kills is the law, God’s commandments, for that is what was written and engraved on stones. The law condemns and threatens sinners with punishment in this life, but especially in the life of the world to come. The letter—the law—says, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them” (Gal 3:10). The law condemns us all because no one does all that is written in the law. The Jews could not do all that God prescribed in Moses. You and I cannot do all that God has written in our hearts at creation and explained in His word. We cannot fear, love, and trust in God above all things at all times. We cannot perfectly love our neighbor. This is why Paul calls the law “the ministry of condemnation.” Because the law is God’s eternal will for man, it is glorious, even while condemning all mankind and putting us all to death.
But this is not the ministry of Jesus. It is not the ministry of the New Testament. The ministry of the New Testament is the ministry of the Spirit. Again, not Spirit opposed to written word, so any ocean of emotion or quiver in our liver means the Holy Spirit is speaking to us. No, the ministry of the Spirit is the ministry of the gospel. Paul calls it the ministry of righteousness because it brings us Christ’s perfect righteousness. It brings the forgiveness of sins which Christ earned at the cross; it brings Christ’s perfect righteousness to those who believe, and it silences the ministry of condemnation.
This does not mean the letter—the law—has no glory and no place among us. This does not mean that Christ Himself never preached the law. Actually, He preached a lot of law and condemnation throughout His ministry, and His ministers must do so as well. The Holy Spirit uses the law to bring us to contrition—sorrow that by our sins we have offended God and deserve His wrath. Then He uses the gospel to open our ears so that we can hear of Christ’s forgiveness and righteousness, which He earned for all mankind and freely gives to all who believe. The letter and its ministry is still active and must be. God must condemn so that He can justify. He must kill so that He can make alive. And for as glorious as the ministry of the law is—it is God’s word and will, after all—it pales in comparison to the ministry of the New Testament, the ministry of life, which is much more glorious.
This morning, we witnessed the ministry of the New Testament’s glory. John and Ami brought their daughter to Jesus just as the deaf man’s friends brought him to Jesus. It matters not that she is newly born. Jesus invited her when He said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14). Not only has Christ invited her, but she has need of what Jesus promises to give in baptism. She is—despite her innocent disposition and unbearable cuteness—born in the image of Adam, corrupted by sin, and under God’s wrath. This is why Jesus has invited her to come to these waters. God wanted to form His image in her. He wanted to forgive her sin and guilt inherited from Adam. He wanted to give her the Holy Spirit so that she believes in Him. He wanted to enter into a covenant of grace with her, declaring Himself her God and declaring her His child. He wanted to open her ears so that she might hear His word as she grows in faith by hearing the word. He wanted to open her mouth so that she might declare His praise as His redeemed child. All this is precisely what He did through the water combined with His Word. And since it is God who did these things through His word—which endures forever—the blessings of baptism remain forever for Hannah, so that she may use them in faith each day throughout her life.
Witnessing Hannah’s baptism should remind us of our own. It doesn’t matter if you remember it or not. Hannah won’t remember this day. Her baptism should remind you that you are baptized and that the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—forgave the sin and guilt you inherited from Adam, gave you the new birth as God’s child, and promised you eternal life. And just as Jesus signified for the deaf man what He would do for him by sticking His fingers in his ears and spitting and touching his tongue, Jesus signifies to you what He did—and still does—for you in your baptism. Baptism signifies that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man, in turn, should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever (LC V.4). This is how we use our baptism each day, how we live the fact that we are baptized. Each day we sorrow over our sins because they offend God and merit His wrath. And each day we believe the promises God made to us in our baptisms: the promise to forgive our sins as often as we repent them, the promises to raise us up to new life with the Holy Spirit, and the promise of eternal life.
This is far more glorious than the ministry of condemnation could ever be. The letter can only kill. And though many imagine that they can, by their works and their “being good people,” make themselves alive, the law can’t do that. Only the Spirit, working through the ministry of righteousness, can make us alive through baptism and through the faith that comes by hearing God’s Word. Then, and only then, as baptized children of God, can the law show us how God wants us to live holy lives outwardly and inwardly. Even then, it’s still the gospel—and only the gospel—that enables the baptized to put off the sinful nature and daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever. “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak,” but even more miraculous, He makes us poor sinners alive through baptism and faith. Amen.
May the peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
