The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Anderson sermon
St. Mark 7:31-37 “The Divine Healer”
August 23, 2026 | Christ Lutheran Church
In Nomine Iesu
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Almighty and everlasting God, who created all things, we thank You that You have given us sound bodies, and have graciously preserved our tongues and other members from the power of the adversary: We beseech You, grant us Your grace, that we may rightly use our ears and tongues; help us to hear Your Word diligently and devoutly, and with our tongues so to praise and glorify Your grace, that no one is offended by our words, but that all may be edified by them; through Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen. (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary, by Veit Dietrich, p. 161)
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (Rom. 1:7, etc.)
The sermon text for today is taken from the 7th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Mark. We read selected verses in Jesus’ name:
And taking him aside from the crowd privately, He put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, He sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.
And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more He charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
These are Your words, heavenly Father. Sanctify us by Your truth, Your Word is truth. Amen. (Joh. 17:17)
In Christ Jesus, the One who takes all of your illnesses away, who heals you to be with Him forever, dear fellow redeemed:
True God, and true Man. The divinity and the humanity of Christ can be a hard topic to grasp. When it comes down to it, our very salvation depends on this true statement, that Jesus is true God and true Man. In the recorded history of Christ, we see in His life how He did not make full use of His power, yet, He uses His power to help His people in their time of need. Time and time again, Jesus is going to care for His people in two ways. He first cares about man’s spiritual health. He then takes care of man’s physical health. Leading up to our text He has done both. Here we have another instance where Jesus reveals Himself to be the divine healer. 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. And taking him aside from the crowd privately, He put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. To be your divine healer, you see Jesus take immediate action.
The crowds had been hearing, watching, and once again, found someone in need of attention. We don’t know when this man began to suffer from being unable to hear and had this speech impediment. Knowing these symptoms, it would not be hard to believe that he is suffering the speech impediment because he can’t hear. Being deaf and having bad speech go hand in hand. This would not be the last miracle of healing. As Matthew would record late in Jesus’ ministry, And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them (Matthew 15:30). The people are witnessing the humanity and the divinity in complete union. Man does not deserve this treatment because our issues reveal how sinful and corrupt the world is. The Son of Man has immense love for His creation and when we search the Scriptures, Jesus is not issuing one complaint about helping the people. He hears their cries and has immense empathy for them. With this love, Jesus is not hiding who He is. Every miracle makes it more apparent that not only is He a man, but the people are seeing the very finger of God, the very Son of God among them.
Why does Mark record this miracle? Mark is continuing his thoughts, revealing how Jesus counter acts what has been established by the religious leaders. The religious leaders put much emphasis on the rules that had been passed down to them. Rules that would even stop this discourse with gentiles. While these rules and rites at one time helped protect the people and what they believe, these rites are not rites established by God. Before our text, the Pharisees were asking Jesus why some of His disciples would not ceremonially wash their hands. Jesus has a message to them. The rites had become greater than Scripture in their eyes. They were simple laws and rites they could always follow. Jesus knew exactly what was in their hearts. He says to them, “You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men” (Mark 7:8). By being wrapped up in their rules, they have ignored the people they are supposed to help and then they then go a step further and deem them as unclean.
The thoughts that Jesus is pointing out are legal ones. Being legalistic means they want laws that iron out what can and can’t be done. It makes a black and white list that shall be followed. As people were being told they were unclean because of their ailments, Jesus teaches what truly makes a man unclean. And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immortality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mark 7:20-23). Jesus points out that man cannot escape the uncleanness that he has within himself on his own. No amount of laws and no amount of assuming we have done enough is enough. For we can’t escape the evil thoughts, will, or desires.
So, is any illness a revelation of uncleanness? Is this man from our text revealing his uncleanness? We see what the opposite of what that perfect world looked like. And as long as this world continues to exist, as long as the seasons continue to come and go, we will see people in need of healing, and we may be the one who needs that healing. Furthermore, since the world is the opposite of perfect, we know the disease of sin that plagues us continually. And this plague needs healing and it is a healing we will never find on our own. For our sins plague us like this man is plagued. Our sin hits us with this dual combination of being deaf to what our Lord wants us to hear and being mute in correction. If by any chance our tongue is able to move, then as Jesus says, from inside of us comes all of our evil. For the healing of our bodies and most importantly, for the healing of our souls, our insides, the divine healer comes with “healing in His wings.”
The divine healer reveals His power and purpose. He has the power to take care of those He loves. His purpose is to reveal this is done for one reason, to reveal His nature as the Son of God. And looking up to heaven, He sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. The people see for sure the nature of man. Jesus gives physical emotion as He sighs. An emotion only man can give and many times we give it because we feel defeated. Jesus isn’t defeated. His emotion is done in concern of a man in need of help. And in this part of the world, outside the borders of Judea, the people are witnessing that the help of the Lord is not landlocked. The help of the Lord, the healing that comes from the Lord is for all in need as Mark records Jesus helping the Gentiles. And Jesus is capable of this because instead of only the nature of man, He has two natures with the witnessing of His power to open ears and loosen tongues. Tongues that go on to praise His name for the Father put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all (Ephesians 1:22). And with Him who now fills all, the gifts that are now given are put to work in praise.
And this praise is what you give each time you witness yourself following what the Lord asks of you. For the very good you do is not your own. This is beautiful work that stems from the doing all things well which goes right back to the Healer. Doing all things well summarizes all Jesus’ work. A work that is witnessed in His power and purpose. It is witnessed in His natures of man and God. This miracle reveals His love for all people and His love would go farther than the miracles of healing as the world is still witnessing illness. This miracle reveals His love for all people to heal them from what has plagued them from the fall into sin. A plague the world looks to get rid of, but a plague that has the perfect antidote within your grasp. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham (Hebrews 2:14-16). This plague was supposed to take us all. But in the two natures of the Son of God, the Healer heals you and takes away the power of death.
The power of death feels like a tidal wave, especially when it is coming at you from the evil within your heart. And as that evil has flooded out of you, it flowed directly to the shoulders of the Son of God. The Man, who was able to perfectly live a life to redeem His church. The Man, who perfectly lived a life that undertook the suffering and pain of the cross. And as He suffers and dies, the perfect miracle of Jesus being God, has Him healing your spiritual illness that would have killed every single person of all time. Instead of feeling the power of death, you hear the blessed message of the love of the Son of God. Instead of spilling evil, your mouth continues to be here singing the praises of your God’s great love to heal you forever. All of this is witnessed as you come and listen to the Word, hearing about how you will struggle with the world around you, the devil, and sin, and hearing how they have all been defeated with the victory of Christ’s love on the cross. And since He now dwells in you because of this great love, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17).
With Jesus making us new, it doesn’t seem to fit that He would charge them to tell no one. But the more He charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. He wanted to avoid a misunderstanding about His identity. For there were already plans to try and tear Him apart. They at times wanted the man only so they could make Him their king. They wanted God only because then they could have Him use His power to continually feed them. Your healer is the One who knows you intimately as He opens your ears and loosens tongues to hear His Word and sing and proclaim His praises. As the world tries to rip Jesus apart, this is happening because there are some who still do not truly understand who Jesus is. It is only on His love which provides your healing that allows you to stand. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:14-16). You’re here because of your time of need. You’re here because in this time of need you once again see your ears opened and tongue loosened with their divine healing. The divine healing that has cured the power and illness of death is truly with you forever. Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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