Thoughts on Trinity 12
To go along with the new podcast episodes on sermon preparation, I’ve put together some notes (some from my own hand and some from one of Petersen’s sermons on the text) for Trinity 12. Use some, all, or none of it. But maybe it will just get the sermon writing juices flowing.
Here they are:
Our text tells us that after his ears were opened and his tongue was loosed, the man spoke plainly. More precisely Mark tells us that the man spoke rightly. Orthos is the Greek word. It means to act in conformity with a norm or standard, rightly, correctly. Our words Orthopedic (right feet), Orthodontics (right teeth), and orthodoxy (right praise, correct teaching) come from this word. And so the deaf and mute man spoke orthos, that is, he spoke rightly.
That the healed man now spoke rightly necessarily means that before he spoke wrongly, out of conformity with the norm or standard. One wonders if Jesus could even perform this miracle today. If anyone could say to anyone else that you are not speaking in conformity with what is right. In other words, there is a standard and the Lord can tell the difference between what is right and what is wrong because He does all things well.
Here I would like to submit that this is our great problem. We have all been asking with increasing frequency “what is wrong with the world?” What is wrong with the world is that we do not ask what is right. We do not recognize that there is a standard. We can all see that things have gone wrong, but how can it be set right if we do not know what right is? Imagine a person having a broken leg, and he fixes it by going into the doctor’s office and the doctor fixes it by giving him a third leg. No doctor would be able to continue his practice. That is because the medical field when it is actually dealing with medicine knows what the ideal or standard of the human body is; they know what health is. So while they might get some things wrong, or they might allow for this side effect or not take that one into consideration as they should, they know what they are striving for. They know what is orthos with regard to health. But we do not recognize what is right. Because we do not believe that it is the Lord who sets that standard. We believe that we do. Because we do not actually trust that the Lord does all things well and causes all things for good and for the good of our faith. (based upon G.K. Chesterton’s, What Is Wrong with the World?”).
And so it is that the people who brought the deaf man to Jesus for healing understood that the healing was good. Jesus had opened the man’s ears and loosened his tongue. So now he spoke rightly. It was a miracle. They wanted to tell others about it. They did not understand why Jesus told them to be quiet about it. And since they could not understand, they ignored Him. Because they were ignorant of the reason, they chose their own path. What harm could come, they thought, from telling others about the compassionate power of God in Jesus? Such a thing seemed not only victimless but good and even necessary despite the Lord’s command. Never let ignorance be the reason for doing something. The person who does not know why the pin is in the grenade should not be the one to pull it.
And here was the problem. They weren’t telling people that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, they were telling people that He was a miracle worker. It wasn’t heresy but it was misleading (like most of our evening news). This confusion about who Jesus is, what His mission and purpose are, makes His mission and Ministry more difficult. When He is brought in front of Herod at His trial, that is what Herod wants. He had heard of Jesus performing miracles. He wanted to see a trick.
The real miracle Jesus came to perform is the atonement of the world. He came to reconcile all of humanity back to His Father through His death and resurrection. He came to give His life as a sacrifice and ransom and to rescue us out of Hell. But Herod doesn’t get that. And that might well be the fault of these people who blabbed about the healing of the deaf man when Jesus told them not to. In that regard, the people who brought the deaf mute to be healed did not speak rightly. Be careful how you use your words.
These things are a warning to us. God’s Word is never arbitrary. When He says don’t tell people, He means it and He means it for our good. We could also add, according to the 8th Commandment, don’t say misleading things, don’t talk about or make judgments about things before you have all the facts.
The history of sin is the history of thinking we know better than God’s Word what is good. Eve couldn’t understand, she was ignorant of the reason for God’s command to not eat the fruit. She could not see for herself why God would command this since it was good for food, pleasing to the eye, and capable of making her wise. Why then not do what she knew to be good since God’s Word and command didn’t make any sense. She did not think she would bring pain, sorrow, and death upon herself and her children. She thought God was wrong about what was good or that God didn’t really understand. So she took matters in her own hands. And her husband who was with her let her do it.
That is what you do every time you sin. We refuse God’s Word for our own wisdom. Adam and Eve fell without any extenuating circumstances. They weren’t hungry or tired. They were living in paradise. They didn’t have original sin. How much harder is it for us with our corrupting sin and terrible habits?
God’s Law is always good. His Word is always trustworthy. Sometimes, to our fallen reason, it seems contrary to what is good. That is because we are ignorant. Don’t pull the pin. We are like the friends of the healed man. We think, “What could be wrong with telling people about Jesus healing this deaf man?” When God’s Law seems contrary to what is good, we do best simply to repent and submit to God’s Word. When we don’t, when we insist upon our way, we hurt ourselves and we hurt others. We pull the pin. There are no victimless sins.
But here is comfort for sinners. Despite the glaring imperfections of these people, the Lord had compassion. He healed the man. He didn’t come to just make atonement at some distant point in the future. He came with real compassion. His sigh to heaven comes from His heart. The sorrow and pain of the deaf man moves Him to act even though it will result in making His ministry and mission harder. The fact that they don’t receive His Word, that they take the miracle and run, that they don’t fully understand who He is, does not stop Him or lessen His compassion.
He is the friend of sinners. He has compassion on all who suffer. We are not only criminals, we are also victims. He groans in sorrow and frustration over our confusion and self-righteousness. He sighs in grief over our sins and self-inflicted pain. He groans in anger over that which has been done to us by the devil, by our neighbors, by our loved ones, and even by ourselves. Getting involved with us means that we will hurt Him, that we will complicate matters, that we will betray Him in a thousand ways – but it doesn’t matter to Him. He gets involved anyway. He sticks His finger in our ear. He is dirtied by the interaction. He takes our sorrow, our sin, our blame into Himself in order to heal and save us.
He answers imperfect prayers. He abides with sinful men. He is not done with you. Your sins are not enough to drive Him away or disgust Him. He loves you and marches toward Jerusalem for you. This is more astonishing than any other miracle: He is faithful to you even unto death and has risen from the dead in order to bring you to Himself alive and healed on the last day. Indeed, He does do all things well. And proclaiming this, we speak rightly.