The Shepherd’s Voice

Readings for Sunday, September 6^th
Isa 35:4-7a
Jam 2:1-17
Mk 7:24-37

The Shepherd’s Voice – Sermon Audio

Our gospel lesson today is rich and full of what every preacher likes to have in the gospel. The message of God for today is expansive, it’s dramatic, and it eye opening.

First, I need to put the lesson in context for the time and place in terms of Jesus ministry.
Second, we need to grasp the drama, the excitement, the thrill of what is happening here.
Thirdly, we need to see beyond the words, see the depth of the message and how it might apply to our lives, our circumstance, our situation in life.

Remember last week, we talked about tradition, about how we can get so wound up in what we have done in the past or the process in which we do something it actually loses meaning or intent behind what we are doing. Much of the message from Jesus was directed to religious folks, Pharisees and scribes, people like you and I. You may recall I talked about the Russian sentry.

For those who don’t recall, please go to our website and listen to last weeks message, or read it or download the MP3 file and get caught up, it’s important.

This week, Jesus has left the building. He’s left the area in which he was operating last week. He wanted to get away so he headed north to Tyre, which is a seaport the Mediterranean Coast. This would be a little like me going up the coast to Santa Barbara starting from Riverside.

When he arrives, Jesus goes into a house to escape, but he comes across a Syrophoenician woman with a child who she says has a demon. The exchange between Jesus and this woman is fascinating, maybe a little hard to understand, in fact I call it challenging, hard to explain and talk about so I’m going to challenge you, if you would like to know more about it, come to the Bible study after service this morning in my office and we will talk about this is some more detail.

Now, Jesus heads for the Sea of Galilee, to the region of Decapolis (ten towns) by way of Sidon. What is a little strange here is that going to Sidon on the way to the Sea of Galilee, is like on the way to Big Bear from Santa Barbara you decide to go to San Luis Obispo. But that’s Jesus’ route so we just need to be aware of it, obviously God had some work in mind for Jesus on his way to the Decapolis region.

So now you’ve got the background let’s now get to some of the meat of the text. Word had spread not only through the region of the Sea of Galilee, which is a more Jewish region, but also people were talking about this healer in the Gentile regions. Jesus walked on water, fed the five thousand, released the demonic, and he heals the woman who was hemorrhaging when she touched the hem of his garment. Jesus notoriety was important for people, but it wasn’t what Jesus wanted to be known for. Individual ego, self-glory is not important to God.

As we are going through this scripture are you able to comprehend what God is doing? Some folks do not get it, they don’t see it, they don’t know what to look for in life.

There a story about a book collector who ran into an unbookish acquaintance some time back. His friend was talking about going through some old books. In fact, he had just thrown away a big old Bible he said, which had been packed away in the attic of an ancestral house for many generations. He said, “Somebody named Guten-some-thing he thought had printed it.”

The bibliophile gasped. “Not Gutenberg! You idiot! You’ve just thrown away one of the first books ever printed. A similar copy sold recently at an auction for over a million dollars!” His friend was unmoved responded, “No, I’m sure my copy was worthless. It wasn’t even in English. Plus some nut named Martin something had scribbled notes all through it!”

He didn’t know what he was looking at. When we observe most people, especially with regard to God, the revelation of Christ in this world, and what we read in the Bible it seems like most people don’t get it. God, sending Jesus into this world to be our Savior does not register with most people. Does it register with you?

If so, why or if not, why not? From a theological perspective I’m sure you’ve heard it. There is no such thing as right and wrong, that’s old, misguided thinking. If it’s between two consenting adults, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Last Sunday we heard from Jesus. He said, “Listen to me! For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

I don’t know about you, but that list covers an awful lot of us, including me. However, this week Jesus says, “Ephphatha.” There is tremendously good news embedded in this Aramaic word.

Let’s look at the story. They bring someone to Jesus who is deaf. As I get older I have a much deeper appreciation for people with hearing loss. My wife meets regularly with a group of friends who all suffer from hearing loss and they have lots of jokes they share with one another.

Seems an elderly gentleman had serious hearing problems for a number of years.
He went to the Hearing Aids Specialist and the Specialist was able to have him fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed the gentleman to hear 100% again.
The elderly gentleman went back in a month to the Specialist and the Specialist said, “Your hearing is perfect. Your family must be really pleased that you can hear again.”
To which the gentleman said, “Oh, I haven’t told my family yet. I just sit around and listen to the conversations. I’ve changed my will three times!

Hearing loss, especially in ancient times was no laughing matter. As they lost their ability to hear, to communicate, they often lost their ability to have people respect them as humans. In fact this person who was deaf also had a problem speaking. When someone lost their ability to hear they can no longer hear themselves so their own speech becomes challenged.
Sidebar: Jesus, takes this person aside, he does this healing in private. The glory belongs to God, not to the human Jesus. I mentioned this earlier, but I want to reemphasize it. Paul in his writings to the church at Ephesus (Eph 3:20-21), the church in Rome (Rom 11:33-36), and to the Galatians (Gal 1:4-5) reminds each of those churches that what we do in life should always have this principle, ‘to God be the glory.’ Our good deeds, our service, our worship should always be to honor God. Jesus is demonstrating that same principle here.

Jesus touched his ears, He spat and touched his tongue, looked up to heaven, he sighed deeply and said “Ephphatha.” Or “Be opened!” When Jesus looked up to heaven he directs us toward God. This is God’s healing activity, not man’s miracle. God is to receive the glory, not man.

There is a progression from problem, to passion, to praise. The Greek is fun here because it says the man has difficulty, has a problem with speech and hearing and Jesus throws his fingers into his ears. Not exactly the picture of a medical doctor of today. In the Greek Jesus expels πτύω (ptuo) saliva from the mouth, spits on his fingers, then he στενάζω, (stenazo) groans deeply, that is with great compassion, and looks to heaven shouting “Ephphatha.” This is more dramatic than a Benny Hinn healing. From, problem, to passion, to praise.

The Pharisees last week wanted a sign. Many people want a sign, but they fail to see what God has already done. The sign of the truly righteous person is not that he comes to church to find God, but that he finds God everywhere he or she is. This kind of person does not make a great deal of sacred places, but he sanctifies common places.

When Jesus was finished, once again to God be the glory, he instructed them to tell no one. But the more he ordered them, the more zealous they proclaimed it.

Is that the key, is there a lesson here? Should I be telling you to not tell anyone about your faith, your religious experience? Would you be more zealous than ever to proclaim it like the gentiles in our story? Perhaps what we are missing here is that we are really not “astounded beyond measure” like many folks. Maybe we have not had a religious experience that has changed our life, that has turned your world upside down. We only do what we do, because of tradition.

A changed life is about vision, about what we see, what we understand about God in this world.

In 1858, a scientific expedition passed through what we now call the Grand Canyon. A young lieutenant by the name of Ives made the following entry in his report:

“This region we last explored, the Grand Canyon, is, of course, altogether valueless. It can be approached only from the south, and after entering it there is nothing to do but leave. Ours has been the first and doubtless will be the last party of whites to visit this profitless locality. It seems intended that the Colorado River, along the greater portion of its lonely and majestic way, shall be forever unvisited and undisturbed.”

Obviously, the young lieutenant did not have a vision in regards to what he was seeing. He did not realize, nor comprehend the Grand Canyon. Could our Christian lives be like that? These people that saw Jesus heal, were astounded, couldn’t stop talking about it.

Do you see what God has done for you, how God has brought you to this place? It’s not just to go through the motions. The Holy Spirit is calling you right now to see what God has done.

We all have a problem in our lives, it’s called sin. Do we see the awesome, astounding, awe-inspiring, attitude changing power of God at work? Do we see the Grand Canyon and yawn?

We just had a baptism here. We just saw God combine water and the Word to change a life, to create the promise of salvation all over again. We should have a thousand tongues singing, praising God because this indeed is astounding.

Amen

Podcast (audio_feed): Play in new window | Download