Jesus Cures the Ears and the Tongue

Jesus Cures the Ears and the Tongue

Trinity 12 T Mark 7:31-37

INI

Your heart is shaped by what you hear. If you consume gossip, greedy talk, hateful words, prideful speech, people trying to gain the upper hand on another – you will speak, and act likewise. Sin goes in through the ears, shapes the heart, and then goes out through the mouth. Jesus says that your heart shapes your speech in Matthew 12:34 – “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.”

Most people will say that your brain is your most powerful organ in your body. But your ears and tongue are. They’re the rudder that steers the ship, a muzzle that controls the horse. Multiple passages in Scripture confess the power of the tongue. It can so quickly cause destruction of friendships, relationships, and even church bodies, because of the anger, envy, or jealousy that come out of the heart. Proverbs 13:3 says – “Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.”  And James 3:6-9 says – “⁶ And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, […] no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”

Of course, it’s not the tongue itself that’s evil. It’s the heart. For the heart is shaped by the rebellion of the world against its Creator. Our ears hear of its sinful talk and are thus shaped by it. Thus, the world makes us deaf to the voice of our Creator, who wishes to make our hearts right, that we may hear and speak rightly too.

Just look at the deaf and mute man from the Gospel lesson. He was from the region of Tyre and Sidon, who were known for worshipping the Greek and Roman pagan gods. Thus, not only does this man suffer from physical ailments, but spiritual ailments too.

Yet moved by His compassion and mercy, the Lord Jesus took Him aside. He performed a sort of odd liturgy on the sick man – Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Jesus spit in his own hand and touched the sick man’s tongue. Jesus looked to heaven and said “be opened.”

Of course, Jesus healed the man physically. But most importantly, spiritually. His ears were opened – but not just to be filled with the paganism surrounding Him. His ears were opened to hear the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thus, Jesus’ miracle served to a salvific end. This man’s ears were opened to hear that Jesus has come to heal the sick and the lame. He has come to restore a fallen creation.

The man’s tongue was also loosened not just so that he can speak just anything, but that he can speak the things of God. That He’d use His tongue not to tell of the sin which abounds in his heart, but to tell of the praises of God which overflow from a HEART that has been made well by Christ.

He couldn’t keep the good news of Jesus’ messianic reign a secret. Jesus told him and his friends to not tell anyone that he was healed. But He couldn’t help it! His heart overflowed with a joy that God had visited Him, and made Him well.

Likewise, Jesus comes to free us from the anger, greed, and jealousy that builds up in our sinful hearts from participating in a sin-filled world, so that when we speak, our tongues confess His holy name. Our tongues build up the body of Christ, instead of corrupting it. Our tongues speak words graciously, as though they were seasoned with salt. As Christians, our lips serve one purpose: “O Lord open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise (Psalm 51:15).”

Additionally, Jesus frees our itching ears from hearing the things it wants to hear. In place of sinful desires, He gives our hearts the desire to fill our ears and thus our hearts, with the joy of hearing that our sins are forgiven, and that His body and blood are truly given for our salvation.

Thus, Jesus is able to turn these organs of destruction into organs of faith, by which we live and receive grace. As Paul says in Romans – with the heart, we believe in Christ, the Lamb of God who has come to take away the sin of the world. With the mouth, we use our tongues for its created purpose, which is to confess that Jesus Christ is our Lord.

This is the work of Jesus for you and me. He turns our troubling tongues into tongues of gentleness, patience, forgiveness, and kindness. He tunes our ears to hate worldly ideas of peace, and to crave the peace which surpasses all understanding, which is the only true peace in this world, and it’s found in our Lord’s cross for sinners.

The voices you listen to on a daily basis shape your heart. And your heart shapes your speech. So be free in Christ, to use these organs of faith to the glory of God’s name.

INI

Pastor Joshua Ralston