Scripture: Mark 7:24-37; Isaiah 35:4-7 Series: After Pentecost
Preached on Mark 7:24-37 (with Isaiah 35:4-7), the sermon frames the Syrophoenician woman (whom Wilson names Arishat) and the deaf man of the Decapolis as people who are ‘stuck.’ Using personal car-breakdown stories, it contrasts irreparable breakdown with the frustration of being stuck while functional, and argues that American self-reliance fails us when another’s intervention is required. The woman’s persistent faith — calling Jesus ‘Lord’ (Kyrie) — and the friends who carried the deaf man both model asking for and seeking help. Jesus’ word ‘Ephphatha / Be opened’ (rooted in Daniel’s opened windows and books) becomes the application: we get stuck acting unlike ourselves, stuck not hearing God’s truth and love, and stuck not speaking gratitude or love. Fear underlies both silence and deafness. The closing call is to be opened to love, to speak freely, and to invite others — to worship, Ladies Lunch, the food pantry, a work day — into the church’s life.
Illustrations: ford-ranger-axle-breakdown, dead-engine-mario-kart-night, car-stuck-spinning-in-mud, big-bend-honeymoon-javelina, demon-thrown-out-like-baseball, plugging-ears-la-la-la
September 8
”Be Opened”
Isaiah 35:4-7
Mark 7:24-37
Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.” Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be opened; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp; the grass shall become reeds and rushes. - Isaiah 35:4-7
From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” And when she went home, she found the child lying on the bed and the demon gone. Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went by way of Sidon toward the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then 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. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one, but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.” - Mark 7:24-37
Thankfully, I’ve only been stuck in a car a few times in my life. One time, I was driving a Ford Ranger from Austin to College Station and the axle fell. I was stuck. It was pretty clear that I wasn’t going anywhere. Another time in another car, the engine totally died. It was at night and I was with the boys. All they remember is that I said bed time was delayed and screen limits didn’t matter. They could play all the Mario Cart they wanted. We were stuck. It was irreparable. We were not going anywhere so we might as well enjoy what we could.
Those moments of total break down aren’t as frustrating as it might seem. When your car entirely breaks down, you know it’s dead. You know that there is nothing that you can do. You move on with your life and try to just survive. I think that some of the most frustrating moments in life are when you get stuck in the mud or the sand. The car is spinning out. It’s functional. The car works. You have plenty of gas. Everything’s okay, but you can’t move forward. It spins and it spins. Sometimes you think, if only I did this, it would work. If only I had this. If I had a good board, I could put it under it. If I had a winch…if I had cell reception, I could call someone, but I’m stuck. Stuck here. How do we handle those moments when we feel stuck
Mark
In the gospel of Mark chapter seven, we have two such moments. One has a woman come to Jesus asking for help about her daughter. Another has friends coming to Jesus, asking about their friend who is deaf and can’t speak.
These people are stuck. To say someone is possessed by an evil spirit is to say that they are not themselves. The situation is faulty, and they don’t know what else to do. We don’t need to delve into the metaphysical cosmography of the New Testament to understand that something is wrong with the girl.
The woman who comes to Jesus at the beginning of Matthew 7 is not a Jew. She’s not a Samaritan. She’s a Greek speaking person. Helena.
Mark describes her as Syro-phonecian, from an old people who had been in this area for hundreds of years, almost thousands of years. The Phoenicians had spread out across the Mediterranean. They had built civilization and traded with other cultures. They weren’t an empire. They were a set of city states. The woman comes up to Jesus and asks for help because her daughter is stuck and she doesn’t know what else to do.
Later, Jesus moves on to the Decapolis: a group of cities in the same region and comes up. The people come up to Jesus and say their friend is stuck. He cannot hear. He cannot hear, and he cannot speak.
A lot of us, when we get into points of life when we’re stuck, we want to figure it out all by ourselves. We want to solve the situation ourselves. There is an American ideal of self-reliance. Don’t look to others for things you can do yourself, but all of us, no matter how self-reliant we are, we get into situations where we are stuck and something else is required, where the intervention of another is required.
Alina and I were once stuck in Big Bend on our honeymoon. Our car was spinning in circles. I had avoided running into a Javelina and had gone off the road. We, then, couldn’t get going again. We needed someone to help us or else we weren’t going anywhere. Thankfully, a park ranger came by and pulled us out. We needed that help.
It takes a lot to ask for help. The Syro-Phoenician woman, I’ll call her Arishat, which is a Phoenician, Arishat is desperate. She hears about this man, Jesus, who is a Jew, but who has done amazing things. He has healed people who were stuck, and she desperately goes to him. We know she’s desperate because she is not discouraged when Jesus first turns her away. He says,
Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.
This is a strange response. We know from other stories, that the ministry of Jesus began with the Jews, the children of Abraham.
Arishat, though, is not discouraged by this response.
She says Kyrie. Lord. In the NRSV, it says, sir, but in the Greek it is Lord. It is the same phrase used at the beginning of the Catholic mass. Kyrie eleison , Lord, have mercy. She says, “Lord, even the dogs eat the crumbs from the masters tables.” Jesus’s entire disposition changes when he hears her say Lord.
Jesus doesn’t really come off that well, but what I think is important for us to understand in the passage is that Jesus is often trying to get people to move to a new place in their life. I think that’s what’s going on here. If Jesus responded immediately, she would have no need to say, Lord. There is this pause, this timing of God’s which offers faith to Arishat. There’s a great act of faith to call Jesus, Lord. That’s not a slight phrase. It’s not like saying, Mister or Sir, it’s not mannerly.
It’s an act of faith. It is an act of respect and devotion, and her daughter is free. The demon has been thrown out. Like you throw a baseball out of a park, the demon has been thrown out. Her faith made her well. Jesus did not need to be present to throw the spirit out. Arishat spoke up for her daughter.
Decapolis
The men of the Decapolis spoke up for their friend. They brought him to Jesus. They loved him. In a world before ASL or other modern sign languages, they loved their friend and communicated with him about the importance of Jesus and going to see Jesus without speaking to him. They communicated without words.
Jesus takes the deaf man aside in private. They go into a building or around the corner. The care of this man is not for public display. His healing is not a tool to further a worldly agenda.
Jesus looks up to heaven and speaks in Aramaic: Epphatha, be opened. It comes from the Aramaic word, peth-akh’, which is used twice in the Old Testament, both in the book of Daniel: the windows were opened and the books were opened.
Ephphatha is not a word associated with healing. It is associated with opening things that are shut. Jesus uses this word in a new way.
Jesus sighs, says Ephphatha, and the man’s ears are opened and his tongue is loosened. He can speak plainly. Jesus then quiets them. He doesn’t want to turn the man into an example “See, look how awesome I am.” No, he tells them to speak to no one about the miracle.
We have a chance to look at the different levels of the Bible here. First off, there is the miracle itself. Whatever the medical condition facing the man in the Decapolis, Jesus took care of it. But there is more. The Bible doesn’t simply exist as an ancient document to inform us of the goings on of the ancient world. If we believe that the Bible is the word of God, active, sharper than any two-edged sword, as Hebrews tells us, there is more to the scripture, of both the healing of the deaf man and the demon possessed daughter.
Today, we can be stuck in our lives. We can act in ways in which we are not ourselves. This is a helpful understanding of demon possession. There was an unfamiliar spirit in the girl.
We can also be stuck in not hearing the truth of reality. The truth about God and God’s love and God’s mercy and God’s purpose for us, yes. But also the truth of our own reality. We can plug our ears and sing “La, la, la!” in order to not hear uncomfortable truths.
Our tongues can also be stuck. We don’t say what we should. We get a feeling about someone and we don’t tell them. We are grateful for someone and we don’t thank them. We don’t say “I love you” enough to the people we love.
Fear is the cause of not speaking. Fear is the cause of not listening. And the Prophet Isaiah has words about that.
Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.” Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be opened; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
The power of Jesus is not about selling something but giving something. Giving new life. Giving a new way of life that is not stuck in the mud of old fears, old habits, old desires.
Be opened. You don’t have to live unlike yourself, as if a wicked spirit haunts you. Be opened. Hear that you are loved and forgiven. Don’t be afraid of what people say because it cannot separate you from God’s love. Be opened. You can speak truthfully. You are free.
You are not alone and don’t act alone. If you are new to Covenant, you are welcome and a part of us. If you have been here a while, you are still needed for this church to be the place God wants us to be. The deaf man was healed because his friends brought him to Jesus. Is there someone you could invite who needs to be opened. Maybe to worship. Maybe to the Ladies Lunch. Maybe to the food pantry or to a work day. Be opened. You can invite.
Be opened. You are free in Christ so live freely and gratefully, honoring God by loving your neighbor.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.