14 February 2014 - getting an ear full

14 February 2014 - getting an ear full

And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment
and begged him to lay his hand on him.

We have the same condition.  We can't hear the word of God in its full power.  We hear God's words as just some among the many human words that inundate us.  God's word is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword (cf. Heb 4:12).  When it goes forth from the mouth of God it does not return to him void (cf. Isa. 55:11).  It is a seed of our own eternal life (cf. 1 Pet 1:23), evangelism (cf. Luk. 8:4-8), and it is meant to bear fruit.  All of the fruits of the Holy Spirit have their source in this word.  The sound waves hit our ears.  The words are interpreted by our cognition.  Yet we do not have as much love, joy, and peace as we'd like.  We aren't really hearing it.  Hence the admonition of Jesus, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear".  In some ways the scroll is still sealed to us as it is in the book of Revelation:

Then I saw a mighty angel who proclaimed in a loud voice,  “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?”  But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to examine it.  I shed many tears because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to examine it.

In both situations, that of the deaf man, and that of all scroll, only Jesus can unlock the words we need to hear.  Only in relationship with him do they have their full effect.

One of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. The lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed, enabling him to open the scroll with its seven seals.”

Indeed what Jesus does for the deaf man he will do for us as well.
He took him off by himself away from the crowd.
He put his finger into the man’s ears
and, spitting, touched his tongue;
then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,
“Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”)
And immediately the man’s ears were opened,

He opens our ears, especially when the gospels are proclaimed in the mass.  But we have to acquiesce to a process that is as intimate as this.  We have to allow Jesus to touch us, to contact the very point of our deafness, the very point of our speech impediment.  There are no illusions about our own efforts solving the problem when we make ourselves so vulnerable to Jesus.  We have to trust him.  We have to trust that he wants to heal us.  Hearing him is a precondition of the relationship that he wants with us.

“If only my people would hear me,
and Israel walk in my ways,
Quickly would I humble their enemies;
against their foes I would turn my hand.”

There is what we might call a side-effect to this healing.  Our speech impediment is removed.

his speech impediment was removed,
and he spoke plainly.

After this we can't shut up about what Jesus does for us.  We are like Paul who says, "Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel" (cf. 1 Cor. 9:16).

But the more he ordered them not to,
the more they proclaimed it.

Should we be surprised to learn that the reason we have difficulty speaking about Jesus is because we have difficulty hearing him?  Yet he heals both simultaneously. 

We must treat the word of God as it truly is and not like the word of man.  If we do this we  avoid the fragmentation that the thousands of different and contradictory words which the world speaks cause.

Ahijah took off his new cloak,
tore it into twelve pieces, and said to Jeroboam:
“Take ten pieces for yourself;
the LORD, the God of Israel, says:
‘I will tear away the kingdom from Solomon’s grasp
and will give you ten of the tribes.

The kingdoms of our lives remain united.  The Church remains united in firm purpose.  And the world can hardly help but say “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”