8 July 2014 - find your voice

8 July 2014 - find your voice

Their idols are silver and gold,
the handiwork of men.
They have mouths but speak not;

Idols have no voice.  This is in stark contrast to our God.  Our God speaks.  He does not even speak in secret.  In days past his words were partial, leading us to long for more.  But now he speaks to us the incarnate word, Jesus Christ.  The Father speaks to us through the Son (cf. Heb 1:2).  He speaks Jesus, a living message of love.  He speaks Jesus, a living offer of repentance unto life eternal.

Even ignoring those partial words before Jesus was perilous.  Now the stakes are even higher.

For if the word announced through angels proved firm, and every transgression and disobedience received its just recompense, how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? Announced originally through the Lord, it was confirmed for us by those who had heard.

Today we read about one of the perils of ignoring this word.

Their makers shall be like them,
everyone that trusts in them.

At this we perk up.  We notice that the demoniac in the gospel has fallen under this condemnation.  He has become like the idols of this world.  Scripture does not say how he become mute but we might imagine that his voice was in the service of the idols of the world.  We imagine him using his voice to say things that seem to promise life but actually promise nothing, words which mean less and less until he is saying nothing at all.

With their silver and gold they made
idols for themselves, to their own destruction.
Cast away your calf, O Samaria!
my wrath is kindled against them;

The demoniac is mute.  Things have reached the point where he can't escape the symptoms of his idolatry.  But even so he cannot free himself.  As Zechariah needs God to loose his tongue so too does this man.

A demoniac who could not speak was brought to Jesus,
and when the demon was driven out the mute man spoke.

He is brought to Jesus, the word of God.  God's "many ordinances" are given form in Jesus.  They are lived perfectly.  And because Jesus loves this man the ordinances of God can no longer be "considered as a stranger's."  Finally, a real word.  Finally, something worth saying.  The tongue of the demoniac is loosed.

The crowds are amazed.  They are so used to the words of the world, almost void of meaning.  But now in the presence of Jesus they see tongues being loosed and truth being spoken.  Idols are being cast off and hearts are being set free.

“Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”

Except, of course, the Pharisees, who are still quite attached to their own words.  Their words are powerless and empty, but without them, how will they stand out and assert themselves over the rest?

There are many diseases and illnesses in the world and Jesus wants to cure them all at their fundamental level.  He wants to cure the hearts that are troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.  He wants to tell them that they are not abandoned, that their shepherd is here, and that he wants to speak to them individually.  They need not run off to idols.  Their God, Emmanuel, is right here with them.  But to do this, he insists on our help:

“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.”