Trinity 12 – 30 August 2009

Isaiah 29, Psalm 126, 2 Corinthians 3:4, Mark 7

A few weeks ago, Shirley figured out how to feed herself. Of course, one of the first things she tried to eat was a piece of paper. Emily saw Shirley chewing away and promptly removed the paper from Shirley’s hands and told her, “Shirley, paper is for drawing on, not for eating!” Edith, our eldest child, heard Emily saying this to Shirley and immediately said, “But Mommy, you eat paper.” Emily had no idea what Edith meant because, believe or not, she does not eat paper. In an attempt to understand Edith’s statement, Emily asked her, “Where do I eat this paper?” Edith replied, “Daddy gives you a piece of paper every Sunday in Church and you eat it.” Suddenly, Edith’s bizarre question, put in the right context, made sense. To the eyes and mind of a three year old, the Sacrament of bread looks like paper.

To understand the stories about Jesus in the Gospels it is necessary to know the context in which these stories are told. For instance, if we want to know why St. Mark told us the story of Jesus healing the deaf, mute man we must know the context of the chapter in which the story is told and how the story fits into the context of St. Mark’s Gospel. However, we must also know the context of Scripture, particularly the Old Testament, for more often than not the stories about Jesus told in the Gospels relate to some particular Old Testament text. Thus, there are three contexts that we need to keep in mind when we read the Gospels: first the smaller context of the chapter, Second the larger context of the entire Gospel and Third, the largest context of Scripture, particularly the Old Testament.

In the case of our Gospel Lesson, St. Mark was writing to a largely Gentile audience and he wanted them to know that Jesus was not just the Messiah for the Jewish people, but also for the Gentiles. Thus, St. Mark told numerous stories about Jesus preaching and healing in Gentile areas; areas like the Decapolis, which was a confederation of ten Gentile city-states and where Jesus healed the deaf, mute man in our Gospel lesson. Therefore, we can see that in the context of Mark’s Gospel, Mark told this story because he wanted to tell us to know that Jesus is compassionate towards Gentiles, he is their Messiah. However, there is more for this story also fits into the context of Mark’s seventh chapter. Before St. Mark told this story about Jesus healing a physically deaf, mute man, he told a story about Jesus’ encounter with the Pharisees, who were spiritually deaf and mute. Thus, this story contrasts the physical deafness and muteness of this man with the spiritual deafness and muteness of the Pharisees. Therefore, Mark told us this story so that we may know that both physical deafness and spiritual deafness are healed by Jesus’ touch. Concerning the context of the Old Testment, Mark gave us a clue when he recorded Jesus quotation of Isaiah 29:13.

Isaiah 29:13, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men” is not only an apt description of the Pharisees; it is Mark’s way of telling us to look at the entire chapter. Isaiah 29 is a message of woe against Jerusalem. Isaiah foretold of a time when the city of Jerusalem would be besieged and destroyed because of the wickedness and callousness of God’s people. However, after the destruction of Jerusalem there would be hope. God would act to restore his people making the deaf to hear and the blind to see. The seventh chapter of Mark is structured on these themes in Isaiah 29. Isaiah 29 begins with the spiritual blindness, deafness of those living in Jerusalem and Mark 7 begins with the spiritual blindness, and deafness of the Pharisee’s, who, as Mark told us, came from Jerusalem. Isaiah 29 describes the inhabitants of Jerusalem as those who “turn things upside down, as if the potter where thought to be like the clay.” In Mark 7, the Pharisees turn things upside down by saying it was things outside the body that made one unclean not things inside the body. Isaiah begins his pronouncement of future hope by saying that in those days Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field. In Mark 7, after dealing with the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees, Jesus travels to Tyre, a city in Lebanon and commends the faith of a Syrophoenician woman. Finally, Isaiah concluded his proclamation off future hope when he said, “In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll…” Mark 7 concludes with Jesus restoring the hearing of the deaf man.

It is reasonable for us to conclude that Mark told us the story of Jesus healing the deaf and mute man because the days of hope, healing, and restoration prophesied by Isaiah have been fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. The time Isaiah foretold, the time when “Jacob will no longer be ashamed; no longer will their faces grow pale….Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding; those who complain will accept instruction” has come through Jesus Christ. In Christ, our sins have been forgiven, as we hear every Sunday in the Comfortable Words, “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins. “ Therefore, we have nothing left to be ashamed of. In Christ, we find boundless strength, which is why St. Paul said, “But [God] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Christ has become our strength; therefore, because Christ has become our strength our faces no longer need to grow pale because of weakness. In Christ, who is the image of the invisible God in whom the fullness of God dwells, who is the truth, we can gain understanding. Therefore, because Christ has become our wisdom we no longer have to be wayward in our knowledge. If you are blind and cannot see the Glory and goodness of God, the time has come for Jesus to open your eyes. If you are mute and cannot voice your praise to Father, Son and Holy Ghost, now is the time for Jesus to loosen your tongue. If you are deaf and cannot hear the good news that peace and forgiveness is found through Jesus Christ, the time has come for Jesus to place his hands upon your ears and open them so that you may hear him say, “Come unto me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.”