Proper 18B (Pentecost 16 2024)

Text: “34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35 And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.” (Mark 7:34–35)

Today we are reminded that you and I have done Christ and His Church a great disservice. In fact, you and I have done much harm to Christ and His Church.

You have done great harm by coming up with this thing that we call ‘evangelism’. You have invented this “Great Command” that Christ has allegedly given to His Church. You have given it a name: “The Great Commission.” (Sounds impressive, doesn’t it? Sounds very official.) You even grab a few of Jesus’ words in order to lend it authority. “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matthew 28:19-20, KJV).

I realize that it was not you, specifically, who dreamed this idea up. But you’ve bought into it, haven’t you? Whenever a pastor preaches on that text and pounds the pulpit, crying out, “Go means go! This means you!” you pat him on the back. If he does it with real passion and energy, you pay him large sums of money to lead evangelism seminars. When he is bold enough to stand in the pulpit and remind you that, moment by moment, <snapping fingers rhythmically for emphasis> with each tick of the clock, people are dying and going to hell if you do not open your mouth, you make him president of the Synod.

“Ok, Pastor,” you might be saying, “let’s grant that all of that might be true. What harm has been done? How have we done Christ and His Church a disservice?”

I’m glad you asked. Perhaps the best example of the harm that has been done lies in the answer to a single question: when was the last time you evangelized? When was the last time you shared your faith with someone?

Or let me ask it a slightly different way: week after week you come and hear the words of Jesus. How often do you leave church telling everyone about what Jesus has done?

Instead, you have delegated evangelism to a committee within the Church. It is their job to get the word out to our community. It is their job to invite people in. Worse, you’ve delegated evangelism to a committee within the church that no one has any interest in serving on, so you squish it together with ‘stewardship’ so that you can say ‘no’ once instead of twice. There is a certain efficiency, isn’t there? Rather than being asked if you’ll serve on the evangelism committee and saying ‘no’, then being asked if you’ll serve on the stewardship committee and saying ‘no’, you can just say ‘no’ once and get it over with.

“Well, Pastor,” you might be thinking, “perhaps if you did something like that— if you opened the ears of a deaf man or made a blind man see— if you did something worth talking about, them we might leave year ‘zealously proclaiming’ it to everyone we see.”

Ahh. Great question. Now you have arrived at the heart of the problem.

The heart of the problem is that all this talk about ‘evangelism’ and a ‘Great Commission’ is very good evidence that you remain spiritually blind, deaf, and mute. I would suggest to you that one of the greatest deceptions that Satan has pulled off in the last thousand years is making Matthew 28:19-20 about you and me.

Did you know that the term ‘the Great Commission’ was invented only like 15 minutes ago (from the perspective of the life of the church)? If you would have approached the Apostle Peter to talk about “the Great Commission,” he would not have any idea what you were talking about— and not just because you do not speak Greek or Aramaic. Same thing with the Apostle Andrew, James, John, or any of the others. If you would have approached St. Paul— the great evangelist, himself— he would not know anything about some great command that Jesus supposedly gave to His Church to go and tell people stuff. Very, very few people in the Church anywhere in the world would have heard of a “Great Commission” until about 200 years ago (that’s about 15 minutes ago in the life of the Church!).

They knew all about what Jesus said in Matthew 28: 19-20. Peter, Andrew, James, John— they were all there when Jesus said it. But, through the power of the Holy Spirit, they understood that Jesus’ point was not what they or you or I had to do, but what Jesus would do for you.

Long before anyone attached the label “The Great Commission” to Jesus’ Words in Matthew 28:19-20, those verses were well known for a different reason. They were known as the words with which Jesus instituted Holy Baptism. This is another point where it may seem like I’m making a distinction without much of a difference, but it’s the difference between what you have to do for God and what God is doing for you.

This idea of ’Evangelism’ and ‘The Great Commission’ turns Christians into salesmen. Get out there and sell! You know that you’ve closed the deal when they are baptized. But the Christian is not a salesman. Nor is evangelism anything like trying to talk other people into buying a bill of goods. “Evangelism is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find the bread” (Pastor Daniel Thambyrajah Niles; https://www.azquotes.com/quote/606532?ref=evangelism). Or, to come back to today’s Gospel reading, evangelism is one person who has been saved from being spiritually deaf and mute showing other deaf people where they can find healing.

Matthew 28:19-20 is the crucified, risen, and ascending Jesus Christ declaring to the apostles, to everyone who would hear them— and to everyone who would hear them, all the way down to you— that all He had suffered was for you. Seeing you spiritually blind, dead, and enemies of God— and, we might add, spiritually deaf and mute— He came to be pierced for your transgressions and crushes for your iniquities. He came to bear the chastisement that brought you peace so that, with His wounds you are healed (Isaiah 53:5).

“14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God [it can not hear God’s Words], for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). “7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s [word]; indeed, it cannot” (Romans 8:7). You were born, not just spiritually deaf and mute, but spiritually dead. So He came and took your sin upon Himself and bore it on the cross so that, by His wounds, you are healed. Matthew 28:19-20 is Jesus’ assurance to Peter, Andrew, James, John, and all the rest, that, when you were baptized, you were joined to His death and raised to new life (Romans 6:1-3). You were born again through water and the word to a new, eternal life (John 3:5; Titus 3:5).

How many times have you sung the words: “O Lord, open my lips and my mouth with declare your praise” (Psalm 51:15)? Your prayer is answered. In baptism, your Lord came to you and touched you. Your ears were opened and your tongue was released.

About 2 1/2 years ago, our niece was baptized. And she was baptized in a Roman Catholic church. During that service, there was one part in particular that really surprised me— in the best possible way. One parts of the Roman Catholic baptismal liturgy was incredibly beautiful (in fact, I’d love to steal it someday). At one point, the priest touched her ears and her lips and said, “Ephphatha— ears be opened to hear God’s Word and your mouth to proclaim his faith.”

That’s what baptism is about. Jesus coming and touching the ears and the lips of those who can not hear or confess God’s Word so that your ears are open to hear and your lips are open to declare His praise.

He does that in baptism; He does it through the preaching of His Word; He does it by feeding you with His body and blood.

There will be many services when my preaching does not necessarily inspire you; when the hymns are weird and unfamiliar; when the building is too hot or too cold or the children are too noisy. But, in spite of all of that, you should leave here “37 …astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak”” (Mark 7:37)— not on account of my eloquence or any other factor, but because, with the eyes of faith, you see the riches of what God gives you here.

So go. Call it ‘evangelism’ if you’d like, but, as you are going, proclaim the wonders of what God has done for you here.