Pentecost 16            September 8, 2024
Mark 7:31-37            Pastor Ryan Wolfe

“We follow a God of perfect healing”
1) He hears our prayers for healing
2) He answers our prayers with perfect love

I asked the question at the beginning of the service and you’ve had time to think about it now. Why do we follow Christ? Because he’s perfect? Yes. Because he’s powerful? Certainly. It’s more than that though isn’t it? Jesus doesn’t just show us care and concern – he loves us with perfect action. He gives us perfect healing.

Perfect healing. We don’t even know what that looks like, do we? For all the marvels of modern medicine, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked to people who felt like the cure their doctors offered was nearly as bad as the disease. Every therapy has a risk. Every pill has a side effect. We don’t know what perfect healing or perfect health looks like. Or how about perfectly healthy relationships? A trust is broken. Words are spoken. Hearts are heavy. Even when calm returns we know those wounds never really go away. And we won’t even talk about the kind of healing our nation and our culture need right now. Yes, we know how important healing is. And how impossible perfect healing is to find.

The crowd in this account from Mark 7 found it though. And if we pay attention, we can find perfect healing in the same place. In the same person. The crowd’s response to Jesus’ healing says it all for us. Did you listen to the last verse? “People were overwhelmed with amazement. ‘He has done everything well’ they said.” Why do we follow Jesus? Because he is the perfect one healer who does everything well.

Chronologically, our text fits right in with what we’ve been hearing the last two months. Jesus is coming to the end of his so-called “year of popularity.” We heard about his feeding of the 5000 and his “Bread of Life” discourse last month. Interestingly, it seems that while most of his Jewish followers were abandoning him in droves there were plenty of sick and lonely people that came to him from other places.

In fact here we find Jesus leaving Israel itself and traveling into a non-Jewish (Gentile) region called the Decapolis. And here, outside of Israel, Jesus finds a crowd begging him to heal their sick. Now, Jesus had been here before. This is where he cast out the demons calling themselves “Legion.” Remember the pigs who ran straight off the cliff? Well, the people of the Decapolis remembered, because once again Jesus finds himself surrounded by people looking for help.

Instead of pointing to the massive crowds (Jesus would have a less well-known feeding of a crowd of 4000 here), Mark focuses on one particular deaf and mute man whose friends bring him to Jesus. We don’t see it in English, but there’s a really cool connection in the original languages here. The Greek word that Mark uses to describe this deaf and mute man is unique. It’s not the normal word for mute. This word, “mogilalon,” isn’t used even once elsewhere in the New Testament. You know where it was used? The Greek translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint. It was the NIV of its day – everyone used it and knew it. And in that version the word “mogilalon” is used to describe a group of specific mute people. The mute who would one day rejoice that their God had come to save them. And where do we find that in the Old Testament? In Isaiah 35, the section of Scripture we had as our first reading.

700 years before Jesus’ birth, Isaiah foretold that the Messiah would hear the prayers of his people for healing. Listen again to that Old Testament prophecy: “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.” I don’t like to dwell on Greek stuff in a sermon, but by using this unique word for the deaf-mute man, Mark is making a point. Right here in front of us, Jesus is fulfilling that Old Testament prophecy. Jesus isn’t only hearing the prayer of the man he will heal; he is also showing us that he is the Messiah. The Savior. The One who delivers his people from sin. The perfect one who does everything well. This one little Greek word speaks volumes about who Jesus is and what he came to do.

Why do we follow Jesus? First of all, because he is gracious enough to listen to us when we pray and worship. Remember, it is only by God’s love and mercy that he hears us at all. We know Scripture’s descriptions of sin separating us from God in this life and the next. But this same Isaiah who foretold the mute man’s healing also described how sin separates us from God even in prayer. Isaiah 59:2 says, “Your iniquities have separated you form your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” Sometimes that’s our own doing as we fail to even consider prayer. When tough times come, we try to fix things on our own. When good times come, we congratulate ourselves. We are a spiritually deaf and mute people before God, not speaking or listening.

But Jesus does everything well. He brought us back to our Father in heaven and reconciled us to be with Him. Without Christ God would not hear our prayers, but with him God will not ignore them. It’s why we end our prayers with “in Jesus’ name” or “for Jesus’ sake.” We recognize that God hears our prayers because Jesus has brought us back together. This is why we follow him.

But as you heard in the children’s message, we follow a God who doesn’t just listen, but a God who jumps into action for us. We see it in how God answered the prayers of this man and his friends. When they came to Jesus he didn’t turn them away. He took the deaf-mute aside, away from the crowd, and performed the miracle. This wasn’t something Jesus was doing to build up his reputation or popularity – he did this out of love just for him.

Of all Jesus’ miracles, to me this one is the most personal in how he did it. Jesus didn’t have to put his fingers into the man’s ears. He had no need to touch the man’s tongue. If God can create the universe with just a word, he can heal a broken tongue in the same way. But in love, Jesus wants the man to understand what is going on. He does these outward things so that the man realizes this is a cure that can only come from him. Before he even says a word he perfectly communicates the power of the miracle. Jesus looks up to heaven and lets out a sigh, offering a prayer to the Father. A prayer of one word, “Ephphatha! Be opened!” And without any great fanfare or announcement the miracle is complete. The man simply opens his mouth and begins to speak plainly. There’s no waiting period or training or therapy. No delay to Jesus’ power. Jesus saw the man’s need and answered his unspoken prayer with perfect love. This is what perfect healing looks like!

And there’s your answer. We follow Christ because he does everything perfectly in love and perfectly answers our every prayer. What’s that? Your week wasn’t perfect? Things didn’t go just the way you want? Yeah, I know. Sometimes our prayers for healing are answered just as miraculously as this man’s healing. Miracles really do happen, and more often than we might think. Sometimes our healing comes in more ordinary ways. Doctors that heal our bodies. Pastors and counselors that help heal our relationships. Friends that heal us with comfort and love and churches that heal us with preaching and community.

But remember that God’s perfect healing is also done with perfect love. That means giving us what is best for us, not necessarily what we want. Sometimes God’s answer is yes. Other times it’s no. Sometimes it’s “later.” But our prayers are always heard and always answered. Sometimes following Jesus is easy and we want to follow him because we’re in a season of life or in a week when we see those blessings so easily. But other times our followership is a greater act of faith. A trust that while we don’t see the healing right now, we know it’s coming. We drown the sinful nature that questions God and we place our concerns into the hands of a Savior that were pierced for us.

Because of all the healing we need, that’s what we needed most. We follow Jesus even on our worst of weeks because we know that nothing can take away his greatest healing. The sinful heart, replaced with a heart of faith. The broken soul, renewed in the certain hope of heaven’s promise. The shattered trust, restored in the unfailing peace of God. Brothers and sisters in Christ, this Jesus that we follow has given us healing that no conflict and no disease can ever take away.

So why do you follow Jesus? Day after day, week after week? Whether those times are good or bad? Because we have a Savior who has done everything well. He knows your every need. He gives you every blessing in his time. Trust him in all things and give him your prayers and praise as you follow him. All the way to heaven. Amen.