Dear friends in Christ,

Imagine a total stranger coming up to you, sticking his fingers in your ears, spitting on his finger and putting that spittle on your tongue. What words flash in your mind? "Gross!" and "yuk!" and "sick!" are probably on the list.

Our society is not quite certain what to think about closeness and touching. The emphasis has been on giving a person their "space." I have a friend who likes to stand very close to you when you converse with him. Since he’s an exception rather than the rule, it can at times be very uncomfortable. Miller Park seats about 42,000 people. The seats are about two inches wider than the seats in the old stadium. Architects planned it that way for two reasons: 1) more comfort; and 2) allow for more personal "space." If the exact same stadium were built in Japan, where people are used to living like sardines, it would hold over 50,000 people.

Jesus truly invaded this man’s space. Yet, when he did, the people thought it awesome and wonderful. "He has done everything well," they said. "He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."

Jesus wants to invade our space again this morning. He wants to stick his words in our ears. He wants to loosen our tongues to sing and to speak his praise. In doing so, he will demonstrate that HE HAS DONE EVERYTHING WELL. What does he want us to do with this truth? How does he want us to respond to him? First of all, you learn that you can take your needs to him.

I

Mark tells us that Jesus left Trye and went to the region of the Decapolis. The Decapolis was a region of 10 villages on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. More Gentiles lived in these cities than did Jews. Jesus had been in this area once before. He drove out a legion of demons from two men who had frightened the community for a long time. The demons went into a herd of 2000 pigs and sent them on a suicide mission over a cliff. For sure, one of the two men wanted to follow Jesus, but Jesus told him to stay at home and tell people what he had done for him.

The testimony of the once possessed man and all who had witnessed that exorcism in the graveyard had paid off. When Jesus returned to the region, "some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man." Jesus was a man with divine power. They knew they could take this deaf and mute man to him. "Won’t you please lay your hand on our friend? His ears and tongue don’t work. We know what you did to the demons, and we though you might be able to help us again."

HE HAS DONE EVERYTHING WELL. So take your needs to him. A missionary who worked among a primitive African tribe once witnessed them express great fear during a fierce storm. They cried, "Asabi! Asabi" When he asked the chief what that word meant, the chief replied, "We know that there is one great god - the ancient one. We cry to him when we are in the greatest need. But he is a god who is far away." Jesus isn’t a God and Savior who is far away. He is always near, ready to listen to our pleas. Sin and guilt compel us to run away from him, and to deal with our needs on our own. Isn’t that what our first parents, Adam and Eve, did? It is a simple truth that you will be bothered by your sins. The devil constantly plays with the conscience. He keeps the sins of our past and present on the heart’s hard drive. Like annoying pop-ups, he brings them up at any time of the day or night. He pops up our failures as a spouse or a parent. He makes us recall the fights that we caused that hurt everyone and helped no one. He makes us recall the gossip that crushed the heart of a friend or loved one. He makes us question whether God could really love a sinner like me. He makes us focus on the problems they create rather than the solution to the problems - our Savior. No one likes to face guilt; it’s easier to run from it. But it’s not hard to know the results of sin in our lives: frustration, anger, depression, and sometimes a battle with alcohol or drugs.

When these spiritual battles wage long and hard, Jesus gives this invitation: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened." So take those needs to Jesus and let his hands marked with the nail holes touch you - hands offering the peace of forgiveness, hands that removed the burden of your sins.

He has also said, "Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me." As our text proves to us, he is not only concerned about our spiritual needs, but our physical needs as well. He is not just asking for the big things, either: the major surgery, the financial crunch, the wayward child. He’s inviting you to bring the hay fever, the math test, the confrontation with a friend, the crabby kinds, the challenges of work or school. He invites you to ask his help with your attitudes toward the idiosyncracies of your loved one, or your impatience with you children, or your questions about your job and future. Going to the Lord with all these things reminds us that we cannot fix our problems ourselves. But he, who has done everything well, can.

Most of you have heard of the tragedy that we are facing at Shoreland this past week. Pastor Steve Hintz lay in a comma after suffering a heart attack while leading the cross country team. You may have also heard how our students lived the invitation of Jesus to take their needs to him. In the darkest hour right before Pastor was taken to the hospital, they formed a circle and offered their prayers to the Savior.

So take you needs to him. Watch him address those needs. Then marvel at his love.

First, Jesus "took him aside, away from the crowed." He doesn’t want to make a show out of what he is about to do and use this man’s misfortune to draw attention to himself. He’s not like many of the so-called faith healers of our day who want all eyes focused on themselves. For this moment - in a one-on-one setting - Jesus has the undivided attention of the deaf and mute man.

Then he uses sign language - probably the only language the man knew - to communicate with him. The Great Physician touches what was not working as if to say, "I know that your ears and your tongue are broken. I’ll fix them." First, it was the fingers of God that felt the deadness of his ears. Next it was the spittle of God’s Son that touched his tongue.

After that Jesus looked up to heaven as if to say to the man, "Your help comes from God, and I have authority to bring that help to you right now." Then there was a deep sigh. "My Father created everything so pure and perfect," he must have thought. "Now see what damage sin has brought." In the same way, he sighs when he sees sin’s damage to our bodies and spirits. He sighs when he sees our own neglect and willingness to sin brings on it’s own consequences of sadness and trouble.

It is only after he communicated to the man in his language that he communicated in a language that the bystanders could understand. "Ephphatha!" he said. Be opened. And Isaiah’s words (our Old Testament text) came true: the ears of the deaf (will be) unstopped...and the mute tongue (will) shout for joy.

Jesus doesn’t view you and me as cookie cutter cut-outs. We are not subjects that are manufactured on an assembly line. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you," he tells us (Jeremiah 1:5). "Fear not, I have redeemed you; I have called you by name" are his comforting words in Isaiah. He knows each one of us down to the last detail. Jesus invaded our space when he came to this planet to live as one of us. But he also invades our space personally when he calls us to be his own, and claims us as his very own. So let us, unworthy sinners that we are, marvel at his love.

Ephphatha. Isn’t that what he said to us in Baptism? Didn’t water and the Word open ears that were deaf to God’s voice, and loosen tongues that didn’t know how to, or want to, praise him? Marvel at his love!

"Ephphatha. Isn’t’ that the promises he gives each time we humble and prayerfully open our Bibles and seek his wisdom? Does he not open the vast resources of his Word so that we can be "wise for salvation" (II Timothy) and so that "we might have hope" (Romans 15)?

"Ephphatha. Isn’t that what he told the gates of heaven when he rose again on Easter morning? "Be open so that my children may enter." Isn’t that what he will say to our graves on the Last Day, as he calls us to stand before him?

Marvel at his love. We who deserve damnation have been given salvation. We who deserve no love receive love without bounds. We who do not deserve his help receive help that even Satan cannot overcome. We who deserve to be miserable are filled with hope and promises. HE HAS DONE EVERYTHING WELL. So marvel at his love. Daily. Hourly. Every minute. Don’t let your time to consider his goodness just be a Sunday morning activity.

The more you marvel, the more you will want to go out and proclaim his goodness.

Isn’t it ironic that the first command that this man heard with his own ears was, "Don’t tell anyone I did this!"? That’s like telling a bride not to talk about her wedding day, or telling parents to tell no one about the birth of their child!

Why Jesus often gave this command used to confuse me. But his reasons are not all that difficult to figure out. He did not want to be known as simply a miracle worker. If all people saw in Jesus was a cure for their physical ailments, then they missed the truth about the One sent from God. We would do well to learn the same lesson: If Jesus is only a solution to our problems, our own 911 genie, then we are of all people most to be pitied.

Greater work of Jesus was yet to be seen. It would come when he hung on a cross to bring forgiveness and peace with our God, when he would stand at the entrance of an open tomb and declare, "You too shall rise," when he would stretch out his hands in blessing as he rose to his rightful place at God’s seat of authority, and when he would send the marvelous outpouring of his Spirit on the day of Pentecost. "People, when you witness these things, then you have something to tell others about," he was saying. To the man he healed, Jesus was saying, "I have fixed your hears and mouth so that you can declare my victory over sin and the devil some day."

We are witnesses to those great, humanity-changing events. He has not only invaded our space by opening our ears to the good news that he has saved us by grace alone, but he has also touched our tongues and loosened them to sing and to speak his praise. He doesn’t say, "Don’t tell anyone what I have done." Rather, he tells us to climb on the roof to declare his goodness.

And what goodness he has shown! We tell others that heaven is theirs because Jesus took away sin and opened the doors of heaven to all. We tell them that the Savior who takes care of our biggest need can also handle all our cares. Luther wrote these words to motivate us: Forever within the Christian Church, by means of the sacraments and through the public Word, the ears of the deaf are opened and the dumb are made to speak. In other words, we point people to God’s Word so that, through it, Jesus can invade their space to open their deaf ears and unloose their muted tongues.

Go out and proclaim his goodness. That’s ministry. And true ministry begins with sighing and prayers. It’s motivated by divine compassion that God gives to each of us. It’s ministry that leads people to the Lord Jesus through his Word. That’s the only kind of ministry that truly changes the soul of man and woman. It’s the only kind of ministry that works because it is Jesus’ ministry.

It’s the ministry of SLHS. We have no government mandates restricting the name of God in our classrooms and during our activities. And that is the greatest blessing of our school. Every class is Christ-centered. We allow Jesus to invade our space in the classroom and in daily chapel services. The common goal of faculty and federation is to educate, encourage and equip students for lives of Christian service. 315 students of our federation, including several from our own congregation, are blessed with not only with a good education, but also a good Christian education. And we thank you for supporting our school, and ask you to continue supporting us with prayers, and gifts, and volunteer hours.

May Jesus invade your space today and always, and lead you to say, "HE HAS DONE EVERYTHING WELL." May you experience this as you take you needs to him, as you marvel at his love, and as you go out and proclaim his goodness. Amen.

Rev. Thomas E. Bauer

Shoreland Lutheran High School

Somers, WI