"Speak,
But Don't Tell"
[Mark
7:31-8:10]
April
16, 2006 Second Reformed Church
April
4, 2021 YouTube
Happy
Resurrection Sunday!
This
morning, let us look at two events in the Gospel, and as we look at them, let
us consider two questions: If Jesus is physically risen from the dead, how
should we respond? And does He minister to us today?
Jesus and His disciples leave Tyre and Sidon after He
heals the little girl who was possessed by a demon, and they sail across the
Sea of Galilee to the middle of the region of Decapolis. And as soon as they get
out of the boat, a crowd forms around them, because they recognize Jesus and
heard the stories about His ministry.
Now,
there is a man who is deaf and has a terrible speech impediment, and his
friends bring him to Jesus and beg Jesus to lay hands on him and make him whole
in body. We should notice the compassion of the friends -- that they heard
Jesus was coming and they made sure that their friend who was in physical
distress got to see Him. Christians ought to care about the physical needs of
others and help them in whatever way we are able. Some churches do well in
that, when there is physical distress, some step up to provide counsel and
rides and comfort. Let us minister to the physical needs of each other in
whatever way we are able.
Jesus
also has compassion on the man and heals him: God can sympathize with our
physical needs because He incarnate and became a real human being. Jesus took
the man aside, privately, but still in view of the crowd, so they could see and
hear Him. And Jesus stuck His fingers in the man's ears, and then He spit on His
fingers and touched them to the man's tongue, and then He looked up to heaven
and sighed, and then He spoke the word, "Ephphatha," which means,
"Be opened."
Why? Why does Jesus go through all these gestures? They aren't
necessary to heal the man. In the verses preceding this morning's text, we see
Jesus heal a demon-possessed girl that He never sees or touches. And Jesus is
the Incarnate God, the same One Who by His Very Word, spoke everything into
existence. Why does He make all these gestures? Why doesn't He just say,
"Be healed," as He does on so many other occasions?
Jesus puts His fingers in the man's ears and spits and
touches his tongue to symbolically show that He has the power to heal. He shows
it is not a coincidence that the man is healed, but it is by His Power that the
man is healed. And Jesus looks up to Heaven that they would know that His Power
and Authority come from Heaven -- He is neither a magician nor a con-artist,
but the Savior Whose Power and Authority come from Heaven. He also looks to
Heaven to make it clear that He is the Only Mediator between God and Man -- it
is Jesus Who stands between God and man and makes us right with God. And He sighs
because He is truly sorry for the man and his afflictions. And then He speaks
to manifest the healing. We read that as soon as Jesus speaks,
"immediately," he is healed.
We can conclude from this that God also desires that His
own be delivered from spiritual death and disease. For if Jesus was so
concerned and compassionate towards the physical needs of those around Him, surely,
He would be even more concerned about the greater issue of the health of a
person's soul. And so should we.
So,
Jesus heals the man. "And he ordered them to tell no one, and the more he
ordered them, the more zealous they proclaimed. And they were exceedingly
amazed, saying, 'He has done all things well and he makes the deaf hear and the
mute speak.'"
Jesus
says to the man, "Speak, but don't tell." Why does Jesus tell them --
command them -- not to tell anyone? Wouldn't it make more sense that He ask
them to spread the news as far as they are able? Wouldn't it only help His
ministry to have more people know what He has done?
No. For two reasons: Jesus tells them not to tell anyone
because He doesn’t want them to get addicted to miracles. There are some today
that preach that God wants everyone healthy and wealthy -- that belief is what
Jesus wants to avoid, because the truth of the matter is, if God is God, then
God gets what God wants. If God wants every single person to be healthy and
wealthy, they would be. But He does not, and He doesn't want us to become
addicted to the spectacular, because God does heal today, but not everyone will
be healed in this life.
The other reason Jesus commands them not to tell is that
God is a God of order, and He works out His plan in time as it pleases Him. It
was not time – that’s said over and over in the Gospel of Mark -- it was not
time for Jesus to be revealed in His Fulness among them. But the time would
come:
On that first Easter morning, the women go to the tomb
where Jesus is buried, "And entering the tomb, they saw a young man
sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And
he said to them, 'Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was
crucified. He is risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But
go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There
you will see him, just as he told you'" (Mark 16:5-7, ESV).
If
Jesus is physically risen from the dead, how should we respond? We should
respond just like the friends do -- we've got to tell somebody. If we know that
God cares for us and calls us to belief in Jesus Alone for salvation, if we
know the Truth and the Truth is the greatest news that anyone could ever know
or believe, we must tell -- we must speak up! Jesus Himself says, "Go into
all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation" (Mark 16:15b,
ESV).
About
the same time that Jesus heals the man who is deaf and has a speech impediment,
another great throng gathers around Him to listen to Him teach and preach, and
they stay with Him in a desolate place, listening, hearing, for three days. And
Jesus has pity on them and shows compassion towards them, because they have
gotten so caught up in hearing Jesus, that they forgot to eat, and Jesus is
concerned that they will start to faint, especially if He sends them back to
their homes.
So, He calls His disciples to Him and tells them that He is
going to perform another miracle, one similar to one He had performed before.
Jesus asks them for their bread -- seven loaves -- and their few small fish.
And Jesus tells them to prepare -- to set out baskets, because He is going to
bless the bread and the fish and feed all 4,000 people there with them.
When Jesus fed the other crowd, He asked the disciples
what food they had, and they responded in an unbelieving manner to Jesus; they
did not believe He could feed about 15,000 people with five loaves of bread and
two fish. They scoffed at Jesus. But now they know better, and Jesus prepares
them for what is going to happen so they will be able to partake of the miracle
rightly and to their benefit.
We ought also to prepare ourselves before we come to
worship, so we will not be caught off guard and fall into sin. We ought to get
a good night’s sleep and arrive on time for worship. We ought to give ourselves
enough time to quiet down and be ready to hear from God. We ought to pray for
ourselves and each other -- that we would hear and receive the Word of God --
and we ought to be in prayer for the minister -- that he would prepare well and
handle the Word of God accurately. And we ought to take special preparation on
those days when we know the Lord's Supper will be celebrated. Since Jesus and
the Apostle Paul have warned us against receiving the bread and the cup without
discerning the body. Let us come, having confessed our sin, and having made
ourselves right with each other. Let us come expecting that the bread and the
cup will be for us the Body and Blood of Christ, such that He will be
spiritually present with us as we receive the elements. We do well to prepare
before we hear God's Word and receive the Sacrament.
So, Jesus blesses the bread and the fish and feeds all
4,000 people, until they are satisfied, and the disciples collect seven baskets
full of fish and bread that were left over. And then they get into the boat and
sail to the region of Dalmanutha.
Notice
again that Jesus cares for the physical needs of others, and, we understand,
much more for their spiritual needs. So, how does the Risen Jesus minister to
us today? The two primary ways He ministers to us are through the reading and
preaching of God's Word and through the administration of the sacraments.
When
the Word of God is read and preached, Jesus gives us His Grace, and when we
receive the bread and the cup, Jesus gives us His Grace. As we join together in
these primary actions, Jesus is spiritually here with us, strengthening our
faith. The words printed on the pages of the Bible are not magic, neither is
the bread nor the cup magic, but Jesus uses these things to be the conduit
through which He meets us and ministers to us with His Grace. And becoming
addicted to Jesus is a good thing. To desire Him more and His Word more and the
Sacrament more are good things. It shows that we are becoming more and more
vessels of God that declare His Glory, and that is why we were created. We were
created to glorify God, and when we glorify God, we receive joy from Him, and
on that day when Jesus comes for us and we enter into His Kingdom forever, then
we will be constantly obsessed with glorifying God, and we will be filled with
the eternal joy of Jesus.
Let
us pray:
Almighty
God, we are amazed and humbled as we hear that You understand our weaknesses
because Jesus lived among us as a human being. We rejoice that Your Work was accomplished,
and Jesus is risen from the dead. We ask that You stir up the fires of the Holy
Spirit within us and cause us to speak out that Truth even more. Grant us that
excitement for Your Glory. We thank You for the gift of Your Word and for the
sacraments. We ask that You continue to minister to us and give us Your Grace.
We ask that You help us to prepare before worship and increase our desire to be
in Your Presence. For it is in the Name of our Risen Savior, Jesus, we pray,
Amen.
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