The Ministry of Death and the Ministry of Life

Trinity 12| 2 Corinthians 3:4-1| Pastor James Preus| Trinity Lutheran Church| September 7, 2025

In our Gospel lesson today, a deaf and mute man was brought before Jesus, and they begged Jesus to heal him. Jesus took the man aside privately, put His fingers in the man’s ears, spit and touched his tongue, and then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And the man’s ears were opened and his tongue was released from its bonds, so that he could talk rightly. This account shows Jesus’ compassion for yet another disabled man. Jesus broke down the barriers that the man’s disability built around him every day.

Yet, the spiritual meaning of this account demonstrates Jesus’ compassion even more. We are all by nature spiritually deaf and mute. Although we are born with ears, we are incapable of hearing and understanding God’s Word. Although we have tongues, by nature we cannot rightly praise God. That is the natural condition of all mankind. And it is a terrible condition to be in! The prophet Isaiah laments it often, and so does our Lord Jesus. Through the preaching of God’s Word, we learn the truth. We learn the way to eternal life! Yet, if our senses are blocked from comprehending the message of God’s Word and accepting it, it is as if we had not heard the message at all! Without his sense of hearing, the man was lost in a strange world and depended on the patience and charity of others. Yet, if you have ears that do not hear the Word of God, you are in much more trouble. The seed of God’s Word is trampled underfoot and devoured by Satan before it can reach your heart. Such a condition means to be locked out of God’s Kingdom, to be ignorant of God’s grace. Being spiritually deaf and mute leads ultimately to hell.

Yet, our Lord Jesus was not satisfied with simply opening the ears of a few deafmutes, so that they could hear the sounds around them. Jesus desires to open our spiritual ears, so that we hear and believe His holy Word, speak right praise to Him, and are saved. As Scripture declares, “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved! But how will they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching. And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” (Romans 10:13-15) And so, our Lord Jesus instituted the ministry of the word. And He has equipped his ministers to open the spiritual ears of the spiritual deafmutes, so that they may recognize the voice of their Good Shepherd and praise Him.

St. Paul teaches us about this ministry in our Epistle lesson from 2 Corinthians 3. He reminds us that the ministers are not sufficient in themselves, but that their sufficiency is from God. That is, their sufficiency is from Him who says, “Be opened,” and the ears of the deaf are opened. Ministers are sufficient to open ears, loosen tongues, and yes, even raise the dead, because they do not proclaim their own word, but the Word of God. Yet, when we speak of God’s Word, we must make a distinction. God’s Word is rightly divided into two: the Law and the Gospel.

St. Paul says that God has made them ministers of a New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. By letter, Paul means the Law. God inscribed the Law in stone on Mount Sinai and gave it to Moses. The letter is indeed God’s Word and it is good, yet it kills us. It does not make us alive. Why? Because it is written on stone for you to do. It commands, but it does not give you the ability to do what it commands. It speaks, but it does not open your ears to understand what it says. It calls, but it does not loosen your tongue to respond. The Law says, “Do!” and it is never done. And so, the Law kills all whom it commands, because the wages of sin is death, and to not do as the Law commands is sin. The Law condemns all sinners to death, and so the Law is the ministry of death.

By Spirit, Paul means the Gospel. The Gospel also is God’s Word, but it is not His commands, rather it is His Promises regarding Jesus Christ. The Law commands you to do. The Gospel tells you what Jesus has done. The Law is inscribed in stone for you to read and follow. The Holy Spirit inscribes the Gospel on your heart, so that you are led by Him to freely do God’s will. The Law is a ministry of death. The Gospel is a ministry of righteousness and life.

The ministry of death has glory. St. Paul recalls the Bible account when Moses returned from talking to God on Mount Sinai with his face shining. The children of Israel fled from Moses, because they feared his shining face. So, Moses wore a veil, so that the people would listen to his voice without running away. And so, the Law written on stone does not open ears or loosen tongues. Our eyes cannot even bear to see its glory. Yet, the ministry of the Spirit has much more glory. If the ministry of death has glory, how much more the ministry of life? If the ministry of condemnation has glory, how much more the ministry of righteousness? If the ministry which passed away had glory, how much more the ministry that lasts to everlasting life? And yet, we do not flee from the ministry of the Spirit, because instead of writing its words on stone to command us what to do, the ministry of Spirit writes its words on our hearts, so that we shine with the glory of Christ, so that we are even transformed to become like Him.

The Law condemns, because it depends on your works, and you are a sinner. The Gospel saves, because it depends on Jesus’ work of fulfilling God’s Law, and satisfying the Law’s demand for justice by suffering and dying for our sins. The Gospel saves those who believe, not those who work. In fact, the very word of the Gospel carries the power of that “Ephphatha,” that, “Be open,” uttered by Jesus. Whenever the Gospel is proclaimed, Jesus speaks. And through the proclamation of the Gospel, God opens spiritual ears and loosens spiritual tongues.

The old covenant of the Law passed away, because Christ fulfilled it. Christ fulfilled the ceremonial law by fulfilling every prophesy prophesied by it. That is why we do not ceremonially circumcise our sons or sacrifice morning and evening burnt offerings or celebrate the Passover by sacrificing a lamb. Christ is the fulfillment of the ceremonial law. The moral law too is fulfilled by Christ. In human flesh, He loved the Lord His God with all His heart, soul, and mind. He was obedient to His parents and loved His neighbor as Himself. Yet, that for which the letters inscribed in stone condemned us to death, for that Jesus died, so that the glory of the Law has passed away with its killing and condemning.

And instead of the glory of the Law, we receive the glory of the Gospel, which gives to us the glory of Christ as a gift to be received by faith apart from our works. The Spirit works through the proclamation of the Gospel, not the Law, to open our ears and loosen our tongues, yes, to soften our hearts with the holy words of Christ.

Yet, we Christians do not reject the Law. We do not run away from it either, as the children of Israel formerly did. Rather, we use it to our advantage. First, we use the Law to our advantage to curb our sinful flesh, which constantly seeks to deceive us into doing that which our new self, walking by the Spirit does not want to do. Second, we use the Law to remind us that we always need the Gospel. The Law shows us our sin. It shines a light on our faults, so that we know that we need Christ Jesus and His forgiveness. We need the Law to remind us that we cannot be justified by it, because of our sin, and so we need to daily flee to Christ, for Him to heal us again. Finally, we still need the Law as our guide. The Law reveals to us the will of God for our lives. Now, through faith in Christ, you already have God’s will inscribed in your heart by the Holy Spirit. Yet, because of your sinful flesh, you need the Law to remind it of what God’s will is, because your flesh seeks to cause your heart to forget it.

Yet, there will come a time when you will no longer need the Law at all, because your sinful flesh will finally pass away, and God will form you again after the image of Christ. God’s will for your life will not pass away, rather the stone on which it was carved will pass away. There will be no need for commandments and threats anymore. Rather, what is inscribed in your heart will remain, so that following your heart will no longer be following sin, but following the will of God. You will no longer be hampered in your pursuit to carry out God’s will. Oh, how glorious that will be! Our ears will hear and understand God’s Word more clearly than ever on earth. Our tongues will confess and praise God with more beauty and clarity than any choir or preacher has ever sung or preached on earth. The glory of Christ will shine from us as the stars in heaven.

But we’re not in heaven yet. And Satan still seeks to clog our ears with His lies. And our sinful flesh still seeks to flee from the glory of God’s Law. The threat remains for us to become spiritual deafmutes again, like all those who despise God’s preaching and Word and do not gladly hear and learn it. Therefore, we must continue to take advantage of the ministry of the Spirit, which is the ministry of the Gospel.

The ministry of the Gospel always proclaims the works of Christ for you for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Yet, the ministry of the Gospel does not only come in one way. As Jesus spat and touched the man’s tongue, so Jesus spoke with the water in Baptism to open your mouth with prepared praise. As Jesus touched the man’s ears indicating to Him the miracle He was about to perform, so Jesus touches us with bread and wine, His very body and blood, with words to make clear His intention to rescue our bodies and souls through His sacrifice on the cross. As friends brought the deafmute to Jesus, so the Holy Spirit has prepared fathers and mothers and good friends to bring children and others in need of Jesus’ healing to Jesus to hear His saving Word. Jesus commanded His ministers to keep on preaching until the end of the world, because the world will need His preaching until He comes.

The ministry of death will not stop killing until your body of flesh is in the ground. And so, until you shed your body of flesh, you will need the ministry of the Spirit to continue to give you life, so that when your body dies, you may continue to live in Christ with the certainty of the resurrection to eternal life. Jesus’ Ephphatha is still being spoken today, because we need it. May we all come to hear His Word, so that Christ may open our ears and loosen our tongues again. Amen.