The Gospel Opens Spiritual Ears and Loosens Spiritual Tongues for Salvation

Trinity 12| Mark 7:31-37| Pastor James Preus| Trinity Lutheran Church| August 23, 2026

“By your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Matthew 12:37

My maternal grandparents were deaf from childhood. I didn’t know my grandfather, because he died when I was a toddler, but my grandmother lived until my teenage years. My mom taught us some sign language, but it was mostly my mother who would converse with her. Though they talked together with their hands, my grandma would make sounds with her mouth as she signed, especially if she were excited about something. But she couldn’t talk. The sounds she made were not words. There was nothing wrong with her mouth or vocal cords. But she couldn’t hear. And since she couldn’t hear, she didn’t learn how to speak.

Deafness and muteness often go together, because we learn how to speak by first hearing. Not only do we learn how to form and pronounce words by what we hear, but we learn the manner of speaking by the conversations we listen to. This point is made clearer nowhere else than in Romans chapter 10, when St. Paul writes, ‘“For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then will they call on 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?” (10:13-14) And so, Paul concludes, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (10:17) Before the deafmute could speak, first Jesus needed to open his ears to hear. Likewise, before our tongues may properly confess Christ, God must first open our ears.

Yet, what I am speaking of here is not your physical ears or natural hearing. My grandmother did not have natural hearing, but she still had spiritual ears which listened to the voice of her Savior, which were signed to her with hands. I’m talking about your spiritual ears and spiritual hearing. Jesus warns of having ears, but not hearing (Mark 8:18) and He says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Mark 4:9) Here, Jesus speaks of spiritual hearing, that is, not just listening to the sounds, the grammar, and the logic of the sentences, but taking it to heart, repenting, and believing the message, as St. Paul says in Romans 10, “With the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” (vs. 10) If the words of Christ do not penetrate through your ears into your heart, it does not matter how well you think you understand them, you remain spiritually deaf and mute. And indeed, this is our natural condition. We are conceived and born dead in sin, so that the Apostle says, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14) And so, we all need God to open our spiritual ears, so that we may take His word to heart, confess Christ, and be saved.

But what is the word of God, which opens spiritual ears and loosens spiritual tongues? The word of God is rightly divided into two: the Law and the Gospel. Concerning the Law, the Apostle Paul writes that it is a ministry of death, carved in letters of stone, and that to this day when the children of Israel read it, a veil remains over their hearts. The Law gives commandments easy for anyone with natural hearing to understand: You shall have no other gods. Honor your father and your mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Anyone can understand these words, but no one can perfect them. Even if you can keep your hands and mouth from breaking them, you cannot prevent your heart from breaking them, unless you are first born again. And the Law has no power to give you new birth, because the Law only tells you what to do, and it is impossible to cause yourself to be born again by your own strength, merits, or works. This can only be accomplished by the Holy Spirit. So, the word of God, which opens spiritual ears and loosens spiritual tongues must be that word of God which gives the Holy Spirit!

That Word of God is the Gospel! Jesus promises the Holy Spirit in the preaching of the Gospel (John 20:22-23; John 14:16). And St. Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 3, “Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (vss. 2-3) And so, the Word of God that opens spiritually deaf ears and loosens spiritually mute tongues is the Gospel of Christ by which the Holy Spirit works.

Jesus indicates the giving of the Holy Spirit when He takes the deafmute aside and places His fingers in his ears. Jesus is God. His fingers are God’s fingers. The Holy Spirit is called the finger of God (Exodus 8:19). In Luke 11, Jesus confronts His accusers who claim that He casts out demons by Beelzebub the prince of demons, saying, “But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” (vs. 20) St. Matthew records this same interaction in chapter 12, but records Jesus saying, “But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” (vs. 28) And so, the finger of God is the Holy Spirit. When Jesus put His fingers in the ears of the deafmute, He demonstrated that it is by the power of the Holy Spirit, through rebirth, that our spiritual ears are opened, so that our heart may embrace the Gospel.

Jesus sighed. It could also be translated that He groaned. Here we see that the giving of the Holy Spirit is not done without a cost, but with the precious price of Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross. It foreshadows Jesus’ giving up His Spirit as He breathed His last upon the cross. And so, we see that the Holy Spirit is given not through the Law, which commands us to do what we fail to do, but through the Gospel, which proclaims what Christ Jesus has accomplished through His suffering and death upon the cross. Likewise, Jesus spit and touched the deafmute’s tongue. This indicates Baptism, which is the rebirth of water and the Spirit (John 3:5). And so, we should recognize that when we were baptized, Jesus spoke His Ephphatha into our ears, that is, the command that our spiritual ears be opened to hear His Word, and by the power of His cross and resurrection, the Holy Spirit opened our ears.

And so, this gives us new understanding to the Third Commandment, which demands that we do not despise God’s preaching and Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. This is not just a command, the breaking of which adds to your debt of sin against God. But this is the means by which you receive your salvation. Saving faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (Romans 10:17). And this is not some impossible commandment to keep, but St. Paul writes, ‘“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim).” (Romans 10:7) But the Word cannot be in your mouth or in your heart, if it is not in your ears! “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”, our Lord says (Mark 4:9). “My sheep hear My voice,” our Shepherd declares (John 10:27). If you abide in My Word, you are My disciples indeed,” Jesus says (John 8:31).

In Baptism, Jesus opened your ears by the Holy Spirit and by His labors on the cross, not so that you could plug up your ears, but so that you would listen to Him. Jesus commands that we baptize and teach (Matthew 28:19-20) all nations. We will not learn to confess Christ rightly, if we do not first learn to listen to His Gospel. And Jesus lavishes us with His Gospel, using sweet words of consolation. Not just in Baptism, but in the Absolution, where Christ’s minister declares your sins forgiven. These are words paid for dearly by Christ with deep groaning and sighing, so that you may be sure that your sins are forgiven. These words, “given and shed for you for the remission of sins” are what give you the confidence that in the Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood, Jesus offers you forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. When we exhort you to go to church and listen to the preaching, we are not simply telling you to obey one of God’s Ten Commandments, which should be enough for you, but we are telling you to be a Christian, to open your spiritual ears, so that your tongue may confess Christ for your salvation.

By opening the deafmutes ears, so that he spoke rightly, Christ demonstrates how He opens our ears through the ministry of the Gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that we may confess Christ and be saved. So, it sounds odd that Jesus then charges them to tell no one, but that the more He charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. Why did Jesus charge the man to be silent? This is not the case of reverse psychology, where Jesus really intends for the man to disobey Him. Rather, Jesus desired the man to tell no one, because His time had not yet come. Previously, He told a man to tell no one of how He healed him of his leprosy, but the man told everyone, so that Jesus could not openly enter the villages, and had to stay out in desolate places. Another reason Jesus forbid the man from telling anyone is the same reason St. Paul writes of a man seeking the office of bishop in 1 Timothy 3, “He must not be a recent convert.” (vs. 6) Before the man can properly speak of Christ, he must first sit and listen to Jesus’ teaching. This is why we are given two ears, but one mouth. A man who has only recently been converted by the Gospel should humbly listen and learn before he deigns to teach, as St. James writes, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” (3:1) And St. Paul writes, “How can they preach unless they are sent?” (Romans 10:15)

Yet, regardless of Jesus’ prohibition, the man told everyone about Jesus, just as the others did whom Jesus healed. But why do those healed by Christ insist on talking about Him? Because, as Jesus says, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:35) While in this particular instance, Christ forbid the man from telling people about Him, this is not what Christ commands of us today. Rather, we should do as Jesus told the man whom He freed from a legion of demons, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” (Mark 5:19) And we should do as St. Peter exhorts us, “Always be prepared to give a defense for the reason for the hope that is in you.” (1 Peter 3:15) And as St. Paul writes in Colossians 3, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

If Christ Jesus dwells in your heart through faith, the natural response is to tell people about Jesus and what He has done for you. Tell your neighbors and friends. Tell your children. Confess Christ at every opportunity, as Jesus says, “whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32-33)

Has Christ opened your ears by the Holy Spirit? Do you believe in your heart that Jesus has saved you? Then confess with your mouth for your salvation and for the salvation of those who will hear your confession. Amen.