After Jesus performed this miracle, listen to what the crowds shouted: “He has done all things well! He has made the deaf to hear and the mute to speak!” He has done all things well. Jesus has done all things well. Whatever He did and still does He does well. Jesus has done everything well. He has loved His Father more than all things, even His own life. He has loved His neighbor, you and me and the whole world, more than Himself. He perfectly obeyed the Father when He came to suffer and die for us. He perfectly loved us by taking on our sins, taking the judgment and punishment against sin onto Himself and by defeating death and the powers of hell for us. He has truly done all things well. To this poor man who could not speak or hear, Jesus gives speech and opens his ears. He has done all things well. But He has given His life to take away our sins so that by that same word that is spoken, He might open our ears and loose our tongues, to hear and believe God's Word and to speak and sing true praises to God. Indeed, Jesus has done all things well. He loves His Father perfectly. He loves you perfectly. He saves you from your sins. He has done all things well.
And we need Jesus to have done all things well. Because we don't do all things well. In fact, we don't do anything well. Oh, I'm not talking about being good at football or track or knowing how to fix a car or repair a house. I'm not talking about the everyday skills you use to do a particular job or chore. Sure, you might have some skills and do some of those things well. No, when I say that we don't do anything well, I'm talking about the things Jesus did. We don't love God most of all. We say we do but then our lives are filled with lots of things we think are the most important thing ever. Here we don't do well. We do selfishly. And for our own benefit. We say we love the Lord. But we don't love Him well because we don't bother with learning His Word every day. We don't bother praying and teaching our kids His Word. We don't receive bad news with hope and joy in Christ but get all gloomy and despairing. We think we are doing OK, but we aren't doing so hot. And we don't love our neighbors well either. We say we do, but we don't. We don't trust God to strengthen our marriages, make us better parents, or provide our daily bread. Instead we complain, grumble, argue, fight, despair, wallow in our misery, blame others, make excuses, ignore God's teaching, and in a million other ways prove to the world that we don't love others as ourselves. We just love ourselves. Jesus has done everything well! That's a good thing. Because we sure haven't. There's our repentance. Not that we don't do things well. Sure, repent of that. But our better repentance is to acknowledge that we don't trust that Jesus doing it well makes a difference for us, that it matters to us, that it counts for us.
Jesus doing all thing wells is what saves us. We are born spiritually deaf, unable to hear God's Word. Spiritually dumb, unable to say anything about God but only to praise and glorify ourselves. Christ saves us from that as He saves the blind man. With His Word. His Word can actually open up ears that can't hear. His Word can actually loose a tongue that cannot speak. Jesus heals this man because He knows what awaits Himself. He knows that on the cross He will take upon Himself this mans sins and the sins of the whole world. He knows that on that cross He will cry out in agony and the Father will be deaf to His cries. The Father will say nothing when Jesus is crushed by the weight of this world's sin. And it is that suffering on the cross for us that saves us. He has done all things well but it only gets better. Jesus isn't just going around healing people and then leaving. It's all part of His work to save sinners. In order for us to have ears that hear and lips that speak rightly, He must go to the cross. There's no chance here for self-improvement or self-help. The answer to our NOT doing things well is not “Try harder.” We do. It doesn't work. No. What we need is a Savior who goes to the cross to saves us from eternal death and condemnation. To wipe away the awful things that husbands and wives say and do to one another, that parents and children do, the awful ways in which we turn from God and despise our neighbor, the very corruption and ruin that we are born with!
Jesus does all things well. That means He does what it takes to save you to. He's gone to the cross but He also delivers that salvation well. What is it that opens your ears to hear? It is the Word. For that deaf man, it was literally Jesus putting his fingers in his ears but also speaking, “Ephatha! Be opened!” That “Ephatha!” is shouted at your Baptism when the Lord opens your ears with His Word that baptizes you with the water. That “Ephatha” is spoken when the words of absolution are spoken, casting out your sins and opening yours ears to the Good News that you are forgiven. The very touching of this man's tongue by Jesus is repeated when the Lord Himself touches your tongue with His body and blood. It's not just some words from heaven! It's the real deal Jesus present here and opening your ears and loosing your tongue so you can say, “Amen!” to all of His gifts. “Amen! Gift received! That's for me! Jesus has done all things well...for me!”
By healing the deaf guy, Jesus demonstrates why He came: to save sinners. St. Paul talks in the Epistle Lesson about the Spirit and the letter. Jesus could come and deliver the letter of the law. He could tell the man that he is deaf because of sin and he can't speak because sin has ruined everything. Jesus could remind him of his sin. But Jesus instead cures him. Heals him. Saves him. That's the ministry of the Spirit, to save. Just like your pastor. What's his job? To tell you the Law? Sure, to call you to repentance. But more than that, to preach the forgiveness of sins so that by His Word, the Spirit would give you life and salvation. But it's also an example for us: how shall you approach your neighbor? Your husband, wife, kids, relatives, coworkers, friends, and so on? With the letter of the law? In harsh judgment? Holding them to standards you yourself cannot meet? No. The ministry of the spirit is your example here: a word of forgiveness, not holding someone else's sins against them. Here you don't bang someone over the head with what they've done but forgive them and act as if they haven't sinned. Love them by forgiving them. Show them that to be a Christian is to be a person not of judgment but of forgiveness. And that is Christ doing all things well through you.
Jesus has done all things well. He healed a man who was deaf and couldn't talk. Jesus has done all things well. He perfectly loves His Father and others. Jesus has done all things well. He gave His life for you and gives you life. Where we have done all things badly, Jesus has done all things well. And now, in Christ, in the Father's sight, so have you. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
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