September 8th, 2024 Mark 7:31-35 “When God Sighed”
The shortest verse in the bible is from the Gospel of John 11:35. “Jesus Wept”. When Jesus arrived at the tomb of Lazarus John tells us Jesus wept. Did you ever ask yourself why? Did his tears fall because a dear friend had died? He felt the loss. Did his tears fall because death is an alien intrusion into a perfect world God created. Death was never intended to be our human experience.
Reading in the Gospel of Mark I stumbled across another unusual word. This simple word has caused me to think deeply about the over whelming love that God has for me, for you. It’s an interesting word that I never would have ascribed to God. It might change your mind about God.
In the Gospel this morning, Jesus is presented with a man who is deaf and has a speech impediment. Maybe, because of his deafness, he never learned to articulate words properly, we are not sure. But his friends knew Jesus could heal him and so they asked.
Jesus, refusing to exploit the situation, took the man aside. He looked him in the face. Knowing it would be useless to talk, he explained what he was about to do. He spat and touched the man’s tongue, telling him that whatever restricted his speech was about to be removed. He touched his ears. They, for the first time, were about to hear.
But before the man said a word or heard a sound, Jesus did something I never would have expected. He sighed. I might have expected a clap, or a song or a prayer. Instead, the Son of God paused, looked up to heaven, and sighed. This is a deep emotion that says more than words.
He sighed. It seems out of place. I never thought of God as one who sighs. I have thought of God as one who commands light out of darkness. One who speaks, and fish fill the sea, birds fill the sky. I have thought of the scene in Bethany and see a God who weeps at the death of Lazarus. I’ve thought of God as one who calls forth the dead with a command….but a God who sighs? We all do I share of sighing.
I realize there does exist a sigh of relief, a sigh of joy. But that isn’t the sigh described in Mark 7. This sigh of Jesus lies somewhere between frustration and a burst of tears.
The apostle Paul spoke of this sighing. Twice he said that Christians will sigh as long as we are on earth and long for heaven. The creation sighs as if she were giving birth.
In Mark 8:11-13, He sighed deeply. Such disappointment. Why? The Pharisees were always asking Jesus for “signs” to prove he was the Messiah. How can you not interpret the present signs….It’s as if he said… Isaiah told you!!!! “When you see the lame walk, the eyes of the blind opened…the mute tongue shout for joy…” the Messiah is in your midst. He sighed in sadness at their rejection.
Jesus sighed. Jesus recognized a pain that was never intended. Mankind was not created to be separated from our creator; and so he sighs. Creation was never intended to be inhabited by evil. His tears fall at the tomb of Lazarus because death was never to be part of our experience. All creation groans under the strain of evil….longing for a return to the “Garden”, how life once was.
Conversations with God were always meant to be personal, face to face, in the “cool of the evening, in the garden”, but now we need the Spirit to intercede on our behalf….looking forward to the day when we will see God face to face.
When Jesus looked into the eyes of this man, Jesus knew that this deafness, like other diseases and death itself are the consequence of the “Fall” of humanity in the Garden of Eden. He knew that God never intended life to be this way. He sighed. “Your ears weren’t made to be deaf, your tongue wasn’t made to stumble.” The Master sighed. He came to set things right. Death was never meant to be permanent. He came to set things right when He Himself rose from death and the grave.
Had Jesus not felt the burden of what was not intended; if Jesus had not sighed…we would still be in our sins, life would have no hope. What if Jesus had simply said… “well, that’s life,” washed his hands and went away. He didn’t. When Jesus sighed….his sigh tells us that God knows our condition. God cares and offers comfort for those hurting from the difficulties, the illnesses that come our way.
Sometimes we look to our future and see one huge burden, or routine. Sometimes we look back and see on long, worn path. But I believe we look at our lives with these attitudes when we are tired, or when we feel defeated. When we are strong and confident, we can easily see a future filled with promise and a past filled with gratitude.” God cares when we are in pain. God sighs because out of love for us He knows this world is not what He intended.
When on earth, Jesus was His answer. Jesus healed the blind, the leper, the deaf and lame. Jesus took the wrath of God’s punishment for ever sinner. In the Garden before His arrest did He not pray: “Father if it be your will take this cup (of your holy wrath) from me….but not my will but yours be done.” Then after His arrest, trial, the scourging and while being nailed to the cross, what happened? For three hours the sky turned “black”. The earth shook. God turned away His face from His only Holy Son. Jesus knew. That’s why he cried out… ‘why have You forsaken me?”
Jesus was forsaken. Jesus was abandoned. On the cross God accepted the perfect sacrifice of His Son, Jesus so that the world might be set right and sins might be forgiven. Three days later Jesus rose from death and the grave. That is how God solved the problem of humanity’s rebellion. That is how God solved the problem of human death, with a guarantee of eternal life.
After Jesus ascended into heaven He established the “Church”, believers gathered around “Word and Sacrament” to sing, to worship, and to replace His healing touch. He uses doctors, nurses, physical therapists, care givers of all kinds. He uses you and me to touch those who are hurting with the pains, the sorrows of life.
Paul wrote: God, through the Holy Spirit has given for the “common good” His Body, the Church. Our God is a God of comfort. He is asking you to ‘imitate’ him by serving and caring for others. By nature we must overcome our selfish nature in order to serve others. It is not always easy. We do not always do it well. But if we are disciples of Jesus, living out our disciples ship it is what we do.
I will extol the Lord at all times; His praise will always be on my lips. Let the afflicted hear his voice and rejoice. This poor man called, and the Lord heard him. He saved him out of all his troubles.
Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blest are those who take refuge in Him. He is close to the broken hearted,
And saves those who are crushed in spirit. Our God sighed. He calls each of us be his “comfort” against the hopelessness we see around us. It was not meant to be so.