12th Sunday after Trinity + 2 Corinthians 3:4-11 and Mark 7:31-37

Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

St. Paul writes that the ministry of the New Covenant is not one of the letter but of the Spirit. The letter kills. The Spirit gives life. With these words of St. Paul, many would have us understand the letter to be the words of Holy Scripture, since it consists of letters on the page. They would turn Christians away from the Scriptures as a letter that kills. When someone preaches or says, “It is written” as the Savior did when fighting the devil’s temptations in the wilderness, such folks will have none of that unless directed by an inner intuition or idea which they assume is the Holy Spirit. So they pit the Spirit against the words of Holy Scripture so that the Holy Scripture has to be read and understood through the Spirit’s contemporary words spoken directly to their human heart.

But it’s silly to imagine that St. Paul would disparage the Holy Scriptures and treat them as mere letters on the page and worse, letters that kill! The same Paul reminds Timothy that he had, from his childhood, known the Holy Scriptures, “Which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15). If the letter kills then it certainly couldn’t have made Timothy wise for salvation. He also writes, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17). The words on the page don’t kill. They make alive! St. John wrote in John 20:31, “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” The word of Holy Scripture vivifies because it is the very word of God Himself, “living and powerful” (Heb. 4:12), “for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). Because the Holy Spirit is the author of the Scripture, and because He records the very word of God which gives life, the Scripture cannot be the letter that kills. When people take the Scripture to be the letter that kills they’re simply taking Paul’s words out of context and ignoring the rest of Scripture to suit their own personal religious tastes, so that they can pass off their own religious opinions as if they were the very Word of God.

The letter that kills is the letter of the Old Covenant, “written and engraved on stones.” The letter that kills is the Law, the two tablets of the Testimony, “tablets of stone, written with the finger of God” (Exodus 31:18). The Law, the Ten Commandments specifically, are the letter that kills. Paul speaks directly to this in Romans 7. The law is God’s eternal will and God’s will is good. But it points out our sin and our sinful nature is so depraved that as soon as it hears the Law saying “Thou shall not covet,” it takes the opportunity to produce in us all sorts of evil desire in us. Paul says in Romans 7:11, “Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.” This is why the ministry of the Old Covenant, the ministry of Moses, was a ministry of death. Even though the Law is good and wise, when it is applied to sinful men and women it cannot help but point out our sinful acts, thoughts, intentions, and motivations, and by its condemnation it kills us. It is as Paul writes elsewhere, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them’” (Galatians 3:10). For as glorious as the ministry of Moses was, accompanied by plagues, Sinai’s rumblings, and the shining face of Moses, it was a ministry that brings death to sinners, since by works of the Law no man shall be justified and live.

But the ministry of the New Covenant is far different. The ministry of the New Covenant is not of the letter, of the Law, which kills, but of the Spirit who makes alive! If the ministry of the Law was glorious, accompanied by signs and miracles, the ministry of the New Testament is far more glorious! Countless miracles accompany Christ’s ministry. We see one such miracle today that shows us just how much more glorious the ministry of the Gospel is. Some men bring a deaf mute to Jesus. Jesus takes him aside from the crowd and does something curious. He “put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue. Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, ‘Ephphatha,’ that is, ‘Be opened.’” How glorious is this? Ears previously stopped up are unplugged. A tongue previously rigid is loosened. Parts of the creation deformed because of sin are restored for their proper use. And all of it with a word of God, but not just a word of God, a word of God combined with the earthly element of spit. The word is joined to an earthly element and, because of Christ’s divine power, that word and spit heal the man. Is this not glorious? The man and the crowd think so. They couldn’t help but proclaim it. “He does all things well!”

This miracle is like all Christ’s miracles in that it’s a picture of what Christ does spiritually through the gospel. He speaks His Word and opens ears which have been logged plugged up by sin so that they can hear the word of eternal life and believe. He loosens rigid tongues, which formerly could say no good thing about God, so that they cannot help but praise God for His mighty deeds. Where the ministry of the Old Covenant could only condemn and bring the sentence of death against sinners, Christ’s ministry of the New Testament brings life to those condemned to death. The Law shows you your sins and just how bad you really are, not just in your acts but in the thoughts and motivations of your hearts. It kills. But Christ’s ministry raises the dead to new life by forgiving sins and granting everlasting salvation. And just as in the miracle today, He does so through His Word preached to you, for “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17). That “faith is accounted for righteousness” (Rom. 4:5) so that “you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:26). He not only speaks the Word to you but He attaches is to earthly means. He combines His saving word to water in Holy Baptism. He combines His forgiving word to bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper. This is the ministry of the New Covenant, which far excels the glory of the Old Covenant, because the Spirit is present with the Word and the Sacraments to give you eternal life, to open you hears to the Word, and loosen your tongue for the praise and glory of your Savior and God.

There are many who want to take this from you, calling the Scriptures which teach all this a dead letter that kills. There are others who want to take you away from the Word of God by claiming the Spirit speaks directly to them, so that you should listen to them and subject to the Word to their authority. But none of this is from God. God has given you His Word in the Holy Scriptures and it is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path. He has given the church pastors and teachers (Eph. 4:11) who have the ministry of the New Covenant. And though the ministry, and the means of grace look humble to the world, the Holy Spirit has promised to be present in the ministry to forgive sins and bestow the benefits of Christ on all who repent and believe. He opens our stopped up ears to hear His Word, that through His Word we may have the forgiveness of sins and life. He loosens hardened tongues so that His praise should be continually in our mouths. Amen.

May the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.