There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him. After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly… “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
Mark 7:32-35 & 37, NIV
We could not speak; we had not heard,
Our ears too dull to hear the Word
Of Life who at the Father’s side,
Did compass in himself this Christmastide.
And so he came to us by his Nativity
And made our deafness his proclivity
To heal and save, and speech restore,
So we could pray and praise forevermore.
The incarnate Word took us in his hands,
Unstopped our ears and loosed the bands
That bound our tongues to our malaise
And freed us now to sing his praise.
As with the deaf man long ago he sighed
And took himself our liberty denied
And spoke, “Ephphatha!” with all his heart,
So we could hear and speak with art
What we could barely say at all before.
He took our deafness through the door
He opened with his word of love,
And let us be true-born—born from above.
He descended deep into our beginning
And learned to speak, and thereby winning
For us all a way to grow and pray,
And hear the Spirit’s call this Day.
Today, if you will hear his voice,
Harden not your hearts by choice
Of grudges old and past mistakes—
Instead go free for all our sakes
And give the praise to Christ our King
Who on the cross bore everything,
Saved us with his first “Maranatha”
And spoke o’er us eternal “Ephphatha!”
By Thomas Worth
Alumnus Thomas Worth wrote this poem in 2024 as part of an annual Advent tradition. (M.Div. ‘03, D.Min. '07)