Be Open
Read Mark 7:24-37.
Today is the 15th Sunday of Pentecost. During Pentecost, we grow closer to God and closer to one another.
Today we hear about Jesus traveling to two different cities. One was called Tyre and the other Sidon. In both of those cities he meets someone who needs to be healed and Jesus heals them.
Watch today’s video and learn more:
Jesus was traveling with his disciples. He went first to the city of Tyre. There was a mom who had a sick child. The mom asked Jesus to help her daughter. She, in fact, begged Jesus. She wanted her daughter to be well. She wanted her daughter to be well so that she could be healthy and enjoy all the thing that other children enjoyed. Jesus healed the daughter and she was made well.
Jesus and his disciples then traveled to the city of Sidon. There they met a man whose friends brought him to Jesus because he could not hear or speak. They wanted Jesus to make him well. They wanted Jesus to give him the ability to speak and to hear. They, too, begged for Jesus’ help.
Jesus did something interesting. Jesus took the man to a private place so that he didn’t have to be watched by everyone else. Jesus put his fingers in the man’s ears and Jesus touched his tongue. Jesus then looked up to heaven and he said, “Ephphatha.” That word, in the language that Jesus spoke, means “be opened.” The man’s ears were opened and his tongue was released. He was able to hear and he was able to speak. Just like the daughter in Tyre, he too was healed.
In both of these amazing stories, the daughter and the man were open to Jesus and he healed them. You and I are invited to be open to Jesus also. When we are open to Jesus, when we listen to Jesus and follow where he leads, we never know what amazing things might happen!
Discuss
- What do you think it would have been like to have been healed by Jesus?
- What are some of the ways you can be open to Jesus?
- How can you help others be open to Jesus?
Song
This Little Light of Mine. Listener Kids.
Activity
The video below is a reading of the book Middle Bear Susana Isern, illustrated by Manon Gauthier. Middle Bear is too small or too big to do a lot of things to help his family, but things change. In today’s gospel, Jesus tells the man who is deaf to “Be open!” Be open to what God can do. Be open to how God can use you. No matter how small, or big, God can use you to bring healing.
Activity
Download the sheet below from Doing Good Together and consider how your family might help those who are ill.
Closing Prayer
God, help us to be open to you. Use us to serve others so that everyone will know how much you love us. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Pastor Dan Fugate, Assistant to the Bishop for Discipleship in the Indiana-Kentucky Synod, ELCA, put this lesson together for Sunday School @ Home. There will be a new one for each Sunday as we continue through this COVID wilderness. Contact him at dfugate@iksynod.org.