Mark
1:21-28
“Have
you come to destroy us?”
Today’s reading from Mark has been
carefully selected in order to lift up how different is the teaching of
Jesus. We are in the Liturgical season
of Epiphany. Today is week 4. There is one more Epiphany Sunday and then we
observe Transfiguration before launching into the Lenten Season.
In this season of Epiphany, we are
to be encouraged (or allowed) to clearly see Jesus as the one who has been sent
by God. Today’s reading from Mark is
intended to lift up the “authority” with which Jesus teaches. His fame begins to “spread through the
surrounding region of Galilee” as folks come to understand that while he may be
a highly insightful orator, he is also something more.
What he is is apparent to one of
those in the midst of the people. Who he
is is well known to one particular man, at the synagogue in Capernaum. This man proclaims: you are “the Holy One of
God.”
I am getting a bit ahead of myself,
in the story which will unfold as we read through the rest of Mark’s
Gospel. But one thing which will happen
in the weeks, months, and years to come is the struggle for folks to recognize
Jesus. It is in John’s account, in the
14th chapter, where Jesus responds to Philip by asking, “Have I been
with you all this time…. And you still do not know me?” In each of the accounts, the disciples seem
dulled to the truth about Jesus and his relationship with the father. They seem unprepared or not ready to hear and
accept the message Jesus proclaims.
Remember that the end of Mark’s
Gospel tells us that the disciples who came to the tomb on Easter morning fled
in terror, and told no one what they had seen (or I guess what they had NOT
seen – since they were looking into an empty tomb.)
They don’t seem to know – they fail
to understand. But this man in the
synagogue in Capernaum does – he encounters Jesus early in the story – right at
the very beginning – and announces loudly and clearly – You are the Holy One of
God.
Was he heard? Probably.
Jesus tells him to be silent. This
demand surely implied that what the man said we heard by those around him.
Was he believed? Well, that may be a different matter.
This man seems to have something
different about him which may have allowed folks to dismiss him. In speaking of what is different about him, I
am intentionally avoiding saying that something was wrong with him. The story
doesn’t say that something was wrong with him, scripture simply says he was “a
man with an unclean spirit.” The story
also does not say whether this “unclean spirit” would have been apparent to
anyone else, before its exit from the man caused him to convulse and cry.
I want you to think about that description. Think about what you have been told in the
past, or encouraged to believe this description means – and then we will try to
think for ourselves what this might mean.
Let’s start with those
well-engrained assumptions. What have
you heard in the past, or been taught to think about persons with “unclean
spirits”? What diagnosis code is likely
to be attached to a person with an “unclean spirit”? Was is the medical condition which could have
resulted in such a description?
Epilepsy? Schizophrenia? Depression?
Chemical addition? Multiple
sclerosis? Parkinson’s Disease?
I asked my search engine for
help. Most of what I found on the
internet was talk of “demon” possession.
The Good News Bible translates this man’s condition as an “evil spirit.” But the King James Bible uses the same
English words printed in our bulletin. The
King James Bible says the man has an “unclean spirit.”
Whatever this spirit is, it isn’t
something Jesus will tolerate. He orders
the unclean spirit to come out of the man.
The man with the unclean spirit has spoken his fear that this Holy One
of God, Jesus of Nazareth, has perhaps come “to destroy us.” And, destroy Jesus does. And Jesus’ ability to order the unclean
spirit to exit the man does cause the folks in the synagogue to sit up and take
notice.
I want to return to those on-line
resources. One of them had this to say:
An
unclean spirit or demon is “unclean” in that it is wicked. Evil spirits are not
only wicked themselves, but they delight in wickedness and promote wickedness
in humans. They are spiritually polluted and impure, and they seek to
contaminate all of God’s creation with their filth. Their foul, putrid nature
is in direct contrast to the purity and incorruption of the Holy Spirit’s
nature. When a person is defiled by an unclean spirit, he takes pleasure in
corrupt thoughts and actions; when a person is filled with the Holy Spirit, his
thoughts and actions are heavenly.
What if what ails this man is none
of the medical conditions we listed earlier.
What if the unclean spirit with afflicted him was “spiritual impurity
and pollution”?
Wouldn’t Jesus be as eager to
remove such a ‘spirit” as he would be to cure someone with one of the medical
conditions we named earlier?
Wouldn’t Jesus be even more eager
to take away such things?
Yes – this sermon is a bit off the
cuff. Members of the Congregational
Council can affirm that I told them at yesterday’s Council Retreat that I was
likely to need to go home and re-write what I had thought I say this
morning. As a result, I haven’t had as
much time for this to sink in as I would like.
And, I might not be able to pull you along through this chain of
thought.
But, let’s try.
The person with the unclean spirit
is worried that Jesus may have come to destroy.
What might he worry that Jesus would destroy? Well, any number of ailments which would work
against the hope Jesus has for us, for our lives and for the world.
What if the unclean spirit
possessed by this man was worried that Jesus would destroy any one of the many
thoughts/beliefs which possibly permeated the gathering in the synagogue that
day? Convictions such as:
1.
Devotion to and dependence upon a system
of sacrifice as the way to obtain God’s favor,
2.
The notion that some are more acceptable
to God than others,
3.
A fear that God will punish us for breaking
any one of the hundreds of quotes selectively lifted from the sacred writings,
4.
A fear and often times rejection of the
alien and sojourner living among us,
5.
The mere suggestion that I can obtain God’s
acceptance while harboring in my heart hatred toward one of God’s children.
When you think about it, Jesus did
come to do a lot of destroying. And much
of what Jesus came to destroy was present right there in that synagogue in
Capernaum.
When you allow yourself to think
about it, Jesus still comes to do a lot of destroying. It is difficult to enter the Kingdom of God –
because entering the Kingdom of God means the removal of so many unclean
spirits – spirits which allow us to remain self-centered and self-absorbed and
(possibly above all) self-justifying.
The liturgical season of Epiphany
is designed to help us see and perceive the truth about who Jesus is. Maybe we have ceased to look with fresh eyes
in order to see him and to perceive who he truly is. At least part of who he is, is the One who
forbids unclean spirits to remain. Few –
if any – unclean spirits will welcome this intrusion and expulsion.
So, let me ask you again. What name or diagnostic code might you assign
to the unclean spirit which Jesus is casting out?
Few of them will go easily. And as the attempt is made to strip them
there will be a lot of convulsing and crying and loud voices.
Amen.
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