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Sermon: The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany (B) - 29th January 2012
St Aidan's Anglican Church West Epping 8:30 am
Readings: Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalm 111; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28
Traditionally, Australians are supposed to have problems with authority. People put that down to our convict past. Britons look upon us as colonials. Yet the truth is we are a very law-abiding country. Compared to most developed countries our rate of crime is very low. And we don’t have the civil disturbances and riots that Briton endures. Generally, we accept authority. The introduction of seat belt legislation was very successful in Australia. The rate of smoking has dropped dramatically over the years. But we still have our pet hates. Often we are suspicious of scientists who tell us what to eat, how to exercise, or how to raise our children. We are suspicious of the expert who thinks they know how we ought to live.
But then we also don’t like the other kind of authority – the one that doesn’t give clear answers, the politician who won’t answer the question or the financial adviser who can’t clearly tell us where to put our money. And this is the type of contrast we have in today’s reading. The teachers of the law never gave a straight answer to any question. They would quote one text and then another, one authority after another, but no clear answer would emerge for any question.
So it was such a surprise when Jesus began his preaching. His style was completely different. He didn’t quote the other teachers, he didn’t speak with caution or hesitancy. Rather, he spoke plainly and forthrightly as one who had authority to speak. But don’t you notice that something is a little strange here. Mark places such emphasis on how Jesus speaks, but he tells us absolutely nothing about what Jesus says. This is the commencement of Jesus ministry. The emphasis is on preaching and yet we are told nothing about what is actually preached.
No doubt the content of Jesus’ teaching will come out later but here at the beginning of Jesus ministry Mark is giving us some first impressions of Jesus teaching. But what we can do is compare Jesus’ teaching to that of a prophet. Old Testament prophets often began with the words, “Thus says the Lord” and then some fresh revelation is given. And that is exactly what Jesus is doing. He is not working through what has been said before. This teaching will be new. This is fresh revelation, new teaching from this new prophet, the one who speaks with the authority of God.
So notice how the crowds first reaction to Jesus is to comment on his authority. And then the issue comes up again with this demon-possessed man. On the one hand, this an presents us with a problem. What is demon-possession. It is referred to rarely in the Old Testament. It barely gets a mention outside of the gospels and its nowhere in the Epistles. So what is it? Demon possession is not the same as mental illness. If it were then why is it that some illnesses respond to drug therapy. This is a difficult issue for us. Where do we see demon-possession these days?
Yet when we read the gospels there is a frequent reference to it. And notice too how demon possession is described here. When the man speaks it is the demon who is speaking. When Jesus replied he is addressing the spirit and not the man. Also those who are demon-possessed in Mark’s gospel address Jesus in a different way to those who have other illnesses. Those with other illnesses refer to Jesus as Rabbi or Teacher. But the demon-possessed always refer to Jesus as divine. Here Jesus is referred to as the Holy One of God. And we can notice as well that the spirit seems to be aware of Jesus’ agenda. The spirit asks, “Have you come to destroy us?” Jesus responded with a command for the Spirit to leave. This casting out of the spirit seems to indicate that he is on borrowed time and the day of his destruction cannot be too far off.
But what are we to make of such a strange story? How can this event of demon-possession, something which is beyond our experience, be of any help to us? I think there are two lessons we can learn from it. First it tells us more about Jesus the teacher. Yes it is true that Jesus has come to Israel as a preacher and a teacher. It is true that he speaks with authority, his message seems to come directly from God. But surely we see here that it goes deeper than that. Jesus is not here as an academic, with some new knowledge. He has not come as a scientist with some information we’ve never had before. He is not an educationist, come to open new schools.
Rather, he has come with new teaching which not only expands our minds, it is to enter our hearts and souls as well. I can study a course and I can end up with new skills and new information. but it leaves me unchanged. Jesus’ teaching goes deeper than that. It is teaching that changes lives that teaches us again how to love one another, how to care for the weak, and how to forgive those who have wronged us. It is teaching that fosters new communities, dynamic communities, who rejoice when one member rejoices, and weeps when one member weeps. This spiritual power shows that Jesus will enter our hearts and souls and we won’t be the same again.
And the second thing this demon-possession teaches us is that Jesus has an agenda for all that is evil in the world. We may doubt a spirit world, but after experiencing the 20 th century no one can be in any doubt about the presences of evil in our world. And so often in the Psalms the Israelites ask their question of God, why do the evil prosper, while the innocent suffer. Last month a shock statistic was revealed, that 66 children are murdered each year in NSW and usually the perpetrators are the child’s parents. And we wonder why the innocent suffer and evil persists and prospers in our world.
And Jesus’ warning to this spirit is that they are on borrowed time. The time will surely come when all evil will be wiped out and justice at last will prevail in God’s creation. So the message of judgement to the spirit is actually a message of hope for us. And we long for better days as that hope will be fulfilled under the authoritative rule of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But finally, we should spare a thought for the one person who is often overlooked in this story and that is the man who had been demon-possessed. No doubt the experience was not a pleasant one. But that condition would have excluded him from any society. He would have been unwelcome at home. He would not have held a job. He would have been reduced to begging for food. He was excluded from the Temple and the Synagogue. He would have been declared unclean, religiously unacceptable and completely cut off from God. It would be hard to imagine a more miserable condition with no hope of a cure. And yet on this day he barges his way into this synagogue, an unwelcome figure, and attempts to shout Jesus down with his message of threats.
And amazingly he was healed, the spirit was ordered out and he was restored to full health. He, along with everyone else in the synagogue was amazed at what happened. And yet it is an exemplar for the whole of Jesus ministry. Jesus has dome for the lost sheep, he has come to seek out all who are lost, to restore them to God’s fellowship and God’s blessing. This is why Jesus seeks out the tax collectors, the woman caught in adultery, he speaks to the woman at the well, and to the lepers with their perpetual cry of “Unclean.”
This is God, come to earth as a man, to experience the fullness of our humanity even to death itself. And yet he has come to restore that humanity, to heal it of its afflictions and to root out the evil that perverts its heart. Here Mark plays a little trick on us that he repeats through his gospel. By this trick he draws up into his story. After the crucifixion he leaves us at the door of the empty tomb to ponder the resurrection. And here he leaves us in a room of astonished people as the glory of Jesus is revealed. And Mark invites us into this experience, that having seen his glory, we too might be astonished by this living Jesus, this Holy One of God.
POST COMMUNION:
Generous Lord,
in word and eucharist we have proclaimed
the mystery of your love;
help us so to live out our days
that we may be signs of your wonders in the world;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.