Today’s gospel is the story of an exorcism.
Most of us have only encountered exorcism in movies or books but the word evokes the image of someone who is not in control of themselves, captive to destructive demonic forces. Mark uses unclean spirit, evil spirit and demon interchangeably, and when these characters appear in his narrative, what we see are “invisible spiritual beings …[who are] alienated and hostile to God.”[i]
Our text tells us this man appears in the synagogue, alongside the worshipers who were gathered there listening to Jesus teach. I think it’s important to note that this happens in a place of worship, and not in some shadowy den of iniquity. We once may have thought churches and synagogues, mosques and temples provided an extra measure of protection against evil, but the forces that defy God manifest here too.
I thought first of the violence at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston in 2015, but also of the murders at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018 and those at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin in 2012, and historically of church bombings, like the one in 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama. Pure evil.
But even focusing on those events obscures the reality that our churches can never be fully free from sin and evil because, let’s face it, we are communities of human beings, and every one of us is simultaneously saint and sinner.
In the gospel, the man interrupts Jesus and disrupts his teaching, asking him, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?”
Now Jesus and the people in the synagogue have a choice. It’s tempting to dismiss the man, to shoo him away so they can get back on track with their worship. Or to ignore him and say, “Well, that’s just the way he is” and hope he won’t make another outburst.
We don’t hear how the people around him reacted, but Jesus doesn’t do either of those things. Instead, when the man tells Jesus, “I know who you are, the Holy One of God." Jesus speaks to him and commands the unclean spirit to come out of the man,
and the spirit obeys.
Isn’t it surprising that the unclean spirit knows who Jesus is?
All through Mark we hear how the disciples stumble and dither, not entirely sure of what they’re doing, but the spirits hostile to God know exactly what to expect from Jesus.
Mark had already told us that the audience had expressed their astonishment at Jesus’ teaching, not for its content, which we never hear in this passage, but for his authority which Mark contrasted to that of the scribes, “the doctors of the law, the authorized biblical scholars of their time.”[ii]
The people already thought that Jesus, the laborer out of Nazareth, taught with greater authority than the learned professors.
And then they witness his encounter with the unclean spirit and their awe only increases. That’s when they say,
What is this? A new teaching-- with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.
The new teaching isn’t “new” as recent but as previously unknown or, using the word that’s become ubiquitous over the last year: unprecedented.[iii] Jesus spoke and taught differently than anyone who had come before him.
Recall how Mark began his gospel, just 20-some verses earlier, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” This exorcism is Jesus’ first act of public ministry in this gospel and it is a revelation of the authority of God in Jesus to all who witness it.
Possessed, not by an unclean spirit, but by the Spirit of God, Jesus confronts evil and rescues this man from an impossible bondage. [iv]
In baptism, we too are offered freedom from all that binds us. Maybe it’s not something as visible as an unclean spirit, but all of us wrestle with things that draw us away from God, things like addiction, pride, selfishness, unforgiveness or idolatry.
What are those things in your life that whisper your failings and faults to you, draw you into shame and leave you questioning what God has to do with you?
Whatever they are, the good news is that Jesus, the Holy One of God, does not come to destroy you, but to restore you.
You do not have to remain captive to things that are hostile or contrary to God.
In Baptism, you are given new life, marked, or possessed, by the same spirit of God that Jesus has so that you will know how much God loves you.
Let us pray…
Good and gracious God,
Thank you for your Holy One, your Son Jesus Christ
Through whom we know your abundant mercy and love.
Free us from the grip of evil, the bondage of sin and all the forces that defy you and draw us away from you.
Help us submit to your authority in every facet of our lives, that through our words and actions, we would be witnesses to your Good News in the world.
We pray in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
[i] Lamar Williamson. Mark. 50.
[ii] Williamson, 50.
[iii] Williamson, 51.
[iv] Sermon Brainwave, Epiphany 4B, January 31, 2021.
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