RVCC Pastor's Sermon

Sermon - February 1, 2009

“When Good Confronts Evil”

By Rev. Nancy Foran
Mark 1:21-28

There is such a sense of urgency in the Gospel of Mark – and we have noted that before. We continue to be rapidly whisked away with the Gospel writer in his pursuit of the Way, God’s Way.

I mean, here we are – only 28 verses into his narration, into the story – and we have already learned about the rousing sermons of John the Baptist as well as his impending fate. We have experienced Jesus being baptized on the shores of the Jordan River.

In fact, already he has been tempted in the wilderness for forty days (we’ll look more closely at that story come the first Sunday in Lent), called his trusty twelve disciples, and is now about to preach his first sermon.

Yup, that is where we find him today – in the synagogue of the backwater town of Capernaum – as every good Jew would be on the Sabbath. And like his fellow worshippers, Jesus is given the opportunity and the privilege (which he takes) of standing up among his peers to read scripture and expound upon it. Kind of like an extemporaneous lay sermon.

Jesus must have been doing a marvelous job because Mark tells us that everyone who listened was astounded that he taught with such authority. Of course, Mark provides no clue as to what he said or what he taught about – only that he did it with authority. But then, Mark’s purpose in writing his Gospel is to simply tell the Story of Jesus’ life in order to show us the Way of God.

And so it was in the midst of Jesus’ first experience with preaching that a man with an unclean spirit – or a bunch of demons – speaks out unceremoniously and in a most combative way. We do not know if the stranger had been sitting in the back of the synagogue all along or if he just wandered in off the street.

But we do know that he was most certainly the type that would leave any greeter wide-eyed with fear and trembling and the Deacon on duty cringing and maybe even coming close to a state of panic. Where are the ushers? Who let this guy in here in the first place?

He was the type of fellow that probably all of us would want to get outside quickly before he caused much more of a stir. We might hand him a twenty, give him some canned goods or paper products that had not yet been delivered to the Food Pantry, and send him on his way as soon as possible.

However, Jesus sees his interference as a unique teachable moment, so to speak, and Mark as well understands this incident as a scenario for highlighting some important ideas about Jesus, his relationship to God, and his ministry.

The spirit within the demented, disjointed, crazy man shrieks angrily, drowning out the voice of the preacher, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are. You are the Holy One of God.”

And Jesus responds just as loudly but with far more control. “Be quiet” – or more literally “be muzzled” – like a dog – or like the storm that he will one day calm. “Be quiet. Come out of him.”

And that was all, but it was enough, and the unclean spirit was no more, and the man fell to a whimpering heap on the synagogue floor. And the people watching, no doubt, continued to be astounded.

Now sometimes when we read this little vignette, we get all mixed up and wind up focusing on the unclean spirit – its origins, what it really was. We end up reflecting on peripheral questions like - are there really demons? And if there are, do they really take over people’s lives? Was this an exorcism that Jesus performed, like in the movie of nearly the same name? Or was this some kind of neurological disorder that the wild man had? Epilepsy maybe? Or some ancient form of dementia?

But answering all those questions is not the point of the story. They may be interesting sidelights, but they are not central. Mark simply does not care about those details. You see, Jesus, like most first century Jews, probably did believe in spirits. Everyone believed that spirits could – and did – inhabit both men and women. Unclean ones were evil ones that could not be tamed by the complicated system of purity that characterized ancient Judaism.

Jesus and his contemporaries believed these demons or evil spirits inhabited dark and unclean places. If a person was not careful around dirty and shadowy locales, if a person did not adhere to the strict social system and dietary laws, a demon might pounce on them – and be the cause of anything from blindness to plagues.

And so you see, there would have been nothing extraordinary – or even that unusual – about Mark including this particular story in his Gospel. He assumes the existence of a spirit world. Of far great urgency to him is using this tale to illustrate who Jesus is and what he is about.

The story was certainly meant to be taken seriously, probably much more seriously than we would care to take it. However, it was hardly the sensationalistic material that we might try to make it out to be – or the quaint pre-scientific story that we might hope. However, to understand its significance for Mark, we need to sift through it for its meaning.

And so I suggest that we all ponder a single thought – and that is this: The first person to recognize Jesus for who he was did not turn out to be one of the insiders like Simon Peter or Andrew or James or John. The first person to recognize Jesus for who he was did not turn out to be some trusted member of the synagogue congregation or – heaven forbid – the pastoral staff.

The first person to recognize Jesus for who he was turned out to be a crazy man. And if you read the text carefully, it was not the man himself who recognized Jesus. “I know who you are. You are the Holy One of God.” It was the unclean spirit. It was evil confronting good – and recognizing good for what it is and for the power that it has.

Though Mark does not bother to tell us what Jesus taught, he shows us time and time again the power and authority that Jesus had – and continues to have - over things that were – and are - unclean, things that were – and are - evil. Jesus was the ancient hope of his people – and so remains the hope of our modern world as well.

As Todd Weir wrote, “Mark is making this point: that the will and purpose of God present in Jesus is engaging and fighting against the purposes of evil that exist among humanity. This battle is not fought just at the highest levels of government or industry, but right in the midst of common folk like us…Christ has come to shatter the domineering designs that shackle people to lower standards for life than God intends. Christ is among us.”

No matter how hopeless the world may look, no matter how down-the-drain our lives may seem, no matter how ephemeral peace may appear, no matter what difficulties we may face, we are not alone. Christ is among us – in the midst of all our struggles.

In Jesus, the good has confronted the evil, and in the end, the evil will be gone like an unclean spirit in a crazy man, and the good will prevail. That is the Kingdom of God of which Mark speaks in his Gospel. And, for Mark, this Kingdom is not something you should presume is part of some future life. Rather, it is the central hope that each one of us is called upon to embrace now, in this world. God is on the march – right this very moment.

Christ is among us. The good has confronted the evil – trust that the good has won – and that these words of John Bell are true: Goodness is stronger than evil. Love is stronger than hate. Light is stronger than darkness. Life is stronger than death. Victory is ours. Victory is ours - through the One who first loved us.

Sermon - February 1, 2009

“When Good Confronts Evil”

By Rev. Nancy Foran Mark 1:21-28

By Rev. Nancy Foran
Mark 1:21-28