Sermon: Mark 1:21-28

This sermon was preached at 10:30 Holy Communion in St. Bartholomew's Parish Church, Stranmillis on Sunday 01 Feb 2009 on my final day of College placement

Mark 1:21-28 (New International Version)

Jesus Drives Out an Evil Spirit

21They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil^[a] spirit cried out, 24"What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!"

25"Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly. "Come out of him!" 26The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.

27The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, "What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him." 28News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

Let us pray,

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be now and always acceptable in thy sight, O Lord our strength and our redeemer – Amen

If I was to ask you to think about the word authority, what words or images come to mind, maybe a policeman, maybe a judge, perhaps a world leader, an academic maybe who is an authority in such and such a field. Your mind may be drawn to your own job if you are a supervisor or manager of people. The word authority implies decision making, responsibility and some sort of leadership role.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been watching with much interest what has been happening in Washington D.C after the inauguration of Barack Obama. I am a fan of the west wing TV series as well as 24 both of which portray days in the life of a president in the Oval office, the successes and the failures of the American administration as they try to run the country. As well as the stresses and stains of everyday life in the positions of power.

I don’t know what it is about this American president which as captivated me, maybe it is because he is of ordinary origins – I have been reading his Biography!, maybe because he seems to be a beacon of hope for the nation, maybe its compelling that 1 man has so much power …

The man, Barack, looks and acts like a leader, someone who has authority but also someone who seems to handle this power well, he has got people around him whom he can trust and delegate that power out to. Someone who also exudes charisma and trustworthiness. Something new promised for America – history of course will tell wether or not this is the case.

Our reading this morning from the gospel of Mark speaks about someone who has authority, begs various questions such

• who is Jesus ?
• Where does his authority come from?
• And what is this all about?

Over the course of the last few months, whilst I have been here in St. Bartholomews, I have joined you as we have journeyed as we do annually through what is known as ordinary time, through advent as we seek to prepare for Jesus coming as a Baby in a manger, through epiphany, his Baptism and now we are starting on Jesus’ public ministry.

Who is Jesus and how is he different from the scribes?

This may seem like a very simple and straight forward question to us as Christians today with 2,000 years of scholarship behind us. With simple creedal statements, of searching scriptures, of devotion and in our own lives our encounters with God through our own experience of the risen Lord. However we must remember that astonishment of those people in the synagogue – they knew very little about the person of Jesus, it was through his teaching that his authority was shown.

The question as to Jesus’ identity is one of the fundamental questions which Mark is concerned about throughout his gospel – he opens his book with the outrageous claim – “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” and then the rest of the gospel asks the question again and again – who is this Jesus?

In our passage this morning – Jesus is seen as someone who is a teacher, but more than that he is a teacher who has authority over evil. There is one thing teaching that God has power over evil, but then when evil is presented before him he claims that authority and calmly commands it to go.

It is interesting that the first to recognize Jesus as “the holy one of God” is the evil spirit.

Where does such authority come from?

The short answer is from God – We see on many occasions throughout the gospel narratives Jesus claiming authority over

• Nature – events around the lake: calming of Storm, walking on water, feeding of the 5,000
• Disease – many healings
• Sin – “Your sins are forgiven”
• And in this and other cases – power over evil
• And Ultimately – Power over death.

Many miracles pointing to the coming of the kingdom and the eventual defeat of evil.

This authority comes from the Father – purely and simply. It cannot conceivably come from anywhere else

What does this mean?

This episode provides us with an insight into something which we know very little about, but an area of the created universe which there has been much rumour over the centuries. Many very scary films have picked up the themes of exorcisms, of evil portrayed in horrific detail. We also see Jesus throughout his earthly ministry confronting manifest evil in many scenes and simply telling it to leave.

Do these sort of things happen today? Rationalists over the last couple of centuries have tried to deny the existence of evil, claiming that it was down to psychological illness. However there is more to it that this – the church does recognize that there is evil in the world. We tread a middle way in talking about such matters – Lots of things which have been put down to evil in history of course have been down to what we recognize as mental illness but there are thing which are evil.

Christians who are relying on Jesus, who are living for him we have nothing to fear – why? Because Jesus is the one who has authority over evil and this power is the same as the power over sin, the same as the power he displayed over the diseases which he healed back in 1^st C Palestine and he still does it today.

Take a look at the passage again – what is its emphasis?

Is it on the evil one? – no its not … its on Jesus … its on his power, his teaching and his authority. So what?

What is our focus? Are we concentrating on evil within our midst? – are we looking towards the wrong authority? There are many different foci within the world today:

- World leaders

- Money Markets

- Models

- Films

- Consoles

- Pop Stars

None of these of course are evil in themselves, however they all can become tied up with evil

However the distraction they take from the One who is the real authority is important to note. Evil is real in the world today but God is more powerful, more beautiful than anything that the Evil one may throw at us.

In our Baptism service we are asked

Do you to reject the devil and all proud rebellion against God – I reject them

Do you renounce the deceit and corruption of evil - I renounce them

Evil does not have a stronghold on the Christian – Look at the authority Jesus has – he commands the evil spirit to leave the man – and it does – just like that.

Things that rob Christians of hope do not have a stronghold over Christians either – It may seem that it does – but “whom resist steadfast in the faith”

As Christians we have to actively reject and renounce those things which are not of God.

There may be things – not evil at all – but just things which are detracting from promised life that Jesus promised which you know that you need to dump out in a spring clean (if you can do that at the start of February!)

Who is this who has the authority? – It’s Jesus Christ, It’s God’s Son It’s God’s Holy one!

Where does his authority come from? - It’s directly from our father, the creator

What is this story all about? Its about living life to the full … God has a plan for us, evil does try to throw us of the path – but evil is doomed to failure – we have to continually look to Jesus to focus our eyes on him, he is the one with authority.

We do need to be real and honest about this stuff … if there are things detracting us from the life that Jesus promised that we need to dump – DO IT!

The other thing which is quite scary is that Jesus, like the obama administration if I can draw an analogy , he has delegated power – we are ambassadors representing Jesus to the world outside, we are disciples learning what stuff Jesus has given to us to do. So we also need to be getting on with the job of spreading his word, where we are and whatever he has called us to.

In Conclusion,

Let us remind ourselves that evil does exist but our focus should never be on it as the one with the authority is Jesus.

We need to remind ourselves that in Baptism we reject, renounce and we turn to Christ.

Jesus has the authority but has given us a share in that authority as we proclaim the good news in our communities.

Let's pray