4 Epiphany Year B – January 28, 2024
Mark 1:21-28
So, I think today’s gospel story may be difficult for many of us to relate to. It sounds like an exorcism story and many of us have no direct experience of that. But there is so much we can learn from it.
Mark tells this story about unclean spirits, and he tells it up front; in other words, at the very beginning of the Gospel of Mark. Keep in mind that earlier in the chapter, Jesus was blessed and baptized with the Holy Spirit as he heard the promise proclaimed to him, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased!” Now Mark contrasts this experience with that of the man possessed by an “unclean” spirit, spirits that are most assuredly not telling him that he is beloved of God or God-pleasing in any way.
Rather than bless, they curse; rather than build up, they tear down; rather than encourage, they disparage; rather than promote love, they sow hate; rather than draw us together, they seek to split us apart.
So maybe we could boil down the first chapter of Mark leading up to the story this way: Jesus has returned from the temptation in the wilderness, called his first disciples as he passed by the Sea of Galilee and the first act Jesus does is free this man from the hold of his unclean spirit and restore him to himself, to his loved ones, and to his community. The man is made whole. The very first thing.
This exorcism is Jesus’ first act in Mark, and firsts matter. Jesus crosses into those spaces and places where no one else is willing to go. That’s God for Mark. That’s God for us. And we can count on that. Indeed, the reign of God is present, even when perceptions would present a different view.
Jesus stepped directly into the pain, rage, ugliness, and horror at the heart of this story. He wasn’t squeamish. He didn’t flinch. His brand of holiness didn’t require him to keep his hands clean. He was in the fear, in the sickness, in the nightmare, ready to engage anything that diminished the lives of those he loved.
Yes, he preached with great effectiveness to the faithful, but he also spoke the unclean spirit’s language, listened to its cries, and rebuked it for the sake of a broken man’s health and sanity. Consider the question the spirit asked before it left its victim: “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” There’s only one answer to that question. “Everything. I have everything to do with you.”
Wherever pain is, darkness is, torment is, God is. God has everything to do with us, even and maybe especially when we’re at our worst. When the shadows overwhelm us, when the demons shriek the loudest, when the hope of liberation feels like nothing more than fantasy — that is when Jesus’s authority brings the walls down.
In this story we see clearly that God stands steadfastly against all those forces that are keeping us down. God is opposed to anything and everything that robs us of abundant life. God is prepared to do battle with the forces that seek to rob our lives of joy, meaning, and purpose. That is the promise in today’s reading.
I think it’s important to note that God stands against the “forces” that diminish life, not against people whom God has created. The forces of evil are hate, fear, selfishness, insecurity, etc. We seem to be in the habit of demonizing people rather than the forces of evil. The forces of evil need to be the topics of our conversations, not individuals or personalities. After all, Jesus didn’t demonize the man possessed, he released him of the forces the kept him broken.
In Mark’s story, the unclean spirit goes to the synagogue and listens to Jesus. It recognizes “the Holy One of God” before anyone else does. It calculates the stakes, realizes that Jesus’s presence signals its doom, and puts up a loud, vicious fight before it surrenders.
Does any of this sound familiar? Sometimes our “unclean spirits” take up residence in our holy places. That is, we carry our destructive habits and tendencies right into our churches, our friendships, our families, and our workplaces. Sometimes our demons — our fears, our addictions, our sins, and our compulsions — recognize Jesus first because they know that an encounter with him will change everything. So they make us recoil as soon as he shows up in the guise of a loving friend, or a provocative sermon, or a pricked conscience. Sometimes our lives actually get harder when we move towards faith and healing, because unclean spirits always fight the hardest when their time is up.” It’s interesting that the root word for salvation in Greek is sozo which means wholeness.
In this story we see clearly that God stands steadfastly against all those forces that are keeping us down. God is opposed to anything and everything that robs us of abundant life. God is prepared to do battle with the forces that seek to rob our lives of joy, meaning, and purpose. That is the promise in today’s reading.
May we be made whole. Amen.
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