Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
February 1, 2009
Deuteronomy 18:15-20
Psalm 111
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Mark 1:21-28
It shouldn’t surprise us that even on this fourth Sunday after the Epiphany our Gospel lesson gives us yet another example of epiphany. Today we see Jesus manifesting his authority to the people who are gathered at the synagogue in Capernaum. It is the Sabbath and Jesus has gone to the synagogue to teach from the scriptures. But the way people respond to Jesus raises important questions about the way Mark tells us this story.
We are well aware that the writer of the Gospel of Mark is a man of few words. He gives us only the necessary facts and details which reveal important insight into who Jesus is. For example, it is apparent by the way people respond to Jesus that this is the first time Jesus has entered this synagogue and the first time people have heard him teach. We are never told why Jesus went to Capernaum to teach in the synagogue that day, and we don’t even know if he was invited to teach because it is not very likely that the scribes of this synagogue would allow a stranger from Nazareth just to show up and take over their own role as teachers. Then, when the demon speaks to Jesus, we wonder why the demon knows who Jesus is, but no one else does. And we might certainly wonder what happens to the man and to the demon after Jesus exorcises the demon from him.
But particulars like these are not important to Mark. In fact, Mark undoubtedly considered such information a distraction to his purpose of telling the good news of Jesus. Unnecessary facts and details would only get in the way of revealing Jesus to his readers. So Mark cuts to the chase. He is not interested in telling us motives for the ways people behave, nor is he interested in giving us reasons why events happen; he is only interested in words and actions which show Jesus to be the Son of God that he is. And like the people in the synagogue that day, he wants us to be surprised and amazed by the person he reveals to us.
So this stranger, Jesus, shows up at the synagogue on the Sabbath and begins teaching, and immediately the people gathered there are “astounded at his teaching.” Why? Because he “taught them as one having authority, and not as one of the scribes.” And in this single statement, Mark reveals what he wants us to know about Jesus—and what he wants us to know about these scribes. He makes it clear that these scribes do not teach with the same kind of authority Jesus seems to have. And in the next statement he sets out to show us what kind of authority Jesus has and where it comes from.
Now, we all have an understanding, and a good working definition of what authority is. That’s because all of us have authority over something in our life. For example, anyone who has a key to a door has the authority to open it. Managers have authority over their workers, parents have authority over their children, teachers have authority over their students. These are common examples of the kinds of authority we have in our life. But the key to understanding authority is this: authority is not something we can give ourselves; authority can only be given to us. Authority is the power invested in us by another person or a community of people who are willing to grant us that authority, and able to honor the authority we have been given. By the same token, we can be relieved of our authority by the same people who grant it to us.
Just recently we witnessed the giving of authority on a national level. Despite the fact that our newly elected president of these United Sates received a majority of the popular vote, he could not assume the authority of his office until the Electoral College granted it to him. I remember newscasters reporting that news by saying, “Now it’s official. Barack Hussein Obama will be the 44th President of the United States.” But after the next popular election or after the next eight years in office, the authority given to President Obama will be withdrawn by his leaving that office. Authority, then, is also be granted to us by the office or the title we are given. Using myself as an example, I was ordained to the office of priest and given authority to be a priest of the church by the bishop who ordained me. And the title I am given as a priest of a particular church is rector. But I can only exercise my authority as a priest and a rector if the people I serve recognize my authority in those roles. And just as citizens of our nation recognize the authority of the Electoral College to elect our President, Episcopalians recognize the authority invested in our bishops to make people like me a priest of the church, while a vestry authorizes a priest to be a rector when they call that person to their parish.
So it is essential that we recognize the important point Mark is making about Jesus’ authority in our scripture lesson today. Mark is showing us that Jesus’ authority differs greatly from the authority which is has been given to these scribes to oversee the religious life of their people. It is different from the authority people grant to each other. And Mark wants us to recognize that difference by the way the people themselves respond to Jesus as he is teaching them. Jesus obviously had no authority among the people when he entered the synagogue that day; in fact we can’t even be sure that the scribes granted him the authority to teach. But when Jesus begins teaching the people “immediately” recognize him as one who already has authority. Unlike the tedious teaching of the scribes which is often self-focused and self-serving, Jesus’ teaching “astounds” the people who gather to hear him that day. And as if that isn’t enough to convince us of his authority Jesus goes on to illustrate his authority by performing an even more astounding act; he casts out a demon from one who is among them.
By the people’s response to Jesus’ teaching, Mark has shown us that Jesus comes to them already having authority, but then he goes on to show us where his authority comes from. And the big clue resides in the demon itself. Because it is the demon who recognizes who Jesus is. “I know who you are,’ says the demon, “the Holy One of God.” It is the demon who reveals to us, not only who Jesus is, but where Jesus’ authority comes from. Jesus is the Son of God, and his authority comes from God. But by making this admission the demon also reveals something important about the nature of demons and the ongoing conflict between God’s good and the evil of this world. In fact this demon reveals something we already know about demons, by our own experience with the demons which take possession of our own life; demons which keep us from the good God created for us to be.
The evil which possesses this man has been able to have his way until he is confronted with the God of all goodness and truth; the God who lives in the flesh of Jesus, his Son. Jesus speaks godly truth to demonic power. Evil is exposed for what it is, it is exorcised of its possession, and humankind is set free from its power. And once again the people respond in awe. Mark tells us that the people are “amazed” by what they have witnessed. Jesus has not only taught with authority, he has demonstrated his authority, an authority which no human can possess; an authority which can only come from God, the power of God’s good to cast out the power of evil in the demons which take possession of us and our world.
Well, what do these people do when they witness such good news? What do you and I do when we witness the power of God’s good over an act of evil? We cannot help but tell our story. So the people leave the synagogue that day to spread the good news of this man who is capable of confronting evil and rendering it powerless; a man who not only brings good news; he is the good news. And so his fame spreads throughout the countryside.
The good news of this gospel account from Mark seems pretty clear, doesn’t it. It is the same good news which came to the man possessed that day, and to the people who witnessed it. Today we can be assured that the power of God’s good can, and will, prevail over the power of evil; by the power of God’s truth, we can be set us free from the demons that possess us. But only if we are willing and able to recognize God’s goodness and truth when it confronts our demons, and only if we desire God’s goodness and truth in ridding ourselves of them. I am sure the man who came to the synagogue that day possessed by a demon was a lot like us. He came out of a kind of religious obligation. He did not expect to hear the truth of scripture, no less be astounded by it. But he did hear it, and he was astounded. The truth he heard confronted the demon inside of him, and that truth exposed this demon for what he was. And we all know that once evil is exposed for what it is, God’s good is given the opportunity to overcome evil with good. If only we will choose it.
In my mind the man possessed experienced a kind of intervention that day. Jesus’ spoke truth to the power of this man’s demon; the man himself was powerless to confront his demon or to rid himself of it. He needed a higher power; the power of Jesus.
This is the lesson I believe Mark would have us come away with today. We all have demons which enslave us by their power and possession and keep us from living the life God has given us to live. Our demons make us capable of doing great and small acts of evil; things we would never think of doing in our right mind, or the goodness of our heart. We know our demons by the havoc they wreak on us and on others who we victimize by them. We also know our demons by name. Some of the most common ones we call addictions to things like to and drugs and alcohol and food and other behaviors and substances which rob us of our senses and sensibility; demons we call anxiety and depression which take away our capacity to engage in healthy ways with others; and demons like schizophrenia and other mental disorders which separate us from ourselves and from complete relationship with others.
The list of demons which can come to possess us and take over our lives seems endless. In fact, the demons of this world are so many and so powerful that fathers of the Early Church thought it simpler to catalogue them into what they called the Seven Deadly Sins: Demons of pride, demons of anger, demons of envy, demons of greed, demons of gluttony, demons of laziness, and demons of lust. All of us can identify more than one of these seven deadly sins in our own catalogue of demons, and I am sure we can tell stories about how deadly they can be.
But today our gospel lesson from Mark shows us that we do not have to live under the power and possession of our demons. This is the good news, but it is also hard news. Anyone who has ever acknowledged a demon and tried to exorcise it in therapy or self-help groups, in prayer or spiritual direction can tell you how difficult it is. But it is possible, even necessary for us to rid ourselves of them if we are to become the people God yearns for us to be. The authority we invest in professional people and self-help groups, in religious counselor and even in our own will can be helpful, but it can never be enough. Twelve Step programs for addiction recognize this fact. Until addicts are willing to recognize the authority of a higher power and their need of him, they remain powerless over their addiction. Until they surrender this higher power, they remain deceived by the power their addiction has over them.
Twelve Step programs get it. Better than we do in the church sometimes, I think. We need a higher power. We need the power of Jesus. We need the authority of Jesus to confront our demons. We need the healing power of Jesus to rid us of the damage our demons do to us and to others. We need Jesus’ truth to confront us in our lies and our unwillingness to face the deceitfulness of our demons. We need the power of Jesus’ goodness to restore us to the good we are capable of being and doing by virtue of our creation. We need Jesus’ strength and courage to confront the evil in others; to speak truth to the power of evil in our world.
Today we are the people who need to be astounded by the authority of Jesus’ teachings. We are the people who need to be amazed by his power to cast out our demons and restore our life to health and healing. Only then can we know what it is like, not just to hear the good news, but to live it.