Mark is an interesting gospel. It’s the first of the 4 gospels to be written, in the 6th decade of the first century, and it became the source for Matthew and Luke’s gospel. Although ancient tradition denotes authorship to the John Mark who is mentioned in the book of Acts, it is truly not known who the author is. The author of Mark’s gospel doesn’t use much embellishment in his recounting of Jesus’ life. He tends to get right to the point, and things move quickly along. When you read Mark you’ll soon see that of his favourite words is ‘immediately’, also translated to ‘at once’ or ‘right away’, which gives a sense urgency to his writing, a sense that it is imperative, it’s important to understand just who Jesus is, and what he does.
This gospel very quickly gets through the preliminaries to Jesus’ ministry. It begins with John the Baptist calling the people to repentance and then be baptized, culminating in his baptizing Jesus, where the heavens are torn apart by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit breaks through earthly barriers, descends upon Jesus, empowers him, infuses him, fills him with God’s Spirit. And God’s voice acknowledges Jesus as his beloved Son. Then immediately, Mark says, Jesus is driven to the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan, where he overcomes the evil forces, and is waited on by angels. After John’s arrest and imprisonment, Jesus takes up John’s message of repentance and chooses the first of his apostles. And all this in the first 20 verses! Mark’s not wasting any time getting to his main message—helping people to understand and believe just who this Jesus of Nazareth really is!
Last week’s gospel reading we read of Jesus calling fishermen Andrew, Simon-Peter, James and John to follow him as he passes along the Sea of Galilee. Together they all go to the village of Capernaum and on the Sabbath, they go to the synagogue, and Jesus teaches those who are gathered there. The people are astounded at his teaching, because it is so different from what they hear from the scribes. In fairness to the scribes, they were scholarly-lawyers, and their role was to interpret the laws of Moses and “how it should be applied in new situations and made decisions when different laws clashed”[1] and then present those teachings to the people. Jesus’ teaching was new, innovative, astounding his listeners because he taught as one having authority. Now the Greek word which is translated to authority is best understood in the strong sense of having ‘divine power’.[2] This new teacher is more than someone who just knows and understands the teachings, he teaches like he has the authority, the power, the right to tell it and preach it. This teacher was filled with the power of God, and he was amazing to hear. Wouldn’t you have just loved to hear Jesus preach?
And just then, Mark says, a man with an unclean spirit comes forth and cries out: “What do you want of us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are. You are the Holy One of God.” (v.24, NLV) And Jesus tells the spirit or spirits to be silent. There may well have been more than one because the voice asks if Jesus has come to destroy ‘us’. He commands it/them to come out of the man, which happens, after a nasty physical struggle, which I suspect would have been difficult on the man hosting this evil spirit.
This story is full of irony. Firstly Jesus, the one infused with the Spirit of God exorcises a spirit from a man possessed with the spirit of the devil, healing a man whose life is overwhelmed with evil forces[3]. And even more ironical is that the people in the synagogue who are amazed by Jesus’ authoritative teaching and healing really don’t seem to understand, or maybe don’t want to understand fully who he is, yet the evil spirit recognizes Jesus immediately, as the Holy One of God (v 24).[4]
This demonstration of divine power – Jesus teaching and healing with divine authority--is the story Mark chooses to use as Jesus’ first act of public ministry. This is important, because the first act of power that Jesus performs in each of the various gospels are “indicative of the Gospel’s Christological portrait.”[5] In other words, the first story of divine power presents the particular theological focus on Christ the writer is presenting. This event defines for Mark who Jesus is, what his ministry is all about. Mark is the shortest of the four gospels, yet Mark more than any other focuses on Jesus’ miracles—18 of them he records, of those 13 are healing and 4 are exorcisms. [6] The first thing Jesus does in Mark is teach the scriptures with a powerful authority the people had not previously seen before, then he performs an exorcism, healing a man of an evil and dominating spirit. Clearly Mark is telling his readers to be prepared as they read his gospel to look for the transforming power and presence of God in this man Jesus, and to see and look for the intrusion of God into their lives and lifestyles. Jesus not only has the authority, but is the authority. Jesus is the Holy One of God, the Son of God for those with eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to believe and the will to follow him.
The people were amazed, Mark tells us. Well, I guess so! It would have been something to see, and this would be the talk of the town. Mark says Jesus’ fame started to spread, and really, not surprisingly. A man who spoke with the power of the divine and who could rid people of evil spirits, could heal them, well that’s going to dominate the topic of conversation when people came together!
This biblical concept of the causes of illness is different than ours is today and I think if we let it, we can get bogged down in the whole evil spirits and exorcism thing and miss the bigger picture here. Mark was telling people that Jesus is the Son of God and has authority and power over evil things, and God knows, there’s more than enough evil around.
That started me on a train of thought about what evil is, and what things we need to be healed from. The bible is full of stories of war, of greed and power struggles that hurt and damage so many others. Greed and a desire for power are evil forces, to be sure, that continue to malign, oppress, control and damage God’s people, God’s creation. This is not what God wants for us. This is not how what God’s kingdom is all about!
Evil can be insidious, it starts small and grows and can catch us unawares and is often seemingly benign at first. Like that first cigarette, joint, pill or drink that eventually leads to addiction, or the first time someone gambles. For each of us it’s different, each of us carries our own ‘demons’, things that can draw us away from God love, God’s desires for us. I’ve heard cancer and other physical and mental illnesses described as evil. War is evil, undoubtedly! Evil has many faces and many levels. There are social evils and demons in our world. Consider the hurt and pain humanity has caused over the millennia by the belief by some that they are superior to others—and it’s still going on; one person or group of people dominating and subjugating another to their demands and will, controlling by force. That clearly is not of God!
Evil is the opposite of good, the opposite of God, and all that God is. Evil leads us away from a life focused on God’s will and desire for us and the creation. Like any good and loving parent wants for their child, we know our loving God, our creator wants what is good for us. I’ve heard people ask why God allows evil in the world. But evil is not of God. It is of humanity, and of humanity’s own creation, often a creation of our own free will, decisions made by humanity, although admittedly hard to see that sometimes. God, by God’s own nature cannot wish or create bad or evil upon us, because it is not God. God is good, God is love! And we know this because Jesus, God incarnate, came to earth and show us just that. Jesus’ resurrection overcame the power of evil that killed him, evil does not win in the end.
It’s also good to remember that in the midst of the evil we live with, and especially those times in our lives when it can feel overwhelming, we are not alone, Jesus walks with us, supports us and loves us. Jesus lived in and walked the earth, in a body just like ours, so he understands only too well what our needs are.
So I think one way we can personalize the message in our story today is to ask ourselves: “What within me, possesses me? What do I need Jesus’ power and authority to overcome in me, to cast out of me? What is the evil that takes me over, where do I need to let God in, let Christ’s transforming power heal in me?” And take a bit of time to meditate on that, and go to Jesus and ask for his healing power to heal you.
Christians are resurrection people; that is our identity, we know that evil does not triumph, and that the power of the Spirit heals. And that Spirit is with us still, guiding us and guarding us, today, tomorrow and always. Amen.
[1] The Oxford Bible Commentary. John Barton and John Muddiman, editors. (Oxford University Press Inc: New York, NY. 2001) 890
[2] [2] P.C. Enniss in Pastoral Perspecitve for Mark 1: 21-28 in Feasting on the Word, Volume 1. (Westminster John Knox Press: Louisville Ky, 2008) 312
[3] Ibid 311
[4] Alyce M. McKenzie, Real Authority: Reflections on Mark 1:21-28 ; January 23, 2012
http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/Real-Authority-Alyce-McKenzie-01-23-2012.html, accessed Jan. 20. 15
[5] Karoline Lewis in Sermon Brainwave podcast: https://www.workingpreacher.org/podcasts/945-fourth-sunday-after-epiphany-jan-28-2024
[6] P.C. Enniss in Pastoral Perspective for Mark 1: 21-28 in Feasting on the Word, Volume 1. (Westminster John Knox Press: Louisville Ky, 2008) 310