Year B, 4 Epiphany, Mark 1:21-28
UNEDITED
I have gone round and round preparing this sermon on Jesus exorcising an unclean spirit in Mark’s Gospel. And I’m fresh out of funny stories about exorcisms. The truth is, with all of our “modern sensibilities” we sometimes don’t really know what to do with these passages that we see in the Gospels about Jesus confronting demons, and thank goodness it’s not polite to talk about it at cocktail parties! What would we say if a skeptical friend pressed us about such passages?
The Bible is actually unapologetically comfortable acknowledging that there are spiritual agents in the service of Satan committed to evil and opposing the work of God, just as there are spiritual agents in the service of God, unswervingly committed to holiness and righteousness; the former the Bible calls ‘demons,’ or sometimes ‘unclean spirits,’ while the latter are called ‘angels.’
In our passage this morning, Jesus comes face to face with an unclean spirit that has essentially taken over a man. And in the resolution of this encounter we see a picture of the saving mercy of Jesus Christ, which is applicable both to those who are not yet believers, and to those who believe the Gospel and follow Christ, and yet find themselves in a dark place.
As the passage begins, Jesus enters the synagogue and begins to teach, presumably expounding the scriptures and calling those listening to “repent and believe the Gospel” (1:15). Mark doesn’t tell us the details as to why, but many of the people were particularly struck, astonished, impressed, even agitated, by the authority with which Jesus was teaching. There must have been a prophetic urgency that they’d not heard from their regular teachers. There was an unusual weight in His words.
But there was a man in church that morning who was utterly repelled by Jesus’ teaching. It would be easy to picture a zombie-like man showing up at the synagogue in a devilish rage, but Mark seems to be saying that he was a regular parishioner, who, though in the clutches of evil, had been quite content with and unthreatened by the usual moralistic teaching of the scribes. We want to take note, then that the devil has had no problem with the man being moral, as long as he was relying on, trusting in, his own so-called goodness.
But Jesus shows up. And let’s be clear, the unclean spirit isn’t only put off by the content of this authoritative teaching, but by the embodiment of the authority, the teacher himself, Jesus Christ. This agent of evil is nose to nose with the prince of heaven; righteousness, holiness and goodness in the flesh, and Jesus is messing up this demon’s work, sounding the alarm to wake them out of their moralistic slumber.
“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” Now that’s the question of every opponent of Jesus – ‘What’ve you got to do with me, Jesus?” Everyone who thinks they’ve got it figured out, whether by denying God altogether, or by cobbling together an assortment of spiritualities, or by trusting your own ability to be good enough, for those outside the church, but also obviously from this passage for many inside the church, the question is ‘What’ve you got do to with me, Jesus?’ In so many words, I’ve certainly asked that question. Sometimes it has a tenor of defiance, sometimes a tone of despair – but there are times when I wonder if Jesus and I have any intersection. Maybe you know what I’m talking about…
Now clearly the demon’s not hoping for an intersection with Jesus – he knows, in fact he says, that if Jesus has anything to do with him it will be his undoing. And yet ironically, for the man the unclean spirit is occupying and speaking through, the answer is quite different, for, despite what he probably thinks while under the influence of this spirit, Jesus is the only one who can save the man from this darkness that’s got ahold of him.
Do you see what’s happened here? The darkness has convinced this man he doesn’t need the Light! That he doesn’t need Jesus. Does he need the Light? Absolutely! But that’s the lie of Satan, repackaged and retold since the Garden of Eden – you don’t need God, you don’t need Jesus, you’ve got this, you’re good, you’re good enough. If you’re within earshot of this sermon, and you don’t think you need Jesus – maybe you’ve come here this morning to appease your spouse or to make business contacts, but you’ll leave the Jesus stuff on the shelf, you don’t really need a Savior, let me tell you, that’s a lie – it’s THE lie, straight from the pit of Hell.
But here’s the Good News. Whether a demon’s got a hold on you, whether you battle your own demons, whatever they may be, if you are in unbelief or disbelief, if you’re a Christian believer but find yourself in a season doubt, depression or despair, Jesus Saves. You don’t need to wait it out, buckle down, or keep a stiff upper lip, because Jesus Saves! With just a word from Jesus, this unclean spirit is out of a job. “Be silent, come out of him!” Jesus commanded. The demon is forced to obey and the man is delivered, like a housefly doing battle with a hurricane, this demon is powerless in the face of Almighty God. Just a word spoken over this man, for his good and for God’s glory, Jesus saves.
Friends, I don’t know what you came in here with this morning, and I don’t know what you’ll face when you leave, but I know this, there’s a word that’s been spoken over you, for your good, and for God’s glory. It is a word of deliverance, it is a final word, it is a word before which all the demons of Hell and Satan himself tremble, for they know it has promised their destruction; it is a word from the Cross of Jesus Christ, an atoning word, a saving word, a loving word, an eternal word for all who would come out of the cold, driving rain of a smiling, normalized evil and come rest on the warm hearth of His saving grace; as Jesus hung on the Cross, having lived the life we should have lived and now dying the death we deserved to die, taking our sin and our separation from God upon himself and offering us in return His righteous intimacy with the Father, He looked up to the darkening sky and spoke a word over our darkness, our demons and our despair – “It is finished.”
“It is finished,” and all of Satan’s demons and Satan himself are forced to obey, powerless in the face of Almighty God. You and I both know that this doesn’t mean we won’t face hardship, doesn’t even mean our adversary the devil doesn’t still prowl around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). But it does mean that no matter what, Jesus saves. As we repent, as we place our faith again and again in the Risen Lord Jesus and His mighty work, as we return to the reality and the fullness of our justification, as we learn to rest in his saving mercy and grace, we see with increasing clarity and confidence that Jesus saves. For our goodness, for His glory, Jesus saves.
As Cecil Alexander wrote in his great Easter hymn, ‘Death is conquered, we are free, Christ has won the victory!’ It is finished. Jesus saves! Amen.
