healing with authority

from my message on 6/17/12 from Mark 1:21-34

Great!...this is just great!  I start a 3 week series on healing, and the first incident is with a man who has an unclean spirit.  That kind of language really goes over well in this sophisticated, educated crowd.  I look at you, and I think of all the initials that are posted after your names.  We have M.D., Ph.D., P.E. and that doesn't stand for physical education.  That means Professional Engineer.  We have physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, physical therapists, pharmacists,....and that's just the letter P.  We have every medical discipline covered.  I know we do, because several months ago when Jo had a fainting spell here in worship, there were 20 doctors within 20 feet of her who had her diagnosed in under 20 seconds.  It's also just peacy keen, that it happens to be Father's Day, and it happens to be a man in the text who has an unclean spirit.  How prejudicial!

But it seems important to Mark to begin his Gospel this way.  He records Jesus first public appearance with the healing of a man with an unclean spirit.  Jesus's debut happens like this:   He is in Capernahum.  This is no hick town.  This is a good size town, much bigger than Nazereth, on the northern shore of the sea of Galilee.  Jesus is in the synagogue on the sabbath to worship.  There were no professional clergy, so anyone might be asked to bring the message.  Jesus is asked to comment.  He teaches with authority.  That probably means that he did not quote other scholars.  He himself was the voice of authority.  The people are amazed.

Suddenly, there is an interruption.  Don't you just love it when that happens in worship?   A crying baby....feedback from the sound system.  No, this is a major league interruption....a crazy man who has an episode.  Many Saturday evenings from 5 to 7 p.m. I am listening to the Prairie Home Companion on National Public Radio, as Garrison Keillor tells stories of his fictional hometown, Lake Woebegone.  I love the story where he relates what happened when the crazy lady wandered into the worship service at the Lutheran Church.  All of the children and youth delighted in seeing their elders' faith tested.  How would they handle this wild card? 

Today, we would look at this incident in the synagogue and say, "How quaint.   The ancients obviously didn't have language for mental illness, and so they ascribed the behavior to an unclean spirit."  We don't use language like "unclean spirit".  We certainly are uncomfortable with language like "demon possession."   But stick with me for a just a moment here.  It seems the man was an accepted part of the community, a regular in worship.  No one had any indication of what was going on in him.  It was only in the presence of Jesus, the Holy One of God, that the man acted out.  It comes as an indictment to me, and to what we might do in worship.  Maybe we don't convey the Holy enough so that the unholy is revealed.  OUCH!  It was only when the unclean spirit was confronted by holiness that the man acted out.

What are to make of "unclean spirit" and "demon possession"?  I am here to tell you that what I know of evil is this:  evil won't come dressed up in neon red signs that say "danger, warning, stay away, be careful."  No evil  will be dressed up in that which looks most like the good.  We let evil in because we think it is good.  We settle for what is good instead of what is godly.  Our lives become crowded, unclean, possessed.

I will mention 3 possibilities.  Number one on my list is money and possessions.  These are not bad in and of themselves.  But when they become the center of our lives we can lose our souls.  We can become possessed by our possessions.  We cry out, The more you own, the more you groan.  We can spend so much time and energy in worrying about how much we have, how to take care of it, will it last, will the government take it, etc.  Number two on my list is success and achievement.  Again nothing wrong in going for the best unless it becomes the sole object of living.  I watch Glee on tv.  Yes, I am a Gleek.  This past year, there was an episode where one of the Asian characters in high school made an A minus on a test.  In his language, that A minus was called an Asian F.  His parents pounded on him for his failure.  Around here, it is not just academics, but sports, and all kinds of competitions.  There are silent cries for help as youth engage in chemical dependency, succumb to depression, and even take their own lives.  Number three on my list is simply loneliness or emptiness.  We try to fill up on something.  In Disicple Bible I was teaching at another church, there was a group member who was a psychologist.  I remember saying that I thought our identity could only be found in true Christian community.  We do not know who we are except in relationship to others and Christ.  He said, "that makes a lot of sense to me.  I have people with multiple personality disorder.  They have no outside relationships, so they create their own universe from their minds."

I am not hearing any shrieks, anyone crying out.  I wonder how close to holiness my brief comments were.  Can you see how we might easily slip into having an unclean spirit or becoming possessed?

When Jesus teaches in the synagogue, the man feels threatened.  He cries out, "What have you to do with us?"  Notice the plural pronoun.  The man feels crowded.  He further shouts his fear, "Have you come to destroy us?"  When Jesus confronts what is unclean in us, it will at first feel like a threat.  Let me illustrate;  How many of you look forward to going into surgery?  Or, please, I can't wait to get that next chemo treatment.  Or, oh goody, I have to go to counseling.  Or, I get to go see the preacher, and confess my sins.  No, we resist all of this.  We are threatened by it.  But the surgery may remove the tumor, or the chemo kill the cancer cells, or the counsling get to the root causes of behavior, or confession remove the guilt and shame.  Jesus confronts the unclean to make clean.

He does so with authority.  In the Greek text, he uses just 2 words.  First, he says, "Silence,"  or "Hush," or "Quiet."  Sceond, he says, "Leave," or "Exit."  He does not reference anything or anyone else.  He speaks, and it happens.  His word is power.  He has authority to heal.  Jesus comes not to destroy, but to heal, to set free.  He wants to restore all to wholeness, holiness.  He is revealed first in Mark's Gospel as the Great Physician, who has authority over unclean spirits, and then in the next scene over all diseases.

That's how the first day ends.  Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law not with a word, but with a touch.  Not from an unclean spirit, but from a fever.  As proof of her healing, she immediately rises up and serves them supper.  The people bring to him all those with ailments.  The phrase "those who were sick" is literally "all those in a bad way." 

Please get this message:  the God revealed in Jesus is One who wants us to be well in bodies, minds, spirits, memories, and relationships.  This God is not capricious, inflicting illnesses upon people to test them.  This God does not punish by bringing illness.  Now we can engage in some behaviors where there is a cause and effect, and we can bring harm upon ourselves.  But Jesus is the Great Physician and wants only our wholeness.

I take nothing away from all of you in the healing professions.  I bless you.  I see you as instruments of healing in the hands of the Great Physician.  The best statement I have heard came from the chief of surgery here at St. David's many years ago.  It was at a workship where we clergy were learning how we could better be part of the healing team.  This imminent surgeon said, "We don't heal anybody.  We just try to stack the odds in their favor."  You know this to be true.  There will be a person who has a great prognosis who suddenly dies.  There will be another one who has no chance of living who thrives.  We deal with a great mystery when it comes to life and death.

But know this:  Mark reveals Jesus as great, as one who has authority over all kinds of healing, as the Great Physician.  That is the good news I have to share today.