January 28, 2024 Fourth Sunday After Epiphany The text is Mark 1:21-28.
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21[Jesus and his disciples] went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught.22They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 23Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 24and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” 25But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 27They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” 28At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.
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May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.
Grace, mercy, and peace are yours from God the Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
What is recounted in this morning’s gospel reading is of great importance as it describes the very first time Jesus teaches publicly, and also narrates his first encounter with forces that would oppose him, his mission and ministry. So I thought that we might turn to someone who was there and witnessed what happened.
Hello everyone! You all know me, here in Capernaum; my name is Chayim Levi and I’m a member of the synagogue here, just as all of you are. But I don’t recall seeing any of you at worship today at the synagogue, but I’m sure by now that you must have heard what happened there.
It was very strange indeed, and one thing I can tell you is that what did occur was something that has never, ever happened before in our worship gathering. This was nothing like the way things have always been in our synagogue and our rabbis have never given us instruction like this newcomer did. His teaching was very different from the way our rabbis have always taught us; what he taught us came from an entirely authentic place of authority.
Shabbat worship started out like it did every Saturday. Everyone in the synagogue expected that the service would be the same as it always is; we came to worship God and to hear our rabbis teach us how we might better understand our Jewish Law. Now don’t misunderstand, our rabbis faithfully interpret the Torah for us, as they teach us in the Word of God, of Yahweh, but sometimes their instruction can be a bit, dare I say, boring. Things today were transpiring as normal; we recited the prayers, sang the Psalms, and listened to the reading of the Torah. As this was going on, a man we had never seen before walked into the synagogue and began preaching and instructing us, in ways that were very different indeed. As I said, this man spoke from a position we immediately realized came from a new authority; one that wasn’t expressed by our scribes and rabbis. I’m sure you recognize that when I speak about the “authority” in his teaching, you know that the word also means that this authority extends to the power to banish unclean spirits.
I still can’t quite believe what happened just after he started teaching us. Seemingly out of nowhere a deranged person entered the worship space and began screaming. None of us in the synagogue had any idea of what caused this man to have this terrifying outburst. Apparently he was afflicted with an unclean spirit, and this demonic possession recognized that the one who was teaching us had authority to expel him from the man. The demon cried out and called out to the new teacher by his name. He shouted, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?” The voice was like a harsh screech, and sounded like something demonic. We couldn’t understand how this unclean spirit that possessed the man could possibly know the name of the new rabbi, and know that he came from Nazareth. Did the voice really know that this itinerant teacher had the authority to drive out unclean spirits?
But the screaming man didn’t stop there; he continued using of blasphemous words, and even evoked the name of God. And as you all well know, the name of God is not to be uttered out loud. We are permitted to refer to God the Creator as “Elohim”; as Lord using “Adonai“; or as the “I AM”, Yahweh. But the deranged one ignored this custom and yelled out, “I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” When this happened you could have heard a pin drop in the synagogue. Everyone just stood there in stunned silence as these blasphemous, accusatory words were shouted out by the spirit that inhabited this disturbed man. This rabbi who we now know is named Jesus from the small town of Nazareth recognized the offense of what the unhinged man had said, identifying Jesus as “the Holy One of God”. Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him.”
What happened after that was unbelievable and I wouldn’t blame you if you doubted my story. But I was there and I saw it for myself. I have never, ever, witnessed anything like that before. The man was convulsing on the floor of the synagogue and it looked like he was struggling with the unclean spirit that was dominating his mind. Then the voice of the demon cried out again with the same evil-sounding shriek. The unclean spirit came out of the man and after that he seemed calm. He got up from the floor and looked to be again in his right mind.
Everyone who witnessed this event was amazed and we kept asking each other, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority!” “This Jesus of Nazareth is able to banish unclean spirits from a possessed person!” “He commanded unclean spirits to leave a poor, distressed man and they obeyed him”. I know this all sounds impossible, but I promise you that this is what happened today on Shabbat in the synagogue, right here in Capernaum. Even though I witnessed all this I still can’t really put into words how it impacted all of us who were there. It felt like we were in the presence of someone who was really different from anyone we had ever seen before.
This unknown rabbi from Nazareth, who apparently has authority from Yahweh to call unclean spirits out of a man, well I think that truly “the Holy One of God” was right there among us. That’s the only explanation that makes any sense, no one like him has ever acted with the authority he has.
I think this Nazarene rabbi, Jesus is going to bring about unimaginable change in the world, and he has only just begun. I heard that today was the first time he had taught in public; his mission and ministry are just beginning. And I’m not the only one who feels this way; it seems that after what Jesus did today here in Capernaum, his fame has already begun to spread throughout the whole region of Galilee. And I’m glad you were here to listen to my telling you of what happened.
Now that we have left Chayim back in Capernaum, and we have his first-person testimony as to what happened at the synagogue there, I thought we might want to take a look at this event and what Jesus’ actions that day, and afterward mean for us, for our lives. Last Sunday we noted that in Mark’s gospel, although we are only in the first chapter, that things are happening quite quickly, as Jesus begins his ministry. John the Baptist has been preaching the need for repentance through baptism, he has baptized Jesus in the Jordan River, and Jesus has called his first disciples. And right after these four former fishermen choose to follow Jesus, they travel with him to Capernaum where Jesus teaches for the very first time. And it is while he is teaching that he encounters the man with the unclean spirit.
Next week’s gospel lesson also finds Jesus dealing with people who are ill and said to be suffering from demons and unclean spirits. Without the medical and scientific knowledge we have today, nearly all afflictions in Jesus’ time were attributed to one having a demon or unclean spirit as the cause. And whether it’s the unclean spirit that plagued the man in the synagogue in Capernaum or the myriad sufferings, hardships, and difficulties that afflict us today, it is the authority granted by God to Jesus to bring about change that links the Capernaum incident with our world. While we remain in the season after Epiphany in the church calendar, we once again acknowledge that Jesus Christ, the Son of God possesses the power that comes from authority granted by God to overcome that which imperils us. A modern understanding of the causes of illness doesn’t negate the reality that our species will always face hardship and suffering.
That said, the knowledge that we have gained through God-given abilities to discover more and more the complex nature of creation, may be used to ease the burdens that still afflict God’s children. Yet, many “demons” still wreak havoc in, and have the power to exercise control over, our lives.
There are powerful forces that stubbornly refuse to refrain from burdening us; addiction in all its forms, spiritual frailty, physical illness, and emotional distress, poverty, hunger, homelessness. And as seems so prevalent today, the conflicts among God’s people regarding different politics, and humanity’s seemingly insatiable desire to wage war on each other; these are among that which seek to exercise authority over our lives.
While we must strive to overcome all that would diminish the lives of God’s people, be they ours or those of our neighbors, we must maintain that even as we struggle, we are witnesses to the authority of Jesus Christ to bring healing to the world. Whenever we find ourselves tormented by the forces and situations that afflict us, our affirmation that Christ Jesus is the One with the authority granted by God to save us is how we can overcome them. While not every affliction we face may be eliminated, we trust that this same Jesus who had authority to call an unclean spirit from the possessed one in Capernaum ensures that we never face our burdens alone. The assumptions we make about what is possible and what seems impossible may be overturned as we consider all that Jesus has accomplished. We must always remain in amazement at the power and authority to heal that God has bestowed upon Jesus. The power of Jesus’ gospel is not something that we reduce to the calling out of “unclean spirits” 2,000 years ago in Capernaum; the Good News of God in Jesus Christ is demonstrated daily in our lives and in the world. It’s just that oftentimes we’re not aware of it. But if we take a good look around, we might just see that Jesus’ authority is at work all around us; sometimes we just need to be told about what Jesus is doing for God’s people. Maybe we just need more testimony from people like Chayim telling us what we might have missed.
Will you pray with me? Good, and gracious, and holy God, help us to see that you are always at work within us and in your world. Strengthen our faith and increase our trust. And we pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, the One who by your authority saves the world each and every day.
God is Good, all the time. All the time, God is Good. Amen.