Sermon: Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, January 28th, 2024

Grace, Peace, and Mercy from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The Gospel of Mark is often characterized by its sense of urgency. We hear the word “immediately” like a refrain throughout this Gospel. If we recall, last Sunday’s reading remarked how the fishermen immediately left their nets and followed Jesus. But in addition to describing immediate actions, Mark’s very storytelling conveys this urgency. He reveals from the get go who Jesus is: “He is the Son of God”, and then flashes from scene to scene, telling us the story of how Jesus reveals his true identity as the Son of God. First we’re told of Jesus’s baptism, then how He went into the wilderness and is tempted by Satan, then the start of His ministry in Galilee, then His calls to his first disciples, and now, we have not even started the second chapter, and we get an exorcism. It’s like we’re watching a film, it’s as if the initial scene began with the title of the movie, turns to black, and a narrative voice was telling you “this is a story about Jesus, and things are about to get real serious, real fast, there is no time to lose”. And then action sequence immediately erupts into the scene. In many ways, this is meant to draw the spectator into the grip of the main conflict of the story. Mark is methodically unveiling for us how Jesus’ presence and mission was urgently hurdling towards its goal, and the whole host of hell went up against him.

In today’s text, in this scene, we hear about an exorcism. But this conflict doesn’t play out like we’re used to seeing in action movies – with weapons and shows of force. It is an embodied spiritual conflict. The battle begins when from the midst of the crowd listening to Jesus, there comes that accusatory voice: “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?”. Some context is important for this first jab. In the ancient world, to know a person’s name or identity was thought to provide power over that person. This text is not simply about Jesus casting out demons. The question here is who has authority over whom? When the world reaches its end and time folds up like a scroll, who’s Word will prevail? The powers of Satan and destruction? Or the power of God revealed in Jesus Christ? Death or Life? Evil or Good? In many ways, the exorcism is part of the teaching in Mark’s Gospel, for it gives us an answer to that pressing question.

In the text, we continue to see the power struggle unfold when the demon cries out: “Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” So the demon is asserting its territory, it doesn’t want Jesus near its possession. But against these powers, Jesus doesn’t hold back, he responds back with a knock-out blow “silence and come out of him!” And the demon comes out shrieking and making a whole scene in front of the synagogue. Notice how it didn’t come out quietly. When one contends with evil, it never is without struggle. Expect resistance.

So it is wise to know that in the spiritual life we will encounter resistance when we want to go to Jesus. Don’t a million things come up and get in our way when we want to have time with God? Isn’t there always a devilish fly hovering above our holy thoughts, interrupting us? And on the level of human affairs, aren’t there powers that want to oppress our lives? There is such a thing as spiritual conflict that requires us to persist in praying and running towards Jesus, reminding us the answer to that important question our text asks today: who has authority?

As the demon that does not want to give up its human possession, some who encounter the liberatory power of the Gospel might feel threatened by its demands and its consequences. In laboring for the good, in working out the mercy and love of the kingdom, the world might not extend the same treatment in return. No example is better than Jesus Himself, who we shall see as we progress through Lent into Holy Week, we will witness the shadow of the cross upon the whole of his ministerial life. As the Catholic theologian Herbert McCabe wrote: “If you do not love, you will not be alive; if you love effectively, you will be killed”. So let us not believe that the effective love of Christ, the love we preach, is passive. It will contend and be resisted by those powers that oppose the reality of this love among us. Those destructive powers we know as the demonic will seek to overpower us, to assert their dominance over us. But the good Word we receive today is that we should not fear. Do not be fearful and do not despair because that Jesus who saves, that Jesus who loves effectively, has authority and power over evil and hatred. That Jesus can silence the voices of evil. He is victorious and will not be shaken by those powers. He has the power to break us free from the powers of death. This exorcism in Mark is good news to us, it is the authoritative Word that imparts to us the knowledge that Goodness and Mercy will follow us until the end, the last Words will not be the unclean spirits and the demons, they will not have your name in their mouths, it will be Christ who will have your name and the last word.

There is one aspect of Jesus’ authority and victory that we should be mindful however. We can get taken away by the notion of Jesus’ dominance over evil, and start thinking about Jesus as a kind of warrior, as the hero in the action movie. Jesus is victorious not in the same way that the world projects victory. Jesus does not seek aggrandizement and pomp over having exorcized the demon, even when the demon reveals His true identity, Jesus in Mark’s Gospel is rather self-effacing. He is following the path of His urgent mission brought about by his identity as the Son of God, but the way in which the Son of God will be victorious will not be by triumphalist means, but rather through the cross, by humiliation, by weakness, by carrying himself the fate and burden of suffering humanity. His authority and His victory are measured by how deep His love was willing to go. And through this cross-shaped love He is steadfast against the powers that bring down humanity to death and destruction.

And thus the text ends with the crowd, with us onlookers, the effect of Jesus’ authoritative sign of the incoming kingdom upon our lives. “They 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”. We get to see Jesus liberate the oppressed, we get to witness His Love, and of course, we can be amazed by such a teaching! Being amazed is such a wonderful feeling, but the reality of the text is that it puts the question to us, after having witnessed the revelation of this new teaching of Jesus, what are we going to do? How will Jesus move us to cast out the oppressive powers of this world? Will we remain with the question “What is this?”? Or will we go from “what is this?” to the response of the fishermen “teach me, Lord, I will follow you”? Jesus already calls us, and He has completed the work of your liberation. May our praise and our amazement turn to action and movement. To immediately turn to love deeply. May we heed the call.

Let us pray: Lord Jesus, you are our liberator, You love us so deeply to the point of struggling with the powers that oppress us, you act in the immediacy of Your Love. May we be faithful followers of that Love. That our lives may point to the liberation that You bring. Cast away, O God, our fears, Cast away Our hatred, Cast Away our selfishness, and may Your Holy Spirit reign in us with the fruits of Love and Mercy. Instill in us the urgency of love when You require it, O God. In your liberating name we pray, Amen.