2018-02-04 – Rev. Dr. Ryan Sato
“The Restoring, Rebuking, Vanishing Jesus”
Mark 1:29-39
This week part of my sermon preparation was informed by that great theologian Johnny Cash. Can I get a witness for the man in black? (“There was Johnny Cash, then there was everbody else.”)
From the tree streamed a light
That started the fight
‘Round the tree grew a vine
On whose fruit I could dine…
My old friend Lucifer came
Fought to keep me in chains
But I saw through the tricks
Of six-sixty-six
For a month we’ve been moving through the first chapter in the gospel of Mark and the gospel writer is on a “restoration, demon-chasin’ rampage.”
It’s the year 60 CE, and Mark wants his hearers to know that Nero’s evil empire and blood-thirsty, murderous, Christian-killing ways will not be the final word among the early church. Powers and principalities…Lucifer and your bag of tricks…you will be destroyed!
Jesus Christ, the son of God, proclaims good news:
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near, keep on turning your hearts towards ME and believe!”
Mark doesn’t stop with the declarations of Jesus…he then tells stories about Jesus bringing this good news to life through real people…Andrew, Simon, the Zebedee brothers…”Jesus saying to them, ‘Follow me and I WILL MAKE YOU fish for people.’
And fish they did…all kinds of people were being drawn into the net of this rag-tag blue collar community of Jesus freaks…people astounded by the power and presence of this carpenter’s son “for he taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes.”
He rebukes demons that have inhabited the lives of locals for months…and years.
“Be silent unclean spirit! Come out of him!” cries the carpenter’s son. And the oppressive spirits are released.
Jesus is stirring things up in the local synagogue but he is also pushing out oppression, despair and disease in the neighbourhoods. Hoping to find some rest at Simon’s mother-in-laws house, Jesus and a few from his inner circle attempt to hide out for an afternoon of Sabbath rest.
But lo’ and behold, he finds a woman in deep distress. Overcome and undone by a sickness that has gone on for weeks with no relief. She’s weak, distraught…unable to do the things she loves…the things that give her purpose…unable to offer care and kindness to her family.
Jesus sees how the spirit of unwellness has taken away her honour and dignity…and takes her by the hand. He raises her up from her bed of sorrows…and the spirit of heaviness is banished! As an act of worship and gratitude she serves the one who saves her…
But this tea & crumpets celebration time only lasts for 30 minutes…darkness falls, Sabbath ends, and the locals have sussed out Jesus’ whereabouts…they carry their sick and demon-possessed to the door of Simon’s mom’s place…a sea of 500 clamouring, pressing in on the doorway of the first-century bungalow.
“Heal me, Jesus! Save me Jesus! Release for my sister… set free my brother!
He’s possessed by a demon that won’t let him go!”
Jesus presses through the crowd…taking people by the hand, raising them up and healing them…speaking to unclean spirits and shouting “Be silent! Come out of her!”
The requesting and releasing and relinquishing goes on for hours…and Jesus fights his way back to Simon’s mom’s door way as she shouts at the crowds and forces her door shut.
Jesus sleeps off a hard-days work but in the wee hours of the morning disappears into the early shadows of a new day.
The disciples wake up and Jesus is gone! For hours they hunt after him…and it’s not until they widen the search to the rural hills of Galilee that they finally find him.
Simon finds him first and in his impulsive, hot-headed way, tears a strip off of gentle Jesus. “What are you doing here? You keep telling us to fish for people…and here you are in the middle of nowhere! Are you losing your power? Because if you’re losing it, I’ve got a fishing boat that I need to get back to and I’ll get some real work done…”
But then he tries to compose himself… “Don’t you know how worried we were about you? Why do you treat us like this?
Everyone is searching for you!”
Jesus looks at Peter with eyes of mercy.
“Let us go to the neighbouring towns so that I may proclaim the message there; for that is what I came to do.”
And they went throughout Galilee…following Jesus as he proclaimed the message in the synagogues and cast out demons throughout the surrounding regions.
>>>>>>>>>
Phew! Mark is on a mission! As I said a couple of weeks ago, the gospel of Mark uses the word “immediately” over 40 times in 16 chapters. Immediately, immediately, immediately… he can’t wait to tell us the stories of Jesus, perhaps because in the midst of this time of oppression and persecution, there’s no time for flowery stories. Just the facts. Just the core truths. Just the foundational promises. Take it and run, and know that Jesus is with you…pushing back the darkness…fighting the demons and the powers that seek to destroy you…and empowering you to be bearers of good news, restoration, healing and hope.
Last week we reflected on how we might “overcome evil with good”… and we listed several voices/systems/structures that loom over us:
-consumerism, entitlement, self-centeredness
-addiction, religious supremacy, dehumanization
-exploitation, bigotry, fear, despair
-racism… you fill in the blank.
This week, as we “overcome evil” I want us to move from “out there” and get more neighbourly…we narrow the focus…and follow Jesus to a house, with a known floor-plan…and known names…for yes, we are called to overcome evil with good and shake our fists defiantly at the systems and kingdoms of this world, but in this week’s story,
we also follow Jesus to the bedside of a friend’s relative.
Jesus comes… takes her by the hand… and raises her up.
Mark doesn’t seem to need more details: ie – there’s NO…he anointed her with oil, said a prayer, read a bible verse, quoted a psalm… Jesus simply was there.
Touching. Holding. Raising.
Wow. Hmmm…
He must have said something…but it’s left to us and our imaginations to fill in the blank.
So today, let’s pause with this story. And think of the person, or the house that we need to go to or be present at this week.
Because it’s in these places, too, that the voices of shame and the presence of demonic oppression and darkness dwell. In our heads, in our hearts, in our hallways.
I’m not trying to be spooky here…but I am saying that as we follow Jesus into the neighbourhoods of our lives, we get to be the voice and the presence of Jesus.
Enter in. Take someone by the hand. Raise them up. Restore their dignity.
Speak words that echo the heart of Jesus: “You are a Beloved daughter. You are a Beloved Son. WITH you I am well pleased.”
Or echo the words that Jesus would have known and prayed himself…words from the prophets, like we’ve already heard:
“Do you not know? Have you not heard?
…God gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.”
As we enter into rooms and neighbourhoods this week, following Jesus and modeling his ways, and speaking his promises, you and I will banish the presence of the antagonizing, oppositional evil one.
We will restore lives! We will set others free to serve, to bless, to live into their paths of liberation and vocation.
And as we seek to sustain this “send the demons fleeing” work, we need to be mindful that we do NOT do this in our own strength,
…know that this place, this sanctuary, this table,
amongst this people…as we worship and work together, the SPIRIT OF CHRIST fills us,
goes with us, and imbues us with courage to overcome evil with good.
So…come away to this quiet place.
Come away to this place of prayer.
Come to the table of our Lord and be fed and nourished
by the bread and the cup of Christ.
Jesus our healer. Jesus our redeemer.
The one who restores us as we seek to join in on God’s transforming work….
In houses, in neighbourhoods…and in our world.
God is here. Jesus is here!