The Rev. Paul J Cain
Mark 1:21-28 (ESV)
With Authority
Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, 29 January 2012
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Sheridan, Wyoming
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
“In the hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” Luther
describes our chief enemy in our Christian journey: “The old evil foe Now means
deadly woe; Deep guile and great might Are his dread arms in fight; On earth is
not his equal…Though devils all the world should fill, All eager to devour
us,…This world’s prince may still Scowl fierce as he will” (LSB 656:1, 3). Satan comes “to steal and
kill and destroy” (John 10:10). (We see him in our rearview mirror.) As tempter, he chases after us, screaming,
“Whatever it is you want to do, just do it. Have some anger floating around?
Act it out. Have some (sexual) fantasies? Go ahead, full throttle. Have some
gossip? Let it fly.” As deceiver, he
continues with these words, “There are no limits, no consequences, and no
responsibilities. Ready, set, go!” When we give in to these temptations and
deceptions, then, as accuser, he
plants his foot upon our necks, saying, “Now that you’ve said this, thought
this, done this, drank this, smoked this, seen this, God is finished with you…”
But this enemy is defeated by the all-powerful Word of the
prophet like Moses whom God sent, Jesus Christ (Deuteronomy 18:15). [The devil
is defeated by Christ. Singing only the first stanza of “A Mighty Fortress”
leaves the devil in charge. Keep singing! By stanza three we confess, “Scowl
fierce as he [the devil] will, He can harm us none. He’s judged; the deed is
done; One little word [of God] can fell him.] (Source of original illustration:
Concordia Pulpit Resources [modified])
This Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, we grow in Christ by
hearing three readings from the Scriptures. The green color of this week and
the next two Sundays remind us of this growth. We are given to grow by avoiding
false prophets and listening to true prophets who proclaim Jesus Christ alone.
Our faith is strengthened and our consciences unburdened when we reject idols
and reject human traditions as if they were as authoritative as the Bible,
God’s Word. And we are comforted, strange though it may seem, by the demons who
shudder yet confess Jesus to be the Holy One of God. And since Jesus has
authority over them, we rejoice and have little to fear of the old evil foe.
By this part of Mark, Chapter 1, Jesus has been baptized as
our sin-bearing substitute. He has been tempted by the devil himself in the
wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights. And Jesus preaches the good news, the
Gospel of God. He has called disciples. Next week, He heals Peter’s
mother-in-law. (Yes, Peter was married.) And Jesus teaches His own people—with
authority!
21 And
they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue
and was teaching. 22 And they were astonished at his teaching, for he
taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.
Why are the Jews
of Capernaum’s synagogue amazed? Jesus taught differently than their usual
preachers, the scribes, who quoted famous rabbis in a string of commentaries on
the text of the Hebrew Bible, yet said nothing on their own. Jesus taught with
authority. He spoke as though He were the author of His teaching, the author of
the Old Testament, the very author of life and creation. That’s because He is!
As Americans, we
are familiar with the little “c” symbol with a circle around it. That
designates copyright ©. When a book is published in England, you will probably
read this statement right after the copyright notice: “The author asserts the
moral right to be identified as the author of this work.”
Jesus Christ, by
teaching with authority, here asserts His moral right to be the founder and
perfecter of creation, the Author and Fulfillment of our faith, He who is Alpha
and Omega, the beginning and end.
Authority is much
different from power. Authority is given, delegated. Power is assumed, abused.
You’ve heard of a “power grab,” but there’s no such thing as an “authority
grab,” for authority, by definition, is given only by the Author behind it.
Authority comes
from that basic word of author. In this Gospel text, Jesus asserts His divine
authority over evil spirits.
23 And
immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he
cried out, 24 “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.” 25 But
Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26 And
the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out
of him.
Demonic possession is real. Americans don’t see much of it
apart from movies or sensational TV news programs, but the devil is actively
working in our world today. He’s more subtle in 21st Century western
culture. He doesn’t have to be very creative. He can just corrupt, twist,
pervert, and distort God’s good gifts. He deceives the world (with “wine,
women, and song”). He gives people what they think they want and then turns
around and condemns us for even thinking about such things. He promises what he
can never deliver and pulls the rug out from under you.
And there, in the Capernaum synagogue itself, is one
possessed by a demon. How did this happen? Mark’s word “immediately” may
indicate that this man just ran in the back door to confront Jesus. Jesus was
and is a threat to the Devil’s master plan for world domination. And he’s more
of a threat to you than any cartoon villain or James Bond movie bad guy.
One with the Holy Spirit, a Christian, cannot be possessed because
that person is a temple of the Holy Spirit. There is a difference between a
believer who is tempted and falls and one who intentionally plans to sin. Both
are sins, but one gives more opportunity to Satan. You could compare these two kinds
of sin to how our legal system differentiates between manslaughter and
premeditated murder. One with the Holy Spirit, a Christian, cannot be possessed
while that person is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Yet, if that person’s faith
dies, if they reject the Holy Spirit, the spiritual enemies of God will find an
empty apartment and a great opportunity to mess somebody up.
We must remember who our enemies are and who they are not.
People are not your enemy. They may appear to be. They may act like it. They
may even say it. Yet, they are either unwitting pawns of the devil’s plan, or
active participants with the deceiver, truly committed to one of his
deceptions.
This is why Jesus teaches us disciples to love our human enemies
and pray for those who would persecute us. Hope for their salvation is not
lost, at least not until their death or Judgment Day, whichever comes first.
23 And
immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he
cried out, 24 “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.” 25 But
Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26 And
the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out
of him.
The devil knows His Bible. The demons know who Jesus is. You
could say that this text is a preview of the last day when every knee shall bow
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord God. But let there be no
confusion. All will bend the knee, but not all will make that confession in faith.
Christians will gladly make the good confession. People who rejected Christ and
the Lord in this life will “admit” that they were wrong and only grudgingly say
that Jesus is Lord. Such ones won’t be saved. Nor will the devil and demons
like those Jesus silenced and cast out here in Mark 1. To be the best equipped
we can be to know the difference between what is true and what is false,
Christians are in the Word. Or, they are weak and vulnerable to spiritual
attack. Moses warns you about false prophets and Paul warns you about idolaters
as well as the folks who make up religious laws outside of God’s word that
would wound your conscience unnecessarily.
27 And
they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What
is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits,
and they obey him.” 28 And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout
all the surrounding region of Galilee.
The amazement of
Jesus’ own people here is threefold. First, they recognized a new teaching. It
was in full harmony with everything they had heard from what we know as the Old
Testament. In fact, Jesus’ teaching was a better explanation of the histories,
writings, and prophets than what their scribes had taught. Second, Jesus taught
with authority. They were amazed at Jesus exercising the moral authority of
authorship. He preached as if He had written the Bible Himself! No surprise to
us in that regard. And Third, Jesus demonstrates His authorship over all
creation by commanding demons and making them obey. The Creator has spoken. Again.
Exorcism of demons reveals that Jesus is God: “God in man [is] made manifest.”
Jesus withstood
the temptations of the old evil foe.
He responded to temptation with God’s Word. That’s why we memorize it when we
are young and study it in depth until we die. Respond to temptations with God’s
own Word of warning against those sins. Resist
the devil and he will flee from you. Give in, and he’ll tempt you more. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Flee people, places, and situations where you are led into temptation. That may
mean some significant life changes at home, work, or school. The cost of being
a disciple is high, yet nothing compares with the value of the free gift of
salvation you are given in Christ Jesus.
The devil, the deceiver, has many allies in this
world. Sometimes good people, out of fear, do nothing and are his unwitting
accomplices. Often, people like his message at least, and in one moment of
weakness do something bad. They turn and seek forgiveness, and receive it from
God in Christ, but still face the consequences of their sin in this life. And
there are the select few who know exactly who the devil is and what he’s all
about and would rather “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” The
ultimate deception of this old evil foe is to convince you that God does not
exist, that Jesus was a mere man, that all Christians are hypocrites, that the
Bible is a human book, that Christianity is a sham, or at least no different
from every other religion on the planet, and that your time would be better off
on Sunday mornings in making money, being with your family somewhere else,
shopping, or watching or playing sports—all instead of receiving God’s good
gifts in Christ.
Do not fall for
the lies of the devil as accuser. He
was a liar from the beginning, ever since he rebelled against God’s authority
and was cast out of heaven. Hell was invented for him and his demonic followers,
yet human beings who follow him or reject the Lord end up there, too. It is
perfectly OK for you to tell the devil to go back to where he belongs. The “h”
word isn’t a bad word then. “Devil, begone in the holy name of Jesus Christ. He
loves me and died for me. He atoned for my sins. Therefore your accusations are
false and hollow. They have no power over me. And neither do you. God accepts
and chooses me to be His own. I am baptized into Christ. And I am forgiven
because of Jesus Christ. Get behind me, satan!”
With Authority,
Jesus also taught us to pray. Second-generation Lutheran theologian Martin
Chemnitz described the last three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer as three short
prayers against the devil in the past, the present, and the future. When you
are tempted, pray. And pray the Lord’s Prayer against the devil. You could say
that this sermon’s conclusion is actually a prayer. These next thoughts are
paraphrases of Chemnitz’s book on the Lord’s Prayer.
Forgive us our trespasses. The devil deceived us in the past.
Forgive us, Lord.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who
trespass against us.
Lord, help us to forgive others as you have already forgiven us. Help us to
forgive from our hearts those who have hurt us in the past. Purge us of hard
feelings and grudges. Do not allow us to feel that we are superior or more holy
than others based on our own righteousness, but instead rejoice that all
Christians are covered in Jesus’ righteousness, holiness, and purity. Help us
to forgive others with the forgiveness you pour out on us.
And lead us not into temptation. O Lord, you tempt no one. Save us from
every trial, temptation and tribulation we will face today. Let your holy
angels watch over us so that the old satanic foe may have no power over us.
Keep him away from us and keep us away from him.
But deliver us from evil. O God, our help in ages past and hope for years
to come, protect us, our loved ones, and all Christians from the evil of our
own sinful flesh, the influence of the fallen world, and the evil one. Deliver
us from future sin, save us today, and forgive us for our past sins. In Jesus’
Name. Amen.
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
