Several years ago, there was a terrible ferry accident in the Mediterranean Sea. You may have heard about it. This boat, loaded with cars and vacationers, failed to shut its doors properly, and before too long, the water was pouring in. Needless to say, the boat began to sink and panic set in. People were screaming as the happy, relaxed atmosphere turned in minutes to something worse than a horror movie.
In the midst of the chaos, one man (who was not a member of the crew) suddenly took charge. In a clear voice, he gave orders, telling people what to do. Now the panicked people began to feel some relief as they realized that at least there was someone in charge, and many managed to reach lifeboats they would otherwise have missed in the dark chaos. Meanwhile, the man made his way down to the people trapped in the hold. There he formed a human bridge: holding on with one hand to a ladder, and with the other reaching out to the part of the ship that was now almost completely submerged. As he reached out he was able, one by one, to help even more cross to safety. When the nightmare was over, the man himself was found to have drowned. He had literally given his life in using the authority he had assumed—the authority by which many had been saved.
Needless to say, the power of true authority can be a really amazing thing, which is exactly what we see in our scripture reading for this morning. Where we pick up in Mark’s gospel today, Jesus has moved inland from the Sea of Galilee approximately one hundred yards to a small village by the name of Capernaum. Though this is not a large city, it is still a community of Jews, so there is in this village a synagogue. And what better place for Jesus to go to share his message of God’s new work in the world than to the synagogue?
In the life of the Jewish people, the Temple was the place of worship and sacrifice, while the synagogue served more as the center of teaching and instruction. A synagogue service in Jesus’ time would have been quite different from Christian worship as we know it today. When people gathered for worship in the synagogue, it consisted of only three parts: prayer, the reading of God’s word, and the exposition of that word. There was no music, or singing, or sacrifice. Furthermore, when it came time for the exposition of the word, it was open to the leader of the synagogue to call on any competent person to offer the teaching.
So, if a man had a new message to preach, the synagogue was the obvious place to go, and that’s exactly what Jesus did. When the time came, he was called upon to offer a teaching, the exposition of the word. But the thing is, Mark tells us as Jesus began to speak and teach, he did so “as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” You see, the usual teachers – the priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, the literate ones, the self-appointed guardians of Jewish ancestral traditions—always taught by saying “as Moses said”, or “as Rabbi so-and-so teaches.” But that’s not what Jesus did. Jesus would not have been one of the regular or recognized teachers in the synagogue at Capernaum, and yet he begins on his own authority to tell people what God’s will is and how the kingdom is coming. Jesus spoke there among that gathering with a quiet but compelling authority that was all his own.
But here’s the thing about that quiet authority with which Jesus spoke in the synagogue that day in Capernaum. He backed it up with a miracle, a sign of the power of God within him. Indeed, Jesus’ teaching astonished the people gathered in the synagogue, but what was even more amazing was what happened when Jesus was confronted by a man with an “unclean spirit.” Interestingly, this “evil spirit” immediately recognizes Jesus for who he is, “the Holy One of God,” even though the people in the synagogue probably had not made this connection yet. This is a recurring theme in Mark’s gospel where demons are able to recognize Jesus’ Lordship, even as his own disciples and followers struggle to understand. In any case, when the unclean spirit cries out, Jesus silences him, and then orders the evil spirit out of the man. And that’s exactly what happened, “the unclean spirit convulsed the man, gave a great shout, and came out of him.” The people gathered in the synagogue were astonished before, now they are simply amazed! “‘What’s this?’ they started to say to each other. ‘A new teaching with authority! He even commands unclean spirits and they obey him!’”
This was one of the first of Jesus’ many healing miracles. Time and again, people whose lives had become a total nightmare, perhaps even seemingly taken over by foreign powers, came to Jesus. At times, it seems that these people maybe even had a sort of inside track on recognizing who he was and what he’d come to do. He’d come to stop the nightmare, to rescue people from the terrible forces that brought them down. Whether it was a shrieking demon, a woman with a fever, or a disease like leprosy; whatever people happened to be suffering from, Jesus dealt with them by that same gentle but deeply effective authority.
You know, we still have a lot of demons in our world today, don’t we? Perhaps, as we consider these healings from Jesus’ day, we don’t think about the unclean spirits in our world because we’re tainted by the Hollywood depictions of demon-possession and exorcisms. But just consider for a moment. If this story were set in our time, how would the unclean spirit present itself? Such spirits come to us and take possession of our lives in the form of obsession and fear. Why else would we be automatically suspicious of everyone who looks different from us? Why else would we feel the need to arm ourselves to the hilt? People around the world are paralyzed by mental illness that is completely beyond their control. Then there are all those addictions: addictions to alcohol, prescription drugs, narcotics, sex, money, and power. This addictions act in our lives today in the same way those demons of old did, harboring illness, anger, and violence. Perhaps you have experienced the horrible power of such addiction yourself. Or maybe you have been affected by the evil living in others. Or it may be that you know someone who struggles in the face of addiction.
This is a very real problem that affects all of us in some form or fashion. Over 80% of the homeless population in the United States are people who have addiction or mental health problems. Their plight is a direct result of the “unclean spirits” that have taken control of their lives. But it’s not just the homeless, either. There are wealthy suburbanites who admit to addictions to prescription drugs, countless overly stressed businessmen who drink their worries away every night. And God only knows how many people in all walks of life are fueling the business of internet porn, sending marriages and relationships into sometimes irreversible tail spins.
In the midst of such chaotic possession, what these people (and perhaps many of us too) need to hear more than anything else is the quiet yet powerful authority of Jesus ordering out the evil. There is a power at work in this world greater than all evil, and that is the power of God that is shown to us in Jesus Christ. Jesus came to be the human bridge across which people could climb to safety, a human bridge with outstretched arms carrying people from death to life. It cost him his life, but it made possible for all people new life. And here’s the thing, the power with which Jesus performed those early healing miracles is the same power which he gave to the disciples so that they too could heal and cast out demons, and it is the same power which now resides in the church, Christ’s hands and feet at work in the world today. We need now, more than ever, to claim that power and to offer healing in whatever way we can to those who suffer so greatly.
I have a colleague whose father lapsed back into alcoholism after a couple of decades of sobriety. My friend had grown up in an extremely volatile home environment where everything was affected by how much his dad had been drinking. Finally, his mother was able to convince her husband to go to rehab and he overcame his addiction. But then, many years later, after the kids were grown and gone, this man picked up the bottle again. This time, it took the whole family; my colleague, his sister, and mother all had to sit down with their husband and father and convince him to go to rehab, and to promise him their support no matter what. He agreed and began an outpatient rehab program here in the Chattanooga area. He went everyday for a few weeks, and on a regular basis after that. Sometimes his family would join him for the recovery program, and sometimes it was up to him and his fellow addicts to work their issues out with a counselor.
My friend tells the story of one day when he called up his father to “check-in” and see how his day had gone. His dad was excited and enthusiastic as he shared with his son what a great group therapy session he had been a part of that day. He said, “You know, Matt, we sat there and everyone went around the circle and talked, and shared, and told things that we are too afraid to tell anyone else. And you know what? Everybody listened! And there was no judgment or anything! It was really great!” When my friend shared that story he ended by asking, “Isn’t that what the church is supposed to be?”
Indeed.
In the midst of the evil and chaotic forces of this world, the church has the power to free people from all their suffering. It is an authority that was first revealed in Jesus Christ and then passed on to all his disciples. The question is, will we claim this power and use it for good? I think this just might be the answer to making the church relevant again in our modern age. But we must be bold. Will we, like Jesus, claim the authority that has been given to us and reach out our arms as a human bridge? When the church learns again how to speak and act with the same authority, we will find again the saving power of God unleashed on this world. I can think of nothing better!
