January 28, 2024
Rev. Mary Erickson
Hope Lutheran Church
Mark 1:21-28
As One with Authority
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
For the most part, we know what to expect when we gather for worship. We anticipate the general order of service. We know who does what, we know when to stand and when to sit down. We look forward to the special music. We’re accustomed to the preacher.
Once in a while there’s a curve ball, like when the pastor is on vacation and a guest preacher comes. There’s a special service every now and then, like when a musical ministry group performs during worship.
These unusual Sundays add a little seasoning to our worship. But rarely, if ever, do we experience a worship service that completely blows us away, like Jesus did in the synagogue at Capernaum.
On this particular Sabbath day, as the worshipers at Capernaum entered the synagogue, they anticipated what would happen that day. It was pretty ordinary. But what they experienced was something they’d never forget.
This was Jesus’ first big public act in his ministry. He expounds on the scriptures, and as he does so, the people marvel at his words. He preaches like no one else they’d ever heard. Mark tells us that he spoke with authority. Jesus remarked on the scriptures as someone who was expert, someone who commanded the significance of these words, as if they were his own.
And if that wasn’t enough, then a man in the synagogue approached Jesus. He was bound by something they interpreted as an unclean spirit. Jesus commands the spirit to leave the man, which it does in dramatic fashion. Jesus’ authority over scriptures extended even to his authority over evil forces.
No, this was not at all what people expected when they entered the synagogue that day! It reminds me of the chef Emeril Lagasse and his BAM expression. Jesus preaches and BAM! Jesus confronts the evil spirit and BAM! They were not expecting a BAM moment, not at all. It’s no surprise that Jesus’ fame spread far and wide after that day!
Jesus launches his public ministry in Capernaum and he pulls out all the stops. This isn’t a soft opening. In a very dramatic fashion, Jesus demonstrates the two main portions of his ministry: proclamation and healing.
He both spoke and acted as one with authority. That’s what people took note of. And no wonder. The gospel of John describes Jesus as the “word of God made flesh.” Jesus is the very word of God incarnate. All the power of God’s word to speak creation into being, to spark life, to speak a word of liberation and comfort and hope – all of that is in Jesus.
As we read the gospels, we encounter Jesus’ words and actions just as the people in that synagogue did, just as the crowds who heard his sermon on the mount, just as Martha and Mary did at Lazarus’ grave.
We ask the same questions they did. Who is Jesus? Who is this one who speaks and acts with authority? So let’s consider his words and his actions.
First, Jesus’ words. As the Word-made-flesh, Jesus is for us the reflection of the God we cannot see. His words echo with the heart and the intent and the wisdom of God. Jesus reveals the mind of God to us. That’s why it’s so significant to hear his words of comfort and grace. He doesn’t preach a gospel of harsh judgmentalism or of impossibly high expectations. He doesn’t reflect an angry God. No, his words prove that the Son of Man did not come to condemn the world, but in order to save it. He welcomes the outcast. He preaches peace, to turn the other cheek. He announces the God who will not let us go, like the shepherd who searches until he finds his lost sheep. His words speak forgiveness and mercy.
We still hear the authority of his word on Sunday mornings when we gather here. As we confess our sins, the words of absolution come from Christ. The minister doesn’t speak forgiveness into being. No, this comes from Christ alone. As we heard this morning, “By the authority of Christ, your sins are forgiven.” Still today, the authority to forgive comes from Christ alone. We hear it coming from Christ, and it echoes through our worship.
At communion, we hear Christ’s proclamation in the Words of Institution: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins.”
Those are the words spoken from Christ’s authority. As Martin Luther reflected on this moment in our worship, he said, “Whoever believes these words has exactly what they say, forgiveness of sins.” The authority of Christ’s words still speaks vibrantly to us.
In his name, our words also have the ability to bring comfort. Luther spoke about what he called “the mutual conversation and consolation of the saints” as a ready means of grace in our midst. You know what this is. It doesn’t have to occur here in the sanctuary. It might be over a cup of coffee, or in the parking lot after church is over.
We share a word of consolation; we say, “I’ll pray for you;” we speak a message of hope. We have the ability to reveal and embody Christ’s healing love for all people through our words and actions. Not that the power comes from us, but we believe that Christ’s power to transform works through these means.
There is authority in Christ’s words. And there is authority in his actions. Jesus encounters the man overpowered by an unclean spirit. In a dramatic exchange, the unclean spirit disrupts the proceedings in the synagogue. He recognizes exactly who Jesus is – the Holy One of God.
He asks Jesus, “Have you come to destroy us?” And the answer is, well, yes! Jesus’s mission is to overcome the evil and the sin that work in and among us. Jesus has come to conquer them, to destroy them.
And isn’t this what we want for evil? “Deliver us from evil,” we pray. When we’re confronted by evil, like cancer, we pray for God to eradicate the cancerous cells. We want God to utterly destroy it. New life requires a death to occur. The man in the synagogue won’t be freed until the unclean spirit is destroyed.
In biblical times, demons and unclean spirits were representative of forces that people didn’t necessarily understand, like epilepsy or mental illness. But we still have “demons” today. We suffer from our addictions and the things that trigger us to act in ways that we don’t want to. We have our own unclean spirits.
We cry out to Jesus for deliverance from the evil of war. In places like Ukraine, Israel and Gaza, we pray for the end of death and destruction. When evil regimes and corruption wreak havoc on us, we pray for the end of violence and exploitation.
We call to Jesus in the face of evil. We trust that he hears our prayers and responds as one with authority. We look to the one who has authority over evil and death.
“Have you come to destroy us?”
Yes! New life comes through the demise of evil and bondage. Jesus will carry this authority over sin and death to his cross and grave. And it’s here that we’ll see his full authority. By dying on the cross, the sin of the world will be nailed there with him. And when he’s sealed in his grave, he is absorbed in death, and death in him. And by descending to hell, by entering the gates of hell, he bursts its gates asunder.
He has, indeed, come to destroy. He’s come to destroy our enemies, so that we might live in his freedom and victorious life. Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, the one who speaks and acts with authority.
