TITLE: UNCLEAN
SCRIPTURE: ST. MARK 1:21-28 / LEVITICUS 13:45
We don’t know what Jesus was preaching in the Synagogue in Capernaum. History didn’t record what he said, but people were astounded by it. This makes me think of the people – the men – who witnessed this. I can imagine them saying “Did you hear what happened?”
• What happened?
• This new guy, Jesus, was talking
• What did he say?
• He was just talking, it was different than what we usually hear. But then this guy started yelling at him. He called Jesus the Holy One of God
• What did Jesus do?
• He just said, ‘BE SILENT, AND COME OUT OF HIM!
• And then the guy yelled, and an evil spirit came out of him
• Next time Jesus is in town, you should Come and see him. Come and see
We are told through the text the man had an “Unclean Spirit.” Tradition describes it as an evil spirit. Nearly two dozen times in the Gospels, people are said to have unclean or evil spirits in them. The unclean spirit identified Jesus by name, and then called him the HOLY ONE OF GOD. Jesus says, “Be silent.”
Throughout the first chapters of Mark, Jesus tells people to be quiet, not just those possessed by an unclean spirit. He heals people and then tells them to keep it a secret, but they can’t. Jesus can control the unclean spirit, but he can’t control people talking about him.
• Jesus heals, and people want to tell others about it
• Jesus heals the broken-hearted and unclean, and people want to talk about it
• Jesus changes lives, and people want to proclaim it
• If every voice was still, the rocks and stones themselves would sing God’s praises
Jesus came into Capernaum to begin His ministry in Galilee, and we are told on the Sabbath, He entered the synagogue, and He taught. The significance of this is that Mark wants us to understand the character of Jesus’ teaching ministry early in his Gospel.
• Jesus’ ministry was marked by - Teaching - Healing - Casting out of demons
• Those were the three elements that distinguished Him in His first-century ministry
So, Mark begins by calling attention to Jesus’ teaching and, most importantly, the people’s response to His teaching. Mark says, “they”— that is, the people of Capernaum who were in the synagogue — “WERE ASTONISHED AT HIS TEACHING, FOR HE TAUGHT THEM AS ONE HAVING AUTHORITY, AND NOT AS THE SCRIBES.”
Jesus’ speech was reminiscent of the Old Testament prophets, who would preface their statements and oracles not by saying, “in my studied opinion,” but by saying, “THUS SAITH THE LORD.” Here was the Lord Himself, the word of God incarnate, rising to speak in the synagogue on theological matters. When He opened His holy mouth, everyone present was stopped in their tracks, filled with amazement, and pierced by a sense of dread to hear the truth proclaimed with transcendent finality.
• That is how we should respond every time we hear the Word of God
• We are not listening to scribes, we are not listening to preachers
• We are not listening to theologians
• Our hearts should be filled with holy dread and awe before the Word of God
Immediately, the text transitions to the event that followed Jesus’ teaching. Still in the context of the synagogue, Mark tells us there was a man with an unclean spirit, “AND HE CRIED OUT, SAYING: ‘LET US ALONE! WHAT HAVE WE TO DO WITH YOU, JESUS OF NAZARETH? DID YOU COME TO DESTROY US? I KNOW WHO YOU ARE—THE HOLY ONE OF GOD!’”
Have you ever noticed - in the OT, the idea of demonic possession is extremely rare. Have you ever noticed there are very few references to the demonic world throughout the Old Testament. In later church history, there is also limited reference to it. But while Jesus was on the earth, all hell broke loose, and the demonic representatives and ambassadors of Satan himself were everywhere oppressing people. Later we will see Jesus announces the significance of His work of demon exorcism by saying to His hearers, “IF YOU SEE ME CASTING OUT DEMONS BY THE FINGER OF GOD”—which is a metaphor for the HOLY GHOST—“THEN YOU KNOW THE KINGDOM OF GOD HAS COME UPON YOU.” We find that text in ST. LUKE 11:20.
I have always found it fascinating to note that if you look in Mark’s Gospel and the other Gospels, it seems like the first ones to fully recognize the identity of Christ in the hiddenness of his incarnation are the demons. Before the people recognized Him in His fullness, the ambassadors of hell instantly recognized Him. The possessed man was in the synagogue, and when Jesus turned His attention to him, this man with the unclean spirit began to scream, saying - “LET US ALONE! GET AWAY FROM US.” I question, why the plural?
• Is it because the man was filled with many demons
• Such was the case when Jesus met the man who came out of the Tombs. Jesus said “WHAT IS THY NAME?” and the demonic-filled man responded “I AM LEGION FOR WE ARE MANY”
• Or was this singular demon speaking on behalf of himself and the man he has possessed
We are living in a day and age where much attention is being placed on mental health. Rightly so, I might add. There are some modern readers today who may see this narrative, and assume the man had some sort of mental illness. It’s important that modern readers not see an unclean spirit or an evil demon and translate it to modern mental illness. There are examples in scripture where people have medical problems, blindness, for example, and Jesus cures them, and helps them to see.
• God can help us with our mental issues, through medication
• Just as medication can help with our high blood pressure, or diabetes, or other medical issues
• Jesus knew the man in the synagogue needed more than a pill
• Jesus knew the man needed more than – Prozac – Zoloft -
• Jesus knew the man in the synagogue was possessed by evil
What is evil? I believe evil is the absence of the spirit of the Lord.
• Just as darkness is the absence of light
• God is in all -- of all -- and all in all
But sometimes God shines more brightly than at other times. Other times the shadows of evil grow longer. Darkness enters all our lives, at some point, in some way. But the light of Christ helps us keep the darkness at bay.
• “Darkness cannot drive out darkness,” said Martin Luther King, Jr., “only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that”
• The Love of God Protects - Defends - Preserves us
• The Love of God drives out the evil of hate
An unclean spirit is more than a demon possession. More than evil. It’s the voices in our heads.
• The voice that says I’m a failure
• The voice that tells us we’re forgotten by our family
• The voice that says we’re disappointments
• The voice that says we’re not good enough
• There’s a voice that tells us we would really be happy if only – if only we had this, or that, if only this would happen, then, we will finally be happy and content
These voices are like demons, and they pull us away from God. Come Out! Jesus says to the voices in our heads. Don’t listen to those other voices, Jesus says. Listen to me, Jesus says. I am the Good Shepherd, he says. Follow him. Demons have nothing in common with Christ.
• There are two different realms - the godly realm and the ungodly realm
• The realm that is satanic and demonic and the realm of God
• The only relationship these demons have with Christ is one of conflict
“WHAT DO WE HAVE TO DO WITH YOU?” Nothing, except now they were recognizing their judgment, and they feared it.
• The demons knew they were under the sentence of God
• They knew that when the Son of God would appear on the earth, their doom would be certain
• Christ was coming to bind the strong man, to bind Satan with all his hellish powers
Unclean spirits are more than demons– more than the voices in our heads. In today’s scripture Jesus finds the unclean spirit in church --
• Not walking alongside the road
• Not in a village somewhere
• But in the synagogue, in church
• Unclean spirits can be found anywhere
These satanic junior-grade demons were telling Jesus to leave, and then they made a strange statement - “I KNOW WHO YOU ARE—THE HOLY ONE OF GOD!” What was going on here? In the Old Testament, there were power struggles between men and angels. The idea was that if one could get his adversary to reveal his name, it was like an act of submission.
• It was like saying “uncle” in a battle
• When JACOB wrestled with the angel, he said, “Tell me your name”
• He was asking him to submit
• So, the demons tried one last tactic to get rid of Christ
• They revealed His identity, thinking that if they named Him properly, they could defeat Him
• “We know who You are. You’re the Holy One of God”
We come to church like the man in the synagogue. We recognize Jesus, and turn to him to cleanse our unclean spirits. When we invited Jesus into a holy place like church, we invite Jesus to drive out the unclean spirits. where two or more are gathered, the holy spirit is there, shining a light into the darkness; filling our dark and tired souls with the light of the Lord. Sometimes, when we are at church, our spirits are cleansed and restored, and we don’t even realize it.
• How often have you left church, and you don’t remember the sermon, or the prayers, or even what hymns you sang, but you come away with a feeling
• That feeling is the spirit of the Lord lifting us up, where the world has weighed us down
Sometimes that feeling lasts as far as the church doors – I’ve seen some Christians succumb to unclean spirits and fight each other to get out of the church parking lot after a service. Sometimes the feeling lasts for hours, or days. Or perhaps all week. We gather, we invite God into our fellowship, and the Holy Spirit touches our hearts.
• You’re not going to hear many sermons from me when I talk about how hard life is
• We all know how difficult life is
• You don’t come to church to hear me tell you life is hard
• We don’t need to be reminded on Sunday how rough your week was
• What we do need to be reminded of is the power of Jesus to say, “Come out,” to the unclean spirits
• We need to be reminded that Jesus can restore us
• Jesus can drive out the unclean spirits and make us clean again
• Make us clean, Jesus
• Make us clean
The demons realized in the presence of Jesus that they were in the presence of the Holy. Nothing strikes more terror into the heart of creatures than to be in the presence of the holy. We will see the motif throughout the Gospel of Mark that when the holiness of Christ is made manifest, the immediate response is fear and dread. In the ultimate xenophobia, we fear the Holy because we are not holy. When we are brought into the presence of the unveiled holiness of God, like PETER, we say, “DEPART FROM US, FOR WE ARE SINFUL PEOPLE.” Likewise, the demons screamed when the Holy One of God came into their presence.
In response to this yelling and protesting, Jesus finally rebuked the demons, saying, “be quiet.” Now, we are not supposed to say this in polite company, in school, to our children, or to each other, but a more accurate rendition would be that Jesus said to these demons - “shut up. shut your mouths. I don’t want to hear any more from you. come out of him.” Then Mark says, “And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him”—his last shudder of strength—“AND CRIED OUT WITH A LOUD VOICE, HE CAME OUT OF HIM.” Everyone was amazed, so they questioned among themselves, saying- “WHAT IS THIS? WHAT HAVE WE JUST SEEN? WHAT NEW DOCTRINE IS THIS? WHAT KIND OF POWER HAS JUST BEEN MADE MANIFEST? WHAT KIND OF AUTHORITY DOES HE USE TO COMMAND EVEN THE UNCLEAN SPIRITS AND THEY OBEY HIM?”
--Jesus did not act like a magician or shaman
--He did not shake and rattle a bunch of beads and play games of healing, saying: “Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now?”
--He did not use any of those tricks we see with the charlatans
--Jesus simply spoke, and the demons obeyed because they knew He had authority over them
--Mark concludes this section, saying, “And immediately His fame spread throughout all the region around Galilee”
--There are somethings that need to come out of us this morning
--OT tells us Lepers those with Leprosy had to shout UNCLEAN to keep people from coming to close to them
--Would if we had to call out our sins so those around us know we have sinned last week and we are Unclean
• I lied last week – Unclean
• I talked about somebody last week – Unclean
• I cussed somebody out last week – Unclean
• The man or woman I was with is not mine – Unclean
• I cheated on my tax return – Unclean
• I called in sick last week and went fishing – Unclean
• I spent all my bill money at the Casino – Unclean
--I am glad this morning that Jesus can clean us up
--I am glad this morning Jesus still has all Power and Authority
--I am glad today that we are covered by His Mercy and His Grace
