Teaching and Healing

Mark 1:21-28

On the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, in the village of Tell Hum, on the site of the ancient Palestinian city of Capernaum, there is the ruins of the synagogue where Jesus began his ministry of teaching and healing. It was a well built structure made of stone with a large room that would have held maybe a hundred or even a hundred and fifty. And the tourists go by the place everyday, and they pause to wonder what things must have been like when Jesus taught and healed in that place. What we do know from reading the Gospel of Mark is that Jesus' ministry was extraordinary in that he did what no other rabbi was able to do: Jesus taught with authority and he made people whole of mind, and body, and soul. The scriptures say he cast out demons.

Now, what we should understand before we go much further is to realize that many of the people of Jesus' day believed in beings of the underworld, enthroned in a cosmic hierarchy, who played a great part in certain ancient religions and which were often mentioned in late Jewish writings about the end of the world. Thus early Christians who read this scripture lesson from the Gospel of Mark, are being told that Jesus' activity in Capernaum is the dawning of Christ's universal rule, rendering impotent every such false pretender to cosmic power. Christ alone, installed by God himself and endowed by him with power, has dominion over all created things. There can be no other claimants to this title, for (as says Paul in his letter to the Philippians) Christ, alone, is above every name that is named. Or, as the Psalmist of Psalm 8 wrote concerning God: "You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet." Or in Psalm 110 where we read: "The LORD says to my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.'"

Of course, we who live twenty centuries later may be confused by the language of the scripture that talks about demons and exorcisms. Back then problems such as mental illnesses like schizophrenia and multi-personality disorder were immediately thought to be caused by the indwelling of one of these dark spirits of the underworld. Until the last century, persons with such diseases were often beaten and abused by well intended persons who thought that if they made the person suffer enough the elemental spirit would depart. Ironically, it was often the treatment that was worse than the disease. Now, of course, we have a much clearer idea concerning the cause of mental illnesses, and how many of them are actually caused by an imbalance of chemicals in the brain. And we know the effects of child abuse, sex abuse, drug abuse, alcoholism, and stress and how these can wreak havoc most diabolically in a person's life.

Jesus got up in the synagogue in Capernaum and began to teach as one without authority. In other words, as Jesus taught he wasn't depending on the authority of some previous expert, but was the expert himself. He didn't quote the "authorities," but acted like one himself. And, in describing this event Mark was saying very clearly that Jesus was not an ordinary human but a super-human being; he was indeed the Son of God, come to rescue humanity from the demonic forces which enslave.

Now, the question we need to ask, today, is how this relates to us? Certainly, most of us don't call them demonic forces, anymore. We have come to call them other names, less personal names. And we have experts -- doctors, psychologists, social workers, teachers, policemen, lawyers, and ministers -- who study these problems and try to treat them -- problems such as drug abuse, alcoholism, child and spouse abuse, sex abuse, stress, ignorance, and physical diseases not to mention greed, gluttony, lust, hatred, envy, and the many other evils that seem so much a part of human life. Certainly, our modern minds don't usually conceive of these things as being caused by spiritual forces. Nevertheless, we cannot deny, nor should we ever forget that evil, whatever its cause, does impact upon us spiritually. Evil, whatever its form, can separate and isolate human beings from one another and from God. But if there is anything that our Gospel lesson tells us it is this: in spite of the apparent power of evil, Jesus does have authority and does work to free us from all that enslaves; and Jesus does set the Church and you and me (and all who follow Christ) to a ministry of liberation.

Now, it is interesting that as the man with the evil spirit confronted Jesus he said, "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?" The obvious answer to this question is "yes." Jesus came into the world to put aside anything that might cause us to be anything less than what God created us to be.

And, yet, so often we reject the help Christ offers and we insist upon going our own directions. And how often it seems such a right thing to do. There is the story about the sea lion, probably one of the clumsiest animals in the world, on land, that is. The sea lion likes to bask in the sun all day, and when he moves he is exceedingly sluggish and awkward. So, it has often been wondered how the sea lion manages to catch its favorite food, which just happens to be sea gulls. And, as most of us know, it is almost impossible to catch these birds because they're so alert and agile.

Well, the seal seems to realize that it would be a waste of time to attempt to crawl after the gulls as they rest upon the beach and catch them unaware. So, the sea lion watches until the gulls are soaring through the air close to the waves. Then the seal dives into the sea and swims underneath the water for some distance from the point at which he dived and allows merely the tip of his big nose to appear above the water.

Remaining in this position, he gives his enormous body a rotary motion so that his nose spins around on the surface of the water. The sea gulls look down and think its a water bug and they dart down with the speed of an arrow, aiming straight for the little dot on the water. The seal sees it coming and sinks a few inches, and as the gull hits the water the seal's jaws close upward and the gull disappears.

Certainly evil can be a lot like this. Like the tip of the seal's nose above the water, it looks so appealing, so good and acceptible, until it is too late. But, nevertheless, there is something that we Christians must always remember: that Christ came into the world to save sinners; that Christ has authority; that Christ has dominion over the powers and principalities, no matter what.

In our gospel lesson for today, Jesus said to the man with the evil spirits, "Be silent!" And, immediately, the man was made whole. Here was a tremendous demonstration of the power and authority of Jesus. There in the synagugue that day was a man who's life was confused and in turmoil, but with just one word Jesus was able to bring order to the man's life, maybe for the first time in his life.

I am reminded of a student who I met while involved with a prayer group at the Wesley Foundation at Eastern Michigan University. For most of his life this student had been mildly schizophrenic and had been treated by doctors with limited success. Sometimes he seemed pretty well, but then there were the times when he became confused and even heard voices. The doctors knew that the man's problem was actually a physical disease caused by a chemical imbalance, but they weren't able to come up with the right medication to treat him. So, the student had to endure his problem and his friends had to be sympathetic. I remember how our prayer group prayed for him, how we asked God to relieve him of this burden. Not surprisingly, within a few months of our prayers a new drug was found that effectively treated the student's disease. Almost immediately, and for as long as he took the medication our friend was well.

And I remember the discussion that followed. We had prayed that God would relieve our friend of his burden. But, someone asked, "Was it God who had done this wonderful thing, or a doctor?" Or, was it a drug company? Or, had God heard our prayer and shown the student's doctor the right pill in the Physician's Desk Reference? Or, was it a healing, afterall, since the student would still have to take medication for the rest of his life?

It's difficult to answer questions like this, but only important to know and to have faith in the loving power of our Lord who has created us all for wholeness and who sends us forth as his disciples to share the message of his love.

Our lives may be in turmoil. We may be confused by a thousand voices telling us what to do every day. We may be broken of heart, mind and soul, but there is one who constantly seeks to make us whole and who sends us to others to do the same.

Amen.