Let us pray: Lord God, almighty
and everlasting Father, you have brought us in safety to this new day: Preserve
us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by
evil; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through
Jesus Christ our Lord.
This
sermon comes with a warning. Often sermons focus on things such as grace, love,
and salvation, but today our readings present us with the other side of the
coin. This is a sermon about evil, demons, and sin. I had a professor in
seminary who had a good friend that worked at the Holocaust museum in
Washington. This friend was working on a thesis and spent a lot of time in the
Holocaust archives, and they warned my professor- “when you are around so much
evil, you must take care that it does not begin to absorb you.” And so I offer
you this warning before we begin. Evil is like a solar eclipse, if you stare at
it for too long, your vision will never be the same. So today, it is good and
fitting to pay attention to evil, because any competent theology must account
for it- but don’t spend your Sunday dwelling on it.
Evil
is one of the most misunderstood and unexplored aspects of Christian theology,
which I think is exactly how evil likes it. To talk about things such as demons
and “unclean spirits,” as our text puts it, seems unscientific and
old-fashioned. In The Screwtape Letters,
CS Lewis has a demon say this- “that devils are predominately comic figures in
the modern imagination is helpful to us. If any faint suspicion of our
existence begins to arise in their minds, suggest a picture of something in red
tights and persuade them that since they cannot believe in that, they therefore
cannot believe in us.”
So
what is evil you might ask? For the purpose of this sermon, I’m going to tie up
evil, sin, Satan, and demons in the same bag. There are shades of difference
between them, but we’re really talking about different sides of the same coin. An
example of sin is found in our reading from 1 Corinthians. Paul tells people
about their interconnectedness and warns them against eating meat, or doing
anything, that strains that relationship. The act is the sin, the intent is the
evil. Demons are the anthropomorphization of evil.
It’s worth
pointing out that our images of hell, evil, and demons are not Biblical, rather
what most people think of comes from either Paradise
Lost by Milton or Dante’s Divine
Comedy. Some have said that evil is the “privation of the good.” Others say
that evil is that which is opposed to the will of God. Theologian Karl Barth
postulated that evil is nothing, and this is contrary to God because God
desires purpose and redemption for all things, so if evil is nothing, evil can never
accomplish that. Some will talk about original sin, others will talk about
distinctions between light and dark, and yet others will say that evil has to
do with free-will. So the question remains, how do we reconcile an all-powerful
and all-loving God with the existence of evil?
I
don’t have an answer. But standing on the shoulders of theological giants- I’d
say this about evil. Evil exists because love exists. God could have made a
world full of evil without love, or full love without the room for evil. But
God wanted the most amount of love, and there has to be the possibility for the
lack of love, that is where evil creeps in. Evil is not a force that is opposed
to the good. Christianity is not Star Wars, there is not a light side and a
dark side, there is only the God side. Evil does not exist in any sense of the
word, much in the same way that darkness does not exist, but rather is the
absence of light. But we can choose to ignore God and live for ourselves, and
that is evil. Evil and sin are the straining of the relationships of love to
which we are called. And sadly, throughout time, people have chosen to ignore
the love of God, and what we would call evil has happened. So what do we do
with evil?
Each
of the gospels paints Jesus in a different light. For Matthew, Jesus is the
teacher; for Luke, Jesus is the preacher; for John, Jesus is the incarnate love
of God. Remember where we are in Mark, our reading today starts at chapter 1,
verse 21, so right at the beginning of the gospel. Mark is still introducing
Jesus to the audience. So far in Mark Jesus has been baptized by John the
Baptist, tempted in the wilderness, and called his disciples. So this incident
today is Jesus’ first public appearance, and in telling the story this way,
Mark is defining Jesus as exorcist. That’s not a title we often claim for Jesus
is it, exorcist? But it’s valid, and Mark invites us to explore that title
today. Exorcise literally means to implore out; but it is often used to mean
driving out evil or restoring health.
So
as Jesus is beginning his ministry, a man with an unclean spirit approaches him
and says “what do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to
destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” That’s quite the
profession. Not until after the crucifixion does anyway ever make such a bold
claim about Jesus. And really, it’s a statement of faith, isn’t it? Somehow,
this man knew more about Jesus than the disciples did, perhaps he had heard
Jesus say “the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good
news.” Maybe this man didn’t want to hear the good news or have the Kingdom of
God anywhere near him. Maybe he didn’t take kindly to being told that he needed
to repent. Maybe he would not accept that fact that he is possessed. And aren’t
we all a bit like this man?
How
many of us would say that we are possessed? Can any of us say that something
unclean doesn’t live in us? Are we free from jealously, selfishness, addiction,
pride, unhealthy lifestyles, racism, homophobia, worry, unforgiving attitudes,
sexism, elitism? Do any of us live without sin? Aren’t there issues that we
don’t speak out against? Do we live as fully for God as we could? We are all
possessed, and we this Jesus to be our exorcist.
Jesus
says to the man “shut up and get out of him!” And the man cried and convulsed
and became a new man. Now I know that the text says that the spirit convulsed
and came out of him, but there are major problems with reading this text
literally, with giving too much reality to demons and evil forces. For one, as
I mentioned earlier, we are Christians, not dualists. Secondly, God is the sole
source of Creation, not the Devil or Satan. To say that there is a source of
evil opposed to God that creates twisted angels is to erroneously take the
metaphorical and make it literal. And thirdly, it is to abandon all
responsibility. For centuries, demons were the scapegoats for mental illness,
addiction, murders, and many other unspeakable crimes. Demons aren’t behind
those things, people are. Mental illness is not a curse from God, nor is
addiction something over which a person is helpless to control. As Jesus later
says, there is nothing outside the body which can defile it, but rather
defilement comes from within. Responsibility is a Christian virtue, and to
ascribe too much reality and power to demons and unclean spirits is to abdicate
that sense of Christian duty. So was there really a demon in that man that day?
You can decide for yourself what you think, but I think the greater evil is in
ascribing too much power to a force other than God and leaving behind our accountability.
So
Jesus exorcised this man of what was plaguing him. We don’t really know what it
was, could have been fear, could have been some old resentment that he held on
to, could have been prejudice towards Jews; the point is that Jesus exorcised it
out of him, and Jesus can do the same for us. Jesus is the cure for our
possessions and the sins which we commit.
Those
gathered there that day were amazed and said “a new teaching, with authority!”
Authority means both that Jesus had the ability and right to teach something
new, but also that he has the power to do so. Jesus offers the new teaching-
that evil is nothing to stop us from pursuing the Kingdom of God. Jesus shows
us that we can be saved from the ills that plague us, we can be set free from
that which possesses us. But like the man in this story, we have to acknowledge
that Jesus has the power to do so. The man calls Jesus the Holy One of God, so
you might say that he realizes that Jesus has this authority. So for us to
embrace Jesus as exorcist, we must also stand with Jesus, as he alone has the
authority.
We
also stand with Jesus to resist evil when we encounter it. Jesus doesn’t ignore
the evil that he encounters, which we so often tend to do. It’s easier to not
think about the clothes we wear coming from a sweatshop. It’s easier to eat
meat when we ignore the fact that unless we buy organic and free-range meat,
those animals were very likely abused. It’s easier to invest in companies when
we disregard their predatory lending business tactics. You all I’m sure have
heard the quote from the pastor in Nazi Germany- “first they came for the
communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came
for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak out because I was Protestant. Then they
came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they
came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.” Evil thrives not
because it is a force in this world, but because we allow it to happen. Evil happens
when we are silent, evil happens when we look the other way.
And
of course, evil also happens when we ignore Jesus’ words that the Kingdom of God has
come near. Sin happens when we live for our own sense of pride and greed
instead of thinking about the Kingdom of God. We become the demons of our world
when we say things such as “I earned mine, let them earn theirs,” things like
“well, it’s not illegal,” phrases such as “I want this and I’m entitled to it.”
Another CS Lewis quote- “like a good chess player, Satan is always trying to
maneuver you into a position where you save your castle only by losing your
bishop.” When we negotiate with our morals, when we ignore our ethics, when we
focus on our kingdoms instead of God’s, then we do evil.
Our
invitation today is to follow Jesus, our Exorcist, in standing up against evil,
both in our own lives and in our world. There is a great story from Greek
mythology that advances this point. Sea travelers had to be aware of many
dangers as they sailed. One of these dangers was the Sirens who lived near
Sicily. They were beautiful creatures, part-bird and part-woman. Sailors would
be lured in by their sweet songs and their ships would crash and they would
become the victims of the Sirens. In Greek lore, only two people ever evaded them.
One was Odysseus, as his crew tied him to the mast and then put wax in their
own ears. The other was Jason and the Argonauts on their search for the Golden
Fleece. They took along with them, Orpheus, who was a musical hero in Greek
mythology. As they passed the island of the Sirens, Orpheus began to sing with
the most alluring and beautiful melody that one could ever imagine. Orpheus’
song was so sweet that it made the song of the Sirens sound like discordant
chatter. And Jason and his crew sailed safely past the Sirens because they did
not desire to go any closer.
This
is how it is in standing with Jesus against evil. The songs of sin and evil are
very tempting, as was the song of the Sirens. It can be rather fun to amass
wealth, to ignore conscience, and do whatever we want. The results of sin can
seem quite fun. Evil indeed knows how to sing a very sweet song. It can be
quite hard to drown out the song of evil, because it can be rather loud and is
heard is most places. But in our journeys, we have an Orpheus with us in the
person of Jesus, a person who sings a different song- a song not of temptation
and selfishness, but a song of grace and love. If we listen closely, if we
learn the lyrics of the Kingdom of God, we will know that its song is much sweeter
and doesn’t cause us to become shipwrecked.
One
last caution- make sure that in resisting evil, you don’t focus on hating evil.
The follower of Jesus should love good and hate evil. If you only love good and
are indifferent towards evil, then you’re just a sentimentalist. And if you
hate evil more than you love the good, then you’re just a good hater, and we
have plenty of those already. Let us remember that the key to all of this is
the love, the redemption, the grace of the ever-present Kingdom of God. That is
how Jesus is our exorcist, he points us towards and strengthens us to live in
the Kingdom of God. He shows us that there is a better way than evil, there are
greater rewards to be found than those that possess us.
Evil
is a dangerous thing. One the one hand, we don’t want to dismiss its effects,
but on the other we shouldn’t ascribe too much power to it. As Mark introduces
us to Jesus in the gospel, he introduces Jesus as the exorcist, the vanquisher
of evil, the builder of the Kingdom of God. The encounter between Jesus and
this man with an unclean spirit is an invitation to be exorcised, a call to hear
a new song, a challenge to healthy living, an opportunity stand up with Jesus
against evil. With our faith focused on Jesus, with our actions orientated on
the Kingdom of God, and with the courage to proclaim the authority of Jesus
that makes him the Holy One of God, we too can join the chorus of the saints
and angels. The old saying is that no one ever leaves the church humming a
sermon, but everyone leaves with a song on their lips. Let our song this day be
that sweet song of Jesus the exorcist, whose song calls us to new life and
resisting evil.
Amen.
