Date: January 27, 2024
Scripture: Mark 1:21-28
Sermon Title: “Not as One without Authority”
Preacher: Rev. Dr. Bob Jon
You can also listen on Podcast from iTunes and Spotify. Search for “Podcasting from Rev. Bob Jon.”
It was Halloween. A man was dressed in a devil costume and was walking to a Halloween party. Suddenly, it began to rain, and this man tried to find someplace to hide from the rain and accidentally went into a church in the middle of a worship service. As the congregation saw his man, they all panicked and cleared the room, except for this poor woman who was trapped at the feet of this confused man. With fear and trembling, the woman pleaded, “You know I have been on your side all along!”[1]
I find it interesting that as Jesus entered the synagogue and was teaching the crowd, another man entered with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?” The synagogue was the place where people gathered to pray, read scripture, and hear some sermons. It was not the same as the temple where the priests offered sacrifices for people and sought reconciliation between God and people. But the synagogue was a significant place to stay in an active relationship with God, learning to be pious and faithful.
But the scripture tells us that a man with an unclean spirit entered the synagogue and confronted Jesus. It tells us that just because people gather in God’s name, it does not mean that they are free from the spiritual forces of evil and wickedness. As many of you know, we often hear many scandals involving clergies, such as sexual abuse, embezzlement, and temptation to fame, and power. Church is supposed to be the body of Christ, living out the love, peace, and grace of God. But we often witness that many Christians are overshadowed by the division, malicious spirits of judgment and condemnation, and even promoting hatred toward our neighbors.
When I was young, I myself did not want to be a pastor even though I was studying theology for my bachelor’s degree in Korea. I was mostly disillusioned by many pastors who regarded their churches as their personal possessions and often played politics to become the district superintendent or bishop. So, when I finally received a call to ministry from God, I decided to come to the US because I thought that churches in America were more transparent, pure, and free of political games and bribes. Please know that I am not here to criticize my bishop or my denomination. But if you have ever witnessed the most unchristian behaviors from those who call themselves “Christians, even Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”
When Mark says, “a man with an unclean spirit,” David Garland, a New Testament scholar, explains that such a term is not a medical diagnosis, but a religious and spiritual diagnosis that attributes to an evil force that “seeks to estrange one from God.”[2] When I was doing my internship as a seminarian, the pastor invited people to the altar rail and pray. All of sudden, a man started rolling over the floor and yelled, “God, I can’t do this anymore. I need your help to overcome this addiction!” The senior pastor looked at me and gave me a signal to bring him to another room. And he started telling me how he could not control himself over the addiction to drugs and how it was jeopardizing his life, his family, and even his relationship with God.
For many of us, hearing the words such as “unclean spirit,” “devil,” or “demon” may sound anti-scientific, anti-modern, or anti-intellectual. After all, the people we consider as “out of mind” are often taken to the psychiatric hospital and given a heavy dose of medication. However, Thomas Long encourages us to regard these words as a “symbol of a deep theological truth” that transcends our logical explanation. Think about the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda, lynching of the black people, and ongoing mass shootings in the US today. It is like people are possessed by a force that dictates their actions whether individually or communally. Long says that these forms of evil cannot explained fully by political, anthropological, or psychological analysis.
As the man with an unclean spirit confronted Jesus, he even recognized who he was. He said, “I know who you are. You are the Holy One of God!” Isn’t it amazing that when Jesus’s disciples and people continue to fail to understand who he was, the devil is the one who recognized him? Trembling and shrieking, he said, “You, you are the Son of God!” And Jesus rebuked him and said, “Be quiet and come out of him.” Suddenly, this man started rolling over, convulsing, and crying with a loud voice. The unclean spirit came out of him. Mark tells us that people were amazed and said, “What is this? This is a new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”
I still think I am a younger clergy in my denomination. Recent statistics show that the average age of an ordained elder is 53. But I feel like I am getting older now as I sit at the table to interview the new candidates for ministry and teach the students at the seminary who are still in their 20s. I believe that many of them seek to serve as pastors because they want to bring therapeutic or moral values to the life of the church. I want my church to be more welcoming. I want my church to be more healing. I want my church to be more vocal about social justice issues. But I wonder how many of them are likely to say yes to ministry if someone told them, “You know? We ordain you so you can confront the evil and wickedness of the world and preach the devil out.
As odd as that might sound, Jesus empowered his disciples to go out to proclaim the kingdom of God had come near. In Luke 10, Jesus called and appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him. They went around town, proclaiming peace in God and curing the sick. When they returned, they were excited to report to Jesus, “Jesus, in your name even the demons submit to us.” Paul admonishes us to put on the whole armor of God for our struggle is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, authorities, the cosmic powers of this present, darkness, and the spiritual forces of evil.
On February 15, 1947, Thomas Watson Brown, who was a tax driver in Greenville, South Carolina, was robbed and stabbed to death. The next day, Willie Earle, a 24 years old black man, was arrested at his mother’s house and taken to the Pickens County Jail. There was no trial. No verdict. On the same evening, a convoy of taxi drivers drove to the jail and captured Earle. They beat him, stabbed him, and shot him. Willie Earle was lynched in the middle of the night. Later, with the investigation by state police and FBI, the authorities charged 31 men with the crime. However, the jury consisted of 12 white men exonerated these men, saying they were not guilty on all counts.
At that time, there was a 31-year-old Methodist preacher named Hawley Lynn, a widow who lost his wife to childbirth. He was raising his daughter Katherine with the help of women in his church. While the good people of Pickens County were saying that they had nothing to do with the lynching of Willie Earle, Lynn did not turn blind to the evil and injustice. He organized a town meeting to discuss and draft a statement with regard to mob violence. Two Sundays later, he preached his sermon, “Who Lynched Willie Earle?” in which he bemoaned that the lynching of Earle did not begin on February 17 but the moment his father and mother taught him that he was black. He preached that it was the good people of Pickens County who acquitted this mob as not guilty; those who quietly endorsed the violence were the ones who killed Willie Earle.
Pastor Lynn was a rather new pastor for his church. He knew that he and his people did not see eye to eye. He was raising his baby. His church had burned down, and he was in the middle of raising money for a new building. With all things considered, it could have been better for him to keep it silent and go along with the societal mood that endorsed racism and lynching. However, I believe that he remembered his baptismal vow that we “renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness and reject the evil powers of this world.” It is also our prayer that Jesus taught us to pray, “Deliver us from evil.”
In Resisting the Powers, Chuck Campbell defines the key characteristic of demon possession: “We are no longer agents of our own lives but go through the deadly motions dictated to us by the powers of the world that hold us captive. And we need a word from beyond ourselves to set us free from our captivity.” God knows our own struggles. From time to time, we feel we are not our own. We want to love, but we fall into hatred. We want to forgive but we fall into resentment and anger. We want to be healed but we fall into the power of self-destruction. And we hear the words of Jesus, “You unclean spirit, Come out of him! Release her from your bondage!” And that is the power and authority Christ has given us today to go out and bring good news to the poor and proclaim release to the captives.
Amen.
[1] Michael Hodgin, 1001 Humorous Illustrations for Public Speaking.
[2] David Garland, The NIV Application Commentary, 80.
RAIN OF GRACE 