Epiphany 4B2018
Mark 1:21-28
The news this week is full of images of destruction.
- Diptheria spreading through refugee camps in Bangledesh, children with masks covering their faces and stuck with IVs in makeshift hospital beds
- Flooding in France, streets, parks, homes overrun by water
- A Taliban car bombing in Kabul, a man splattered in blood being carried to those who can provide medical attention
- Migrant deaths on the US-Mexico border
- Lives of young gymnasts torn apart by sexual abuse
- A school shooting in Kentucky, the eleventh school shooting of the year 2018 in the US
Destruction—due to biological processes beyond our control, Mother Nature, hatred and misunderstanding, desperation, abuse of power, and I don’t even know what. Images of destruction that stand in stark contrast to the destruction employed by Jesus in today’s gospel.
The unclean spirit that takes up residence in the man Jesus encounters in the synagogue asks Jesus: Have you come to destroy us? In a word, yes. Jesus comes to destroy what is unclean, what is evil. That is the simple answer to the simple question. But both the question and the answer are far more complex. For who or what asks this question? Who or what is the “unclean” spirit? Even if we assume that the unclean spirit is an evil spirit, what does that mean? Is the Holy Spirit in competition with evil spirits? Is this spirit instead a mental illness, as many biblical scholars believe, a phenomenon not understood in the first century? If this sounds like an exhausting set of questions, you should be in my head. We’re just getting started. I don’t know the answer to these questions, but here’s what seems obvious from today’s reading: the man in question is imprisoned by something, some force that is then expelled by Jesus’ word.
Have you come to destroy us? Yes. Whether unclean spirit or evil spirit, mental illness or something else, when Jesus speaks, it’s destroyed. How is this spirit, this force destroyed? With fists, with physical force, with insults, with rage? No. With speech, with a calling out. “Be silent, and come out of him!” Here is a destruction that ends in new life, in freedom, in reconciliation. New life for the man imprisoned by this spirit, freedom from this spirit’s grasp, reconciliation between this man and his community. This is true blue Jesus, come to bring new life through destruction.
I don’t honestly know what I think about unclean spirits and evil spirits. I see brokenness and hurt, fear and anger, despair and desperation all around me. I see people afflicted with addiction and struggling with the effects of abuse and neglect and self-hatred and shame. I see choices driven by a lack of genuine connection with others, choices driven by emptiness and sorrow. But all of those hurtful things done to us by others, those who perpetrated those acts were hurt too. I’m not really sure I can pinpoint where good choices end and evil choices begin. I wish it were more clear.
Here’s what I do know: when Jesus speaks, evil is destroyed. Brokenness becomes wholeness. Hurt ends. Despair and desperation, fear and anger, self-hatred and shame depart. Because when Jesus speaks, when Jesus destroys what imprisons us, what is left is not simply rubble. When Jesus destroys what imprisons us, our lives are not left in a muddle like that of Syria or Iraq; we are not left in a barren wasteland but in a verdant valley. Through destruction comes new life, freedom, reconciliation. The power that Jesus summons, the authority with which he speaks is not the power and authority of our world’s leaders, power and authority that leads to violence and citizens turned refugees. The power Jesus summons, the authority with which he speaks is love.
Call me naïve. Tell me I’m silly. I’m fine with it. We cannot solve problems in this world without loving one another. We can’t solve a single one without love. No matter the enemy, no matter the issue at hand, no matter. Whether we are seeking peace in the Middle East or peace in Hance Park, we aren’t going to get anywhere with weapons, with lies, with insults, with violence. We aren’t going to get anywhere by gossiping, by making unfair claims, by refusing to listen to others. We’ve seen the news, and we know that destruction born of these things does not bring new life, freedom, and reconciliation. Love destroys what hurts us AND gives new life, frees us from all that binds us, and reconciles us to one another and God. Loves destroys hate and self-centeredness, intolerance and indifference. Love destroys our ability to act without considering the impact of our actions on others. Love even destroys self-hatred and shame, forces I assume lie at the root of many of the problems in the world.
Knowing that we are loved by God and one another, there is such power in that. Knowing that we are loved even if we carry around heavy histories brings new life into our future. Knowing that we, full of imperfections and inconsistencies, are loved just as we are frees us from trying to be perfect when we really can’t be. Knowing that we are loved means that no conflict is big enough to separate us from beloved people; no sin is big enough to separate us from God.
God’s love for you, for us destroys whatever we put in our own way as we journey through this life with God and one another. Just as Jesus destroyed that which imprisoned the man from the synagogue, so too does God destroy what keeps us imprisoned. In the process, we find new life, freedom, and reconciliation. For that, we can proclaim: